Legacy
Part I
A Question of Time
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened…
from Burnt Norton (Four Quartets) - - T.S. Elliot
Prelude :: Lost City
No one noticed the odd stirring within the deep darkness of the wind-swept landscape, the shadow creeping slowly across the desert. The stars above twinkled blindly and the moons looked on in ignorance. It crept along the outskirts of the city, waiting and watching as the residents made their way through the brightly lit street to shops and homes. They were blissfully unaware of the terror that was about to be unleashed upon them.
The business tycoons were leaving their offices and the shops were getting ready to close. Mothers were putting their young children to bed as the teenagers roamed the boulevards looking for action. The scene was peaceful, normal. But not for long. The eyes that peered from inside the shadow grew darker with malice. He did not like peaceful. It was boring and safe and weak. They were pathetic and they deserved to die.
It was sickening that these beings, these lowly life forms had been able to populate his planet. But now he was back and what once had been his would be again. He would be sovereign king, and nothing could stop him.
He had to wait until the right moment to enact his plan. He had to find the right person or the pattern would be incomplete. He could not make even one mistake or everything he had been waiting so patiently for would be lost.
The man appeared on the crowded main street, intent on getting home to his wide. He had not been able to spend as much time with her as he wanted to because of his work, but now he had received a break and he would surprise her.
The beast smiled and began to whisper in the back of the man's mind. One sentence, a suggestion. And then his victim became a time bomb ticking away toward utter destruction.
When morning came and the sun peeked wavering with heat over the horizon, the city was heavy with the silence of death. Suddenly the wind howled around the buildings and with it, the cry of a child.
A lone survivor.
Cont in Chapter One ----