SEVEN: Cursed Souls

Prologue

GUNSHOTS WERE ECHOING through the air as its owner hunts a person at the dark forest. The person followed the wind's whispers in every step and turn through the dimly lit place. They can only rely to the wind because the moon had hidden her precious face behind the dark clouds.

A deafening sound rattled the sky which is no longer from the gunshots that were continuously heard earlier.

They could no longer hear the footsteps that were following them but rather a lurking thunderstorm. 

They continued to rummage through the dark to find themselves a shelter. The shades of the trees may be able to help them survive the imminent thunderstorm but not from man's murderous hands.

The raindrops' sound was heard louder, which meant that it was coming close. They can only surrender to their fate at the cold that the thunderstorm will bring so they hide themselves below a tree.

The cold blows of the wind passed to warn them of the rain which shall fall above them in seconds. They hugged both of their legs while sneaking themselves between the large roots of the tree. Immediately after this was the fall of the heavy drops of rain.

A blinding light struck the land in front of them then in the sound of a rattling sky was heard within seconds.

Their eyes were in shock when a palace within the woods revealed itself. They were greatly shocked because they would only expect to find a cabin, wooden hut, or a make-shift shelter in that forest, not a palace. The land that she lives in was never home to the Kings but to tribes and hunters. What is more baffling is that the palace was not originally there, and neither was the empty field in front of it.

They knew that the palace was not there and had only revealed itself when the land it was standing on was struck by lightning.

"I shall not deny the sky's blessing" was their only thought when the shelter itself appeared in front of them. They ran towards the palace, never expecting to be greeted by the empty hall and a rather colder wind.

The hall is both long and wide. Hundreds, if not thousands of people could fit inside. Its ceiling is tall with tens of chandeliers that lit up the place. They wandered their eyes around the cold and almost empty hall then found a stall with a book amidst it, nothing more than that. 

Whispers were suddenly heard from the book when their feet moved towards it. It was as if they were pulled by invisible ropes towards the stall, that their feet stepped forward even when they tried to stop.

They only stopped when they finally reached the stall. They were still trying to recover from striding towards the stall when the pages of the book turned themselves on their own.

"Cursed Souls! Damned to the depths of earth! Sinners that turn the lands to filth!" a loud voice, deep as a well and hard as a rock, the words echoing in the hall.

"But you shall bring forth their salvation, and denial shall cause their eternal demise!" It echoes again. "eternal demise!" "demise!"

Arrays of warm light bore down from the top of the palace then onto the person inside. They closed their eyes and breathed in fear of the unknown because they still hear the droplets of rain and the ravaging sounds of thunder. But then they felt the light's comforting heat followed by the change of the sounds around them—it was no longer the rage of the thunderstorm's cry but rather the solace of a river's gentle waves.

They opened their eyes in shock to see the clear sky while the waves drifted them across the water. The sound of water that was dropping down the rocks was heard at a distance, but it brought them no fear unlike the thunderstorm, but a relief in their heart.

Decades later. Midnight of April 13, 2018, Friday in the middle of Takipsilim's (Twilight's) forest.

A man desperately unties the ropes that were tightly tied around his hand. His struggle only worsened their pain when the ropes squeezed his flesh and almost crushing his bones.

The blindfold tightly placed kept him clueless of who the people were around him. He can not yell for help neither because of the cloth was tightly gagged into his mouth. But another sense gave him a clue when he smelled their rotten and bloody odor as they move. 

He also heard their footsteps and breathing while they went in circles, sometimes stopping in front of him.

Although he finally got clues from his sense of smell and hearing, he still remained anxious about his fate on the hands of his captors. Suddenly, all their footsteps stopped for some seconds. They then moved aside when someone with heavy footsteps approached. The stranger that entered spoke in a deep, roaring voice.

"Evil devours humans. Humans are fed with evil. They willingly do it. Sin! Haha! You sinners are parasites. Your host is exhausted. Yes! Earth doesn't need you. But YOU, Ryder... You have been chosen to abolish parasites in this world. Are you in for it? If not, then death be upon you."

It was only a few days earlier when Ryder witnessed a gruesome scene that changed his life entirely. And now, this was the dreadful question that Ryder Cruz must answer.