Prologue

Death. In the end, it is what takes us all. What we were before that one moment of clarity all comes into view. You see the good, the bad, and everything in between that shaped who you are. The finality of the moment hits you about halfway through when you finally realize that it’s the end. You realize the last words you said to someone you love, and wished that you could go back and change them to something along the lines of ‘I love you’. Near the complete end is when you come to terms with what is really happening. The moment you accept it is the moment you accept defeat. Accepting defeat is what I did. As I felt the life drain out of me and my moment of realization come to a close, I heard a sound that cut through my haze as I stared up at the sky waiting for death to take away my consciousness.

Instead of falling into the peaceful oblivion that I knew would come to take me, I felt a slight burning sensation. The burning started out as something that I could ignore until it started to spread out into my body, burning every nerve ending in its unrelenting path. I wanted to scream with agony, call for help, or anything that might let my death come quickly. I had never known death to be drawn out this long, but deep down inside I knew something wasn’t right.

The burn was consuming me with terrible pain and I wanted to scream out in agony. I felt my muscles start to contract and I knew that I was now writhing in pain. The burning was growing worse. I knew that I couldn’t take much longer until I passed out.  With that last thought, I heard a voice break through my cloud of pain.

“You are mine.”

With those words echoing in my head, I finally drifted into the darkness, and somehow I knew that I would wake up.