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[Bailos]

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Continuation of Part One
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The next morning a young boy rode up on horseback pulling a small cart; he was a delivery boy on his morning route bringing an assortment of baked goods and milk to the doorstep, as was customary. There was just one problem with this today. There...wasn't much of a house. The boy rounded a grove of maples and was excited to be greated by warm facade of the caretaker's home with the chimney gently puffing smoke and the wife's prized rose bushes groomed neatly on the windowsill but his jaw dropped and fell flat on his butt right off the horse beneath him. The horse whinied and came to a halt.

The boy looked on at what should be the house, but instead was little more than a smoldering ring of concentric circles radiating out about 40 feet from the southwest corner of the former home with little more than some floorboards and remnants of walls left.

The boy pulled himself up still in disbelief. Stepping carefully and slowly he made his way to the foundation and looked accross still unable to find any words or noise appropriate for the scene before him aside from one, long, *gulp*. Stepping over one of the knocked down walls he tiptoed accross the floor to inspect the damage, in particular a large black mass leaning up against the wall on the far side.

Nearing the object, he treaded far more carefully than he had before now completely unsure of the situation. Leaning in for a closer look...he takes a step back, rubs his eyes, leans in again, closer this time...."It is!" he thinks aloud, his first words since arriving. He taps the top of the mass and it promptly falls apart, splitting several ways into smaller chunks and a heap of a black powdery substance...he had stumbled on the body of the mother, now completely carbonized holding the smallest of her children against her to brace against whatever terrible thing did this.

Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, he looked down the wall and sure enough he found two more black masses that upon inspection, were the two boys. Flash frozen, helpless against whatever hammer of fate struck them. "But where is the father?" the delivery boy thought to himself.

Then he turned and saw it...On a pedastal now blackened with the soot and ash of the terrible events was the orb, still spotless, but now appearing dormant. As the boy stepped nearer, the sphere's core began to swirl and change colors.. A dull ringing began to drown out his own conscious thought and a deep, but soft, male voice filled his head.

Will you show me the way?, It called to him. Bailos was becoming more comfortable with his abilities from inside his prison. The ringing was still a blistering nuissance but the boy was not being harmed.

"Wh...who are you? Where are you?...What happened here?" the boy called out without thinking, out of panic if nothing else.

I am a traveler, trapped here by the evil caretaker. He tricked me and used his dark magic to trap me here. Please take me with you. I hope we can be friends. It's so lonely here. Please don't leave me... Lies, but they did the job on the boy, he was starting to buy it.

"But I knew the caretaker, he was a nice man. He wouldnt hurt you."

He did this to me. He did this to his family, his home. I saw the whole thing and he banished me here for it. He killed them all and stormed off. You have to take me with you. Together we can stop him! Please!

The boy nodded and walked confidently to the orb knowing now what he must do, the ringing in his ears now subsiding. With his gentle touch he scooped the sphere from the pedastal and held it up to examine it closer now. The orb began to swirl violently and change colors. The voice rang out one more time coming from everywhere yet nowhere at the same time. It was a louder whisper, almost hiss like...it sounded angry this time.

I see you...

then the black dot emerged and the eye formed inside the orb and looked out at the boy with a narrow gaze.

The boy cried out at the top of his lungs in terror and the horse neighed and reared back and broke the yoke of its cart and made a run for it.

In the grips of epic pain, the boys hands felt like they were glued right to the orb, he was unable to move, to let go...to do anything but scream.

Then...blackness....his scream faded....