Crescent (preview)

Prologue (book preview)

The heat poured down onto Silus as he forced himself to power through the desert. He had white hair and glasses. The clothes he wore were thin and torn, damaged from the battle. He carried in his arms a small baby wrapped in his best cloth. His wife was clinging onto him as he carried his full family toward safety. He had another child, they were twins but she was lost in the fighting. The sun would go down soon meaning he would at least be safe from the sun. In the distance there was a strange home. Their home. Silus smiled painfully as he looked on at his home. He forced his weary body to take another step. His one leg hurt. The other couldn't feel pain. It had no nerves or muscles. It was mechanical. Silus looked toward the sunset over a dune. It was beautiful. But the beauty didn't last. In the distance what Silus had thought was a dune before began to rise. It stood out of the sand and turned its bony head to gaze at Silus. It's mouth opened and a human torso crawled out. Burnt flesh and black hair. It seemed like someone on the verge of death. The skeletal raptor-like creature had large powerful legs, most likely made for running and jumping. it's feet seemed adapted to the heated sand of the desert. It had spikes coming from its spine and protruding from its back. Its head turned toward the sky and the burnt torso rose attached to its tongue from the waist. The torso had six eyes that all opened at once. It's mouth was in a grin. burnt arms reached from the creature's mouth around the torso. They pulled themselves out and rose to join the torso. They didn't attach to it but they flew around it. The thing brought it's head down and lifted its torsos head up. The thing began to rush toward Silus. Silus crouched down and put his wife on his back. He lifted her limp form and put his child in one arm. The baby began to cry, grabbing onto his fathers arm. Silus shushed him and got to his feet. He began sprinting with a slight limp. The sun was almost over the dunes and the creature was closing in fast. He ran hard, tripping. The creature's arms began to drag it along somehow keeping up with its legs and making it faster. Silus got back to his feet and began to run again. He was screaming. "HELP!" He called out toward his home. Nothing happened. No one came out. He dashed toward the house. "HELP!" he screamed out again. The creature screeched back, the sound like a mixture of human screams, crackling fire and the roar of a lion. The baby screamed, smacking Silus across the face. The door of the home swung open and violently slammed into the side of the house. Nothing stepped out for a few seconds, Then a man stepped out, holding a machete covered in blood. His face had a splatter covering his eye. His T-shirt and gloves along with an apron and bald head made it clear he was not here to get messy. He charged out of the house screaming and swinging his Machete. He passed Silus without a glance and leaped toward the creature's eyes. He stabbed into one and it screeched again. He used the Machete to get on top of the creature's back. The torso turned around and rose, grinning so widely it began to bleed. The torso's eyes cried tears of blood, dripping everywhere. The man held his machete in one large hand like a weapon. He swung it at the torso, who he'd blocked his attack. One of the creatures' charred forearms was cut off, dripping with blood. The man stomped on it as he leaped toward the torso's head. It crunched loudly as the man whacked his machete into the skull of the torso. It split the side of its head open, lodging the machete into its face. He put his leg onto the middle of the torso, gripping tightly onto his machete as he kicked the torso off the head of the creature. The tongue of the creature snapped and began bleeding. The machete was dislodged and the man flew back slightly, but he caught himself. It screeched again but the human scream and crackling part of the strange call was gone. The creature resumed its charge but it began to run in circles, bucking to get the man off. The man leaped off the head of the creature, landing by its side. It looked up at the sky, searching for the man. The man came around the side, stabbing into the creature at the base of its neck and ripping the machete upwards, cutting straight through its throat then he jumped up stabbing into the bottom of the creature's head. He kicked into the creature's jaw with both legs. and sent it flying. The creature flipped over and landed on its back. The man landed on his feet standing on the skull. His weight mixed with kinetic energy made it so he crushed through the creature. He ripped the machete out again, wiping it on his apron. blood was splatters all over him now, dripping off his body. He walked over to Silus, who had collapsed on the ground and reached out a hand. Silus took it, shock clear on his face. His wife laid next to him and his child cried. Tears streamed down Silus's face and the man patted him on the back. "Are you ok?" He asked. "She's gone," Silus said, not blinking. His head drooped and his shoulders sagged as he sobbed. "I'm sorry." The man said. Silus weeped. After a few moments Silus got to his feet screaming. He stumbled into the house and dug through a drawer, pulling out a knife. He screamed, crying. He raised the knife and stabbed himself through the neck. He collapsed onto the ground, coughing up blood. It splattered on the floor and he began to shake. Then he stopped. The life left his eyes. He killed himself. Trauma from the battle mixed with the pain of losing his wife and daughter and the fear of losing his son had driven him to the one solution he could think of. His mind had been on the edge anyways after he had been tortured a month before during the war. He had already lost everything. Who would care if he lost his life as well.