Prologue
I wonder what it was like before…
Mom tells me about you, about you and Uncle Oliver. She goes on and on about how amazing and brave you were, about how handsome you were and that her love for you will be eternal. She had a few pictures of you on her phone that she printed out and it’s all I have to give image to the stories. She’s right you know? You were handsome…
I wish I could know you, to feel your touch or even hear your voice. I wish Uncle Oliver could teach me all the things he taught you but mostly… Mostly I wish mom didn’t scream out in the night for you, that when she looked at me she didn’t have to turn away and fight back tears because I look like you and have your eyes. We get by now, best we can at least. Dendera visits a few times a year and others like us have become family.
The history books in schools and the news tell us about the epidemic… About the virus that spread throughout the world and turned humans into infected… monsters. How we turned on each other like mindless creatures and those of us that didn’t simply die were torn to pieces by those turned. Canada is where mankind made its last stand and according to written history, we held. It’s said that with a combination of chemical warfare, advanced weaponry and eventually a cure, we barely managed to escape extinction.
The governments took years to regain control, the world was burning and in chaos, many countries people saw it as a way to start over and well, some did. Others plunged into chaos and anarchy while most regained control and civility. After a few years and even more bloodshed things settled back into the ways they always had.
The government started issuing incentives for people to have children. With the world population negative a couple billion after the epidemic it was necessary. Tax breaks, home loans and even money were given to those willing to have kids.
Yeah it was all well and back to normal, they even erected statues and monuments around major cities to honor the brave men, women and children who died during the epidemic but… there were no statues of us, of our kinds. Those who remember and are honest tell a different story, a story of the high heavens and the burning hells. A story of angels and demons, of the ancient cursed ones… The sects, clans and covens of the world standing side by side next to towering beasts along the wall. Shoulder to shoulder, together with the humans fighting for the very right to live and exist against… them.
How if not for us, for our added strength and the blood we shed, we all would have fallen to the First Born.
I miss you and I never met you… Is that silly? I do believe still, I know you can hear me. I think of you and Uncle Oliver a lot, too much maybe. I wonder if I’ll ever get to see you… I wonder…
I wonder what it was like before…
