Turning Away Warm Bodies

Chapter Thirteen: The Swarm of the Dead

[Stacey Hann]

  Ten years ago, the gates to Hell had been opened. What my ancestors had sealed shut thousands of years ago had finally escaped its' chains and broke free. I had always known that it wouldn't remain locked up forever, I just wished that I wouldn't be around when it did. Guess that was too much to ask for.

  Long before I was born, what we call The World of the Dead exsisted freely with the world we live in. Back then, there had been no need to hide its' exsistence for there was no reason to. Those who had left this world held no vengence in their hearts when they passed, no hatred, no reason to rebel against the world for an unjust life. They died pure, content with the lives they lived. No one came back to spread havock on anyone still living, for no one ever had any want to hurt others. Back then, the world was a perfect utopia, a time when all sin had been cleansed from the world.

  But all good things eventually come to an end, and when that happens, those who have died will come back for revenge.

  The story is that a man named Felix Niles. He was the start of what we call The Swarm of the Dead,

  As told throughout generations of my people, he was born as any other back then... forced to grow up without an idea of what a mother was. In those days, medical advancements were practically nonexsistent, and it was for that reason that the majority of women died giving birth, leaving their child with only a father, and on very rare occasions, a sibling, but that only happend about once every month.

  His life had been normal, up until his high school years. The story goes that in his third year of high school, he had committed the ultimate crime of man slaughter. It is said that it had simple started off as an act of self defense, but in a world without sin, it's highly unlikely to be true. Though that's the story that I was told when I was young, and my parents were too stubborn to tell me any otherwise.

  However, I was a pretty stubborn kid myself, and I knew better than to believe such an obvious lie. It wasn't long after I had started junior high that I finally contacted my grandmother and got the real story.

  One day, he had taken a wrong turn on his way home. However, knowing the town well, he had been able to readjust his path home and continued forward down the road. It wasn't long before he caught a glimpse of something, something that would mark the beginning of The Swarm of the Dead. His eyes' golden apple in the arms of another.

  She was a beautiful one, with glowing black hair that fell to her hips. Her eyes could pierce into anyone's soul with even just a glance at her ice blue eyes; her skin pale and flawless. Her movements always fluent, her feet never faltering in step. She was pure perfection, but her heart was shrouded in black; an evil spirit hiding within the depths of beauty. She lusted for others to follow her every command, dead or alive. Her name was Aeternam, and she was the of the Necromancers' Rein.

  Just one second, a single look in the wrong direction brought a burning fire on his heart. In the next moment, he had sprinted forward towards the two, his actions ruled by his sudden jolt of envy. With one simple motion, the man who had held his chosen was thrown against the wall. Felix didn't hesitate and continued after him, throwing his fists into the side of the mans jaw. Even after it had been dismantled from his head, the punches didn't stop. Hit after hit, he threw all of his energy and anger at him, even after it was clear that he was already dead. But still, he continued until the point that it was so disoriented, no one would have ever been able to tell that what he was so violently attacking was ever human.

  It's clear his first intention wasn't to kill, but the moment he threw that first punch, his eyes glowed with amusement. Then when the mans' jaw had been forced through the air, a wild smile had found its way onto Felix's face. He had been overpowered by the thrill of killing, that sense of power that comes with taking someone's life from them. It controlled him after that, and the rush was like a drug. After that, all he wanted was to steal away others lives just to get the same feelings; his entire human self lost to that sense of overwhelming power.