“Welcome to The Land of No Return, Synan.”

The dark guard says.

“The Land of No Return?” Synan answers.

The guard ignores his question.

“Please remove any mirrors or throwable

objects.”

“What for?”

“You’ll see. The monsters here HATE to

look at themselves, and the throwable objects

can be thrown at their large eyes.”

“I don’t have anything.”

“Good.” The guard opens the gates. Synan

walks through. “Hey, kid. Never look back, or

you shall join the monsters.” The guard warns.

“Okay, but how?”

The guard ignores Synan and closes the

gate. Synan stands on a three-way intersection.

The pathway on the dark purple island are light

purple. To the left is a large river of lava between

a small pillar of mountains on the edge of the island

and a large volcanic mountain, to which the entrance

is in front of Synan. And to the right, Synan sees a

small circular structure and a large forest a little

further.

Synan decides to go to the right, toward

the forest. A voice behind him says, “Synan! Is

that you?”

Synan turns around and sees someone

from school. One of his worse enemies: Syrus.

Synan thinks Syrus is a poser wannabe. Synan’s

hair is dark and slightly messed up, mostly combed

forward, but Syrus has blond hair, messed up like

Synan’s.

Syrus looks at Synan. “I see you have

some of those ‘Warp Marbles’ as well. We

both have ten open marbles now. Let’s have

a contest. Let’s see who can capture more monsters.

Our meeting place will be at the castle on the

other side.”

“I’ll take the right.” Synan says.

“I don’t think so, Synan. You’re taking

the left side, near Hell’s River.”

“No fair!”

“You want to make something of it?”

Synan sighs, “Left it is.”

“Good. I thought you’d see it my

way.”

Syrus begins walking down the

path on the right, toward the forest. Synan

thinks, ‘..or maybe I can cut right through

the island!’ Synan walks up to the red doors

of the volcanic mountain in front of him. They

are locked. Synan cuts through the field toward

the left path, so as to not look back toward the

monster following him.

Shortly after, Synan comes to the

river of lava. Crossing the lava is a long narrow

board that is nailed to another about halfway.

When Synan steps on it, it sags toward the lava.

Synan tries to take it slow going across.

Half way out there, Synan hears a

crack. He speeds up, hearing much more,

louder cracking. He’s about five feet away

from the other side when the entire bridge

collapses. Hanging from the left side of the

river, Synan is surely doomed, for there is

nothing within reach that Synan can hang on to.

A hand at the top grabs Synan’s

wrist. Another hand grabs the other one.

They feel like human hands. Synan is pulled

up the side of the river canyon. Synan turns

to look at his rescuer. It’s a girl Synan’s age.

It was Zoe.

“Zoe?” Synan says.

“Yes?”

“Uhh...Thank you.”

“No problem.”

“So how did you get here?” Synan

asks.

“Some ‘Ico’ monster said I was

chosen to go to The Land of No Return.

I’ve only been walking around here a day

now. Haven’t gone too far, though.”

A voice comes from the distance,

“Who goes there?”

Synan and Zoe stand and look in

the direction the voice came from.

“Show yourself!” Synan yells.

A figure walks out of the shadows

by the volcanic mountain. He looks like

a half-monster half-human. He has a yellow

helmet with a red diamond-shaped ruby.

His head underneath is short, with long,

demonic eyes stretched across it.

The rest of his body seems normal.

“So. I see you two made it across

the Hell’s River, eh?” He says.

“Who are you?” Zoe asks.

“My name is James. And you must

be Zoe, here with Synan.”

“How do you know our names?”

Zoe asks.

“Everyone here does. We get

our sources from Veronica. She knows

everything.”

“Veronica?” Synan asks.

“That’s what I said. But you

won’t ever meet her, because I’m here

to stop you two!”

Synan and Zoe prepare for

battle. James screams a while and then

a golden flame-like power field appears

around him, like his whole body is just

a flame.

“You’re outnumbered, James!”

Zoe yells.

“But I have more power than

fifty men. I am a mega-monster!”

“A mega-mo--?” Synan is

interrupted when James suddenly

attacks him. Synan is launched into

the side of the volcano. Zoe gets hit,

too, and thrown into the volcano.

“Ha. You kids are no challenge

at all to me.” James says. James is

about twelve, a year older than Synan

and Zoe. James flies over the volcano,

cutting through the middle of the island.

“Come on, Synan.” Zoe says

wearily, “I have a camp set up ahead.”

They go to a campground with

some other survivors, and sent to a small

medical lab.
