Haunted (NaNo 2020)

Prologue

PROLOGUE

It started with a breeze. A zephyr in the middle of December. It wound its way through the thick forest of Bellum, fluttering the leaves and cutting against the cold winter air. As it moved, it picked up momentum like a bullet spinning faster and faster.

Further and further through the forest it rifled, stripping the trees bare and howling to the grey skies. As it sped its way to the small town that cut into a hillside, the people of the town ran for shelter, the sound alone sending fear hurtling through their hearts like a well-aimed arrow.

From the heart of the forest came a thundering crack, and the the wind picked up even more. Light shimmered and wound its way through the trees. And then the people began to pour out of a tear in the very fabric of the earth.

Like a well trained army they marched, their boots crunching over the leaves that had just fallen to the ground. It was a slow march. A confident one. They had time. More and more, they continued to come. As hordes of people filed through the forest, they all moved the same. There was a preternatural sort of grace with which they moved, as if they were gods themselves, come to reckon what was theirs.

The wind still kicked and tore around them, but they appeared unbothered, their garments barely blowing and their steps as steady as ever.

When the group reached the edge of the forest, a man took two steps beyond the rest of the group. He was buff, but it wasn't his physicality that set him apart from the rest. It was his green eyes, rimmed in orange. They held the world in them. They were a battlefield of fire and ice. They were a brewery of confidence, of anger. They alone had the power to stop someone dead in their tracks.

Slowly, he raised a hand to the sky and a lick of flame curled out of his finger into the air.

At the very same moment, every person in the forest lurched to a stop. How those in the back knew what was happening, it was not known. However, in synchrony, the men and women began flexing their fingers and outstretched one hand.

There was a moment of silence, and then he turned, and bellowed, "March!" and the group stampeded out into the small town, bellowing a warcry that pierced the air with such ferocity the clouds themselves seemed to tremble.

The people of the town hid as the foreigners flooded the streets. Within moments they were plundering houses, plumes of fire sparking against the sky. Screams pierced the air as smoke rose from everything that was set on fire.

It wasn't long before the small town that had been bustling just an hour before now appeared to be a ghost town. Tree tops burned and the remaining townspeople cowered, their faces dirty, hiding in whatever shelter they could find. They stifled their coughs and their breaths, eyes darting in constant, wary search of their enemies.

There had barely even been a battle. These foreigners had entered and conquered. They'd wielded weapons that should not have been possible—fists of fire and razor-sharp jets of water that had the power to cut a house in half.

The very air in Bellum seemed to sizzle.

Amidst the chaos, a young girl clung to her mother, her dirtied hands clenching the fabric of her mother's dress so tight she nearly ripped it.

"Is it over?" she whispered, her breaths shaking and weak.

"I don't know, honey," her mother murmured, rubbing her back with a steady hand despite the storm that raged around her.

"Why did they come? Who are they?" The young girl was crying now, and she grasped the dress even harder.

Her mother shook her head, trying to shrink further into the tree they hid against.

"I don't know," she muttered. "I've never seen anything like this."

There was a pause, and as her daughter tried stifling her sobs, a man plummeted from the branch above them, his black boots nearly landing on the mother's legs.

"Love, of course you haven't," he said, an accent vaguely resembling British, but rougher on the edges clipping his words. "We're not from your world."

She tilted her head, her brown eyes wide and glimmering. "P- Please. I don't know what we did, but I have a daughter. She needs me, and it really—"

"Oh, quit your blubbering."

She shut her mouth, to which he grinned. "You listen. I like that."

He laughed a wicked laugh before outstretching his hand. "Unfortunately, it won't help you now."

Then fire enveloped her world, the flame grabbing her skin and biting. It was so hot and so caustic that mere moments passed before even her shrieking cries were wiped out, leaving only the leaping ash of extinguishing flame in her wake.

The man brushed one hand against the other.

"Another job well done," he muttered to himself as he turned and headed back toward the center of town to create more chaos.

He left behind nothing but carnage in his wake.

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Author's Note: Hello all! It's been a long while since I've been on Wattpad, but after a number of setbacks, I'm here and ready to share stories again! I have this one written an edited already, so I'm delighted to announce that as this is an April NaNoWriMo project, I'll likely be updating every  day or so as I make progress!

This is the beginning of a new fantasy book that is near and dear to my heart. I hope you love it as much as I do!