Chapter 1: Revelations

"I say to you, she who comes last will be the beginning. Her words will bring the nations to their knees and from this will spring a great darkness.

In her dwells the fate of Heaven and Hell, for the side she stands on will know victory.

As surely as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the end has come. And the bringer of death shall be called the Prophet-- Meda."

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A man with many heads wearing many crowns walkes his horse through the crowd of emaciated people. They bow and scrape their knees trying to get lower to the ground. Bellies bulge, spines show. They ignored the blood that seeps into the ground around them. The smell is suffocating. All at once, the people turn their heads. Looking at me, staring at me, begging me. The man evaporates, leaving me with the people, who surround me, but don't touch. They never touch me. Simultaneously, they open their mouth, words they don't speak surround us. Words come from one but all speak together. None of the words make sense, but their eyes beg me to understand.

"Gold crowns."

"Many crowns."

"So many must bow down, you will bow down."

"All bow down."

"False," The words come from me, but are not my own. I speak to the people; I love the people. The people love me, but I do not know these people.

"False all are false," They whisper to each other. A spark is ignited and spreads. Briefly the people come alive.

"Stand; Stand," The hands that I reach out are mine, I recognize them, but they are not mine at the same time. Here, in this world, nothing is mine.

"Do not fall."

"Must not give in to crowns."

"It's the crowns," They fear them. I can fear their fear; the crowns have power. Power that has been used against the people.

"They come."

"They march."

"They take what is ours," The people are angry. Angry at being deceived. Deceived by the people they trusted. Their nation conquered when they wanted peace.

"Take, take."

"Not yours."

"Love, must love," The anger fills the space. I can feel it, tastes it. They meld it and use it as weapons. Remember, remember love. Love conquers all. All many of evils in their hearts. Love and be free.

"Never take."

"Takes clothes, take food."

"No food," The anger has turned to desperation. The children fall, one after the other. Too hungry to continue. Stomachs bloated, rumbling, still.

"Can't take."

"No food to take," Tears run freely, unashamed. They are angry; angry, sad and desperate.

"Hungry."

"World hungry."

"No food."

"Why? Why?" They beg me to explain, but I cannot. This must happen. Everything must happen. Has too. Faith. Have faith; it will end.

"Must eat." The people scream. No reason, turn on each other. Unfounded. Suspicions. Attack, attack. They fall.

"Blood runs."

"Running."

"Seeping. Seeping," It runs. The earth can eat no more. Dyed red. Everything. Everyone. Death. Surrounding me. No one can see. No one hears me screaming inside.

"No more," They beg. They plead and yet still attack. They do not know. Do no understand. The crowns are gone, but still they attack. Disaster. Corruption.

"Too much. Too much death. Too much."

"Please," The words are torn from my soul. I watch as they fall, over and over again. Coming to life only to be killed again. They hear no more. Feel no more. Want no more. Don't want me.

The waking up in the middle of the night didn't bother me anymore. It wasn't even that they made me exhausted. It was the fact that the visions were so real they made me question my own sanity. After all, how could a sane person dream of death and destruction and come out unscathed.

God I hope I'm not turning into a serial killer.

It's something interesting to put on my dating profile anyway.

What's your name? Meda Chamber. Yours?

So, do you have any hobbies? Funny you should ask, I like long bike rides, running, writing and partake in the occasional vision of death.

Yup, that's bound to attract ever more weirdos than normal. I stretched across the bed and grabbed my phone. Four-thirty. New record. I usually only sleep until three. I unplugged my phone and tossed the blankets aside.

The floor was warm to the touch, thank God. Even though Arizona was mostly warm year round, there were a couple months at the end of the year, when the temperature dropped and could leave normal Phoenicians wishing for the triple digit weather. I crossed the short distance to the bathroom and flipped the switch. The bright florescent light blinded me momentarily, I instinctively reached out, turned on the water and quickly splashed water on my face.

These visions were going to be the death of me, I could already see dark circles under my eyes. I touched one in questions.

Ugh. Cancel dating profile all together. I sighed and wiped my face dry. It's not as if I could have hid them anyway, my face was way to pail for any sort of foundation. Even the lightest shade was to dark. This red hair really screwed me over make-up wise.

I pulled my brush through the wild mess and then bound it together with a hair tie. It'll do, it's not like I was going to run into anyone I knew at 5 am anyway. I hit the light to my bedroom as I walked out and headed to the closet to get dressed. Five minutes later I had my running pants and t-shirt on and was lacing up my Nikes. Today was going to be a long day.

The cool air greeted me as I opened the door. I zipped up my track jacket and locked the door. The morning was silent, accented by the gentle hum of cars and their early morning commuters. If there was anything good that came from these visions, it would be that they acted like my own little internal alarm clock.

The lamp lights cast eerie shadows over the deserted neighborhood. I used my morning runs as ways to clear my head and release some stress, but there was something about today. It didn't feel right. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up and it wasn't because of the cold. I scanned ahead straining to see into the shadows, looking or anything that would be causing this reaction.

I liked to tell my friends that I wasn't afraid of the dark but I was afraid of what was in it. I crossed into the center of the road where the light was more even. I didn't stop, couldn't stop. I don't know what kept me running but I felt that if I stopped it would catch up to me. I didn't know what it was but I know I didn't want to find out, so I ran. I ran around and around my little neighborhood, I passed my house twice but I didn't dare stop, didn't dare look behind me.

I don't know how long I ran but my breathing was coming in harsh gasps and my eyes were pulsing, I felt that I couldn't go on anymore. I ran to the closest light and nearly collapsed into the soothing pool of light. The feeling was still there. Someone was out there, and they were watching me. I hadn't brought my cell phone and I curse the day getting to know your neighbors became a thing of the past.

I stood up and tried to find the source of my uneasiness. The lamp lights created halos of light flooding the streets with yellow light before they were eaten by the darkness.

The one self-defense class I took seemed pointless at this point in time, I couldn't even remember how to maneuver into any of the positions, let alone how to execute them after I was in them. I was alone, on a dark street and something was out there, stalking me.

"Stay calm." My heart rate slowed and my mind cleared. With two words I was absolutely calm. I don't know why; I don't know how. But I felt immediately that everything was going to be OK.

In the next moment, a pop erupted behind me, and before I could turn there were hands on me and something was shoved roughly over my head. I kicked and scratched at whatever I could reach, which wasn't much. Whoever, correction, whatever was out there was staying well out of way of my nails. I heard voices surrounding me, someone tried to grab my flailing arms, instead I shoved my elbow into the one that was holding me. I felt grim satisfaction when it connected with something hard and I heart a grunt followed by a release of air. I reached up and yanked the covering off my head.

The area in front of me was clear, I didn't bother looking behind but tried to run as fast as I could through that opening.

"Not so fast, dearie." The voice was high and feminine, but had a harshness to them that I didn't feel reassured at all. I hadn't gone more than a couple steps when I felt a searing pain rip through my shoulder. I immediately felt lightheaded and frantically reached up to stop the flow of blood I was sure would be seeping from my shoulder, except there wasn't. No tears, blood or rips, and yet I felt that my arm was slowly being torn from my shoulder.

I could feel myself starting to lose consciousness.

"He said not to hurt her."

"Physically. He said don't 'physically' hurt her." The voices were approaching from behind as I slumped over in the street cradling my shoulder. They yanked me up by my searing arm and I screamed as the bag was shoved back over my head. Someone stepped closer, I could smell something coppery in my current state it took me a second to recognize the smell of blood, "No so eager to escape now, are ya?"