The Veil Between Gods and Monsters

PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE

PAST

"Please, Oh Righteous One, forgive me for the sins I am to commit beyond this day..."

The putrid scent of ash, smoke, and burning flesh permeates the air, polluting the once sea soaked drafts that surrounded the sandy peaceful village.

"For the blood I will shed, for as long as my broken heart has been replenished by the deaths of those who have taken from me..."

Screams. So much screaming. Of pain. Of anger. Of vengeance. Loud, silent, whimpering. Broken. Shattered. Wounded. And yet... not as loud as the screaming inside my mind. The screaming of my senses. The screaming caused by the chasm left behind by the pieces of my heart. Of them. My home. My family. And now they rest in the burning piles of my agony.

"Something that is most precious to me..."

His once heavy body-one he used to tease me about being unable to carry whenever I boast of my immense strength, challenging me to lift him up high- is light now. His flesh was stripped away in the fire, leaving behind brittle bone and the waxy texture of what once was sun-dyed skin.

His arms are crooked, frozen in a way as if he is holding something most precious. And he is. In his arms is the evidence of our love. Our legacy. Once full of vibrancy and childlike wonder, of high-pitched giggles that surrounds the walls of our home. Of his little pattering feet as he races through the house, his mind lost to the wondrous adventures he paints in his mind.

"My family. My soul. My eternal happiness. My husband, Yusuf, and my son, Umar."

Pain ripples from what is left of my heart as sobs shatter the frozen grief that stilled my body upon finding the dark state of which my home was reduced, my village. Finally, as if awakening from an eternal slumber, a scream explodes from my teeth-bitten lips.

Like a lion's roar, all my anger, pain, grief, and turmoil mix into that scream, bleeding into what once was a beautiful night of celebration that now became my everlasting nightmare.

It's not enough. It still grips me, the pain of loss tossing and turning in my gut, roiling around like acid that bubbles and pops, its toxic essence completely purging the light I used to cling to desperately. For the sake of normalcy and for my family, I suppressed that side of me so I can blend in. So I can hide. But no more. Nothing will cure this heartache until I have the blood of those who have stolen my life from me.

I don't stop screaming. Not even when my throat grows raw and dry, it too screams but for relief. But I ignore it, just as I ignore the hands that try to claw the bodies of my family from my arms. Just like the hands that try to pull me away from the burning embers of what used to be my home.

I keep screaming until the locks on that dark red door inside me unlocks, and drops to the floor. I keep screaming when it creaks open. I keep screaming when I feel that darkness grin with sadistic glee. I keep screaming when I feel the brittle facade of my humanity break. I keep screaming when grief is replaced with vengeance.

I keep screaming...

"Please, Oh Merciful One, forgive me for the sins I am to commit beyond this day for I will hunt, and kill the ones who have taken my family from me. And I will not stop until every last one of them is dead."