This is another idea I've been tossing around about whether to develop or not.. I was pretty tired when I wrote it so I don't think it's that good x_x feel free to crit harshly!
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The magic-infused glass wall, which had imprisoned me my whole life, now lay shattered upon the trembling grass. A cool breeze whispered through the air, as I lent my foot on one of the glittering shards. Wavering for a moment, it soon broke with a cold, brittle snap.
I’d never really held meaning to the saying that something can be both a blessing and a curse. Well the wall surely fitted the ‘curse’ category, but it had also saved our lives.
I sighed, lifting my gaze once more to the ruptured lands, meters away from where we stood on the low, gloomy hilltop. The once beautiful, bright city of Tristelle now lay in ruin. An ugly, darkened mess. It was like the earth had been ripped apart, tossed into the air, and then thrown back down again into a crumpled, shadow infested heap.
Every now and then I caught a flash of blood red amongst the chaos, brushed across the bodies of tall, darkened figures whose bodies were twisted into monstrous shapes.
Demons.
This was the moment I had waited for, the moment I had always dreamed of in the fifteen years I had been alive.
Finally, we were free.
But all I could think right now was of the cruel injustice that had taken place. Those evil, bloodthirsty demons had turned this place overnight from a paradise upon earth into a living hell. All those innocent lives gone, just like that. And all we could do was watch helplessly from behind the wall as they ravaged through the city, killing, destroying. When the wall, too, had been shattered, it could only mean one thing - that all traces of life in the city had been swept away. Only once the demons had had their fill did they lay dormant. Probably assessing their handywork with cruel, bitter grins.
My hands curled into fists as rage erupted within me.
"How could they do this?" I burst, breaking the silence which had built up around me.
Because they’re demons. My mind answered for me.
A brief silence followed until I heard footsteps from behind.
"Uhm… Jess..?" a voice called faintly from behind me.
I turned to the nine-year-old, as she walked across from our home, which was a simple, two-story house. It was the only place I’d known my entire life. Crissie, with her curling black hair and icy blue eyes, stared up at me intently. In my scrambled heap of emotions, I couldn’t help but to conjure a sad smile.
"I don’t know why they done it but…" she shuffled around her foot, kicking a spiral of dust into the air before looking up once more, "what we gonna do now?"
"Well.." I pondered, staring into a wreckage where a pair of evil red eyes gazed back at me. I shuddered and looked away quickly.
"I don’t know, but we can’t stay here, that’s for sure."
I stared across the hilltop to where Tay, tall, with his chestnut brown hair, stood against the breeze, looking upon the land. His emerald green eyes seemed caught up in conflicting emotions.
After a few moments, he sensed my gaze and turned to walk over.
"I might go down there," he said abruptly, in is his usual calm, reasonable voice, which made it seem like a demon infested wasteland was just a walk down the lane. "Just, in case anyone survived."
I opened my mouth to argue, but Crissie beat me to it.
"Whaaat?" She gasped, reaching forward and grabbing his arm, her eyes were fuelled with terror. "With those things down there?"
"Crissie’s right," I echoed, "I’d advise you didn’t, unless of course you have a death wish."
"How do you know they’d kill us?" His forehead crumpled in frustration. "How do you know we won’t kill them? Why do you think we’ve been trapped on this damned hill?"
I gasped, as realization flooded through me.
"The power seals" I whispered, lifting up my sleeve. A metallic, intricately designed bracelet decorated my wrist. I gasped in shock. The tiny runes, which patterned it, had stopped glowing.
Which could only mean one thing.
Crissie and Tay’s eyes both widened in simultaneous shock, as they too lifted their sleeves to reveal similarly designed bracelets.
"Hey guys!" called a voice from behind, distracting us momentarily from this realisation. It was Russ, his curly blonde hair swaying in the wind as he ran over. A vastly overfilled rucksack lined his back, and as he ran, cans of food and books came tumbling out.
"Let’s get outta this hell hole already!" he grinned excitedly. "Finally we’re free. We could go anywhere! Even.. uh.. Hawaii! Oh, we could even go to France and eat baguettes!"
"Unless you haven’t noticed…" Tay pointed to the city.
"Thousands of innocent people have just died" I glared at him angrily. "And all you care about is bread?"
"Hey, who’s the enemy here?" Russ shot back, "They’re the ones that locked us up, and they’re the ones that wanted to kill us! Who’s side are you-"
"Hello!" interrupted Crissie, steering away an argument, "The power seals?"
Russ gasped in shock as he, too, came to the realization.
With a sudden urgency I began to tug at my bracelet. I had to know the reason. I had to know why the four of us had been locked up from the moment we were born.
"Jess…" whispered Crissie, as they all watched intently, waiting to see what what happen.
I struggled with the bracelet, gritting my teeth as it grated against my skin in my desperation to tug it off. But finally, I slipped it off my fingers and it crashed to the ground.
Suddenly, it felt like all my insides were exploding at once. I felt like I was soaring upward into the sky, and plummeting down at the same time. A strange new energy surged through me as I grappled with my senses to try to control it. My vision blurred as a powerful current roared through my head and, unable to control it anymore, I faded into darkness.
