Part I. Chapter 1

- Jake -

What is the end?

It is naught but a new beginning

From which the fallen

Shall rise again

The pain... Unbearable, I thought as I woke. Slowly I opened my eyes. Taking in a deep breath I got up. "Why is it I can't remember anything?" I said to myself. "My name, my family, everything. All gone... What happened? Wait... my name... Is it Jake? Yes, it is..."

I looked around me. Ruins of a city in the distance, nothing left above ten meters. Looking in the other direction I saw a hill. Finally around me there was a field that seemed to be made out of wheat. I wondered how I got to this wheat field, probing the empty voids of my mind. There was nothing.

In the distance upon the hill I saw a girl. A broken soul staggering in my direction. A haunting image that I'll always remember. Her torn t-shirt, her ruffed up hair, and the torn arm that lay limp to one side. A singular gash lay across her chest, looking as if it had started at her shoulder and continued, till it ripped through her arm. It ended at her waist. The gash had clotted, but as she was staggering towards me, stumbling over the uneven land, she fell. As she got up the wound tore apart and blood dripped, glinting in the light of the falling sun. It seemed gold as it dripped slowly from her chest, to her leg and then fell slowly to the ground.

By then she was close enough that I could see her face. She looked about in her early twenties, maybe teens, Now that I think about it definitely teens... maybe thirteen or fourteen? Her face was covered in scratches, small openings as if she had been clawed in the face many times. Her hair was a mess, all tangled and knotted. But the color... the color of her hair was stunning, the slowly dimming sun reflecting of that beautiful variant of brown. I believe it was a dark auburn... And her eyes, shining not of hate for those who had done this, but of loss.

I guessed that it would soon be dark in five minutes. I hadn't noticed before but her eyes were directed at me. I quickly looked down and thought about it. Why would she be at a loss with me? When I looked up again she was directly in front of me. She was close enough that I got a scent of vanilla coming from her, probably perfume.

"I'm sorry," she said. A few moments passed and then she kneeled down in front of me.

"So young and so innocent" she cried "Will They stop at nothing?"

"What do you mean?" I replied "I'm perfectly fine. Are you okay?

"Sigh... Time to move on towards the city, towards more death, more pain" she said seemingly ignoring me.

"What do you mean?" I asked, but by then she had already walked away.

I started walking towards her but I tripped over something on the ground. When I got up I looked down.

On the ground below me was a body. It was torn into many bloody pieces. A leg, an arm, the torso, the rest all in pieces. A bloody mess. The head was facing the side. I kneeled down and looked at the face. It was then I realized what had happened. The face I was looking at was... my own.

- Lydia -

Running from the darkness

Away from the pain that defines us

Consequences shall surely follow

An all consuming night

It was in the distance that I saw him. A body in the middle of a field, lying on the ground. A body with its limbs broken and twisted, some even ripped clean off the body. There was blood in a pool around him. The boy looked about fourteen. The sun was setting as I walked calmly towards him. I was so focused on getting to him that I stumbled and then tripped over the uneven land. I felt a sharp pain that didn't fade as my wound tore open. A long slash from Them that went from my shoulder to my waist

Darkness continued falling as I got up and started again, by the time I got beside him the last rays of the sun faded. The gold to the night. I looked at the face of the body; there was a faint trace of a smile left on his face. His eyes looked as if he had forgiven whoever or whatever did this to him.

"I'm sorry," I said to no one in particular. I suddenly started crying and knelt down beside his body.

"So young and so innocent!" I continued "Will they stop at nothing?"

A few minutes passed as I kneeled crying for this boy who I'd never known. I decided finally that it was time to move on. "Sigh... Time to move on towards the city, towards more death, more pain". I got up and started walking North towards the city. The fallen ruins blurring as the day caught up to me, my mind and body aching for sleep.

As I neared the perimeter of the city I nearly fainted from the exhaustion. I snuck through the fallen gates, past the rubble that looked like it was to be some sort of tower.

I looked about the destruction, seeking a shelter. Some distance away I spotted a shed that seemed unscathed by the destruction. A metal shed,. The paint had completely peeled away and revealed the rusted but amazingly intact walls.

As I crawled towards it I heard noises in the distance. I looked back towards from where I had come from. In the distance there were shapes moving around a single body on the ground. The same one that I had just been at. I tried to look away as I knew what was going to happen and yet my eyes stayed transfixed upon the shapes. A sharp noise pierced the night and a light flashed through the darkness. It was not a light as you would think, it was more a black light, surrounding everything and dissipating into the air.

I looked up again towards the fields and saw that some sort of rift had opened above the body. I stared through the rift, a gateway through the universe, a tear in the fabric of reality. On the other side there was nothing but darkness. A shadowy thing came out, almost like smoke, and rose. It stayed there as the rift closed in a loud popping noise. A few moments passed and the thing plunged. A red light burst out from the body and then faded.

I turned around and ran. When I got to the door of the shed I tore it open and ran inside. There was a single light at the roof of the shed but I dared not to turn it on for the fear that they would find me and kill me like the other. I closed the door and bolted it, hoping that it would hold. I finally leaned back against the wall and slid down onto the floor. I tore open my shirt a little more to allow a bit more air to get at the wound. After sitting for a bit and letting the wound to fester in the cool shed air, I allowed myself to rest and started crying again. I started thinking back to how this all began. To the reason there was all this ruin.

It was back a month ago, when everything was well. One night in June rifts began appearing, shadows coming out. Taking human bodies, the weak minded, the dead, sometimes even the well if they thought they were powerful enough. We called these demons Them as we had no better name for them. All hell broke loose that first night, utter destruction of the most important monuments and buildings of the time. The White House, Eiffel Tower and the Great Wall of China all destroyed. Millions died that first night, but then as suddenly as the sun came, they disappeared.

As soon as the sun started rising they all disappeared, fading into wispy dark shadows that flew away. It turns out that they had all converged towards Illinois where it seemed that a rift within the ground had appeared. Above this rift dark storm clouds had converged. Any attempt to get close to the rift resulted in being struck repeatedly with lightning.

Everyday there seemed to be more of these beings. They seemed to be immune to most forms of hurt. It seemed the only way of destroying them was to detach all of their vital organs from the rest of their bodies. Their heart, brain, and lungs. So long as there was one organ remaining it would live. It would usually take three different wounds to kill them. One to the head, ripping their head apart. One to the chest, blood filling their right lung slowly while the other functions perfectly. Finally a wound to their heart, their heart spurting blood out while their left lung opens to the air outside.

Soon there came rumours of different creatures. Ones that were all around, always there no matter the time of day. They seemed to counteract the darkness, They themselves radiating Lyte. They could also take over human bodies but in a different way. They were of a different plane of existence it seemed, living in your thought, They would giving you help, ideas, but most importantly if one of these Lyte beings were to enter a body already possesed by Them then both would cease to exist, therefore destroying the darkness and leaving the hosts body and soul intact.

The remaining survivors of North America had collectively sorted themselves into three groups. The survivors of Canada, and the USA. Finally there was the group I was with, we who called ourselves Illustratum, a secluded group far in the North, in the Arctic. We as the Illustratum all have a gift; we all have a being of Lyte within our minds.

My task was to travel to the resistance that remained in Canada to open their eyes to the Illumination, the commingling of two minds. Me of all people, just because I drew the third shortest straw. Then again it wasn't that bad as I didn't draw the shortest or second shortest who had to go all the way to the United States to warn their resistance leader, which happened to reside in Idaho. As soon as they sent him they decided to send the one with the second shortest straw after him. Ha, like either of them have any chance.

A/N: This is my first story so if any of you people reading this have any comments please review and tell me what I'm doing right or wrong here. Thanks...

Xyen out