Audrey White-The Rise of Corona

Prologue

Audrey White-The Rise of Corona

His heavily knitted eyebrows furrowed. His silver curly locks cascaded till his shoulders, which if exposed to the sun could emerge with a glossy sheen. His sky blue eyes never twitched. The fine silvery specks near his pupils were like masterstrokes of a great artist, like scars of white made by a slash of a soldier's sword. His shoulders slightly slouched as he rested his chin on his fist. He looked no less than Socrates or Pythagoras by his posture.

One would've thought him to be some kind of a lamented person. But in actual, he was deep down in his own world.

A mosquito buzzed around in the air in search of its prey, before finally settling down on his arm. It poised its needle and pierced through his skin. The man did not even budge a little.

So finally after quenching its thirst, the mosquito flew away happily.

A slender young woman with her hair engaged in a tight bun stood at one corner reading a book with profound pleasure. She then looked at the grave expression of the old man's face. She at once realised that something was wrong because she'd never seen Aldebaran Hugo is such a tensed state.

She suddenly closed her book. The mosquito got squashed inside.

She decided to confront him. So she marched towards him, hoping that he would look at her which he didn't. Gaining no response, she cleared her throat intentionally.

"Erm. Erm!"

"Alder?"

His calm blue eyes slowly turned towards her. His facial expression held no sign of irritation of being interrupted. He looked as if he has been waken up from a heavenly dream.

"Yes, Hilda?"

"Is something wrong?"

He took in a deep breath and exhaled out slowly.

"The time has come."

"For what Alder?" Hilda's interest at once aroused.

"For the rise of a new Corona." By then the creases on his forehead softened. He specially emphasised at the last word.

"After all what had happened?" her eyes widened in shock. "Is there still hope?"

"Where there is vice, there is virtue. Where there is evil, there is hope for something good." His greying hair increased the level of astuteness in his sentence.

"But...what if she turns out the same as the previous one?" Her eyes were now filled with anxiety.

By then Aldebaran Hugo got up from his ingeniously polished three-legged mahogany stool. He stood, facing the wall whose dry yellow paint scraped out a little.

"Her innocence will be enough to suppress the evil down. She will not be what Reeva was." There was light in his words. A light of hope. Quite contrary to the dull room which was faintly illuminated by a small oil lamp.

"She will be this light." He continued as he pointed towards the lamp. "She will be the true protector of our rights, of our world." Pure ardency gleamed from his words. "That is what she would be; that is what a Corona should be."

And for the first time in their conversation, Hilda Barringer actually believed in what he said.