Eternity

CHAPTER 2: THE WORLD WE RECEIVED

I feel myself fall. The splitting drop in my stomach forces me to kick and flail. I squeeze my eyes shut, and continue to fall for what feels like hours. Finally, I meet the membrane that separates the two realms. I am flipped upside down and sent flying onto the ground below me. I land hard on my hands and knees causing a sudden, burning pain to race through my joints. I yelp at the sensation and roll onto my back, trying my hardest to dismiss the pain. I open my eyes to focus on something else. There is no "else". Panic weaves through my pain. Instead of the familiar blue abyss of the sky, there is nothing. Nothing but what appears to be a black hole, with blood red streaks. I brace my hands on the ground, then abruptly pick them back up again. Ashes.  Thick, black ash covers the floor beneath me, and swirls in the air, causing me and the others to cough and choke. The others. Hundreds of people lay on the ground with me, all hacking up a lung. My fellow "gifted". I see people I've never seen before. Different ages. Different races. Different countries. Then I remember what the principal had said, "...every school was assigned to do this..."  Camden, Maine isn't the only victim of this filtration. It was worldwide...

They don't give us anytime to recover from the landing. Hundreds of smaller, black serpentine creatures appear from the darkness. They grab two "gifted" in each snake-covered hand and all begin walking in a certain direction. Low, demonic hissing sounds behind me. I turn around too late. Black snakes wrap their cold, scaled bodies around my arms and I am ripped to my feet. The serpent creature takes long and fast steps in the direction of all the others. It begins hissing lowly. The sound continues for a while until it finally stops with a grunt. I sneak a glance at the monster. The snakes stop at its shoulders, from then on, it has nothing but black scales. I then look at its eyes. They are a dark, ocean blue, and are filled with...sadness. How can a monster like this have feelings?  I ask myself that, along with many other questions when a sudden thought pops into my mind. My father wouldn't associate with unfeeling creatures. 

After an hour of walking, a huge, prison-like building comes into view. Its tall cement walls loom over us. We are all pushed and pulled up to two enormous metal doors. They slowly squeak open. Inside, it resembles a labyrinth, torches with bright blue flame are mounted on every wall. With additional pushing and pulling, we are clumsily ushered through the maze until we enter a huge cement room, and then we wait. Around me, the "gifted"....no... I don't like "gifted". What we have is not a gift, rather a curse. How about the cursed, the abnormalities, anything but normal. The preternatural. The preternaturals around me all fidget with nerves and unsuccessfully try to communicate with their differing languages. I cross my arms over my chest, attempting to keep whatever heat I have left. The air surrounding me is damp and cold, like that of my old basement after a failed plumbing job. The weirdest part is the smell. It smells of smoke, but also of the earth post-rainstorm, like a still-lit cigarette diminished by mother nature's tears. Anger still courses through my veins, causing my arms to tremble. All I can see is my father being dwindled into shadow by that parasite of a preternatural. In that monster, I can't help but see him. I see Lawrence withering my father away, the last of my family. The last of my happiness. The last of my hope. The lurkers and my father's kind have been mortal enemies since almost the beginning of time, a war to terminate the other continuing on for centuries. Unfortunately, the lurkers won the feud by eliminating my father, the very last of his kind. Being a lurker, Lawrence has no choice but to follow his species. Like every other preternatural, he and his kind descends from a single ancestor, and if they betray their lineage, the consequences are unspeakable. If Lawrence knew who I was, I am certain that he wouldn't hesitate to abolish me, consequences or not. I clench my jaw so tight it hurts. I won't either.

Half an hour later, the serpentine creature from our school, Damien, walks in. He is flanked by at least 10 serpent guards, they follow him up to a raised platform that I just now notice. As Damien steps on, black branches reach up from the ground and slowly form a coiled, wooden throne. Damien sits. Two of his guardsmen place themselves on either side of him, scanning the crowd with their unsettlingly human eyes. "Silence." Sounds the booming voice of the creature upon the throne. The enormous crowd does what he says. My brow furrows in confusion. How can everyone understand? "I am aware that you all must be quite...unsettled." Then I notice it. Damien's lips do not move as he speaks. He's in our heads. Adhering to the language we are most familiar with. "Do not be. For we will not be staying in my kingdom for much longer." Confused murmurs echo throughout the room. "I have reigned over this realm for thousands of years, and with the help of you all, that will continue no longer." A pleased grin spreads across his scaled face. "The humans have had their world for far too long. They are simply useless. They are weak and have no place in any of the realms, they have failed to evolve and have consciously destroyed a habitat in the process." We all see the serpent king's intentions before he speaks- before he projects them. "They have made the ultimate mistake by clearing you all from their world," Damien rises from his throne and steps forward, "because now I will use their trash to remove them from our treasure." Damien's serpents unwrap themselves from his body and lurch out, their poison-covered fangs bared and ready to bite. To my left, a single fist rises from the crowd and into the air. "I am with you!" The fist's owner bellows. Another fist rises, "So am I." Says a girl's voice. Fist after fist emerges from the mass, all followed by a pledge of allegiance to the serpentine monarch. Soon, only a small number of preternaturals remain unmoving, me being one of them. Suddenly, a flashback of the principal yanking me around flashes in my mind, and before I know it, my arm joins the hundreds of others'.

"I pledge my allegiance."