The Prophecy Writer

Chapter 1:

My fingers glided over the endless collection of books in front of me. I scanned the numerous shelves in the library aimlessly and chose whatever first caught my attention. Absent-mindedly, I tucked the book underneath my arm, scurried down the staircase, and took a seat by the empty fireplace. Carefully opening the ancient cover, I began reading. Every now and then, my eyes glanced at the grandfather clock towering above me beside the fireplace. It struck noon, signaling the time with its melodious chimes. Again, I returned to reading and again, I could hear the clock whispering to me to check the time – nothing had changed.

Reading normally helped to pacify me whenever I felt insecure. The words always managed to fly off the pages and dance in front of me, immersing me in a world of fantasy and wonder. Lately, though, it wasn't working. I felt apprehensive, even sensitive about everything around me. I didn't understand why. All I knew was that something was coming – something bad. I couldn't explain what or how I knew; I just felt it deep inside of me. The worst part was – and I was absolutely certain about this – it had something to do with my parents and my past.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to think about it. It was years ago, and I've come a long way since then. But what did it matter? I barely remembered anything, and whatever I did remember came to me in flashes and chunks. However, one aspect that I never failed to forget was my writing, and I was glad I kept that in mind. I loved to write, but it had been quite a while since I picked up a pen and put it to paper, letting my imagination run freely. Now it was all caged up. The last time I'd written was not too long before I turned twenty-one.

As for my parents, I never knew them very well. They just – disappeared. Theirs had always been a vague memory in my mind. Since my birth, I was always attended to by my nursemaids, my servants, my ladies-in-waiting, my castle guards, and of course, my two favorite aunts, Meredith and Cassandra. No, we weren't blood relatives – they had once been my parents' two best friends – but with them, I never felt as if I were missing anyone or anything. Neither did my aunts ever mention my parents nor did I ask them. They were something that just was not talked about within the castle walls, or anywhere for that that matter. Not even their names were spoken.

Once again, my eyes flickered toward the clock. Time was always changing, but no one – myself included – had changed for a long time. The entire kingdom – what I had always called Paradise Valley, though the 'Valley' part was a misnomer – had been the same for many, many years. It had been so long that I lost track. Who knew how long I'd been twenty-one for? Ever since I turned that age and my parents' departure, I never got any older. What's worse is that my whole kingdom was under the same spell. For the last number of years, we'd all struggled to ignore all that and happily move on with our lives. I had done the same for a very long time, but as of recent, I'd been feeling troubled. In my whole life, I had never felt so distressed. I was isolated and so was my Paradise Valley. We had once been in peace with the great and powerful Northern Kingdom and it's surrounding smaller kingdoms – the Western, Southern, and Eastern Kingdoms – but after immortality struck my land, all relations were either lost or severed through war and differences. The people of the Northern Kingdom lived on the earth; my people and I lived far away from them high above in the clouds. Such things I had always known, but I couldn't understand why I was thinking of all this now. These very thoughts made my skin tingle and burn – literally.