Flist was born into a world where wizards and supernatural beings were not allowed into regular society. This was regulation put into motion by the Coalition Force and its leader, John Markol. Thankfully, Flist’s parents did not adhere to regular societal standards. They resided in a small rural village and continued to practice their ways. Marellea and Stephen Lockwood were happily married and very attuned to each other. She was a Shifter; a person who can open dimensional portals to other worlds and control entities of these worlds. Unlike most Shifters, Marelle resisted the urge to use her powers for darker purposes. Stephen loved to study about the unusual and unnatural since he contained no powers of his own. Having Marelle in his life was a true miracle and they loved to sit together on a rainy afternoon and discuss supernatural creatures and other worlds. Soon Flist’s parents discovered that she had an unnatural ability with Shifting. She was able to see Rifts, or tears, in space and time. Her parents could tell that this would be very bad for their child, but had no other choice but to educate her correctly.
It wasn’t very long until the other villagers started to notice that Flist was turning into something horrifying. Shifters carry a certain horrifying presence with them once they have the power and normal people as well as supernatural beings can tell. Around the age of eight, the other children were afraid to play with Flist and soon she began asking her mother questions.
“Mommy, why is it that no on will play with me at school?” Flist looked up at her mother with her father’s inquisitive dark brown eyes. Her mother was sitting in her big red velvet lined couch reading, an activity that she absolutely loved. She calmly set aside her book, stood up from the chair and then knelt down in front of her daughter.
“Did you try smiling at the other children and complimenting them like I told you?” Her face was full of concern for her daughter.
“I did. I told Jenny that she had nice shoes and I would very much like them if I had them. She then took off her shoes and threw them at me and said I could have ‘em if I left her alone.”
“Oh sweetheart, I’m so sorry.” Marelle embraced her daughter. She knew that it wouldn’t get easier for her, especially in a world like this. She also knew that Flist needed positive interaction with other people or else Flist wouldn’t be able to function in society.
“Well, maybe she’s better off this way, it’s better than becoming a part of that Fascist community of people calling themselves the Coalition and getting away with murder!”. Flist could hear her father yelling from the hidden library door that her parents thought she was unaware of. Most magic users had a hidden room somewhere in their house so they could continue practicing without being easily discovered. It was late at night after her father had come home from teaching the local teenagers in their makeshift high school.
“Darling, I know how upset you get about this, but anger isn’t the way to change things, we both know this. We just need to concentrate on Flist right now. She has to deal with issues that are too impossible for most adults.”
“I know Marelle, I just keep thinking everything will get better soon and it just doesn’t; I feel… powerless. How about we home school our daughter until she can better understand. I can then help her integrate into young adulthood at the high school. A lot of my students can be very understanding and would even be interested to know her.”
They both agreed that she would be schooled by Marelle until she was old enough and then she would be allowed to mingle with the other kids her age.
Years passed by and Flist adjusted very well to society she was able to do a little magic taught by her mother and soon became old enough to transfer into her father’s classes. Just as he predicted, a lot of the other students were very interested in the power that Flist had and treated her like a friend. It was the first time Flist had had friends other than her parents or the books in her library. She began to find true happiness in her friends. She also strongly resisted the darker urges that her power gave her, much to the relief of her mother. For once, her parents finally had full confidence that Flist would grow to be wonderful woman. She learned about the war between the Coalition and the magic users 300 years ago and how it tore the world apart creating rifts everywhere until the Coalition’s machines overpowered magic and the armies drove them out into hiding. Now the Coalition occupies a city called Chi-Town and it is the most heavily guarded area in North America. With this knowledge, she also understood that people may fear what they do not know or cannot control and that the only way to change people was through understanding.
But soon, her theories would be proven wrong. Not too long after Flist turned 16 she was abruptly awoken in the night by loud crashing noises and yelling. Marelle, burst through her room with a panicked look on her face and her lacey white nightgown all disheveled.
“Flist!” a sharp whisper escaped from her lips. Marelle grabbed her startled daughter and quickly ran into the living room where her father held the hidden library door open. “I heard some in here!” a man yelled outside of the front door. They all stared at the door for a second and then Stephen’s hand was pushing Flist through the door with such force that she fell on the floor catching herself with her hands. She heard the door shut behind her and the men outside had forced their way inside the house. Her parents were fighting back, her mother using her magic and her father a rifle. Flist pounded on the door crying out wanting to help her parents desperately. She stopped and looked around realizing that she was in a library full of books she began to go through them and search for a spell, any spell to save her parents. She tried everything she could think of but she didn’t have the time to draw out the necessary ritual circles for a portal. The fighting outside continued and as she tried a summoning spell for the tenth time without the circle something appeared. She could feel an electricity crawling all over her skin, inside her body and it made the little hairs on her arms standup straight. Before her, a single white-blue electric lightning bolt formed slowly dividing in two to make a perfect oval. Bursts of statically charged air filled the room emanating from this rift in time and space. Through the portal she could feel a blistering heat wave that knocked her to the ground. Books sprawled around her she sat on the ground staring up at the portal.
“Hello?! Help! I need your help!” She screamed into the empty portal. When no one appeared she screamed even louder, “My parents are in danger! Please help me!”
“Help you? Why Should I help you?” replied a voice in perfect Demonic tongue. She had studied all sorts of languages and this was definitely one of them and this made her cautious.
“Please, we have to hurry my paren-“
“Hurry? I don’t hurry. I do whatever I please. Besides, time stopped the minute you opened this portal into my world, invading my realm. What could be so important?” The faceless voice sounded aggravated at having been disturbed.
“I’ve been trying to tell you,” she hastily replied, “my parents and this whole village is under attack. I need help and I just don’t have enough power to do it myself!”
“Oh, you power’s what you want is it? Well, that I can give you, but we have to make a deal…”
“Deal? What kind of deal? Are you talking about… sacrificing my life?” Her eyes widened as she realized what she would have to do in order to save her parents.
Laughter boomed throughout the room. It was a terrible kind of laughter that sent shivers down Flist’s spine.
“Why would I want you dead? That would not serve me.” His demeanor was now grave “No. I need you to tell me exactly what you want, I will grant you this and in return, you will have to do something equally as generous.”
“What would you have me do?” Flist was very nervous as she had never dealt with any other supernatural being.
“Well,” the voice paused, “that is to be decided. Do we have a deal or not? You have 30 seconds to decide before I get bored and leave you and your parents here to die.”
“I just have to tell you what I want?” She nervously stammered. She didn’t hear a response and thoughts were wildly racing through her head. Should she take the deal? What would her parents want? She couldn’t think and time was running out. “I’ll… I’ll take the deal. Please. Please give me the power to save my parents!” She waited for what seemed like forever. Nothing. Silence. She screamed into the portal “GIVE ME THE POWER TO OBILTERATE THE COALITION!!”
“That’s more like it”, he responded.
The next thing Flist knew was pain. More pain than she had ever felt in her life. Power was coursing through her veins, more power than she had ever felt before. The power was so strong it began to eat at her life. It felt as if her flesh was slowly ripping off of her bones and melting to the ground. All she could hear was a deafening roar in her ears. Maybe he did decide to take her life, she was dying, and she could feel every part. She was losing consciousness and was awoken by a loud painful voice. Her ears hurt from all the noise.
“You had better use some of that power or else you’ll die. Concentrate on what you need to do.”
She gathered every bit of strength that she had and concentrated on killing the men in her living room; she hoped her parents were still alive. With all the strength she had she muttered “Kill… them…” That was the last she remembered.
The next thing she felt was the sun beaming down on her face. She opened her eyes to see the blue sky above her. ‘How did I get outside?’ she thought ‘Maybe I was sleepwalking, that would be another interesting development for father-‘she stopped remembering the events of last night. “FATHER! MOTHER!” she cried. She picked herself up off the carpeted ground and looked around. Her body ached with every movement. Looking around she was filled with horror as she realized that she was still in the library, well, what would now be known as the ruins of her mother’s hidden library. The roof and walls had crumbled leaving remains of furniture and father’s precious books. The entire house had no ceiling or walls. She could see straight into her room from the library. She ran into the living room as fast as she could, scrambling past the fallen walls as quickly as she could to get a good look. She froze. Dead bodies were piled under the rubble. No one was alive. The Coalition forces were dead. She continued to frantically search for her parents when she saw them. They were dead. Crushed under the sheer weight of the building or shot by the Coalition forces she wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter they were gone now. Dropping to her knees in front of their lifeless bodies she struggled to get the fallen ceiling off of them but it was too heavy. She laid her head on her mother’s chest and held the lifeless hand of her father, imaging they were with her again. Silent tears rolled down her face as she stared into the bright blue skies.
‘How could this happen?! We were so happy together. So tolerant of the Coalition. We never struck back at them…’ She bolted upright at the thought. Calmly, she stood up, walked over to the first Coalition man she saw, picked up a piece of rubble with both of her hands. Then she raised it above his head and brought it down with terrifying force. She heard the wet, sickening crack and psychotically continued to forcefully smash the rock into the solider until there was nothing left, yelling and crying the whole time.
Covered in blood, she stood up and walked through the rubble to where her mother’s room should be. She grabbed her mother’s special ritual cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders. Then she headed to the library grabbing her father’s favorite book on demons and monsters. When she was finished she rummaged through the rubble and pried the wedding rings off of her mother and father. They were special rings Stephen had made out of what appeared to be an indestructible, black stone. She quickly slid them both on her left ring finger and left the remains of her house.
As she stepped out, she looked around the village and terror washed over her. All the houses were the same. No roof, walls crumbling, everyone dead. She killed everyone. Still covered in Coalition blood she rummaged through homes taking small items that she might need and a map. She needed to find the nearest town and quick. Something changed in Flist that day. There were so many killed. All because of the raid that the Coalition did, or at least that is who she blamed. ‘It was all their fault and they will pay, every last one of them.’ Flist gathered her belonging and headed west.
0 comments:
Post a Comment