Prologue
"Nothing's happening," a voice grumbled. "I don't think it's going to work." Three figures stood in the light of a single torch, hardly visible in the night. They stood around a tall totem, the face of a man with blank eyes carved into it. One of the figures stepped closer to the torch, revealing his light blond hair.
"Perhaps we ought to try again. It may not be midnight yet," he urged, motioning to the totem. Another figure shook his head, "Its too risky. Why are we even doing this? If we succeed, we have no IDEA what kind of power He will possess."
"We're DOING this because there's money involved. You heard the man back at the shop: $20 MILLION dollars to prove He exists," the blond man responded. For the first time, the third, brown haired man spoke, "I agree with Gareth. Even if He is just a ledgend, we still HAVE to get the money we were promised." Ice blue eyes reflected in the torchlight, and the figure nodded, "Then do it Steve. If you're THAT keen on putting us into danger," he said. With that, Steve rasied his flint that he had been holding, and struck it once. Twice. And the third time, the totem flared up, colors of all kinds blazing in the fire. The men stood staring in awe, when suddenly... CRASH! Lightning exploded around them, knocking the men to the ground. Steve was the first to stand back up, and the first to notice something wrong with the youngest of the group. He raced over to where the dark-haired boy lay, face twisted in the most awful expression of pain.
"Aaron, no..." Steve whispered. He hung his head in defeat. One last time, the boy raised his head and looked behind him, eyes wild with horror, before his head fell back to the ground, sightless eyes glazing over.
Steve turned his head to where Aaron had been looking, and found what had been so frightening. The eyes of the face on the totem were glowing red.
"Steve, we've got to get out of here!" Gareth shouted as he stood up.
"But Aaron... we can't just leave him here..." Steve muttered.
"We don't have time! We have to go!" Gareth insisted, "This wa-" his call was cut off and turned to a blood-curdling shriek of pain. He fell to the ground, panting as though something had shoved him down.
"Gareth!" Steve gasped. The man looked up at Steve, but his eyes were different. They were glowing white. His mouth grew into a twisted smile, and as though controlled by strings, he snapped upright and ran at Steve. Just in time, he dodged out of the way an raced away, down the side of the hill, and into the woods.
Panting, Steve leaned against a tree. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a map. To his dismay, the ink had smeared, and the map was unreadable. Steve shoved it back into his bag, when he heard a rustle in the undergrowth. He pulled his knife from his boot and held it out.
"Stay back, whoever is in there!" He shouted into the trees. The bushes continued to rustle.
"I said, STAY Ba-" a man who appeared to be Gareth stepped into view.
"You would hurt your FRIEND would you?" he said in a crackled voice, hardly recognisable as Gareth's.
"You're not Gareth! And I WILL if it means I have to!" Steve replied more frightened than angry.
"Ah, but you see, I AM Gareth now. But if you prefer, I can change that," he said, calmly. The body of Gareth fell to the ground, leaving a new man standing in his place. He looked oddly like Steve, except for his eyes, which were glowing like Gareth's had before.
"Hello, Brother. You don't know what you've done!"