Chapter: 1
Think of it as being a child. There is nothing but the beauty of your world. The sea of fluid fills your lungs and the tube of life connecting you to the feelings of emotions. Your world is an ocean of pleasure and undeniable, constant grace. There is nothing else. Then suddenly the world around you, this world of wondrous and infallible existence drains from you in an instant. You find yourself choking, unable to breath within the womb that you held so dear. You see this tunnel and suddenly its over for you. Its death and you know it.You are thrown through this tunnel against your will by some unconceivable force into a new world: a strange and twisted world where no one seems familiar and nothing seems real.
Then lungs you never used suddenly expand and you show your distain for this new world.
That is what it felt like being taken away from my own womb. I was shoved out of my wonderment of the heavens, naked and bleeding, falling onto the Earth. I was to remain until The Others felt that it was necessary for me to return. Until they felt my purpose was fulfilled. There was a sense of betrayal within this action.
I awoke with the city clamoring all around me. My eyes drift toward the sight of a night sky, a night on earth groveling in the filth and decay of a slum alley. The rain was beating on my naked and bloody skin washing away all that I was.
I raised my head, my hair wet and soiled. There was a bitterness that I never knew existed in me, and as I felt this consuming emotion I did the only thing I could do.
I screamed. I screamed so high and far into the heavens that all the buildings shook. Glass shattered and fell onto my feet like rain and I could hear in the distance cars shaking and screeching.
The sudden out bust had come to a halt.
I looked to the sky once more. The grey and crimson shadow of a slow dusk turned into nightfall.
I began to smile a twisted smile. This twisted smile of pure intent stayed on my face as I contemplated what was next. I knew now the sharp pain of the glass piercing my feet and the faint odor of this condemned alley affecting me more than I could imagine. I was not one to know pain but for those few seconds it was excruciating.
I walked knowing the air was thick with something else.
Something no human could smell.
It was the faint smell of death very near to this earthly plane of existence and that is when I understood finally. The time was approaching and my journey would be done with The Others.I needed to find some clothes. I began to walk through the alley. My feet already healed. The rain flushed away the trash from a city that cares more about where they were heading than what was going on around them. It was the humans that held so precious little. Even those in front of them hold no value. In the distance I saw a trench coat, a tattered and grey cloth soaked in the shower of water and filth. It was hanging on the outskirts of a dilapidated dumpster.
Without hesitation I grabbed the trench coat. Within moments I felt a form of shelter that I was lacking. What was next?
What is next?
Forcing me all this way, drenched and naked, what is it that The Others had in store for me other than the destruction for destruction’s sake? Preventing the end, even before it has begun?
Then I saw it: blue and red forming in the air.A bellowed and harsh voice spoke to me.“What are YOU suppose to be,” he asked. The rain felt heavy on my skin as he cursed and cried out to me in increased intensity. I felt the weight of this world on me and suddenly I was on my knees. I was feeling the agony of separation. It was something that I could not control. It was a natural part of me.
The pain raced through my being. It was some primal force coursing through me and I found myself falling onto the concrete, slamming hard like I had fallen through an abyss. I opened my eyes, once again on the cold and lifeless floor. This concrete had seen many bodies reach their arms out welcoming them, in drunkenness, sorrow, and death. “Get up!” I hear. Suddenly I realized where I am. And I realize that this bellowing harsh voice was not going to leave me alone.
Then I had a flash. It was a flash of pain so sharp it felt like a jolt. This human hit me hard against my head breaking what little concentration I had left. I tried to move in the filth trying to break out of this strong, debilitating confusion and out of the current madness. Then another hit vibrated against my ribs. I felt a burning in the air stronger than the darkness, stronger than the dank ripe smell of the alleyway. Another hit from this ‘civil’ servant knocked me down. I slowly gained strength to stand and I felt the air become dense. The feeling pulsated through me. It brought heat that created steam in the vicinity around us from the rain that fell heavy from the sky.I didn’t have to look into this heavy set man’s eyes to know that he was bewildered at the event taking place around him.
He was wondering which is worse: that his mind is sane and he is experiencing something very far from ordinary or that he, after years of ‘service’ on the police force, is now having a nervous breakdown.
The only thing I knew is the crimson fire burned in me. I knew what was happening.
Fire: Red, orange, and white fire swirled throughout the air all around this alley. It was pure and unadulterated as it passed through my pours and engulfed me. It was such an overwhelming beauty that lit the darkness with such force that to look upon it one would have been blinded by its intensity.
My attacker screamed from fear as the flames pushed him through the air in a sudden blazing inferno. The flames took to the air with such passion they consumed the sky, melting my one protection, my coat.
It slid off my skin like a snake. I once again bled into memories of pain and suffering. As the fire and its illumination ended just as soon as it had begun I stood once again, naked with only the bits and pieces of my trench coat covering the few parts of my being. I realized that I was now mostly covered in filth and soot. My attacker, this civil servant, had been slammed into the windshield of his vehicle.
My eyes still held the consumed red and orange flames around them. I began to calm myself. I felt the once dense air cool around me as if nothing had transpired. I heard the sounds of more civil servants arriving and I knew I needed to leave this alley before I hurt anyone else. As soon as I thought the words I was without sight and mind.
Like a ghost I vanished from the area.
