Chapter 1
Part 1:
It was an ordinary night. Plain. Nothing special. The moon rose, the people slept, the planet spun, and none of the Earth's seven billion inhabitants knew that the events that would take place on that ordinary night would change the universe forever…
Chapter 1: The Curse of Lily Watercreek
I adjusted my coat against the cold rain. "How stereotypically London," I thought to myself with a small smile. It had started raining harder since I started my walk, but I didn't mind. In fact, I rather enjoyed it, I didn't even care that I was sick. I had always loved the rain: the way the drops made miniscule splashes when they finally crashed to Earth, the smell, the sound. Most people use umbrellas or just take cabs instead of walking when it rains like this, but not me. I just let the rain fall, letting it soak me.
I didn't take a walk only for the rain though, I just needed to get out of my house. I had one of my episodes again. They've been happening more and more often lately. Sudden, blinding flashes of pain in my head, followed by a complete loss of bodily function and strange visions-well, I called them visions anyway, my therapist calls them schizophrenic hallucinations.
But the worst part of these visions, besides the excruciating pain I mean, is the confused feeling I get afterwards. The images I see feel so familiar, and yet they are completely foreign to me. It's like deja-vu, like remembering a dream you have long forgotten; and then I have to draw what I see before I forget it again. I've actually accumulated quite a collection of these drawings, my whole guest room is dedicated to them. Some are pictures of strange, alien-like creatures and symbols, and some are beautiful, impossible landscapes and swirls of color. But the things that I see the most, which are also the most terrifying, are the eyes.
Now, mind you, these eyes aren't normal eyes. They're … I can't even describe them properly. They don't even feel human. It's like they're looking straight into your soul, like they've seen all the universe's darkest secrets, and yet they have the appearance of youth. And their color: blood red that flashes when angered. Those eyes … I must have dozens of pictures of those eyes. I actually had to stop myself from drawing them because I have so many. They haunt me.
I gave an involuntary shiver as I walked down the street, but it didn't have anything to do with the cold rain…
