Prologue
Cover image illustrated by Jamie Costello
This story has been in the making for the past couple of years, editing it over and over again whilst reading it over again to see if it up to the standard for story-telling.
‘A vague start and warning’
At the start of it all,
we had no idea of what was to befall
And in the end became a personal hell
Our own little story to tell
Everything that had felt so serene at first,
to have drowned out by the thirst
The thirst of destruction and death,
taking all of us to the grave till none were left
What had been so amazing and surreal,
words cannot describe what I could feel
Everything I thought I knew that was real,
was turn into a drivel of a story time’s spiel
I ask myself, ′ How could this have been real?′
A dream connected with another dream,
the stuff of childhood nonsense and gleam.
Where one’s imagination was extreme,
And the other to a doorway to one’s scheme
Feelings and voices flowed downstream,
but it wasn’t a pipe-dream
For all was not what it seemed
And now we must pay with the blood of the world
But which one shall be sacrificed?
In which our lots have been hurled,
in the destruction of our vice.
After the strange case of a young girl called Melody Richards, the public thought that those who possess the ability to parallel jump should be treated as a threat, as a disease, no matter what the causes nor consequences were. However, it wasn’t enough for them as the ability began appearing in individuals, mainly children. There was nothing that could of been done as this apparent “curse” laid upon them, came about because of the fate of the Pandora box.
Those that were curse, couldn’t help but jump to different dimensions. But the only way that they could safely jump without causing harm, was by finding doors that only they could see. And as time went by, these doors would either be infrequent and small amount or suddenly appear with many doors.
The other way to travel was to just jump, however that was highly dangerous, as it would drain energy from their surroundings, so it was left as a last opportunity.
Those who didn’t understand, were quickly left with fear and uncertainty. The people who did or had some part in all this, had hushed conversations and made plans to try and contain the people who had this cursed. From kidnapping new-borns and children in order to train them for their own gain, to illegal testing on people to supposedly finding a cure whilst resulted in the deaths of many. However, these events were quickly covered up and hidden from the public view, all to keep peace.
Until one day, word had broken out and all was revealed. All of humanity plunged with war breaking out to form two sides of the coin. There were those who were for the all of testing and containing the ones with the ability, were subjected to riots and hate towards them because their opinion on the matter was seen as inhumane. And yet they still had support from those who were in charged.
Then there were those who were against the idea, wanting to protect and live among those who possessed the ability, had support and communities until a sudden twist happened. Those who wanted to protect them had suddenly become the enemies and turn their backs onto the ones with the abilities, their safe society turned judgmental, with so much hatred that it intertwined with their existence with death. All because of one spark of deceit.
It got much worse, much worse. The Parallels, the name that was given to them, found that the train stations were safe havens as there were loop holes where they could safely jump too in case of danger. They had made a makeshift society and all was well for the time being. But alas, as more kept on coming to the station it became unbearable with little provisions, no space for shelters and often feeling so weak of being drained, which caused them to go crazy. Crazy with little food and from being treated lower than animals by society, they’ve had had enough. A small group planned to get the world’s attention to the treatment of the Parallels.
What started to be a protest turned into battleground, destroying the city and towns surrounding like a tornado ripping the ground unmercifully. Those who did survive the attack built safe houses to keep away from those who they deemed as demons. Most of the Parallels tried to skip into the next dimension to be without the help of the doors, but weren’t able to control their abilities carefully which eventually killed them from being drained.
The questions on everyone’s minds of those who were left behind often couldn’t come to an answer nor a proper conclusion for it often changed with time.
These questions were: How did this all start? Was it from greed? Was it from a test gone wrong? Was all of this caused from human ignorance? Couldn’t it have been settled peacefully without any bloodshed from either side? Why?
This world may never know after looking at its ugly mirrored self. It’s such a sad, broken world we live in because of our actions.
Those of us who weren’t Parallels weren’t lucky at all, we couldn’t see the doors nor having the ability to jump to escape from this world. Every day the air becomes more unbearable as life was leaving all of us, with broken ruins of grim reminders. Leaving us to bearing the burden of the former life left for us, even though some of us were blameless of the catastrophe. One day, as I peer at the smog covered sky in this run down, broken apartment with the winter chill coming with force, I had hope that one day that this world will change for the better and not the worst. I hope that it will not cease.
