Prologue
Scary monsters with demonic wiggling limbs, or with single gargantuan eyes might frighten a normal child, but Dominic wasn't afraid of those. He saw them every day, from the seal-like creature swimming through the river to the giant man eating a femur like it was a turkey leg. None of those things scared him.
The one thing that truly scared him, was himself.
Every single person he got close to, every person he shared memories with, went mad for no discernable reason. He had now memorized the glint of madness deep in their eyes when they laughed and died gruesome deaths, often bringing down others with them. He tried to escape but he found that he couldn't. Wherever he went, whoever he started to know, the madness followed him like a curse.
He started to hate himself for what he had done—thinking that it was all his fault, that the world would be better off without him. But when genuinely threatened with his life by the large red-eyed, behemoth of a dog, on his way back home, his only thought was.
"I don't want to die"
But as the darkness continued to invade his vision he tried one last time to fight, to run away, to do anything to survive, but ultimately he knew that it was futile. As he lost the fight against the sweet bliss of unconsciousness he saw a glimpse of purplish light and a shower of golden dust.