The Paladin

Genesis - Prologue

-Near Pittsburg, PA. Year 2012-

The alarm was buzzing in his ear, telling him to wake up from one hell of a dream. He dreamt that he was fighting a demon of sort, a robbed figure with two swords and shooting energy projectiles. The demon seemed very powerful and like it knew him to a tee. He could not tell who was going to win, because of his alarm, but he felt like it would not have mattered. "Just a dream." Matthew said as he rubbed his eyes.

The sun was barley risen over the horizon, but he was getting ready to leave for his job. Getting showered, eating a small breakfast and packing his bag, he was listening to the news in the background. It was reporting on the growing war that was in Europe. He sighed, turned it off and left. The air chilled his skin as winter had just ended and spring was coming around. The stairs of the apartment building creaked and woke a baby up, or maybe he was already awake, but the mother quickly hushed him. She opened the door. "Hello Matthew. How is it going?" Beth Howard asked.

"Good." He replied. "Sorry if I woke him up."

"No, he was getting hungry anyway." Her eyes looked very tired. "You have a good day then."

He waved goodbye and got on his bike. The roads were empty; thus, the trip was sort to the high-end restaurant he worked at. The High Cloud was a five-star dinning stop in a three-star area, but a lot of people loved it. At least that what the number of dishes told him. Locking his bike, he jogged in and put on his dishwashing cloths on.

Five hours into his shift the boss called him to the office. Has he entered, he saw there was another person waiting for him. This man was looking at a file, he assumed that it was on himself, and other employees. Has he sat down his boss said "Matthew Murphy, this is Regional Director Lawrence Tilles. He is here to review all of the long-term employees, and since you have been here for six years, you are first up." He nodded and left the two alone.

Lawrence kept looked at the file for another minute then sat down. "Strange name, two m's. Knew someone like that once. However, he was later killed in a drive by." He saw Matt's look of confusion. "Sorry, I tend to get off topic often. Now, you have been here since you were eighteen, right out of high school."

"Yes. I was told that I had to move out of my parent house, so I needed a job to pay for a place. This place had just opened, so I applied right away."

"Well, I see that you have been a Dishwasher all this time. Why not apply for another area, like cook or prep? I heard that you a great cook."

"I tried, but since I never went to a Chef School, the Mangers did not let me."

Lawrence nodded and wrote something down. "You also seemed to have worked doubles nearly every day. Is there a reason, or is it for your rent?"

"Yes, it is for the rent. Also, because I do not have much else to do. I figure if I keep busy there is something for me to do."

"Any family?"

"Not really, Dad left when I was a baby and Mom died two years ago. Both siblings are over the world." Matt recalled seeing only his sister at their mothers' funeral. His brother worked at the Vatican and was 'too busy' to come. His sister had her own business selling self-help crap. "I am on my own."

After his shift ended, it was near one in the morning. When he got home, he fell face first on his bed and fell asleep a minute later. That night he had the same dream, the demon, the fight and still no end to it. For some reason it had him scared.

It was finally the weekend, and he had a few days off. He spent it cleaning up his place, laundry and played his favorite game series call Dark Oath. It was a Role-Playing Game that had a long story, many characters and an ending that everyone loved. This game also had its' own convention that Matt was going to the next day. He thought of going as one of the main characters from the first game, Clyde Wrath. Clyde had dirty blonde hair, a claymore and was fit like most video game people. Matt however had short dark hair and overweight, so he decided stay dressed in plain clothes. He knew that it would be ok for him to go dress up, but he just didn't feel it.

The day of the Cosplay Convention started out great. It was in full swing and everyone was talking about the games and why they dressed up as who they did. Matt was not the only one who didn't dress up, but he still felt odd about it. He walked around, seeing every single character from all games and smiled. Then he saw his favorite female character, named Tiffany Luna, dressed by a girl he had his eye on for a long while. He wanted to go up to her, but he was too afraid, plus she already had a boyfriend who looked like he would kill Matt, so he just walked away to one of the stalls.

After two hours, he was just finishing his hot dog when a fight between two people broke out. He didn't know why they were fighting, but somehow it did not to seem to matter, they were just fighting. Matt looked around for the guards and they were nowhere to be found. People were yelling at the two. Some were cheering, others trying to get them to stop One of the people trying to get them to stop was the girl Matt liked. He had a weird feeling, a need to help the boyfriend.

For no real reason, Matt jumped in the fray, pulling the boyfriend out the way and faced the other person with the plan to just be between them in order for them to stop. At least until security got there.

The moment that Matt looked in the man's eyes that seem to turn into eyes of pure evil. His face suddenly seemed to move like flames. A smile appeared, ripping out of nothing, and the man turned to a beast. Matt didn't know if he was the only one who saw this transformation, or if everyone else did too. The beast grew in size to almost eight feet tall with thorn like spikes ripping out of his back. The clothing shredded, and his breathing turned to growling.

Everyone backed off or ran. Matt wanted to as well but the need to protect others took over. He stepped back up and got in a stance.

The beast swung, Matt ducked and punched it in the abs. The thing didn't flinch. He tried to swing his arm around but the beast smashed Matt's back. He nearly blacked out, but he still rolled out of the way and kicked in the legs. Again, there was no effect on the beast. Without warning, Matt felt himself being lifted off the ground. Then the world turned to a blur as he was spun around in circles until he crashed into several stalls. The remains fell on top of him.

He saw a back pack that looked heavy. 'Why the hell am I still fighting?' He thought as he grabbed it and swung at the charging beast. It met the head, and the beast fell to the ground.

At this point guards finally appeared with guns, yelled at Matt to drop the bag. They must have thought he was the problem. They then saw the beast as it was getting up and froze. Matt backed off, when suddenly the beast roared and with a blast of some kind, knocked everyone back away from it. Matt hit a stone pillar and his head hard enough to feel it crack open. His world spun to a blur and slowly blacked out. The last thing he remembered was seeing a man in the roof that looked like him, jumping down, and then a bright light.