The Travellers of Libra (WIP - Updates every Saturdays and Wednesdays)

Prologue

Somewhere in England, 1995

It was dead quite. The hustle and bustle of the busy afternoon market was gone and all that's left was the faint mumbles of a few people making their way home.

Samuel Alby stretched his slender arms and yawned as he breathed in the cold night air. An air of tranquility and stillness envelops the town as he makes his way through the market square where various produce shops previously lined.

Sam had loved market days when he was little, the colors and sounds of different trade makes Sam actually feel real liveliness and movement. Nothing like the dull days in Maglior Mansion where all he could do was sit around or either explore the already explored rooms and crannies of an 17th century time machine covered with layers of dust and infinite cobwebs in just about every corner.

But despite living in a house that's not actually a home at all Sam always found a way to make things interesting somehow. He would roam the manor grounds, that is obviously out of maintenance and could be deemed dangerous, and build forts and other projects. He once designed his very own tree house in a hemlock once, but couldn't quite finish it the way he wanted to.

This was the first time Sam had seen this part of the town so undisturbed and calm before, despite being locked up in that mansion that they couldn't possibly afford he made sure he'd at least go for a walk, usually as late as midnight for several hours or more visiting the local pub or enjoying a pack of cigarette he bought from that one fellow from school. But tonight he just felt like walking.

Cowlsfield had always been this way, one of those towns not too far from the city but much too far for anything good to ever happen. Too stagnant, too constant. Changing in the smallest ways possible.

It was now half pass 2, as he strolled past a costumer less 24 hour convenience store. He waved at the same idle clerk behind the counter, Jossy, with her round rimmed glasses and her ruffled strawberry blonde hair she waved backed with a smile, holding a pencil and a soduko book.

He looked up at the cloudy night sky, stars barely twinkling. Sam wondered how would the world be like if the stars never shined at all. He once read at one of his grandma's astronomy books that each person has an equivalent star meant just for them. Kind of like a celestial twin or a doppelganger made of rock.

As Sam gazed into the sky he crashed into a man, barely sober to even be standing up, stinking of cigars and hard liquor.

The man was knocked down in the sidewalk landing on his back, mumbling a series of curses as he tried to get back up.

Sam hunched by the man, apologizing.

"So sorry, you okay mate?" Sam asked as he extended an arm to the the stout and hairless man.
His arms felt awkward sticking out. People always though he had unusually long limbs for a 16 year old.

Sam knelt beside the fellow turning his gaze at the man's cheeks, either red from the alcohol or the cold night breeze. Sam could never tell.

"No," The man gasps as he pushes Sam away. Struggling to get back up. "I-It's fine, I can manage."

The man stood, legs wobbling, clutching one hand on his stomach and the other leaning towards a wall for support. Sam stepped back.

"No need to be brash," Sam said. "I was only meaning to help."

The fellow said nothing but a low rumble and went on his way. Sam only shooked his head, eyes still locked on the unruly figure turning a right making his way through Hansen Street.

Guess some folks just want to be left alone. Sam thought, reaching through the inner pocket of his coat, took out a cigarette and lit it.

He continued on his way down Claydon Street where small businesses lined puffing a smoke from his cigarette. He stop by an empty lot just besides a a hair salon; 'Rudy & Flinch'. The abandoned space was now grown with grass and other shrubs but still piled with rubbish that was once part of the one thing Sam was proud about.

Like many others Sam grew up without his parents, they were taken away by the fire that burned down their record store which stood at the same exact spot Sam was staring at, too young to even remember their faces or what they where actually like. Nana, his father's mother, was the only family he ever knew since then. She is- well to put it lightly a 'spiteful old hag', she is not the typical grandma that you would see on the telly.

The evening was chilly and the wind felt particularly clammy, looks like his Nana was right a storm really is coming. Sam buried his hands on the oversized coat that he borrowed from Sergei, the shockingly ginormous bodyguard that his grandmother keeps around.

Sam is not exactly sure why his Nana even keeps a bodyguard or let alone even afford one. Even if her job or more like a hobby as a fortuneteller or 'Reader', as she likes to call herself, barely provides them with enough to keep them afloat. Acting rich and entitled is one of Nana's insufferable nature, despite being flat broke without a pound to her name. Still Samuel always wondered how or where does his Nana's money came from, he was always too intolerant of his Nana so he never bothered asking.

As Sam continues on, the pale light illuminating from streetlights started to flicker. Sam stops and looked around, the streetlight in front of him blinking twice before finally turning off.

'Odd.' Sam thought as he wanders on, still confused.

Sam strolled pass by the 'Crowning Glory' a local pub he usually visits. But he noticed that not one person was around not even the bouncer, Smith, which was very peculiar considering the neon sign that read 'Open for people and dogs' was turned on. Then Sam realized he hadn't seen one other person since his encounter with the drunk bloke.

Maybe I'm hallucinating.

Sam didn't let a moment pass and jogged toward the pub, he opens the door and he sees no one. Not a single person.

"Hello?" Sam utters, the word barely escaping his mouth. It felt like a horror movie, every single being disappearing just like that leaving you all alone.

When Sam was sure that there really is no one in the pub, he made his way outside and sprinted home.

The freezing night air from before had just gotten worst. It was as if the city was frozen in time, the faint sounds that he heard before were gone replaced by a soundless and lifeless setting.

Sam halts as a blinding white light suddenly appears before him. Then in an instant, he was gone.