Into Forever

A Story by Kexu

17 year old Ariah is a member of the Haze, a group of humans dedicated to bringing humanity back to life in a post magical apocalyptic world. She is dedicated to the mission, but will it kill her?

I stared, my face expressionless and my eyes fixed, at the wall. Any emotion I gave would set them off. They would know I was bluffing if I didn't stay emotionless. I knew not to make eye contact with them as they touched my face, arms, and body. I couldn't be bothered with their petty mind control issues when the entire Haze was at stake.

The Haze's lives were resting on my shoulders as the guards' beautiful hands caressed them. They enjoyed this, this sick treatment. They enjoyed watching my show of no emotion slowly start to crack as I began to long to give in to their sweetly seductive touch. I felt as if I was falling slowly into a silken bed as four of the most beautiful men on Earth touched every inch of my body.

I sighed unintentionally, my front shattering as I did.

The caresses stopped.

The guards disappeared.

And everything turned pitch black.

I was ten years old when the apocalypse began. The world and humanity as we knew it turned upside-down in little more than a few hours on December 12th, 2029. I remember the day vividly and it haunts and torments me from when I sleep into my waking hours. My family was killed when the Underground World came to power and I was greatly injured and imprisoned.

The guards came to our house that day and killed my father in our living room while my younger sister watched on. I tried to stop them, throwing myself against them as they whirled black energy around in their palms preparing to fling it at my mother to exterminate her in the same fashion as my father, but I couldn't.

The one I hit grabbed me around the waist and flung me into a chair, proceeding to bind me to it with some of the black energy he could generate. I tried to get out of the chair and get to my sister. The one had already killed my mother and saw my struggles.

"Hey, Jerry, you know what would be fun?" He laughed as he asked. "Why yes, Thomas, I think I have a good idea of what I would like to amuse myself with right now." Jerry said back. I screamed at the top of my lungs, understanding what they were going to do as they took a step towards my sister. "Stop! She's only seven! Don't hurt my sister!" I screamed the last part over and over again as Thomas picked her up and slung her over his shoulder much the same way he had done with me.

Walking back over to me he set her down while grabbing her hair and forcing her to her knees little more than three feet to the front of me. All I could do was scream and watch as my little sister cried silently and stared at me with her large blue eyes, waiting for her death. Jerry rubbed his palms together and slowly formed a swirling black energy ball the size of a paintball. He watched me as he did it, relishing at the terror in my eyes. I looked into the eyes of Cassie, my sister, and began to cry again.

She looked scared and resigned there on her knees awaiting death, and I couldn't stand it. I began to plead again, begging them not to kill her, but Jerry simply looked at me, tossed the small energy ball into his right hand, and pushed it into the right side of her skull. I could only watch in terror as her body jolted and her eyes turned pure white with the swirling black smoke-like effect of the energy. Thomas held her up by her hair for a few moments afterwards, enjoying the look of despair on my face. Then he dropped her, right there like a broken rag doll, and kicked her over so her face was up.

I couldn't look away from her slowly graying body, it was everything you feel when you watch a horror movie and know a scary part is coming but can't keep your eyes from drifting back to the screen.

They just watched me, amusement apparent on their faces as I slowly turned to them and spit at their feet because that was about all the physical attack I could manage while attached to the chair. I tried to speak, but what came out instead was a scratchy voice due to all the screaming I had done, but it was enough for me.

"Ishcato hal muelin." I said simply with all the hate I had for them.

I knew they wouldn't understand the simple sentence I had flung at them because it was a language I made up when I was six. They wouldn't know I had just cursed them to rot in hell, they would probably just figure I was just being stupid or delirious, but it was enough for me to get the slight sick satisfaction.

Jerry held up his pointer finger and a small, slow stream of the smokey black energy made its way towards me and I began to wriggle, trying desperately to get away from it. It wrapped around me, not touching my skin, but lingering just above it so I could feel the chill of the energy.

I couldn't move or else it would touch me and I'd die, so I stayed as still as possible, breathing slowly and staring into the eyes of one of my captors. I hoped they could see the rage I had in my eyes, and I hoped they could feel the tightness and tension in the air as I sat there, silent and motionless. I wanted to kill them, to make them feel the same mental agony I felt at that moment. Sitting there made me feel vicious as a wild animal in the same position, family killed and myself trapped. I think that's how they saw me, as an animal and nothing more because they were more evolved.

A smirk began to form on Thomas's mouth as Jerry held me motionless with the energy. He slowly walked towards me as a lion might lope towards its trapped prey. That's exactly how it looked, lion to prey. He even resembled a lion. He had thick golden hair that was slightly long and thick facial features; when I think back I realize he was handsome, but I still wish I had gotten the chance to kill him. Jerry, on the other hand, looked to be around 40 years old with salt and pepper hair, a short beard, and thick eyebrows bridged by marks from scowling. Both of them were muscular from their years of training to be guards, which meant both of them would be able to overtake a ten year old girl in seconds. I didn't care though, I wanted to die.

I tried not to think about what I was about to do to keep myself from getting scared and keeping myself from doing it. I wanted to be with my family, whether in this world or another world for spirits. I flung myself backwards in the chair, hitting the energy with the back of my head.

A deep chill went through me and I felt death inside of me, crawling around in every bone and artery of my body.For several seconds death grasped my insides firmly, blacking my vision and stopping my heart. No longer could I feel outside sensations, and I knew I was dead.

I don't know what I expected. Heaven? Hell? To drift around the Earth as a ghost? No matter what I expected, it wasn't this.

Everything around me was a thick mist, the fog making it impossible to see. I knew I was dead because I couldn't quite feel my physical body, yet I could still feel, even if all I could feel was misty fog against my skin. I just floated through the mist for several minutes, maybe hours, I didn't have a proper perception of time in that realm. I called out "Hello?!" once or twice, holding a little hope that someone or something would hear me.