CHAPTER ONE
One bright day, no clouds in the sky, a man was found. He was beat up and in shabby clothing, with an overgrown beard and a black eye. He was passed out, and so was brought to the infirmary, but when he woke up, he was weaker than ever before. He'd seemed to be in shock, which was confusing to the nurses and doctors considering his wounds were not bad at all. They soon discovered, when he passed, that wounds do not have to be physical.. to be fatal. During the autopsy, they did discover a small black mark on his wrist -- the shape of a skull, with "NM" written above it. The mark of the Necromancer.
Julian and Alice now had a daughter and son, aged 7 and 9. The girl was named Jenna, the boy Neko. Neither had any idea of the events that had happened before their birth, or what was happening now with the Necromancer, and both Julian and Alice intended to keep it that way. Although the children got suspicious with Alice being away so much, they stayed peacefully oblivious to the world around them. With school and friends, they didn't have time to be anything but.
However, Neko was the adventurous type, never staying out of trouble for long. His parents knew he would find out about the Necromancer someday; they just didn't anticipate how. They surely didn't think he would learn by coming in contact with the Necromancer himself. You see, Neko was out in the woods, hunting goblins somewhere in the center of the forest. He wasn't lost; he'd been out here many times before, but never before had there been a burned section of forest. And there had never been a perfectly burned pentagram in this specific section of burned forest. What this could mean, Neko didn't know, but what he did know was that he must tell his parents right away. As he ran back through the forest, he ran right into a tall man clothed in blood red ropes. The man let out a growl, grabbing Neko by the wrist. Neko felt a painful burning sensation in his wrist, shaking it free. "Watch where you're going." The tall man said, before pushing Neko away from him with the palm of his hand. This knocked Neko onto his knees, but he quickly scrambled back up, dashing out of the forest and back home. When he looked over his shoulder, the man was gone.
On the way home, he fell into a trap. It wasn't meant for him; Neko had no idea what - or who? - it was meant for, but he could tell he couldn't be there. He could sense, though, that it was a magic trap; it had some sort of spell on it, and had he been something or someone else, he probably would have been trapped. Because he was simply a young boy, no magical abilities, he was able to get out. He later shivered with the thought that he could have been stuck in there. He could have been stuck in there until whoever the trap had been meant for had gotten trapped too. And then.. He shook his head, not wanting to think about that.
Neko returned home by nightfall, and his parents were more relieved than he'd ever seen them. "Oh, Neko! We've been searching for you all evening, where have you been?" His mother sounded exasperated. Neko took a deep breath. "I went in the forest, to hunt goblins. But even though I went the usual route, I found a part of the forest.. It was burned down! In the center, somebody burned the grass in the shape of a pentagram.. It was all black and brittle. So I ran home, to tell you guys, but on the way, I ran into a tall man.. He wore red robes, they were the colour of blood! He grabbed my wrist, and it felt like a burn.. I felt into a trap as well, but I got out pretty easily. And then I came home." He was breathless by the time he finished, and his father had him sit down. "Let me see your wrist." He said solemnly. Neko held up his right wrist for his father to see, Julian letting out a sigh of relief when he saw it was unmarked. "Your other wrist, too?" He added, and bit his lip when he saw the familiar black mark of the Necromancer. "Oh, no. No no no." Alice protested, staring at the black tattoo of sorts. "What? What's wrong with me?" Neko asked, glancing at the mark. "It's just a burn, right?" Neither parent replied, not wanting Jenna to hear as she walked into the room.
"What's wrong?" The 7 year old asked, pushing some black hair out of the way of her eyes. "Is something wrong with Neko?" She walked closer to them, poking her mom in the shoulder. "Hello? Is anybody listening to me?" Everybody was silent, and she threw her teddy bear on the floor, lip quivering. "Stop ignoring me!" She wailed. "Jenna, come sit down." Alice instructed, pulling her daughter over to the couch Neko was sitting on. When both children were seated, Alice nodded to herself, before opening her mouth to speak. No words came out, and she bit her lip, finally saying, "Neko, you have been marked by the Necromancer. The Necromancer is.. he's like a witch, except he's a man, and he practices dark magic. He's evil, and he kills people and steals.. And he marked you. Whether it was simply a mark or if he is going to come back to kill you, we don't know.. We hope it isn't the latter. You know I'm a doctor, right? Well, whenever we find hurt people nowadays, they all have this mark on their wrist. So, you're going to have to be careful. Stay inside, with daddy, okay?" Neko nodded, mouth dry. "So.. I'm going to die?" Jenna simply seemed confused as to what was going on, but didn't say a thing.
"We don't know that. You just have to be careful." His mother replied, smiling weakly at the two children. "Now, it's time for bed. Come on, let's go." With that, Alice brought Neko to his bedroom, and Julian brought Jenna to hers. Before long, both children were fast asleep. Alice and Julian, however, got not one bit of sleep the entire night.
