A Thousand Year Obsession ✔

Prologue

Prologue

The wall loomed up before me, prudently placed stone blocks masking the wooden interior, tall curving spires overlooking the small ledges between the walls. It curved around a kind of castle, a Keep, shielding the stone building and protecting it.

The sky above had been clear earlier. It had been a cloudless night, overridden with the twinkling of starlight. But now it was covered in the dark foggy cloud of ashen smoke. The stone walls that stood so proudly before the Keep were swallowed in long stretching orange tongues of fire. The heat so intense, even the stone seemed to melt under its licking ferocity.

The Keep was burning.

The walls blazing down, fire twisting and turning all about the structure, flickering and sparkling. The sky above lit up like brilliant fireworks as the flames destroyed the elegant framework below.

I stood just before the gates, the ironwork charred into unrecognizable masses. The fire had already wrought it's destruction here. And it had moved elsewhere. So here I stood. Before the broken gates, watching with a vivid horror churning through the pits of my stomach as the Keep collapsed to ruins.

People ran screaming past me, brushing my shoulders while my dress fanned out behind me in the rigid smoky wind. Wails could be heard, within and without the walls of the Keep. Pleas and shrieks echoed all around me, mixing together with the vile cackling of the villainous flames. Children's sobs slipped through tiny lips. Names rang through the air. But all I could hear was the popping and snapping as the vibrant orange tongues devoured the large Keep.

A heated hand wrapped around my wrist and I jerked away instinctively, whirling around as I lurched back towards the mouth of the gate. But it was a familiar figure that stood before me. A girl around fourteen with long straight brown hair and petrified blue eyes.

"Morgana! Morgana!" She cried, snatching up my wrist again. "Come! Please we must leave. We have to get out of here. He's in there, Morgana. Morgana, he's still in there!"

I stared up her, my eyes blurring over as tears spilled over the brims of my eyelids.

"They're dead." I choked, letting my strands of midnight black hair whip me in the eyes. "He killed them."

The girl bit her lip sharply and covered her mouth with her free hand. Her gaze flickered out behind me before settling on my form once more.

"I'm sorry, Morgana." She whispered. "I really am. But he's still here. He's coming!" She tugged my wrist lightly, stepping backwards. "Morgana, we have to go. He's still here!"

I shook my head slowly, staring past her into the orange tinted darkness. A faint line of treetops hung above the horizon in the far distance, just barely noticeable through the dense smoke and ash. My eyes locked onto it, stinging as I held back my tears.

"He killed them." I whispered, ripping my arm out of her grip. I spun back around to face the flames and shouted the last words as I fell to my knees. "He killed them!"

I stayed like that for a moment more, glaring into the flickering abyss while teardrops rolled swiftly down my cheeks. The girl stood still behind me, watching my back in sorrow, her head dipped towards the ground.

Then, suddenly, a shadowed figure emerged from the flames. He walked with vigor, marching straight through the fire towards the both of us. His features were masked by smoke and flame, the only recognizable feature, the cloak flowing out behind him in the mouth of the fire.

The girl gave an audible shriek and stumbled backwards, her nimble hands flying to her mouth.

"Morgana! Morgana!" She yelled.

I stared through the flames at the figure, a burning hatred swiftly gliding through my blood.

The girl's warm hand clasped around my upper arm and hauled me to my feet.

"Morgana, he's here!" She cried, pulling me back away from the fire. "He's coming."

The figure quickened his pace towards us immediately, and the girl spun around.

"Run, Morgana!" She shouted above the cackling of the fire. "You must run!"

I gave one last fleeting look at the figure before spinning about on my heels and fleeing from the fire, following the girls constant course towards the treeline in the distance.

"He killed them." I hissed, pausing for a moment to look back at him. He had fully emerged from the fire now and made a straight path after the both of us, never once straying his gaze from our direction. He was shadowed in blackness but I could still make out the smirk that slid across his thin lips when my eyes met his for a brief moment. "He killed them."

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(: Happy reading! :)