Prologue

The girl sat quietly in her cell.

Rats darted around the floor, their movements echoing around the blackness, the sound bouncing off the cracked and dirty cement walls. A barely noticeable slit of light slid under the door, providing a tiny fleck of illumination that served only to highlight the solid wooden panelling and the heavy metal lock.

Wrapping her arms round her knees, the girl forced herself to stay calm. Dark hair fell around her face, obscuring her features and creating a curtain that she tried to hide behind. Her eyes closed and she slowed her breathing, focussing intensely on each breath. She did this until each intake of air sounded as loud as a foghorn to her ears, blotting out the noise of the rats scurrying around in the darkness. Eventually the icy fear that gripped her lessoned slightly and she found herself able to think more clearly.

They had come for her at night, on the way back from the hospital. The odd thing was, she wasn’t surprised at all. Ever since she was a little girl her mother had warned her many times that her abilities made her a target, that they would hunt her down. Her very nature had placed her on the frontlines of a war that spanned millennia; stretching back further than human history could record. The girl’s mother had sensed the growing power of the darkness, the readying of its followers for an assault. She had tried to keep her daughter safe, but like many before her, had fallen to the might of the enemy.

The girl’s eyes snapped open, her bright green pupils cutting through the darkness. She was not entirely helpless. She would not allow herself to be taken this easily, to give up in the face of this nightmare. Her abilities were coveted for a reason. Even now, in the clutches of the enemy, it was not too late.

The girl sat back, leaning against the filthy wall. Resting her arms on her knees, the girl’s head slowly dipped downwards, her eyes again closing. If anyone had glanced into the cell they would have sworn she had just fallen asleep. But she was not sleeping.

She was searching. Her mind wandered, moving amongst the dreams of humanity, constantly hopping from mind to mind within the vast network of humankind.  She drifted hazily, searching for someone. Someone with the ability, someone that she felt she knew from a dream. Someone with the potential deep inside themselves, waiting to be unlocked. She searched, knowing that it was only a matter of time. Minutes, days, weeks, it all blurred for her, lost as she was amongst the minds. And then it happened. It emerged like a slowly forming picture, a sense of identity and self, the sense of a person that was destined for this war, just as she was. He was calling to her just as she was calling to him. Deep in her stupor the girl’s mouth twitched into a small smile.

She had found him.

Reviews

[Shardbearer99]

That was a really engaging and powerful opening, filled with suspense. It was wonderfully written, already drawing the reading to a sympathetic character that has a lot of potential for great development. This was thoroughly enjoyable.