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His eyes opened.  The clock blinked 12:00 am.

He was face down on the bed.

“Where is everyone?” The young man walked around the room grabbing different pieces of clothing off the floor.  A tattered pair of blue jeans, a blue and white stripped button-up shirt and fitted baseball cap. He sat on the edge of his bed and tied up his new, but worn sneakers.

The sun has long since set.  The feeling of deep loneliness crept into his body as he approached the door.  There was someone in the house and he knew it.  He could feel their presence.  That dark foreboding one gets when they are alone at night.  A small light lit the hallway just outside the man’s door.  Peering around the corner he still couldn’t see anyone.  Suddenly a shadow crossed a light on the steps at the end of hall.

The man backed into the wall.  His breathing had increased and he looked around the room for something to defend himself with.  A switch blade lay on his night stand.  He clicked it open and readied it by his side.  The figure had now moved closer and he could practically hear their breathing patterns.

A shadow crossed the near light directly outside the door. The man bolted out driving the knife into the neck of the stranger.  His eyes widened with regret.

“No!” The young man yelled as he guided the body to the floor.

The woman grabbed her neck trying to stop the bleeding on her own.  She gagged on her own blood as she began to speak.

“They are after it…they are…com…in…g fo…r you.”

“No, Sandra, no! Oh my god what have I done?” He grabs a shirt from his floor and puts pressure on the wound.

“You ha..ve to li…ste..n.  They are coming for the ring,” she pauses as the blood pool around them.

“What are you talking about? What about the ring?”

She lets out a violent cough.  “The ring activates The Basement.  Remember where we would play as kids? Across the field…”

“Yes, what about it? What are you talking about?”

“You need to go there and activate the Coat of Arms.  Save yourself.  Place the ring in the center and turn the Coat of Arms clockwise.”

“What is there? What is going to happen?”

“You need to go now.  I love you Connor.” She kisses him good bye. They lock lips for only a few moments until her body falls lifeless to the floor.

“No, no, no, no oh please God, no!”  He holds her tight for the last time as the sound of a broken window comes from the first floor.  The sound of a half dozen men fills the house, broken glass under their feet and splintering wood alerts Connor.

Connor kisses ever so gently on the forehead for the last time.  He turns to see the shadows in the hallway approach the room.  He darts out the window and runs to the edge of the porch roof and slides down the scaffolding.  Sprinting as fast as he can, he disappears underneath the cover of the dark forest surrounding his house.  The dark figures enter the room with their semi-automatic machine guns locked and loaded.  They clear the room and stand around the body of the dead girl.

“The boy is gone sir, she must have alerted him that we were coming.”

“I, see.” A tall elderly looking man enters the room wearing a grey pin-striped suit. “He is gone now, clean it all up.”

Connor continues to sprint through the deep dark forest, tears streaming down his cheek.  He appears on the other side of the forest at the top of field.  The moon hangs over the apex of the hill lighting the area.  He wipes his eyes and trots to the top of the hill.  A cement slab marks the entrance.  Connor pulls back the iron door and slides down onto the carved granite staircase.  It was dark and musty.  No one had been into The Basement for some time.  There was a small window built into the side of the hill that let in some of the moon light in.  Connor looked around for the Coat of Arms and slowly approached it.  There were several markings surrounded the large iron object.  None of the marking meant anything to Connor, but he took the ring from his finger and looked at it.  He could only think of Sandra dying in his arms.  “Put the ring in the center and turn the Coat of Arms clockwise.” His fingers trembled as he fit the ring into the center.  The Basement began to shake and the floor lit up from below.  Grabbing the outsides of the Coat of Arms he spun it slowly.  The light got brighter until it eventually blinded him.  He shut his eyes tightly and turned the Coat farther until it clicked down into place.  Conner hit the floor unconscious.

The sun beat down onto the corn field.  The day was dry and the wind blew the dust around until the limp lifeless body laying face down among the corn.  There world was silent and only the sound of the rustling corn filled the air.

Connor woke up with his face in the dirt.  He stretched his limbs and gathered himself to his feet.  He looked around to get his barrings.  The last thing he remembered was the intense light in The Basement and then passing out.  He ran over to the entrance to The Basement and descended into its bowels.

“What the hell happened?”

It looked as though nothing had happened.  He ran to the Coat of Arms.  He looked to the floor and saw the ring laying on the ground.  He picked it up and put it back on his finger.  He ascended the stairs to the outside.  He opened the iron door and looked towards the middle distance.

There was a large screen with grand speakers at the top broadcasting a young man in a uniform.  There was sound, but the message repeated itself.  Connor watched the screen that had been constructed on a hill that was damaged by some type of explosion.  The only thing he could make out on the screen was the name tag on his uniform, “Jayden.”

“You aren’t from around here are you?”  Connor felt the cold tip of a rifle at his back. “Turn around slowly.”

The man was holding a WWII M1 Garand.  He lowered his weapon in awe, “Welcome back, sir.”

“Excuse me?”

“We’ve been waiting for you.”  The man replied. “This indeed you isn’t it?”  The man pulled a old photo from his pocket and gave it to Connor.  At first he could not, believe his eyes.  He turned over the picture.  In his handwriting it read, “To my love  Sandra, Love, Connor.

“Welcome to 1945 sir.”  Connor’s face went blank.