Prologue

The first thing she noticed was that everything was dark. It was as though every light source in the area had suddenly stopped functioning. Even the stars themselves seemed oddly absent from the sky. Strangely enough she could see the landscape around her clearly, as if it were noon and the sun was beaming down on her. The surrounding area looked twisted and ashen and there was a strange stillness as though the "flow " of everything had ceased and the world around her had grown stagnant and hollow. However there seemed to be a line of light to the west of her, she'd been walking toward it for four hours now. The landscaped had only changed a little since she'd started walking, instead of grey and desolate now the ground looked charred and broken almost as though the life had been burned away. Then she heard it, the voice. It was soft, sensual, and obviously feminine and it beaconed her closer, to what she didn't know. It was getting progressively warmer, but the voice was getting closer. As she continued to trudge along she saw several familiar things, her high school for one. Even though it looked a little different, it was still recognizable from the landscaping and the sign on the front, Fisher High "GO WILDCATS!" Now though it looked as though it had been abandoned for years, perhaps even decades. Next was her friend Jessica's house, it still had her dog out front half-in half-out of the dog house sleeping like always. Upon closer inspection the dogs back half was gone, what remained of the corpse was bloated and just beginning to decompose. The house itself looked as though Jessica's family had just up and left one day. Even her laptop was still upstairs in her room, the battery long since burned out but the beginnings of a diary entry burned into the screen. In the kitchen five places had been set at the table for Jess, her mom and dad, her brother Chad and her sister Natalie. The plates heaped high with untouched, moldy, maggot infested food. The next house was no better but gave little hints that someone had been there recently. The inside was warm and dry as though it had only been vacated in the last few minutes. It looked a lot like her boyfriend's house from the outside but the inside looked very different, but then he did tell her that his mom had done extensive redecorating. Even the tape player in his room was still on, filling the room with static having reached the end of the tape. "ERIC!" She yelled his name as loud as she could, hoping he'd come out of wherever he was hiding. Surely, even if he wasn't here anymore, someone would hear her and come. No one answered. As she was leaving his room she heard someone on the stairs. "Eric?" The sound stopped. "Eric, is that you?" the sound came in stomps as whoever or whatever it was turned and ran back down the stairs. "Wait! Eric wait!" She chased the sound all the way back out the front door to the fence. The fence having been thrown open only seconds before now swung back and forth. Looking around, there was nothing in either direction for miles. She looked around for an hour and found nothing in the house. No footprints in the dust outside but hers. Giving up she trudged on toward the light and the voice. It had stayed with her all this time telling to give up and come home. Come home to it, it said, it would keep her safe. She felt warmth from the voice. She felt love and devotion from the voice. It surrounded her with compassion and beaconed her forward, and she went willingly because she didn't want to be alone. After a while she stopped looking at the horizon to see if she was getting any closer. She closed her eyes and let the voice guide her. She'd been moving mere moments before the voice called out for her to stop and when she opened her eyes she saw her house. The lights were on and white smoke rose regally from the chimney. The door opened and her mother called her inside. It began to snow. Inside was cozy and warm. Everyone was sitting down for dinner where they patiently waited for her to say grace, but something was off. A girl sat at the table that she'd never seen before but she looked at her liked she'd known her all her life and the open affection in her eyes felt strangely right somehow. For some reason no one else at the table seemed to notice even as the girl stood and calmly walked around the table. Then, taking her hand, pulled her to her feet and kissed her tenderly. She couldn't bring herself to fight it no matter how much she thought she should and when the kiss ended she missed the touch. Then she heard the voice again but not as though across a great distance like before but from the girl's very lips. "I have found you at last Ezri. Now the time has come to set things right."

To be continued...