Legion

Preface - Exordium

The wet rags that I call clothes stick to my skin as I run through the winter rain, and my frozen, bare feet run through the blanket of artificial snow on the ground, running as fast as they can to make it to the cathedral on time. My chocolate brown eyes look at the lavish and beautiful section of the city. Everything embossed in gold forced me to be aware of the tattered red dress that I am wearing to the church. 

Finally resting to a stop in front of the gold cathedral, I ran my hand through my greasy, matted black hair. I took a deep breath and walked into the church, putting on a solemn facial expression identical to the other peasants like me who were dirty, unkempt, worn from work, and poor. 

I took my place in the front pew, waiting for the anthem to start so we could be reminded that the ministers saved us from eternal damnation in the pits of hell, and promising us eternal glory in heaven. Bowing my head, I looked at my dirty hands with dirt under my fingernails from working in the fields all the time. 

"F.E.A.R. has delivered you from the sinful country that was once called--" the head minister began to speak, but was cut off by an axe to his head.

"F.E.A.R. is nothing but a lie! You are poisoning their minds! Making it seem that you are the only way! The kingdom of God is inside you and all around you! Not in a mansion of wood and stone! Split a piece of wood and God is there! Lift a stone and you will find God!" A man dressed in black clothes and body paint bellowed from the pulpit, his axe dripping in the crimson blood of the now dead minister. 

I looked at him in horror, looking at the dead body of the minister on the ground at his feet, blood in a pool around the minister's head. The man stepped down and started walking toward me, causing me to look down at my hands again, avoiding this evil man's gaze. 

"Join us," He whispered in my ear, sending shivers down my spine. He pushed me off of my chair, making me land on the carpet and hearing the crack of a broken ankle. 

A sound of a necklace being ripped off, the magical explosion that sent his blood and bits of brain matter into my face, and the thump of a dead body that landed on me. 

Join us.

My screams of terror echoed through the whole room as I frantically tried to wipe off the gore from my face, feeling dirty and unclean because the man's sinful blood was on my hands. I pushed him off franticaly and tried to crawl towards the other peasants that were there. They back away from me screaming, and making their way out of the cathedral. Minister's came toward me, dousing me with holy water from white bottles and whispering blessings as they cleansed me.

Join us.

The voice in my head is getting louder, the man getting killed and his blood and brain matter spraying everywhere won't stop going through my mind, making bile rise up in my throat. The world around me was a blur, I can only see the man getting killed. 

The sounds all around me rang in my head making my head throb and ache. I fell to my knees clutching my head and clawing at my ears, wailing loudly.

"MAKE IT STOP!" I sobbed, then turning to violently vomit all over the floor. 

Join us.

"NO, STOP!" I screamed.

Join us.

"HELP ME!" I begged, looking at the greyish blurs that were the ministers.

"PLEASE!" I moaned, now in mortal agony.

"PL-" I started to shriek, but then I felt a cold chill pass through my body, then dry heat.

I opened my red, puffy eyes to see a barren desert, with the ground, cracked up from the lack of rain. I put my head back down, Let me just die here. I curled myself into a ball and lay in the scalding heat of the sun on the skin that wasn't covered my bloodstained dress. 

I slept in the heat of the sun for awhile when I heard footsteps approaching me. I hoped that it was an angel ready to take my soul away, but unfortunately, it was five men dressed in leather and a bit of face paint similar to the man that died to give his speech.

They all surrounded me with their shadows covering me and cooling my warm, now tanned, skin down a bit. They looked at me with expressionless faces, covering up their true emotions. 

"Should we take her? She might be a spy," One of the men spoke finally.

"A spy who looks to have been crying, who probably has major injuries, and was forcefully teleported outside of the border? We need to take her. Now," Another one, who seemed to had striking blue eyes, retorted. 

The man with blue eyes picked me up and started walking, the other men followed after him after discussing quietly amongst themselves. I struggled to stay awake but the bounce in his step rocked me gently to sleep, which I fell into immediately.