Zero Sin

Prologue｜A Kaleidoscopic Smile

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High above the city, a lonely meteor roars through the sky until it makes landfall hitting the planet in a glorious explosion just outside the city. Mike clutched the cold steel firearm, the gun worn like a relic in his hands. The feeling of sadness overwhelmed him for a moment. He massaged his wrinkled temple and rubbed his hand over his unshaven face. His hair had turned grey over the years and yellow stains lining the ends of his collar no longer seemed to bother him. He pulled himself from the all-too-familiar beige sofa in his desolate second-floor apartment building and walked over to the window. The bulb above him swayed as a train erupted from a tunnel, and palsied over the river's bridge into the city square. He didn't like living near the train station, but it was in one of the most affordable districts of a three-tiered city. Being on the edge of the middle commercial part of the city gave Mike a scenery that reflected on his dull surroundings. He had always hated grey Heltora with its industrial outer part, low-class middle part, and a government right at its centre surrounded by the elite class. Its tan, tight trees and the endless view of quartz buildings were a combination of contemporary and Modern architecture.

A brown and grey fog settled over the city, leaving generations of dust over the roofs of worn-down houses, just like the apartment Mike isolated himself in. The woman walked around with stone faces, and men paced the cracked and dewy sidewalks, lowering their eyes and cupping a hand over their lighted cigarettes. More smoke drifted above from Heltora's industrial steamers, having now polluted green mountains, spring gardens and the sea that Mike, as a child, had last seen blue.

Mike lifted his eyes to the towering skyscrapers that spread from the centre and took over the poor's residential areas. Its ranked windows reflected a dun cloud, encouraging Mike's tendency to feel sad. Only this time he didn't feel sad, he felt scared, terrified even.

Mike pulled a photograph out of his vest pocket, his thumb covering the chin of a nine-year-old girl with long black hair. The gun in his other hand pointed to his head.

"I'm sorry Sera ... I didn't think it would end like this".

The rain hummed like gyrating hummingbirds as each individual raindrop hit the glass. From the forested gap where the industrial district met with the low-class houses, Mike saw someone in the distance, or rather something, and paused for a moment.

"Fuck it," Mike said under his breath.

He stepped outside into the deserted corridor and went down two crooked flights of stairs. He took the back exit of the run-down building and ran through the rain, mud and trees leading up to a hill. Mike got a better vision of the humanoid figure that came ever closer to him. Amidst the trees, the figure sprinted down the hill. Mike braced himself as the morning light rose behind the creature. Rays pierced through the thick grey clouds, revealing a kaleidoscopic smile on the face of the creature as it towered over Mike. Metallic arms lunged forward at his chest. Mike pulled up the weathered gun, brought it down on the unknown creature's skull, and fired three shots. The sound echoed off the trees as some collapsed behind the creature. The creature's dark legs trembled, its sticky ankles wobbled, and its face turned completely black.

"I failed you Sera ... I love you ..." Mike let out a dying breath.

He was hurt. His body impaled and raw with pain let out an agonising groan as he collapsed onto the ground. Moments later both he and the creature were dead. The hum of the rain continued like a softly written melody in the wind. At the strike of thunder, the body of the creature started to twitch in the darkness, pulsating with slight bursts of movement. Mike's dead body started to mutate and merge with the creature. The kaleidoscopic smile once again appeared on its face.

♦

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