Halfway to Heaven

Chapter 2 - The Quiet Village

                    It was dark. It was cold. It was weird. And it wasn't exactly what Kathrine thought of when she heard 'adventure'. But here she was, trudging through the mud with her closest friends. Kiya, Laerah, Deane, and Winniya. All of them, so different. All different families, different lives, beliefs, styles, essences...

                    But the one thing that connected them. The one thing that brought them together, and the one thing that at the same time tears them apart. That thing was Kathrine. But even after the Domination Act from two years ago, stating that acquaintances in a group with a larger number than 3 must only be composed of Invium from the same class and essence, they all stood together. But it wasn't just that. Before any of them had gone through Judgement, and ended up in the Invium land, there was a previous act in place, that was still as of that day in full effect, titles the Interrogation Act. It stated that any and all Invium with an essence darker than 70% were to be ridiculed to the farthest reaches of the Invium land. Kathrine's essence was 85% darker than an average Invium citizen. But of course, like all history, there's always a war. In this case, there was a civil war between the Invium of Light's Future, and the Invium of Shadow's Past. The Shadow's Past were not necessarily evil or corrupt. They were the poor souls who had gone through terrible things in life, and most likely committed suicide in their previous life. But Light's Future didn't care. They-

"Kathrine? Earth to Kathrine? Hellooooo?"

Kathrine snapped out of her thoughts. "Sorry, I guess my mind just-" 

                    "Hey, now, no worries, Kath, it's fine, we all do that sometimes.", Deane replied, not giving her a chance to finish the sentence. Kiya nodded and smiled. Laerah wasn't even paying attention. She must be in her own thoughts too, Kathrine thought. Winniya was silent. As always. No one knew why, but she never spoke. They played it off as if she was mute.

                   The mud was so thick, it was hard to move at that point. Deane spoke up through the haunting silence. "We're almost there guys, don't worry!" It wasn't that he didn't understand, but that he most likely just didn't want to admit it himself. The dread on their shoulders wasn't from the murky swamp they were walking through now. It was from what lay up ahead. Being almost there was the worst thing that could happen.