Helion Rising

Prologue

Prolgue:

A darkness had been born, mother had said. One that could rupture the world -all the worlds. But as quickly as it had entered this world, it had disappeared... Unease spread through the land regardless and when the ‘Old Ones’ began to stir, my mother deemed it too dangerous to stay there anymore. Until my brother and I were of age, we were not to return. I never did learn who the ‘Old Ones’ were. 

One night, I’d arrived at my father’s doorstep. Arrived from nowhere. I was four at the time, my memories had faded with the years but I’d never forget being handed to the woman in the large, brimmed hat and taken through the purple door.

**

My cell was dead silent. There were no bars or windows, just stark white walls. There was a click and a whoosh. Footsteps followed then the fabric bag that had been placed over my head had been removed. My eyes remained closed.

“Get up.” 

Silence. 

There was a heavy sigh.  

“You ran, what were we-” I tuned out. 

When I was eleven,  my father had given me a rabbit in hopes that I’d finally have a friend, one who wouldn’t ridicule me then end up bloody nose. I had anger management issues, we never really understood why, but there was always Blood. Everything ended up bloodied with me. This time it was different, I was gentle. All I’d done was pet it, run my hand through its fur. I didn’t mean to hurt it, to kill it. Distraught, I smothered my sobs with my bloody palms and tried to piece it back together, hoping by some magical miracle my bunny would return to its unharmed form. It didn’t. I  grabbed my small backpack and climbed out my room window. It was a whole story above the ground but I landed with ease, I was good at that sort of thing, I always had been. Terrified of what my father would think, of the monster I was and wracked with guilt, I ran.

We were walking now, my body remained incased in the straight jacket, a chain around my neck as I was lead through white corridors, and toward an office. “Do you think a straight jacket will keep me from escaping?” I asked, my voice low and soft. Nathaniel faced me as I was pushed into a seat on the opposite end of his desk. His dark hair and calculating stare challenged my own.  “I could kill you right now, if I wanted to.”

Nathaniel’s lips twitched into a ghost of a smile but he remained silent. “You could, but you won’t,” he paused, “can’t,” he corrected himself. I growled in anger then spat at him. Nathaniel tsked. “That was unnecessary.”

“You chained and bagged me like a dog! That was unnecessary, considering you just admitted I can’t kill you.”

“You can’t. She can.”

“We are the same-”

“Until you can control her you are not. In order to be the same you must learn self control. Learn to command your anger and calm your fear, not the other way around.” I seethed in my chair, vulnerability gnawing at my insides.

“How can I?” I rasped, defeated. “I don’t even know what I am! We fear the unknown, it is human nature-”

“So you admit you are human?” another voice spoke from the shadows of the office.

“I can never be human.”