The Downworld

Prologue

The universe is a vast world, where countless possibilities meet, and produce random events again and again. It gives birth to life, and death, eternity and infinity. Through space and time, cosmic concepts have evolved to create what we know today. Somewhere in this endless plane of creation, there is Earth. Home to Humanity. Intelligent beings capable of so many things, yet ignoring so much... In this revolutionary time, the twenty-first century, technology is the primal element of life, it's a life saver, a way to change things, for the better or worse. So much, that it pushed away all other means of evolution. Magic, primarily. Nowadays considered as fantasy, magic has been reduced to illusion shows, amusement. Real magic hasn't disappeared, far from that, although it surely has been forgotten by the majority of Humanity... But what happens when humans face the impossible? When they see what can't be real, can't be explained? Usually, they deny it, they reject it and fear it. In most cases, rejection leads to more delusion, and so, to violence. But sometimes, men can't face their fear, sometimes they are overwhelmed, powerless. That was the case of a young man, who learned the hardest way about magic, about everything that was ever hidden from men's twisted beliefs...

Shane Dumort was born in a quiet city in France, called Angers, from Vanessa Abelle, a French professor, and Isaac Dumort, a South African journalist, who happened to travel in France, when he met Vanessa, and fell in love with her. After deciding to live together in France, the two eventually had a baby. They named the boy Shane, and raised him to be a happy, positive person who would fight discrimination and hate in today's society. Over the years, Shane became a great student, and went to college to study psychology and History, at the age of nineteen. Everything was fine, Shane's life couldn't be any better, until one day... That day. The one that changed it all.
As he was in class with a small group of other students, studying in a small amphitheater, the sunny sky suddenly turned dark, the windows were shaking, as if an earthquake was about to happen. The light brown chairs were quivering, trembling, to the surprise of everyone in the class. Although earthquakes were extremely rare in that area, the teacher had tried to comfort her students... In vain. This was much worse than a simple natural disaster. Although it was a disaster, it surely wasn't natural at all, and Shane realized that soon enough. When the class stopped because of these loud noises and strong vibrations, he directly went to look outside, hoping he could see anything strange. Any sign, any explanation of what was happening. But while he was there, all alone, watching the darkened campus, a deafening sound of unknown origin suddenly reached his ears, like ultrasounds amplified to the point where Shane couldn't even hear his own scream. He closed his eyes, put his hands on his head, and staggered for a few seconds, almost falling on the window, which was still in front of him, trembling loudly. When finally the pain went away, Shane breathed heavily, he was sweating and shaking, not knowing what happened yet again. This confusion was weighing on his shoulders, it didn't feel good at all. But the worse was still to come, as the young man turned around, and saw the whole class, teacher and students, laying on the floor, their bodies covered of blood. Their faces were frozen with nightmare-like expressions, as if they stared Death straight in the eyes. No one else had survived. From what? This was again something Shane ignored, but at this point, he couldn't even think. This horrible vision struck Shane with such a traumatic pain, he stepped back and fell against the window, paralyzed by fear...
It took him a few moments to snap, wake up from this terror, while the sky was starting to get torn apart by a newly born thunderstorm. The sounds of thunder, hitting again and again, made Shane's heartbeat accelerate, increasing his fear even more. Absolutely everything in the environment was pounding, trembling, shouting at him, it preyed on him, almost. Shane decided to simply run. Run away from this nightmare. And so, he jumped over a few bodies, still destabilized by this horrific event that just occurred. He kept asking himself what happened, how could that happen, what was happening? But the fear was so high, he didn't really realize how serious and strange this was. He was just terrorized. Running down the hallway, hearing the door closing behind him, Shane got out, and rushed to the nearest bus station. Or at least that's what he wanted to do. When he was finally got to the open area outside, racing on the fresh grass, he looked up in the sky. The clouds had turned black, and flashes of purple thunder were appearing and disappearing on the cloudy screen. This abnormal event caught his attention, mesmerized him long enough for him to ignore what was really going on, right behind him. Strangely, no one was running. No one was screaming. Nothing but silence, disturbed by the thunder's constant growling. While Shane was distracted, a portal opened itself behind him, out of nowhere. Appearing as a circular portal made of black smoke, this unnatural situation eventually caught the eye of the lonely, terrified student.
Before even fully turning around, Shane blacked out. He noticed in the corner of his eye, a second before, that something was happening, but did not see it exactly. Instead, he simply... Disappeared. He vanished, and let no trace of what happened. Shane Dumort was gone.
A minute later, the sunlight pierced the screen of dark clouds, while the thunderstorm faded away. The violent wind let a warm breeze take its place, and so, life went on. Classes kept going, as if nothing happened. Until, of course, the discovery of the bloodbath which occurred in one of the university's amphitheaters...