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2024-10-29 19:42:56They talked and dined, laughed and shared moments of silence, and night flew by like a train heading towards its final destination.
Aurora was allowed to stay with them for as long as she could stay awake, and surprisingly, she stood there, playing with everyone who wanted. Listening to their stories, drinking juice and pretending to fight with Bert, Jake and Uriel, who still didn’t get used to her features.
From time to time, Uriel would go outside, followed by Don.
She would cry in Don's arms, remembering the times she spent with Becca, and how it would never come to happen again.
“Love...” Don would say. “Do you remember when Becca last said her goodbyes to us?”
“What about it?” Ur
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ARC: Seeds of Calamity PROLOGUE - I - Knocking on Hell’s door
Becca walked through the cold morning, her medium, curly black hair, a little messed up by the wind. As if the wind itself was a playful child and her hair was nothing but a fun toy. Her white skin was rosy from the cold, her lips were a bit cracked. Besides that, along with a worried expression, the girl was quite beautiful and dressed elegantly. Even though she did it in a kind of laid-back manner.Black skinny-jeans, high-heels, white shirt, and above it all, a black overall coat, with a red scarf around her neck.She had an athletic body, almost muscular, like a featherweight fighter, and always made sure that her clothing never showed it so much.“Men don’t like muscular women”, her mom would say, every time she saw her daughter training. “You’ll never get a nice man if you keep up with this fighting rubbish.”“Shut up, old hag!” her uncle would respond, provocatively defending the young girl he always
ARC: Seeds of Calamity PROLOGUE - II - Requiem of Good and Evil
When Becca arrived at Don’s place, it was almost afternoon. He lived pretty far away from downtown, and his house was pretty modest. A building with only one floor, very well put wooden walls, painted white, a living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, everything over a completely non-suspicious basement. And to top it off, a humble yard all around the place, with trees, a garden, even a swing, yet he had no children. He could not have children, to be more precise. No fence, no guard dog, no nothing to show the least sign of security. However, not a single living being ever dared to enter his propriety, except for Becca. But the girl had his special permission to do so. And by using this permission, she stepped into the garden, feeling the soft skin-like membrane that separated the house from the outside world, falling apart to let her through, just for it to merge back together again, as if never disturbed. “Uncle Don?” Becca shouted,
ARC: Seeds of Calamity PROLOGUE - III - Facing off the crossroad
Bertrand used to have strange dreams.He was 34 years old and worked as a private investigator, while acting as a consultant to the town's police department.The man had a slender, short complexion, sick-white skin, dark circles around his reddish-brown eyes, and red, medium hair.And at that hour of the night, his body trembled in bed.Because Bertrand used to have strange dreams. And in this particular dream, he was standing in the middle of a vast garden, in front of a tall, leafy tree.He looked dazed, as if not knowing where or what that place was. Yet, he searched around with a glance, to see if it was one of his usual dreams.The man knew when it was a dream or not, because of the subtle feeling of possibility.In his dreams, he usually was able to do every and any single thing he ever wanted, and even things he didn't wat to, but simply found out to be possible.And that dream felt exactly like it, only a bit stranger.
ARC: Seeds of Calamity PROLOGUE - IV - Chasing ghosts
The phone inside the inner pocket of Becca’s coat rang. It was loud, annoying, one of those old, cheap models, typically used as burners. Donnovan had given the device to the girl right before she left.“I’m gonna contact you only once through this, but when I do, you’ll have the name and the address of the son of a bitch. You smash it and throw it away as soon as I hang up, you understand?” he said, the girl nodding in agreement.And there it was. Four days after the meeting with her uncle, and he already had the answer.Gladly the man hadn’t tried to contact her in these four days, not even once. Which was a bit odd, but fortunate.She heard about blackmailing from her uncle – he dealt in basically any illegal activity one could think of – and according to him, blackmailers usually clung to their victims, always trying to get more and more from them. Yet that didn’t appear to be the case with mister
ARC: Seeds of Calamity PROLOGUE - V - As above, so below
Becca’s peace shattered as soon as she got home, and her ice cream lost its flavour without even reaching her spoon.When she opened her door and entered, she noticed a fat envelope laying on the floor, next to the entrance, with elegant cursive writing that said TO THE SAVIOUR OF A LIFE.When she grabbed the envelope and read it, she immediately knew who it was from, and started regretting that day.***The young girl was walking back home, from an errand she had to run to her mom, Don’s sister, Grace. And as she was about to walk past an alley, she noticed a man squatting on the floor, his face contorted with pain, his shirt, stained with red.Shadows moved at the end of the alley, probably muggers, the ones who attacked him, but there was no time to call the police or chase them. And even if she did, what would she do? Rebuke them to death? She wasn’t that type of person. If only her uncle D
ARC: Seeds of Calamity PROLOGUE - VI - And then I saw a beast coming from the sea (One)
After the incident with the thing in the alley, Bertrand went home, thinking of, for the very first time in his whole career, getting a decent night of sleep. Even if it came to shoving a whole bottle of sleeping pills down his throat. There simply couldn’t possibly be a way of the things he’d been experiencing to be real, yet his cheek was swollen and in pain. When he touched it, before getting in the car, he saw blood staining his fingers. And there was a mark across his face when he looked in the rearview. I’m going crazy, right? It’s not real... he thought, while driving. A whole day and night of sleep, I’ll wake up tomorrow brand new, and ready for a cup of coffee. But he didn’t. The detective got home to find that something had invaded his place. The lights were off, and he heard movement in his room. Why the fuck don’t I have a gun again? Bertrand asked himself, trying not to get too elated by
ARC: Seeds of Calamity PROLOGUE - VII - And then I saw a beast coming from the sea (Two)
The girl felt her stomach turning onwards and backwards, an indescribable sense of vertigo taking over her.There was an actual human face in her trembling hands, shaking between her fingers, due to the intense trembling. Becca didn’t know what to think, what to feel, how to anything.She ended up vomiting on the floor, but kept herself conscious, even though her whole body wanted to pass out.She was a good person, but it didn’t mean she was fragile. She spent a few good years training with Don and watching him dealing with nasty stuff, after all.She didn’t allow herself to break.The problem was what she was going to do now.There was an invitation to that Rosenbaum’s place, and he ended up turning to be a monster.A murderer.Her mind blurred, and her senses felt like fading, but she hung on to reality, trying to think about anything that felt real. And a memory floated on her mind,
ARC: Seeds of Calamity PROLOGUE - VIII - And then I saw a beast coming from the sea (Three)
The shot echoed through the room, making Jake’s ears ring. It had been a while since he took part in a gun fight inside a closed space, and his tears were too much, and Bert’s movement was too much.And everything was too much...“J... Jake...” he heard Bertrand’s voice, but refused to look. He would snap if anyone ever made him look at what he’d just done.“Jake...?” his partner’s voice, hollow and lost just seconds ago, was filled with surprise and shock. “What... What is...”Jacob didn’t want to listen to the rest.Gonzales called him four days ago, to check on his reports. He was pretty busy with how to put Bertrand’s intel into believable words, but the deputy chief never called him only to check on his reports, so he listened to her, and asked what it was all about.“Did you tell your freak partner about the Face Murder?” she asked, witho
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EPILOGUE (Final) - Ever after...
They talked and dined, laughed and shared moments of silence, and night flew by like a train heading towards its final destination.Aurora was allowed to stay with them for as long as she could stay awake, and surprisingly, she stood there, playing with everyone who wanted. Listening to their stories, drinking juice and pretending to fight with Bert, Jake and Uriel, who still didn’t get used to her features.From time to time, Uriel would go outside, followed by Don.She would cry in Don's arms, remembering the times she spent with Becca, and how it would never come to happen again.“Love...” Don would say. “Do you remember when Becca last said her goodbyes to us?”“What about it?” Ur
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EPILOGUE - ... Of endings and beginnings (Eleven)
Heavy rain started pouring all over the world as Becca spoke, an ominous feeling drenching the hearts of all who heard her.I didn’t put you in here for this.I didn’t create you so that you could surrender to your weakness.I created you to be.Like Me.As she spoke, they felt ashamed of their own weakness, of their will to run and to be guided by anything that could exempt them from the burden of choosing.Becca wanted in her deepest part, to decimate them. She felt angry, disappointed at them. But it was just expected, because She had made them like that, hoping that they could overcome their weaknesses. That they could be able to hold themselves accountable for their own deeds.So she breathed deeply, dismissing her human emotions for the first time since forever.In a snap of her fingers, the storm clouds dissipated, and with it the blood that reddened the earth, and the bodi
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Uriel glowed like a bursting star.Her muscles tensed like bow strings, as her whole essence forced itself to assimilate and purify the energy from the Crawling Chaos’ blast.Somehow, the creature’s energy was very similar to that of a nuclear weapon, and as quickly as Uriel noticed it, she jumped under the highlights, stealing the show.However, the energy was so dense, so tainted, that her only choice was to focus everything she had on purifying it during the whole absorption process.A single mistake, if her determination and focus wavered even if ever so slightly, and the Scorching Empress would be no more.Time seemed like slowing down as Uriel put all of her into that task, and little by little, the blast diminished in intensity and size.Until the entirety of the attack ceased for good.“Is that all you got?” Uriel asked with a taunting smirk on her lips.The heinous creature couldn&
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EPILOGUE - ... Of endings and beginnings (Nine)
Outside the church, Bert’s group fought with their lives on the line, with all they had, in order to buy as much time as they could so that Elleanore and Abby could retrieve whatever it was that could grant them their powers back.So they fought, got wounded, bled, fell, got back up again, and resisted as hard as they could.However, Mathew and the others weren’t doing as well as they wanted to.Because their enemies weren’t ordinary humans, but loyal servants to the Crawling Chaos. Demons once killed during the Forgotten War, but brought back to life by the unstoppable force of evil and destruction that was the Crawling Chaos.It made things way harder to the group than they ever planned for.They had broken limbs, deep cuts, and unimaginably painful wounds. But still they resisted, having even taken down some of their enemies.It seemed that, somehow, their bodies still held some of the former strength they held back in t
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EPILOGUE - ... Of endings and beginnings (Eight)
They weren’t excited.If anything, they were afraid for their own lives. For their own integrity.It was too high a stake to even dare conceive failing.However, it was also a moment where if they succeeded, history would be corrected, things would go back to how they used to be, friends would be reunited.Evil would be put back to where it belonged.Bert planned, the others gave their opinions when they thought some of it was incoherent, or simply pure blatant nonsense.Days passed by before their plan was completely formed and they were well equipped enough to dare leave Bert’s place, but eventually the time came, and despite the fear they felt, they moved with the sense of purpose.They moved with the will to finish it once and for all.As soon as they set foot outside, they understood the real danger they were walking into.The daylight had faded to a level that even during the
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EPILOGUE - ... Of endings and beginnings (Seven)
Immediately after Abigail saying that, a crippling headache hit everyone, except for Elleanore and Abby, sending everyone to the floor, while Uri’s voice, in that seductive and unnatural way, spoke in their heads.Do not even think of coming up with a plan or anything like that, my little rats... Didn’t I tell you that I was going to play cat and mouse with you?Their heads felt as though they were about to explode, so intense Uri’s power inside their heads was, but she kept speaking.Inside the maze, I was shackled by that filthy young man’s power. But now that I am free, and that I have the most suitable vessel, I am not only going to follow my mother’s will, but I will also enjoy myself, watching you all slowly wither as you die one after the other...Elleanore and Abby couldn’t hear what was happening inside the group’s heads, but mother and daughter were fine, so they came right at the group
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EPILOGUE - ... Of endings and beginnings (Six)
It was hard for Bert and Cam to tell Mathew and Jake that they were basically alone in this now, since Uri disappeared, Don went after her, and Elleanore had resigned herself and Abigail from the fight. It was even worse after Jonah told him what they had to face, despite not even concretely knowing what were their strengths against all odds. They felt as if they were walking in the middle of a crossfire, blindfolded, with their hands tied behind their backs. And while they were at it, researching, looking for gods, searching for more answers, the world kept changing. In the course of the months that followed their first reunion to discuss about the dream, that now seemed to them to have taken place years ago, the world had changed. Weeks went by with earthquakes reshaping whole areas throughout the world, typhoons devastating small towns, crimes happening much more frequently, atop of many more disasters happening all around. And along with that, a new pillar of power was rising
- ARC: Seeds of Calamity
EPILOGUE - ... Of endings and beginnings (Five)
As Jonah approached the entrance of the maze, he took some time to take in everything in his surroundings.Strangely, he didn’t feel familiar with the large desert that unfolded around him. Jonah remembered all about the place as soon as death took a hold of his body, and he wasn’t sure if the domain of Death, his old domain, had always been so bright.It looked as though daylight had been poured over the vastness of the deserted plains, with only the giant maze showing in the centre of everything.Something felt fishy, and even though Jonah felt confident in walking through the land, he also felt as if something was out there, watching him.But when he felt it, his attenti
- ARC: Seeds of Calamity
EPILOGUE - ... Of endings and beginnings (Four)
Just as Jonah had mentioned, the work to build the electric chair took less than three days. That was because finding a water that was pure enough to suit the unicorn boy’s needs was hard enough.But sooner than they expected, the project was completely done.Since Elleanore didn’t want Abby to see the whole experiment taking place, so she strongly recommended him and Cam that they should take the project somewhere else, or else she would, and they wouldn’t like it.After all, she might even be part of that craziness, but she still put her daughter above all else.And Elleanore wouldn’t allow such things near her Abby, not even if her daughter was a goddess or anything of the sorts.Abigail was still Elleanore’s baby, in the end.However, even if Elleanore didn’t want Abby to see what was going to happen next, Elleanore herself went to Bert’s house, along with Cam, Jonah, and Jake, whil
