Dark Ages- Book 1

Chapter 1 - Saija

My burning hot blade smoothly cut the heads of the  monsters in front of me. My black aura swarming around me like a storm gulfing up a city. Their blood showered me, tainting my clothes. The stench of burning flesh and blood stank the air. Their heads rolled toward my feet, while their bodies collapsed. I wiped the blood from my blade with the cloth of one of the demon's shirts. I sheath my sword just as their bodies turned to ash and disintegrated. I felt no emotion to who dies and who lives. To me everyone meets their end eventually, and humans always make a fuss of it. Slowly, I turned toward the path I was walking in. Ignoring the destruction the demons had caused. There was silence, only the sound of my shoes hitting the now eroded pavement to keep me company, then the sound of the crickets as they began chirping again, the moonlight guiding me slowly to my destination. To her. To destroy this god forsaken world. I closed my eyes, attempting desperately to calm myself down, it finally worked. I opened my eyes again and kept walking. Suddenly, I heard a series of twigs snapping behind me, and I halted instantly. Goosebumps rose on my arms as the cold breeze hit me suddenly. 

“Hello! Mind if I join your fight?”  a familiar teasing voice spoke up behind me. I turned around to face the voice hoping to be wrong, to be hearing things, but I was wrong, I saw him and immediately anger flared through me, all calmness within me was gone.  My hands shook from anger and palpable rage. His green eyes, and that blond hair with a smug grin. He was the one, he took her.  

“ Did you miss me, old friend?” He called out to me.

“Very much,” I laughed with anger and strange excitement. I pulled my sword out, letting the moonlight beam shine on it.  I swear I’m going to kill him….. 

I woke up breaking a sweat. I grabbed my night shirt which was glued to my skin, I was willing my heartbeat to calm down as I took deep breaths staring into my dark room. The anger from that dream is still lingering in my veins. What was that dream? Why did I feel so angry? I took a deep breath. I looked at the clock that was on my nightstand to see the red light beam say six in the morning. I should probably get up for school. I rubbed my face slowly and got up and went to the bathroom. The light blinded me and made me close my eyes quickly. I slowly opened them to look at the mirror for a second. My long brown hair was in a mess, my reddish- brown eyes were still looking frightened, and my golden tan skin was paler than ever. 

After I had finished, I grabbed my phone and pulled up the news. The latest and biggest was about people suddenly missing: their age, gender, status didn’t match with each other. There were no leads. I sighed and put the phone away in my pocket. I grabbed my black bag and headed downstairs. 

“Gooooooooodd Morning, Saija!!!” called a familiar voice. My adopted sister came to me squeezing me tightly and gave me a peek on the cheek. 

“Good morning, Zemira,” I said softly. She had her hair in braids with clear and wooden beads. Her warm brown skin shining bright just as her smile. She was one inch taller than me. She grabbed my hand and brought me to the dining room. She handed me a plate of puffy, steaming hot pancakes. 

“Try this,” she urged. I took a small bite of the pancakes, smiling when the sweetness made my taste-buds dance. I smiled at her. 

“It’s sooo good!” Zemira jumped up and down in happiness. She stopped jumping and looked at the black- circular clock hanging on the wall above the dining table.

“Hurry up, or we’ll be late,” she told me in a mom's way, I rolled my eyes.  I shoved the sweet pancake in my mouth and grabbed the car keys. 

“I’m driving,” I told her. Zemira rolled her eyes playfully before she and I got into my black jeep and started heading towards the school. To get to school, we had to pass a forest. The lash green trees swallowed us up. Each time we went through this area, I always liked to see the carnage of an incident. No one knows when it happened, but the pavement there was cracked so much that it was unrepairable and undrivable. Nature had decided to grow around it. There were slash marks on the old trees, but they looked as if they were still new. Now and then a tree would fall down as if the slash mark had slowly eaten up the tree's life from the inside. So, it got dangerous to drive. The other road made us late, so we decided to go through here. 

“Did you finish your assignment?” Zemira asked me, scrolling on her phone. I groaned out loud.

“It was hard, but I finished it in the middle of the night." 

“It was so easy! I finished it in an hour.” 

“You're an overachiever,” I told her she just laughed at me. I laughed back. Zemira turned her head towards the front, her eyes widened in alarm. “Saija!” Zemira yelled. I slammed the brakes as I felt something heavy hit my car. My hands shook. Did I just hit someone? What do we do? There was no body to be seen. 

“I’ll go check,” Zemira said. Just as she was about to get out we heard scratches.  We both froze and looked at each other. 

“What’s that?” my voice cracked. A bloody hand slammed into my seat window making me jump and I screamed.

“Saija, calm down,” Zemira said as if she were out of breath. The bloody hand punched the window hard and the glass broke. Bits and pieces cut me everywhere. A man with colorless eyes, half cut open mouth, blood dripping from his teeth and long fingernail stared back at me and I screamed louder. My sister pulls me closer to her in an attempt to protect me from the hideous monster. The monster seemed to be fed up at it’s inability to grab me and my sister so it flipped the car over the railing.