Masks

Prologue

"There was once a man- a soldier- who was overseas. He'd left his wife and young son back home as he fought... One day he and the rest of the men encountered a forest that was roughly translated from the locals as The Demon's Sanctuary. The men heard their stories but cast the legends of the forest consuming any who entered aside... They were fools." The shadowed figure turned towards me, yellow glowing eyes staring at me as blood dripped steadily from the deep gashes in my side. "Their map was useless and they became lost. Many grew ill from unknown causes and claimed to be seeing things- monsters- around them. Those who were well still did not pay heed to the warnings given to them and believed the cause was an illness caught beforehand... They should have listened."

I couldn't understand where I was let alone what happened to me... I didn't even know who this demon was aside from a brief memory of seeing him maybe once before... but he kept talking and turned to look back at the dark forest bordering the nightmarish, post-apocalyptic city we were in.

"The man also began feeling ill and soon saw tall figures within the trees. These figures had no faces and seemed to make the sickness worse when they were close. He believed them to be demons and urged alongside the other infected that they had to leave... no one listened. Soon after they began disappearing one by one. Others grew paranoid and mentally unstable; they'd attack their fellow squadmates to the point they had to be killed... or in other cases killed themselves... They had no idea what they were dealing with." A sick grin came over his face, revealing sharp teeth. "The man was eventually the only one left. He was starved, lost, and being driven insane. Near the end he found his squad... they were dead. Their bodies impaled high up in the trees with their organs missing... Claimed by death just as the villagers had warned them."

Once more he looked at me. "Go on, Pawn. Ask me what happened to him. It does involve your family after all."

I shuddered, slowly piecing together what the 'monsters' he was talking about were. Not that I understood what he meant about it involving my family- I didn't remember my family. "W-what...?"

"His body was found just outside the forest by the very village that warned the soldiers not to enter. It was hung out in a tree like the others, his face was missing and a mark branded over where his face should've been. The man had found something he called an Ark... something most could never do unless taken there and he'd stumbled into that pocket along with the rest of his squad... They paid for it with their lives and their families'. You are just a remnant of the man's line, left to suffer."

"Is that a threat!?" I snapped, wincing from the pain as I moved. Everything was going dark, growing hazy as I struggled to cling onto life.

"No matter what timeline, what iteration, he finds you... and you serve or die. Nothing more than a proxy... I've said it before- not that you'd remember. You won't remember this little meeting either once the next iteration begins... It won't be long now."