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Prologue
I still remember it, you know.
I remember that day when they kicked me out for something I hadn’t done.
I had been racked by guilt by the whole thing, but I knew it wasn’t my fault. I stood there everyday. Watching that gate. I watched it, I know I did. I don’t know how they got in.
How did they get in?
All of a sudden my home was ablaze. I began to hear screams from beyond the film of magic that kept the unworthy from our home.
I ran inside. It was horrific. Everything was burning, people were being slaughtered. How did they get in?
Our realm was always one of envy, we were the ones who held extraordinary control of our abilities.
As one of the first realms we had the time to develop before wars broke out among the others. I never thought they would attack us.
Looking around for clues it wasn’t just one group, although it consisted, in large numbers, of people who did not have as much access to magic as we did.
I grabbed my weapon, the one of life and death, my scythe. I felt it change in my hands, spear, dagger, blade, gun powder.
The pain coursing through my veins, the pain as I watched my family being tormented, as well as the pain of my past lives.
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Chapter One
The Beginning of After
The days were mundane. Everyday was a constant cycle between sleep, school, homework and games, then right back to sleep. There were unique differences on occasion, but today was different.
Often the idea of another world plagued my mind. This came with jolts of pain. It causes distress, especially when these fantasies start to make me wonder, does it all exist? Is that where I’m from? Does that mean I don’t belong here?
“Hey.” Came from a friendly voice over to my right. Her hair was dark, long, and had a beautiful sheen. Her nose was slightly pointed, and thin. And her overall expression was that of worry, and concern.
“We have a quiz next period, and I was wondering if you could maybe double check some of my stuff to help me study? Please?” She finished the statement with her hands clasped together and a pleading look on her face.
In response I replied with “Of course I will.”.
During the quiz, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
“Alright class, take out a pencil, and put everything away.” Said the teacher. He was around thirty, and wore beige khakis with slicked back hair.
With a final glance to my notes, I reached over to place it back in my bag. All of a sudden there was a light and a pop. How strange, how weird.
“Here you go.” Mr.Wight said as he placed the paper on my desk. I finished it up with ease, handed it in and turned right back to my desk.
I think I am going crazy again. A light? A pop? What kind of nonsense. But I’ve never hallucinated before. I daydream, and imagine. But visually seeing things like they were really there was new.
Maybe.. I can’t get my hopes up.
Looking over to Lilith, she was still working on the quiz. Instead I look over to my bag, reaching for a notebook to doodle in.
What was this? I flinch in pain as I reach to touch the binding of it. Pulling it into view, it’s dark leather, with a thick amount of pages.
On the cover there’s a name, one that feels oddly familiar and tugs at my chest.
When I open the first page, there’s doodles that look like everything I try so hard to tell myself is only in my head. Yet here it is. Scrawled over the page in a notebook that just appeared in my bag, almost like magic.
Tears begin to well up in my eyes. The sound from slamming it shut and placing it right back in my bag startles Lilith as she gets up to turn in her quiz.
Settling back in her seat she looks at me, brows furrowed and loudly whispers, “What was that?”. Her hands hurry to gesture to the book with a scowl.
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I can’t take it anymore. Sitting by my bed in the enveloping darkness. I feel like I’m missing part of myself. A piece of my soul that’s supposed to be there but isn’t.
I feel it claw through my chest and with it I hear a scream in my head reserved solely for me. I wish I could say whether the voice was mine or another's, but I simply imagine what my scream would sound like.
I can’t scream here. My pain is silent and behind closed doors. The screams for my lost soul never exiting my tears or my mind.
The pain overwhelms me often to a point where my brain offers me moments between with numb bliss. Although I can’t seem to make them last long as the pain screams to be released from my body.
My other half, please come back. I miss you.
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I feel it envelop me. My magic flows around me, drowning me in its presence. For one with not much emotion can not wield magic such as this. I used to have a host of sorts, I have no idea where they are now.
I wonder if they miss me as I yearn for their presence, their ambition, to release me from this emotionless void of drowning.
My other half, please come and look for me.. It’s empty without you.
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Sitting on my bed now, staring at the pages continues to make my questions bubble up inside. I’m scared to move past the first page. But curiosity was never not on the table.
I turn the page. My eyes immediately blinded, the walls shining with a beautiful luminescence, the colors bathing anything and everything.
And all of a sudden it all falls away.
I woke to another day. Except this was different than the everyday kind of day that normally assaulted my senses.
It was different. What a wonderful thing.