The Eclipse Chronicles
Prologue
“Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you…”
-The Holy Bible
The only thing to be heard was the whispering of the cold wind and the sand being swiped all over the landscape. Dark clouds of smog filtered the skies and it had not rained here in decades. Not a single footprint could be found in these desert dunes as not one human being had traveled through these wastelands in centuries.
What had once been a thriving utopia had been left in ruins from the result of a massive war. A rusty old sign stuck half-way out of the ground reading:
WELCOME TO CHROMOPOLIS CITY – POP: 18, 000,000
Buildings had toppled over one another or broken off into separate parts. Plants and vines had overgrown and tangled themselves around any nearby objects they could find. Dozens upon dozens of cars and other vehicles had been left in the middle of the streets, abandoned by their occupants as if by some wave of massive panic. Their glass windows were all cracked and broken and the paint had begun to rust and chip off.
A jet fighter had crash landed in a nearby lake and several tanks had been left smashed and destroyed all over the city. Massive chunks of concrete and metal had been ripped apart by explosions and random bombings.
And if that wasn’t enough to add to this massive carnage, there was a pile of hundreds and hundreds of skeletons stacked on top of one another. Millions dead. Women. Children…
Could this hellish nightmare be… reality?
“It’s not like nobody ever warned them,”
Meanwhile, in a plane of existence far, far away from the human realm, a certain deity was sitting in his chair and thinking about how this massacre all started. It had been a few hundred years since he had taken the time to think about his experience in the human world and how that had made him the demon he was today. His memory was a little hazy… It had been a quite a long time even for a demon such as himself.
The loud echoing of screaming and begging made it hard for him to concentrate. Chains rattled. Pipes dripped. Gears grinded. Machinery roared all around him. This was what life (or death) was like in the Underworld, day after day after day…
The room was dark, just the way he liked it, with a single light bulb dangling overhead. Reaching over to a small pedestal next to him, he had a beautiful basket filled with the most scrumptious fruits a human could desire. He reached in and pulled out a shiny, blood red apple. He remembered the stories his brethren had told him, about the offering of the apple and the two moronic humans who accepted. He supposed the apple was technically what caused the chain of events that led to the humans’ utter annihilation, but not from his perspective, as he had not yet been born at that time.
No, his story began much later… His claws punctured themselves into the apple and its juicy, wet fluid began to bleed out and slip through his fingers. He watched with amusement as the apple quickly withered and dried up. Bored, he tossed it across the room where two hell hounds, massive, savage, hairless brutes of a dog, dashed out of the corridor and began biting and shredding at each other for a piece.
Looking in his mirror, the demon examined himself. He didn’t look too different from a human when compared with the much larger, monstrous entities. His skin was pure white, like snow, and his eyes glowed like two full moons against a pitch-black night sky. His hair was long and silver and reached all the way down to his backside.
He wore a black and white armor made from skulls and bones. He had large quills sticking out of his back like a humongous porcupine, as well as sharp, blades extending from his forearms. He could even have wings if he wished it.
He certainly would stand out in a crowd of humans, but his reflection still seemed to capture the glare of his human face. He could just barely remember what he looked like when he had been human.
He remembered when his Father had sent him to Earth. He remembered pretending to be human, hiding within flesh and blood… Living amongst them, unnoticed.
And he remembered liking it. Being one of them… Living with them in piece… Could his human soul still exist somewhere inside him?
No, he thought to himself.
“I am the Angel of Death. My name is Shade.”
And this was the beginning of The Eclipse Chronicles…
The Eclipse Chronicles
Chapter One
“DAWN TO DUSK”
DATE: October 24th, 2012 AD
It began on a gray, cloudy day in late October. A cold, ghostly wind swept the fallen leafs across the rocky landscape. It was about 11 in the morning and it looked like it was about to rain any moment.
Sitting along the side of the small creek was a young boy. He spent most of his time here, away from everyone else, hiding. He liked to be by himself either to think about things or just get away from the boredom and annoyance he faced in his everyday life.
He was just minding his own business and skipping some stones across the water to pass the time. It was nice and cool under the shade that the trees provided around him. When he had depleted his pile of stones to throw, he leaned over and looked into the rippling water.
His name was Gavin McKane and he was 12 years old. 13 in a few more months. He had an untidy, spiky, light-brown head of hair and grayish eyes. He was a small, skinny boy and was sort of the quiet type. Most of the time, no one knew what was going on in that boys head. He spent most of his days in class staring out the window at the clouds or scribbling in hit notebook.
Everyday was the same old thing. Nothing interesting every happened around here. Maybe life’s just naturally boring when you’re an orphan and have no family of your own. Gavin couldn’t even remember his parents. A few days after he was born, he was left on the front doorstep of the local orphanage.
From that point on, his whole life had been full of miserable scolding and berating from those supposedly good old nuns who worked at the orphanage and the ignorance of the other orphans. But rather than worrying about being able to fit in, Gavin just minded his own business and went around doing what ever he felt like to make himself feel happy. He wondered if he’d ever get out of this place. Where would he go if he did? What would he do?
Gavin felt small raindrops sprinkle down on his uniform. Looking up, he saw a nasty looking storm cloud coming in and the sound of thunder booming. Gavin sat up and began to run back up the hill and towards the orphanage as the rain began to sweep down over him. He quickly ran inside the shelter and closed the door behind him, leaving the storm outside.
***
“Darkness.”
“Revenge.”
“Misery.”
“Death.”
“Destruction.” “Lust.”
“Greed.”
“Anger.”
“Hate.” “Sorrow.”
A million voices. A million words. A million cries and screams. The sound of rattling chains and leaking pipes. The sound of insane laughter and hideous torture. A room full of overwhelming darkness.
A pair of gleaming eyes and a cold, raspy voice.
“YOU ARE MY PUPPET…”
***
Gavin awoke with a start, sweating and panting heavily. His T-shirt and bed sheets were soaking wet from his sweat and, as he felt his face and cheeks, tears from his eyes.
“What a nightmare,” Gavin proclaimed as he swung his legs out of bed and stood up on the creaky, wooden floor. He made his way through the darkness and towards the bathroom down the hallway.
Flicking on a light, Gavin winced. Squinting, he looked at himself in the mirror. His hair was a mess and he was pale white, as if he had seen a ghost. Whatever he had been dreaming about, he couldn’t remember, but it had been terrifying. He remembered looking around through a someone else eyes. Eyes that didn’t belong to him. He had dreamt he was someone else.
But who? Gavin couldn’t remember. After splashing his face with cold water, Gavin began to head off to bed when something caught his eye. Looking out the bathroom window, Gavin saw it was still raining and lightning and thunder boomed on ahead. But he could also see a pair of headlights glowing in the distance. Coming up the road, he saw a Taxi cab park in front of the orphanage.
As it came to a stop, someone in a large rain coat stepped out. Gavin heard them say “Wait here!” as he ran up to the orphanage. It was a man’s voice. He knocked on the front door several times until one of the Nun’s opened it and let him inside.
What was going on? Gavin asked himself as he sat on the side of his bed and opened his drawer. He pulled out his most prized possession: An amulet. It was found around his neck the day he was left at the orphanage. Carved on the back of it were 3 very strange names: Senoy, Sansenoy and Sameangelof.
The amulet was the closest thing Gavin had to his origins and he kept it with him at all times. Suddenly, Gavin heard one of the Nuns tapping on his door.
“Gavin! Open up!” She cried.
Gavin quickly opened the door to find the Nun about to fall over into his room.
“Gavin! Come down stairs! Quickly!” She panted. She had apparently been running all the way here.
“What’s wrong?” Gavin asked.
“There’s… there’s someone here… to see you!” She managed in between breaths.
Gavin could hardly believe it. There was a visitor for him? He almost thought this was some sort of sick prank. But, he decided to check it out. He grabbed his jacket, stuffed his amulet in the pocket and followed the Nun down stairs.
There he found another Nun waiting with the man in the rain coat, who was dripping puddles all over the floor.
“Ah! Gavin!” She cried. “Sir! This is him! The child you’ve been looking for!”
“Ah, so you’re Gavin McKane, eh?” Said the man from underneath his hood. He was very large and sounded pretty old.
“Y…Yes, Sir,” Gavin stuttered.
The man pulled down his hood, revealing his face. He had a long, grayish beard and hair and balanced a pair of speck tackles on his nose.
“Hello.” He said. “My name is Mr. O’Brian…. And I’m here to change your life!!!”
