The Masked One

Prologue

All I see is red. Everything around me is in flames. My magical powers form a barrier around me, protecting me from the heat. But I'm immobile. I can't help but be frozen at the sight in front of me. The ambers floating ever so gently through the sky, extinguishing by the time they hit the snow covered in blood.

My body feels numb. Everyone around me is dead. A sea of red covers the ground as I look at the scattered bodies of everyone whom I knew.

The bodies of my loved ones are spread out, littered around me. Mom and dad holding hands. My youngest sibling, her eyes open staring at the sky, her expression frozen forever. I will my body to move, to make noise, but I can't.

I want to look for him, make sure he is alright. Wanting not to lose hope that maybe, at least, he is still alive.

My body was already crumbled on the ground at the sight in front of me.

I want to cry. I

want to yell.

I want to voice out my anguish, the loss of my loved ones.

But nothing.

Nothing comes out as I open my mouth, gaping like a fish lost for words.

My eyes leaving a trail of tears of my cheeks, not blurring one bit the sight in front of me.

Why? I ask myself. Why did they have to die?

But I already knew. Everything was because of me.

The mistake I made was deadly. It cost the lives of those around me.

And for that I paid dearly.