Chapter 1

A Chapter by Angelwolf

Ages ago it seems to me now, we were young and wild. We ran as far as we could to get away from everyone who knew us. Never willing to stay in one place for too long. Always on the run from those who would recognize who, or what we were. City lights always fading away and coming into view again. It was exciting and scary all at once. We ran until the world ended and its inhabitants cried out for us to save them. The day everything changed was the day the humans finally realized that there were things in this world that they had forgotten.

With a great thunderous crash we were revealed to the world. The humans saw normal people freaking out. We saw energy flying through the air and killing humans and our kind alike. When the dark decided to hit they hit hard and without discrimination. They didn’t care who was hit so long as everyone was scared. The light tried do fight them off and protect the innocent. Edgar, Selene, and Jericho joined me on the front lines. For this battle we helped the light.

We stood for balance. Neither light nor dark. If it meant balance between the humans, the light, and the dark, we were for it. This blatant attack on everything by the dark was not ok with us. We worked in tandem with the light to push them back into the gutters they crawled out of.

It wasn’t fun (for some people) and it wasn’t easy. There were many casualties on all sides, mostly humans and buildings. Once we pushed the dark back and knocked the leader on his a*s, the light wanted dominance over all things too. We fought them to a standstill, and got them to listen to reason. With a little help from on high, we managed to convince them that a literal utopia is impossible. Humans can’t survive in a perfect world. They gave up and all that was left was chaos.

Those few non-humans that weren’t involved in the war were wreaking havoc while we were busy. Most of the humans were hiding and trying to maintain order. They were failing. They were so afraid in those first few years. Normal looking people, your mail man, the lady next door, your bag boy, on the news we saw them turn in to beasts and animals or sprout wings. Humans were in shock and expected the government to protect them. Then they were shocked when the army couldn't do anything against these strange beings that used to be our friends, family, and neighbors. People turned against their closest friends. Betrayal was in the air and if you were even the slightest bit suspicious you were gone. Those who might have helped were too scared of disappearing to do anything. Every country turned into some kind of communist fear state.

We spent those first years after the war underground, hiding from the government. We did what we could, taking out a few of the bad ones when they crossed our path. Those of us who wanted peace and those who wanted death and chaos; became like two rival gangs.

Hiding was hard for those of us with a conscience. We wanted to help, but the government thought that since one was bad they must all be bad. Not soon enough they started to ask for help. It was a last resort we could tell. Most of the more paranoid ones said it was a trap, but we decided to give it a chance. I gathered a few brave souls and walked right up to the nearest army official.

They took our picture. My three best friends and I didn’t smile. We were still afraid that it was a trap. It seemed that they were really so desperate, and maybe a little scared. We had a good laugh at that. If humans weren’t so closed minded to begin with it wouldn’t have gotten to this point. Most cities and small towns were dust by now. The bad guys had targeted the major ones first. The main part of the government had fallen back to safer locations. We had to go to Iowa to meet with the president.

He was taller than all of us. He looked like a man that aged too much in a short period of time. His family was lost in the clash. He is wearing nice clothes but somehow still looks worn thin. He looks at us looking at him. He looks a lot less worried about the meeting then we do. Most of the lesser ones are standing around like deer in head lights. My friends and I walk forward.

“Hello, my name is Sam.” I extended my hand toward him. He looked down at my sharpened finger nails and slender arm. He only hesitated for a moment before taking my hand in a firm hand shake. “Hello, Sam. I look forward to working with you all. I hope that we are able to begin a new era of peace together.” I nod my head, and look back at my friends. Edgar looks stoic as always. Jericho is holding were her sword usually hangs, and Selene is studying the men in the room waiting for them to attack.

I introduce them all and he tries to shake their hands, but my group just stares at his hand waiting for him to pull it back. He seems to understand their resentment towards him. He nods his head and moves on to the rest. They all say small comments about how they hope everything works out. The fake smiles from some of the secret service makes my skin crawl. I look at the others. They are all busy waiting for orders. I stare back at the humans. They don’t want to work with us they think we are freaks. The president moves back to the front of the room to address the whole group.

“Now for starters, we have rooms prepared for you all. Your food and lodgings will be taken care of from now on. General Cass, will be your liaison. If there is anything you need you let him know.”

I stepped forward. “Sir, no disrespect, but we have our own arrangement. We have it set up just so and you can’t recreate it. It’s the first home most of these people have had in years. We will not move. If you like we can have the general over. He can come see how things are, but we will not have any more people than necessary knowing where we live. You can deliver food to us as well, if you wish. We could also use a few basic things and weapons.” I looked back at my people most of them were nodding in agreement.

The president nodded. “Alright that’s fair. General, are you still up to it?”

The general stepped forward. “Yes, sir.” He looked forward to me. “Is there anything else?”

“Yes, we will need you to sign a contract, and swear an oath that you will never betray our secrets. If you are uncomfortable with this I’m certain that Mr. President can find someone else for the job. Secrecy is our biggest deal breaker.” The general looked a little nervous.

“I think that for the sake of peace, I am willing to do almost anything.”

“Thank you. We were hoping that you’re commitment would match our own.” Most of the people in the room smiled.

After that day our pictures were passed around to what remained of the media. Other countries started asking for help from the “others” in their areas too.

That’s what they called us, in general. “Others” They broke it down when necessary, but mostly that was it. Some took offence to it, equating it with calling a black person a colored. My group and I didn’t much care. It wasn’t the worst thing they could call us. Even if they did tend to say it like it was a disease, or a curse. Like just thinking about it meant that you need to cross yourself and say 10 Hail Mary’s.

I was on watch when the General arrived the next day. He stepped out of his worn out military hummer and looked up with obvious concern on his face. I couldn’t tell if it was for us or himself. I stepped out of the shadow on the second story of our home and leapt off of the building, to land between the doors and General Cass.

“Welcome General.” I said as I sauntered up to him. He seemed a little taken back at my little display.

“Hello Sam. I brought a few provisions, but mostly I came to familiarize myself with the route.”

“That’s fine.” I said pulling a piece of rolled parchment out of the small bag on my back. I laid it out on the hood of the jeep and used loaded clips to hold the edges down. When I noticed the General pull out a pen I held up my hand to stop him. “No I’m afraid this MUST be done our way. “ I said as I pulled out a quill and a broken shot glass. “I need you to cut yourself and put the blood in the glass. I know it may sound cliché, but you must sign in blood with your full name.”

The General gave me a slightly worried look before he pulled out his knife. He sliced open the side of his left hand and let almost a table spoons worth drain into the glass. I nodded when he looked up, and handed him the quill. He signed his name Butch Michel Cassidy. I watched the blood sink into the paper. It was clear and bright red with no contaminants. Once it was set I put everything back in my bag. “Ok now we own your soul for all of eternity.” General Cass froze and stared wide eyed at me. When I began to laugh his shoulders relaxed. “No I’m just kidding it just said that if you ever betray us for reasons within your control you will burst into flames and your dick will explode.” His shoulders immediately tensed up again. “Well now that that’s taken care of.” I pulled a small mirror out of my pocket and waved it toward the compound, and people started pouring out of the large front doors. “Now you can meet the rest of the family.” I smiled at him and lead him into the building.

As we walked through what seemed like a small farmers market, as we began twisting though the crowd, I explained.

“Ok so I know it looks like a lot, but it’s actually just an overly crowded small space. We started with the church in front and just started adding onto it. We had to use a lot of really old magics to get a lot of these buildings up in here. I don’t actually know how it all worked. I just help run the place. So do you have any questions?”

General Cass looked away from the relocated buildings and turned his focus back to me. “I see now why you don’t want to relocate, but we could help so much more if you would let more of our men in here.”

“You may think so, but I assure you that we have almost everything we need. We do come up short in some places though. Although we use old and new magic to help with plant growth, restructuring, and protection, we still come up short for supplies. Not everyone here can protect themselves, so we can’t really go out looking for supplies. We also make it a point not to take from humans. Therefore if you guys are going to give us help we are going to help you. Things are going to have to be simple to start. Magical people can be just as skeptical as humans. Most of the major players in this place need to be here to protect this place. Everyone else is either working with you, or trying to help survivors. We bring in one or two a week. It used to be more.”

I looked down in defeat at the thought that there probably aren’t many more out there. So many lives lost. There used to be over 6 billion people living and loving in this world, and now there was MAYBE almost one million. Though many people were still dyeing every time we turned around, and no amount of magic could change that.

General Cass and I entered the building at the center of the compound.

“This is our “headquarters”. I guess you could call it that. We do all the round table crap here.”

General Cass gave me a quizzical look. “Round table?”

“You know like King Arthur. Most . . . Well actually everyone here is under the age of 30. It makes things a little goofy, but we make it work. Also some of the people on the counsel are hardly adults. Similar to the human way, things are decided by power. The difference is a child can have immense power. You don’t have to be 80 and staring down the barrel of retirement and death to be taken seriously. If you can defend your position, you can have a position. Sure there’s kind of a vote, but mostly things are taken care of by whomever can take care of whatever it is. For the most part Edgar, Selene, Jericho, and I seem to be in charge.”

Furrowing his brow General Cass asked “Seem to?”

“Well somehow I ended up as kind of a front man. Like I said there isn't really any kind of election. My friends and I stepped up to fight, next thing we knew everybody was looking up to us. The others are most likely up stairs. Oh I hope you’re ready for a work out. It’s a long way up, and you can’t fly.”

“Is this a light house?”

“Uhm. . .Yeah. I think we gankte it from somewhere in Maine.”