Songs of War

Kelly 1

Kelly Kincaid stood on nothing, his body delicately floating in the air. His eyes moved around the area but all he could see was a vortex of purple and black lines encircling him. Where am I, he blankly thought to himself? He wandered around the space with no walls to guide him.

Without any effort, he propelled himself through the vast nothingness. All around him, there was a whirlpool of dark colors, entrapping him. There was no way out, but for some reason, he didn't want to leave. He glided forward, deeper into the abyss.

The vacant colors were slowly replaced by blurry, unfamiliar, images. There were swords clashing against each other, fire dancing around a crowd of people, and orbs shooting into the sky. The images changed into faces, none of which Kelly knew or recognized. Who are these people?

The images started to slowly drift away, blurring themselves back into nothingness. Two pathways shined through the darkness, one headed to the left and the other to the right. Kelly vacantly stared at the two paths, unsure of which direction he should go.

Kelly stayed there for what seemed like an eternity, never moving an inch. Why have I stopped? he thought. Suddenly, the blurry images started to materialize to the left of him. Kelly floated towards the left pathway, letting the right fade into oblivion.

These pictures started moving, showing a story he did not understand. Vicious explosions filled the area, nearly tearing through the images that contained them. Swords clashing broke the silence of the space. Kelly continued moving to the left as the videos started showing a giant battle, with billions on each side. Kelly's eyes refused to blink as he saw the carnage and savagery of the battle take place.

He saw himself. He wasn't sure when it happened or how, but soon, all of the pictures showed Kelly. He was running away from an explosion, then sword fighting with an old man. He climbed a giant castle just by using his hands and slept in a room lined with gold.

The images from the left faded away and left Kelly stuck floating in space yet again. But, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted it. To the right, there was a tunnel of blinding, white light. I have to go there, he thought to himself. That's where I need to be.

He glided towards the towards the vibrant light, reaching out so that he could feel it in his hands. Before he could grasp the light, three red beams that out at him. They hit and he screamed in blinding pain, his senses going numb. He sensed himself starting to fall down. His body flailed around as he fell farther into the abyss, the light slowly getting farther in the distance.

The sun filtered through the crooked blinds of Kelly Kincaid's Kent City apartment. He slowly opened his large brown eyes to see the light blinding him. What a bizarre dream, he thought to himself as the memory of the dream started slipping into oblivion.

He lazily rolled to his side and glanced at the calendar his best friend Apollo had given him. Kelly's eyebrows perked up and the cogs in his brain started turning. Today was the day. The last day before school started back up again and Kelly would be forced to return to his inner-city high school that couldn't even afford textbooks. But that wasn't why the day was important.

He stumbled out of his bed, where his legs hung over the edge, and walked over to his dresser. Inside of it was all the clean clothes Kelly owned: one wrinkled, green t-shirt and a pair of camo shorts that were a bit too tight on Kelly's legs. Seeing that he had no alternatives, he slipped them on before leaving his cramped apartment.

He sprinted up the stairs like a cheetah chasing its prey and passed the other kids who lived in his orphanage, or group home as the volunteer workers liked to call it. The stairs were wooden and gave out ear-piercing creaks with every step that Kelly took but he continued running up two at a time.