Lucas Ryan Versus: The Hive (The Lucas Ryan Versus Series) by Madison Daniel

metallic silver smoke escaping its touchscreen. The smoke curled itself upward and into the vents lining the top of the locker door. In my mind I asked the door to open, and on cue, it did. With a thin and eerie creak, it slid open. As everyone around me held their breath, scared completely by the vision before them, I stepped closer.
     
    “Pick me up,” I said, with a crooked smile.

LEVEL 11: Uprising
     
     
     
    I stared at the mystery in my locker with a new smile. What lay before me was unbelievable and beautiful. Emotions and feelings began to possess me, but they made little sense. I felt misguided, but understood. Angry, yet calm. Hot and cold. Up was down. Yes was no. So, I did the only thing that came natural to me...I poked at it.
    “Here goes nothing,” I shrugged. Olivia inhaled a chunk of oxygen from behind me. I stole a quick glance her way to see if she could see what I was standing in front of. She could.
    Before me was one thing and one thing only, my reflection. My excited face, staring back at itself. In place of my open locker door was a long mirror that stretched the entire length of the opening. It was crystal-clear, with cold air coming from it. Soothing and inviting, like an opened refrigerator door on a hot summer day. The shiny surface shuttered with tiny ripples, like a pool of water. Gentle waves would dance along its surface as my breathing increased. In the wild reflection, I could see General Love clutching at his bare gun holster behind me. I couldn’t hold in my smile.
    “Lucas?” Olivia spoke, cautiously. When she did, a small portion of the magic mercury pool bulged out for her, as if reaching for her words. I immediately thought, ‘TRUST ONLY HER.’
    “Trust me,” I whispered back. My eyes found hers in the reflecting pool. With a quick wink, I reached out in front of me and tapped my fingertip against the silver waves. A thousand miniature eruptions scattered across its perfect surface. Mirrored bubbles popped and fizzed liked a soft drink. I found it hypnotically exquisite. Electricity filled my fingertip and raced through my body, down to my toes. Purple waves of energy pulsed off of me, shooting down the school halls, in all directions. The weapons that aligned the lockers popped from their magnetic prison and fell to the floor in a domino effect.
    “Lucas!” Olivia screamed. Our ears filled with a whirling buzz. It was everywhere, and building in strength. Olivia slammed her hands over her ears. I closed my eyes and jammed the rest of my hand into the unknown. My mystical armband followed easily until my arm had disappeared past its elbow. I waited for something to grab my hand, or my arm to disappear into another dimension. None of that happened. Instead, the buzzing stopped and the sound of laughter came from over my shoulder. With half my arm still embedded in the pooling mercury, I turned to find General Love and all of his soldiers, standing in a circle around Olivia and I.
    “Uh oh,” I swallowed.
    “Thank you, Mr. Ryan,” General Love smiled. With a wicked twitch in one eye, he stabbed a large handgun into my face. Its barrel settled right between my eyes. The rest of his team were eerie statues with freshly loaded assault rifles pointed at us. Something was off though. There was an unnatural gleam in all their stares. Their eyes looked wrong, evil. Whatever it was, it sent a warning signal to my gut. I tightened in place and Olivia started to shake.
    “I think I’m stuck...” I mumbled.
    General Love bellowed like a crazy hyena, “Looks like you broke it, boy!” He stomped one step closer, just an inch from my face. So close I could taste his bad breath. “You mind getting out of my way, I want that weapon!”
    His voice burrowed itself in my head, but that wasn’t what stole my attention and scared me to my core. When he spoke his last few words, he did it with two tongues. At least that’s what it looked like. A set of blood red snakes taunting me