Prologue

California, 1959.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be there tonight, don't worry about it!"

"Fine, I better see you then."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, later."

"Later."

The young college boys waved each other goodbye, walking in different directions to their next destination.

Nineteen years old and enrolled into the best college in the United States. He ruffled his curly locks and took a look at his surroundings.

The grass was still green, trees still full of their dark olive leaves were located around the school. The sun was beating down on him, and there would be an occasional soft, cold breeze to cool down. The boy sighed, sauntering over to a tree to sit down. He pressed his back against the cool trunk, slinking down to sit. The tree radiated a large shadow that covered him and cooled his tanned skin from the hot sun.

He started to let his eyes droop from exhaustion, dozing off every other minute and waking back up. Then, he realized how tired he was. He adjusted his glasses on his nose, leaning forward. He blinked, also noticing the sudden urge to read. He fidgeted with his hands, all of the sudden becoming anxious. He looked around, trying to calm himself down.

The crave.

The need.

The want.

He scrambled around, feeling the grass and dirt with his hands, as if he was searching for something. There was something there he wanted---no, needed.

He started digging with his hands, glancing around for peers. Seeing there was no one, he dug faster, flinging the dirt around. The feeling grew, the urge grew, it could've drove him to complete madness if he didn't find something. His heart was pumping as if it was going to burst out of his chest. He dug faster, his breathing was ragged, but he couldn't stop himself.

His hand hit something and he immediately grabbed it, pulling it from it's buried cage. The binding was coming undone, it was dirty and obviously old. The boy opened the book, it was filled with unknown letters and symbols written flawlessly in an alien language. He caressed the page, feeling the ink pressed into the paper and the tattered, fragile pages.

Each passing second, he could feel himself understand the foreign text more and more, and he became hungry to know what it said. He shut the book and tightened his grip around it, he looked around for anyone, and ran.

He sprinted off as if his life depended on it. He felt he needed to, he felt he was unsafe in such a public place. He didn't know where, but he was going somewhere, where it was safe. He didn't stop until he was out of town out in the middle of no where. He looked around, it was as if the civilization had disappeared into nothingness.

He smiled to himself, the excitement and need to read this damned thing. The urge came back, flying into his system. The boy looked around again for unwanted visitors. He dropped to his knees, then sat down on his ankles. He felt himself relax, his breathing became even and steady, regular. He opened the text, the symbols and letters screamed and screeched at him to read them, to study them, to understand them.

He rubbed his eyes before shakily running his fingers over the text, reading the passage before him.

This whole universe is ruled by Life and Death themselves, but this very Earth is ruled by the Great Fourteen. Hope, Lust, Pride, Temperance, Fortitude, Sloth, Charity, Faith, Wrath, Envy, Prudence, Gluttony, Justice, and Greed. The Greats have given the humans part of themselves, unleashing only part of their power to the very core of this Earth. The gifts were in exchange for life, loyalty, and worship. The Fourteen and humans lived in peace, happily. Soon, other ideas were formed, the humans seemed to forget that the Great Gods have given them part of themselves for their worship and loyalty. Hurt and angry, the Gods left, leaving the humans uncivilized and to fend for themselves. The Earth became unbalanced, misjudged, and corrupt in the hands of mortals. Finally, the Humans all stopped worshipping the Originals. The planet, Earth, made its own life and form that would be needed for the creatures out of desperation. The demi-god concepts were created, Earth, Fire, Water, Light, and Darkness. They will be born, much later from now. They will save the planet, they will make everything restored so the Originals can finally have their rule, and the demi-gods will go to their final objective. Each demi-god has one individual job to serve, despite their low ranking on the scale, it could possibly be a greater job than the Fourteen have. It is unknown what that objective is until it is time. The demi-gods will show up soon after The Finder discovers this book. They will restore our peace, they will revive the corrupt, they will fix the wounds and clean the blood off of the broken Earth...

He pulled himself away from reading the book, his hand shook, his breathing was ragged again. He couldn't decipher what was reality or fantasy. Was he thinking? Was someone talking to him? He coughed, covering his mouth and the hot, sticky substance we call blood stained his hand. The man shook, confused, and his world was spinning too fast for him, this was too much. He looked around for help, he tried to call out, but he seemed to be silenced by an unknown force.

The urge came back, but he wanted to rip the book to shreds. He put his hands on his head, he began to scream. Unable to know what was going on with him, he screeched until his lungs failed him, until he coughed up the red substance once again. He clawed at his hair, screaming for help, for assistance.

The man realized, all odds were against him. He couldn't cry for help, something was silencing his distressed screaming. He couldn't fight the urge, it just came back stronger. He let out a shaky breath, then he looked at the book once again. He reached for it, the broken binding seemed to have fixed itself. He wanted to run, he wanted to scream again, he wanted to be back at his college with his friend to screw around with.

But he was here out of all places, trying to resist the urge to read a foreign book that he could somehow understand, and that was his job.

To read it.

To be loyal to it.

To worship it.

Author's Note

short chapter compared to the upcoming ones. <: leave a review in case you find any typos and such.

Reviews

[Stonz P.]

Hey,

I suggest you read up a little more on your representation of the description as it seems to miss out on the coherence. Like the idea; intriguing.
Keep it up.

Cheers,
Peter.

[alduin]

Thank you so much! I will definitely do that. :)