Shepherd Of Fire

(Chapter 1)

(Chapter 1)

My eyes shot open. My heart beat quickly and my hands felt around me. They felt nothing but dirt and grass. The trees in my vision were tall and sinister like.

I sat up slowly and looked around me. The only source of light was the bright half moon.

I tried to remember what happened to me before I appeared here but nothing came to mind. Did I fall? And if so, did the fall cause memory loss?

I slowly stood up and looked down at my clothes. I had a dark cloak on. I opened it to see that I was wearing dark jeans and a dark shirt underneath. My feet had black combat boots.

The night air blew at my face and goosebumps went up my neck. I put my hood over my head and hugged my arms to my body.

A branch crunched behind me. I turned around.

"Who's there?" I called out.

Another branch and leaves crunched behind me. "Hello?" The crunch sounded closer. "I can hear you!"

'CRUNCH'

I turned around and a man appeared out of the woods. He had brown hair that covered his neck and he looked strong. He stopped about five feet from me.

"Who are you?" he asked. His voice was smooth and not too deep.

"I..." I thought about it. What was my name? I tried to remember it but as much as I would, nothing would come up. "I don't know." I said.

He rose his eyebrows. "You don't?"

I shook my head. "I don't even know how I got here. What is this place, anyways?"

He walked closer to me. "It's...something like an afterlife." he said. He stopped and was now about three feet away from me.

I frowned. "An afterlife?"

He nodded. "Sort of. You're not actually dead but...you disappear in the real world."

I laughed. "Why the fuck am I here?"

"It depends. Everyone's story is different."

My eyes widened. "So there's others." I stated it more than asked.

"Yea. Not a lot but about 200 people."

I sighed. "Can you just help me get out of here?"

"And where would you go?"

"I don't know. Back where I belong."

Now it was he who laughed. "You don't even remember your name." he walked closer.

"I. Don't. Belong. Here. And I'll do whatever I can to get out of this place."

He was now a foot away from me. He stared down at me and his hazel-green eyes darkened.

"Well I guess you're going to have to stay in this place a little longer."

He held up his hand and between his fingers was a small ball. It was crushed by his fingers and

a dark smoke escaped. The smoke went up my nose and soon, everything went black.

****

'Janice...Janice...'

The sun warmed my skin as I ran down the beach. Water ran up the shore and wet my feet. I turned around to see a man running behind me.

He caught up to me and picked me up from behind. He twirled me around, making me laugh. He laughed too and I craned my neck to see his face. The sun was blocking his face, though.