The first thing I saw as soon as I woke up was darkness. Jagged and splintered shadows surrounded me, and the only thing I felt was crumbly stone. I was encased with the remains of the orphanage in which I had lived in for 2 years.
"Un, Deux, Trois, Quatre, Cinq. One, Two, Three, Four, Five. How could this happen? I had read every book this small village had, I worked so hard... what am I going to do now? At least I have my journals with me... right?"
After checking that I still carried my worn journals and pens with me in my hoodie's pocket, I laid there and waited. What I was waiting for, I didn't know. Maybe death, or maybe for someone to find me. I didn't mind dying, my Mother and cousin both had died prior to this Hurricane, and if I died, I would see them again...
Just as that thought occurred to me, I saw a growing patch of light appearing right in front of me. Three huge pairs of hands burst through the hole, and started feeling around. One hand brushed up against my leg, and grabbed onto it in a painful grip.
"HERE'S ANOTHER ONE! I FOUND ANOTHER!" a deep voice yelled, jerking me out of the pile of rubble through the hole.
The light blinded my eyes for a couple of seconds, and when they finally adjusted, I quietly observed the team of people that had pulled me out.
A group of five burly men stood before me. Their skin were varying shades of white, so that must of meant they had come from the mainland. They wore coats of deep purple, and had strange tattoos across their necks. I looked closer at the tattoo of the man looking away from me. The tattoo depicted a... crown?
My heart pounded faster as I studied it closer. It WAS a crown, but instead of metal, it was painted like chain links. Oh god...
A piece of advice my Mother had given me a long time ago rushed to my mind.
"Mijo, we don't live in a good place. There are many mauvais gens here. Bad people. You need to keep your guard up here. Many gangs here share tattoos, something they can use to identify one of their own..."
My mother's voice faded away after that, and I was left once again to my own devices. I looked through my choices quickly.
They could be here to help, to... oh well THAT was likely. I was no fool, and I knew that the only reason these people would be helping people like me, was to kill or sell on the black market. I could stay or run. Staying would lead to my death, but so might running.
Throwing all of my self control telling me to wait it out... maybe you won't die away, I shied away from the hand gripping my shoulder and bolted towards the wrecked jungle, ignoring the piercing fear, and the shouts of anger coming from the men.
As I heard heavy footsteps follow me faintly, another voice drifted into my mind, this time from one of the kinder elders of Nevis.
"Now, there is a reason no one but those looking for death go into the Jungle anymore. We call it 'La Selva de los Espiritus y la Magica.' The Jungle of Spirits and Magic. The only people who can go in without dying after, are people who have a connection with the magic in there. In the Jungle there is a lagoon as clear as glass, and it is surrounded by glittering flowers and intelligent animals... it is said that if you lock eyes with your destined animal, you will inherit incredible powers... The last person to survive going in the Jungle was a young woman, during the Revolutionary War. Nobody really knows what happened to her. There was also a rumor of a woman who had locked eyes with a lion. They say that she had run off with a Scotsman, and had a child who inherited her lion traits. I don't know if it's true, but believe what you want."
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Rise Up (LAMS)
Fiksi Penggemar[LAMS SUPERHERO AU.] Sometimes, when you reach rock bottom, the only way to go is up. This was how Alexander Hamilton's mind was set. After the Hurricane destroyed his town, and after he was given... an odd mutation, Alexander had nowhere to go, BUT...
