Birth of a Legend

Chapter 2

“Ana!”

“Keep running, Ana! Don’t look back!”

“H-Huh? What? Where… where am I?”

Anastasia opened her eyes to find herself standing up, dressed in her military uniform. All around her was an endless expanse of woods. Nothing about these woods were normal, though. Every tree was completely black and leafless, wavering like a reflection on rough waters. Even the trunks of the trees weren’t still. Only those closest to her seemed to solidify until she stepped away from them and further into the strange world. Black snow fell from the sky and it was only when she wiped a bit of it off of her cheek with a finger that she realized it was ash. Looking up, she saw only white. White and black… the only colors in this place. Even she seemed to blend in with the color scheme.

“Ana!”

The redhead whipped around, blue eyes scanning the darkness for the source of the noise, but she could hear the whispering all around her. Someone was calling out her name, screaming, begging for help. It sounded so familiar. Was it…? No, it couldn’t be. Talitha? And those words… Her mom? Were they here?

“Momma?” Ana called out as her voice echoed across the abyss.

No answer.  She stepped further into the darkness, leaves crunching and disintegrating under her feet.

“Hello?! Talitha? Momma? Is anyone out there?!”

The whispers abruptly ceased, only silence filling the air before she could hear moans. Someone was crying, but there was more than just one person. It sounded like dozens, maybe hundreds.

“Aaaaannnaaaa~”

Sweat began to bead at her forehead as she slowly turned around. Her heart beat at a hundred miles an hour, enough to nearly make her deaf because of it, but when she turned around her gaze fell on her family. Bryce, Spence, Carter, her mom and dad, Talitha, even the rest of Mindoir… they all stood there staring back at her. Her gut warned her that all was not what it seemed, but the happiness she felt at that moment drowned it out. She began to run towards them, but her footsteps were heavy and slow as if she were trudging through water or thick mud. What was going on? Glancing down at her combat boots, she realized that black wisps were erupting from the ground and wrapping tightly against her ankles, beginning to drag her down into its unfathomable depths. She looked up desperately at the people of Mindoir, reaching out a hand for them to grab.

It was then that she noticed a gruesome metamorphosis beginning to take place. The once lively appearance of the colonists took on a ghastly form. Their cheeks were sunken in as if they were made of nothing but skin and bones. It occurred to Ana that their clothes probably hid the rest of that deformation. One by one their eyes began to roll and sink into the back of their heads before there was nothing but black holes left. The same happened to their nose. They just … disappeared, giving them all the distinct visage of a skeleton. They opened their mouths in unison, nearing the point where their jaws would just break off and emitted such a horrible cacophony of screams, moans, and pleads for help that it physically drained Ana of energy.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, the black wisps now wrapping around her wrists like chains to prevent further movement. “I’m so sorry… I couldn’t save you. I couldn’t save any of you…”

From the incomprehensible noise, she could hear someone whispering her name. It continuously increased in volume before the world began to crumble away beneath her feet, a white flash of light blinding her.

“ANA!”

“Ana! Ana, wake up!”

Ana’s eyes shot open and it was then that she realized she was levitating in the air surrounded by a light purple nebulous shell. It evaporated as soon as she was fully conscious and she fell to the floor with a THUD!