+++++++WARNING THIS CHAPTER IS RATED M++++++++++++

World Eater CRONCILES SNEAK PEAK

Two sacrifices, one soul the priest says.

I blink.

World eater

I reach upward,

Two sacrifices one soul the priest says.

I blink.

World eater

I blink and look down.

The two dead wolves at the priest feet eyes seem to follow me,

I reach my face to upward,

I blink.

World eater

we will be next to die, my brother and me.

I blink and look down.

The two dead wolves at the priest feet eyes seem to follow me,

I reach upward,

I blink.

World eater

If I don't act we will be next, my brother and me.

The two dead pups at the priest feet eyes seem to follow me,

I reach upward,

I blink.

World eater

Two sacrifices one soul the priest says.

A thousand sacrifices, one soul my mad mind says,

I can almost reach it.

I reach for the sky

World eater

I can hear the fanfare grow louder and my brothers screams,

Two sacrifices one soul the priest says.

A thousand sacrifices, one soul my mad mind says,

I can almost reach it.

I stretch my face to the sky,

I can almost reach it,

I have to reach it before we die.

I will watch this world burn before I watch him die.

And finally, the fruit is mine. The juice tastes like infinity. I hear the void,

And it cries

World eater

I wake with a start the cold sweat dripping down my brow and neck. But before I can register that I am awake I am jolt even more forward. I can here the bus driver cuss out at what ever it was that dashed across the street. I shift my head from shoulder to shoulder to relive the pain in it. Just another day headed back from campus.

"This is the last stop I am not driving any further," The bus driver yells back as the doors to the bus open.

I sling the other shoulder strap of my large ass backpack onto its appropriate shoulder. I know his words are bullshit and that he is obligated by his job to drop me off closer to home if I feel unsafe. At least that's what the posters on the bus say, staying on this bus with this asshole seemed less pleasant then the cold winter night walk.

Stepping off the bus I quickly pull out a cigarette and a lighter as I scan the nearly empty bus station. I shake my head forcefully trying to get rid of the thought that maybe, just maybe not getting on that driver's case to driver me closer was a bad idea. But a fast-moving ball of fur through the snow quickly reminds me that I am not quite alone.

"there you are girl," I say crouching down as the large mop of white fur begins licking my face. A habit I never could break her out of. "I missed you too, Violet. Now come on I have to finish writing that paper on forbidden fruit and bullshit, I had to wait a fucking week for these two books to come back into the library."

Violet just lolled her head to the side as if to question me why I would burden her with silly human problems.

"If I don't finish my degree and somehow get a job with it then it will be your problem, we got no one else but each other remember," I say scratching behind her ear. Her eyes seem to lock onto mine and I am reminded of that post on the internet. That some pets just seem like old gods trapped in mortal bodies. Anytime you could see those eyes you where remined they looked a little too knowing which was rare seeing as she is half sheepdog and half who knows what else. Any attempts to trim the fur back just cause her to react in anxiety. Honestly it is nice having a companion that is just as stubborn as me. Though few knew just how unusual a dog she really is.

Finally, actually getting around to lighting my cigarette I get up and look down towards the long dark path that winds down to the nearest main road. Which this being a small city in the middle of nowhere us not that busy since this side of town was dead for the most part. The only thing left where old barely maintained row houses built in the 70's and 80's when there was still a sense of a growing population after the baby boom.

Did other countries have this or was it just a thing in the new fledgling countries founded on blood and genocide. Then again thinking on the literary works and pieces of film and other media, its clear that bloodshed and violence are two very human things and present almost anywhere. The prevalence of child soldiers on many forms of media and it being glamorised was a topic which I wrote what the university dubbed a controversial paper.

Looking up through the beam of light streaming above me I noticed that small flurries of snowflakes had begun to fall. A childish part of my mind wanted me to stick out my tongue and catch one, but instead I head forward cutting across the empty snowy field, the crunch of ice beneath my boots. In the dull quiet of the night my previous nightmare came back to my mind. Though only flashes remained in my mind but the image of the young man be bound and sacrificed haunted me every time I closed my eyes.

Pulling my headphones, I begin to zone out not even listening to the audiobook as it droned on about the story of tantalus. But the peace is soon broken and it isn't long before everything fades to black as the chemicals from the cloth over my mouth filled my lungs.

I open my eyes only to be met with more darkness, the only light coming from the illumination of a digital alarm clock sitting on the floor in front of me. I wince, registering that something has me bound tightly by my wrist and ankles. Judging by the lack of feeling in my hands and feet. Whoever did it didn't do it in a way to keep the circulation going or they didn't care enough to.

"Calm down," I say to myself my voice echoing slightly. Guess the room is bigger than I thought. I try and steady my breathing to stay calm. I closed my eyes remembering what my landlord, the toughest woman I had ever met taught me. She had been quickly realised I had no one else when I showed up to the basement apartment with nothing more than a backpack with a change of clothes. Most landlords would have thrown little eighteen-year-old me out on my ass, but not Lucy. Her old friends called her Lucky Lucy, since she was lucky enough to live this long and despite living her life as a sex worker. "Listen kiddo, cops they often don't care. Especially in a place like this. If there isn't glory in it they won't take a case seriously. Rapes, if they don't involve children or murder get ignored. And half the time the cops don't care what happens to women unless it's a serial case. Even less so if that girl is a woman of colour. But just because your ass is pasty missy doesn't mean your off the hook."

"Fuck," I cursed slamming my head back against the wall. I couldn't stop the tears; I know I am likely going to die. That if this is just some regular old kidnap and serial killer that I was not going to be able to fight back. But I was going to raise hell, be as destructive and leave as much difficult to hid evidence as possible. I would not be going quietly into the night, not if it could be considered a normal choice.

"No need for such vulgar language sweetheart," The voice was familiar and unfortunately for me it was exactly who I thought it was as the lights turned on revealing the Gamesman man sitting in his signature mask.

"You fucking bastard where is, Violet," I say staring into the blacked out eyes of the mask. "And are you forgetting the restraining order and that I beat your ass last time."

That court case had been fun. If Miss Thornes hadn't swept it under the rug and away from the media owing her a favour was a fate worse than an eternally damaged reputation. Then again that would have led me to no longer pursue my career as a knowledge hunter. Not needing to hide my secret I burned away the binds quickly. I was going to just make this fucker disappear, because if no one knows where I am then no one knows where he is either. The shock of my actions didn't last nearly as long as it should've, before I knew it a splitting sound had me on my knees with dizziness and nausea.

"Did you really think I didn't know about your little magic tricks," Cheshire says the smug twisted smile and florescent coloured markings looked even more like a creepy children show reject in the heavy artificial light. "Two whole years and you thought I didn't know. It is our anniversary after all."

"Fuck you," is all I can manage to utter as my stomach starts to wrench.

"Don't worry this isn't personal," Cheshire says and before I can wipe the vomit from my chin his foot was colliding with my stomach, and I felt ribs crack. "Someone has paid heavily for you. And well they want you alive. However, they said I could have some fun and they don't mind if that pretty little face is destroyed. Well, that's a lie some of the potential clients. But well, the Otsutsuki group paid so very handsomely and well I have to say that I look forward to our games, Alice."

My blood ran cold at the mention of my real first name, I had stopped using it years ago. No longer wanting to be connected back to it. The looks the name Alice Doe would earn me, especially those old enough to remember the case. We had even after two years of a fucked up mockery of a relationship never revealed our real names to each other. How he knew I had learned magic was beyond me I had been careful not to let anyone know I was capable of it. Even if it made me a more employable in my line of work.

"they had warned me that you where capable of magic nut that you where like me nothing more than a novice," He says as he lifts me up by my hair and holding up a container full of liquid and the smell of bleach reaches my nose just before he begins to pour it down the back of my shirt and along my spine. "Though judging who little you can fight back, I bet all the precious magic to waste or you little books. Don't get me wrong fucking the cute bookworm girl was a hell of a fantasy till you started listening to that tra-"

I cut him off with my fist not willing to let the cunt says slurs like those against the woman who was the closest thing I had to a mother. I look at him to see that my hands had actually managed to crack his mask. My victorious grin is short lived as the same piercing sound fills my ears again.

"You psychotic bitch," Cheshire says slamming my head into the wall. And I couldn't help but scream as electricity ran through my skull from his fingers. " I thought you would remember from last time we played this little game that acts like that are futile."

"And I thought you would have realised that you had to get rid of both of us," my own voice says from across the room. Cheshire wheeled around his one exposed eye had barely managing to form a look of surprise as the naked duplicate of me fires between his eyes. "In a world full of magic and this idiot thought that leaving me unattended in a room with a gun was a good idea. Though I guess this idiot thought that kennel would be enough of a deterrent."

"We haven't come across anyone else like you in our research," I reply grabbing the illegal butterfly knives that Cheshire kept on him. "And you certainly weren't capable of that what you where a puppy."

"You going to cut the bastard dick off and shove it down his throat," Violet ask handing me the gun before sitting on her knees to take on her real form again.

"As lovely as that sounds I don't think cutting off my rapist dick is worth it right now since the guys who paid for me are likely on there way," I said continuing to loot Cheshire lifeless body, I had no sympathy for the man who had seemed like a dream only to be a nightmare. Putting on the leather jacket that Cheshire was oh so fond of in life and would beat me if I touched it. I look over I see that my canine partner is back on all fours looking and sitting patiently at what appears to be the way up from this basement.

Coming up from behind a hidden door built into a bookcase we found ourselves in a large living area with what I can only assume to be a hallway, kitchen and a front door branching from it. A lone hunting cabin in the woods with a secret murder basement, effective maybe but very little originality. The décor of a over abundant of eerily well-done taxidermy I had to admit was a very unsettling addition.

"If I don't die today, please let me have better taste in men," I say regretting having gone home with him from the bar that night. An intrusive memory of soft silver eyes and even softer lips make the regret even more bitter as I remember who I was trying to get over that night. "And maybe women too."

"That would be a miracle," Violet mutters from beside me.

Making my way over to the door as Violet watches my back I find myself cursing the fact that the room doesn't have a single window. We will be going out blind and though Cheshire tended to work alone that wasn't always the case. With a deep breath I start undoing the numerous locks and latches on the door. I look back at violet one last time before opening the door.

Compared to the chaos and pain the outside is early piece full save for the Erie cracking of the white pine trees around me. There was no driveway to be seen, nor any parked vehicles.

"We need to go now, more people just arrived and they found the body," Violet growls quietly beside me. "Just run. And can use your spells to cover our tracks."

"Your right we just have to make it to a highway once we are there it will be a civilian area and they won't be able to use magic," I say in agreement. It was the same plan that had worked last time Cheshire had decided to kidnap me and take me hostage for his own sick pleasure having just learned magic.

I sprint forward truing to keep pace with violet as we run through the trees. The trees pass behind me ever fast and I can't hep but wonder if my body is using magic again. But the splitting cold, running side by side with violet it despite the past hours of so of hell feel like heaven. But it feels like something is missing. It always did and we will continue to develop into the mystery's till we find out what. Till we find them both.

I am snapped back from my thoughts by the sound of a horn and I all I see is light coming toward me.

The headlights faded to black, and it was like being plugging into an icy frozen lake. I gasped but the cold only filled my lungs, and I could feel ice crystals bursting forth from my bronchioles tearing through organ and flesh. Piercing the skin. But as my body tries to scream in pain the crystals leach through my throat forcefully ripping any possibility of sound.

And it was silence and pain, till the cold leached in numbing the pain slowly. As the pain subsided, I tried to move forward. It was like moving my feet through a bog, the resistance making each step agony as I struggled to breath. Exhaling my breath, I tired to calm down only to realise the instinctual urge to breath in was completely absent. Of course, it was. I was dead.

Whatever was in this marshy blackness tore at my boots, ripping the leather and plastic to shreds. It quickly made work of the raged cotton socks till it exposed the flesh beneath. The liquid ate away at me, not like the bleach I had been burned with during the torture. But like thousands of small mouths, tearing my flesh, ripping open veins, grinding against my bones when they became exposed.

Fear not you will not need this body again. So how was the sixth?

I can hear it, the void speaking in my mind. What did it mean by that. Suddenly the nightmare came back to mind and I can feel the revelation spread like light around me illuminating the area. With it came pain, the light was to bright and I could feel it burn. No it was burning, not like bleach or acid but like fire. It felt like I was my eyes where being burnt out.

I see you had barely awakened this time then. I wonder if you got the knowledge you sought. It seems that things you set in motion on your second have come to fruition and the four of you are being forced back.

I can only silently scream as the pain rips trough me and I slowly realise that I am dying over and over. Limbs breaking, ribs and stomach being wrenched open and finally the feeling of something crushing my skull in. I can't stop my mind from blanking as the pain grows till all I am aware of is that and the strange voice asking me what my wish for this life is. Every piece of me was ripped apart till nothing was left. Suddenly like a switched being flipped the pain is gone and my vision cleared and I saw a giant tree with galaxies in its leaves.

"Don't worry I found you in time this time the four of us won't lose each other this time." A voice I had not heard in lifetimes says. My brother was here this time and so where they. We would be okay.

"I want the four of us to go home," I say confidently making my wish.

And like that, the world was cold again and smelt of pine and blood. I could not help but scream, but soon I felt the warmth of human skin. Everything was so bright and blurry, it hurt so I closed my eyes and that then somehow I felt it all drain away.

Surprise I am OFFICALLY back now and a rewrite is in the works. though I will be completely chucking out a lot of the chapters and rewriting them. This chapter is my official hidden prologue. I decided to post it here for a few reasons. One so you could see the new sort of directions and dark themes that will be present. Kokoro has also gone over some revision, or more accurately as you can see in this chapter her previous life did. there are also going to be a few key components to the story that will be changed but i will leave those as a surprise.

however if there is a moment that is an absolute fan favorite let me know because I would like to pay homage or include it in the new fic.