Fates Redeeming Ways
Prologue
*
~But what is that I hear,
Calling in the night?
My family's cries are overheard
But you have nothing in sight~
*
'What's . . . what is this . . .'
I could see myself floating . . . above what appeared to be my house. I could see the outline of the invisible giants standing in a haze just outside our city's walls. What were they doing here? Were they going to attack us? We hadn't done anything to Zaibach . . .
The world began to swirl into a mist of colors as I floated toward the ground. As my feet touched to cold surface of the gravel-covered earth, I could feel the low trembling. The ground was shaking beneath the sheer weight of the giants that were approaching. Then I heard a scream.
The giants had started to set fire to the lingering houses that were nearest to the walls. Why in the god damned hell were they doing this? We never did a thing to Zaibach and here they were in the midst of the night- setting our city on fire for no apparent reason!
I could feel the shaking gradually becoming stronger indicating their closing in on our area. I had to get my family out of our house. As if my thoughts had reached the Gods, I was now inside the main hallway that linked to every room in our small house.
"Mother! Father, hurry! The invisible giants are attacking, and we have to get out of here now! They're going to burn everything! Brother?!"
As I ran in a frenzy into my parent's room, they were still timidly asleep dreaming wonderful, peaceful dreams.
"Hello? Didn't you hear me?! Wake up!" I went to grab my mothers sleeping body but my hand went straight through. I froze.
The same thing happened with my father and brother. Was I already dead? You can't just pass through another living form unless you're already dead.
Glass trinkets that had cost my family a fortune began falling and shattering across the hardwood floors of our house as the giants made their way even closer. I could hear the cape of a select giant flapping in the night's wind, and the horrifying sounds of the fire igniting and shooting out of their large machine hands following. If I wasn't dead before, this was sure going to do it.
I then found myself floating above my house again, watching the seven giants burning the city to the ground relentlessly. My house was engulfed the second the fire touched it. The worst past of it was . . . I could hear my family's cries . . . their shrieks of horror . . . Then I saw Yukari in her nightdress come running down the dirt road. "Hitomi!!"
Without another thought, she ran straight into the house in search of me.
'Yukari, no! Don't go in there! You'll die!' But of course, just like everyone else, she didn't hear me.
I heard my brother cry out for my mother in the dark of the night. I could hear their choked cries from all the smoke . . . I could hear their gasping and screaming that never seemed to cease . . . I heard Yukari's high-pitched shriek . . . I heard their last breaths . . .