Children of the Serpent

The Beginning: A Prologue

So, this was originally titled "Once Glance to Death" and was only supposed to be a short story. But, the opportunity arrived, and I slowly started to turn it into a full length novel..Hopefully. Imagine this as..say, a few weeks before the rest of the book. 

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I twisted my hair into a ponytail, tucking it under my cap and lowering the brim. Then I took a final look around the room full of strangers wondering which of them would help me to escape, and which would try to kill me. Those who watched me too carefully would be the ones to pay close attention to. I summoned my courage and approached one of the guards at the door. 

"Why are we here? Let us out of here!" I shouted at the guard, I sensed my eyes flashing red. The guard slapped me across the face and my small body went flying, slamming into a group of people. I looked up at the people around me, careful not to look too closely into their eyes, or allow them to look into mine. I hoped they would be able to help me. I reached toward my boot, and pulled a small dagger from within it, traced my finger along the M engraved in the silver handle of the dagger and then pressed it into my hand. I jumped up, bracing myself for the fight that was sure to come. I ran toward the guard and kicked him squarely in the chest. He flinched, but barely moved. His arm shot out and grabbed my ankle, flipping me to the ground. My hat fell away revealing my beautiful long red hair, it sprawled across the floor, wriggling and flipping about. The strands moved together, creating thousands of long, angry, hissing snakes. The entire room was in hysterics, I felt like thousands of eyes were boring into me. I winced and felt the tears spring to my eyes. No going back now; everything was in slow motion, people scrambled to escape from me, fighting the guards to try and get out. 

My fingers ran over the snakes, and I felt them wriggle beneath my hand their tiny bones undulated between my fingers. I felt them squirming on my head. I waited, somewhat stupidly, for the hysteria to die down; then I would make my escape. Soon I was able to make my way toward the guards, they saw me coming and one came toward me. He ran quickly, but sadly, all I had to do was glance up and he was frozen in stone. I glanced around, and a few innocents froze. The tears began to flow, I hated this. Hated being a monster; hated having to do this to people. I had to though; if I stayed here I would be used as a weapon, or ripped apart in labs so that scientists could figure out what I was. I ran out the door and let the tears flow while I ran. Slowly, the anger faded and the snakes turned back into my red hair. I looked like a normal girl again. Too bad I never would be.  

Eventually, I was able to leave the building; unfortunately many more bodies were left behind me. I was so scared; I knew what would happen if I was captured. I had no idea how I ended up in here anyway. I collapsed on the ground, I couldn't run anymore. I was so sick of it. Even when they found me, they wouldn’t know what to do with me. They had no idea what I was. But if I died in my Gorgon form, they could still use me as a weapon. I would need to be careful; a dead Gorgon is even more useful than a living one. All I could hope for now was to die quickly. I felt footsteps come near me, and something push against me. I sobbed. They pulled against my arm, dragging me up. 

"H....Hello?" I stuttered. 

"Hello Miss. Who are you?" The man spoke with no fear in his voice, he didn’t seem worried at all. 

"Lux....Why aren't you scared of me? Did you not see what I did in there? Aren't you afraid I'll hurt you?" 

"The name’s Mostler. No, I'm not afraid. You can't hurt me." I looked into the man’s blank eyes, there was no fear there. In fact, there was nothing there; nothing at all. 

"You...You can't see can you?" I started to rejoice on the inside, if he couldn’t see my eyes, my powers wouldn’t work on him. There was no way for me to hurt him!