Innocence be gone

Chapter 1; awakening
I lift my head, pain rippling through my body. The grey skies are calm for the first time in years. Ashes settle all around me. The scenery seems like something out of a movie, like I'm standing in a black and white photo! I shake my head, not wanting to believe any of this is real. The war, the demons, the fires, the death it all seems so surreal, like part of some horrible nightmare. "Syrelin!" I yell standing up; my sister had been with me. "Syrelin! It's Alice, it's okay to come out now!" I yell into the greyness surrounding me. I don't know how long I've been asleep, was she asleep too? Where is she? "Syrelin!" I call out. The smoke inflames my lungs and I cough out blood onto the burnt soil, something that has become the norm. "Syrelin" I whimper as my vision darkens. I feel my jagged hair whip across my face as I fall to the ground.

I awake in the same place I collapsed, the world seems darker now, nearing night time! That's when the Terachi come out from their hiding! I have to get out of here! I may be a teenager but according to the rules of the Terachi I am still an innocent, still able to be their food source. "Syrelin!" I yell into the darkening ashes. Frantically I run, searching for something, anything, metallic preferably. I run past skeletons of trees and shadows of houses, all that hasn't been burned is metal and steel, and half of that has been stolen because that's the only thing that can stop the demons. Well, most of them anyway. I know I still need to find Syrelin but I can't do that if I'm dead! So I guess for the first time in my life I have to put myself first! I run till the air stings my lungs, more than usual, and still I find no place to hide! The light fades slowly, almost night now! The thick green clouds of fog encircle me in every direction, the first sign of Terachi approaching! I search for something, anything to shield myself from the impending doom. Their sickly figures emerge from the greenish fog, their ripped and scarred wings, no longer capable of flight are now more of a sickly decoration and their entire being is black as the night sky. Their eyes are the only bright things on them, a squeamish blue colour that could hypnotize you to commit suicide! They rise like zombie robots, rigid movements that would crack bones if they had any! They begin to swarm as they always do before they feed! "If this is the end," I start "And if there is a god," I continue, picking up a stick to keep them away. "I'm sorry! I repent! Please forgive me!" I say, a tear streams down my face as I swat the stick back and forth, turning around slowly. They come closer and closer still! "And a little bit of help here would be nice!" I shout out to anyone that's listening. "HELP!" I yell again, I know trying to fight is useless but I will not go down like my father, like a coward ready to surrender his entire family for his own life! Inevitably the stick breaks, I know this is the end of line, the end of my story, the last sentence I will probably ever say. So I decide to make it worth it. "Unlike a coward," I shout kicking a Terachi in the face "Unlike a traitor!" I yell out swinging around to face the others. "I have fought my enemies and my dictators!" I continue. "But by the mercy of life and the hatred of death." I say, losing my will to fight on as one gets close enough I can see his rotting teeth. "I will not surrender," I say almost completely breathless "To the sound of merciless thunder!" I yell out the last words as I fall to my knees, giving in to my doom. People say being stripped of your energy by a Terachi is painless but then again no one has survived to tell their story.