Initium (The Start) x Book 1 of "The Divine" Series

Present Day:

The stench hit my nostrils before I could see the cause. It had taken my brain even longer to comprehend the scene in front of me. I couldn't even begin to make sense of it all. Everything happening all at once, too fast to keep up with.

Flames dancing before my eyes, like hands reaching up to the starless black night sky.

A vision of chaos amidst a blazing inferno that began engulfing the city.

Deafening screams of horror and despair from the injured echoing loudly, drowning out the wails of sirens from help that would ultimately fail to succeed.

People fleeing for their lives, running blindly through the streets,

that were thick with black tar-like smoke. I could see them choking upon it as it filled their lungs, their panic stricken eyes widening, as they unknowingly faced their untimely demise.

Heavy drops of rain had begun falling from the sky, like Mother Nature's feeble attempt to neutralise the flames. As if s few spots of rain could stop the fires from below, as if released from Hell itself. As if a small spattering of rain could even try to control them as their wrath clawed through the earth like the Hell Hounds, unwilling to relinquish their control on the irreparable damage ripping through each and every building.

It's insatiable hunger for destruction, leaving nothing but death in its wake. Everything and everyone who would cross paths with it, would all end up in the fiery furnace. Nothing was sacred, no one was safe. Not matter how hard they tried to hide.

Lurking in the shadows, behind the thick bellows of smoke, I watched it all unfold from beyond my physical body. Relishing in the way that I could see it sll. How I could feel it all.

Revelling in the destruction of all of her hard work, enjoying how it was being dismantled piece by piece. Torturous for her no doubt. For once I was uncaring of her thoughts, her feelings, all of her creations will burn, her depiction of her perfect world shattering before her very eyes. Useless and unable to prevent what was yet to come, The pain, the panic, the devastation; all that coursed through this city, through this country even.

This city was just a snapshot of the total annihilation, the impending doom that faced them all. Mirroring scenes identical to this, from all over the world, at this precise moment in time. Even if she was able to prevail though it all, there would be nothing left.

Only a desolate wasteland that I had once called home.

What had taken her over several millennia to fashion, would take a mere matter of minutes to eradicate. Unravelling all of her hard work, her labour of love, by pulling at one single thread.

This would bring the end to the world, to all life as we know it. The world will burn until there is nothing left; relentless in its mission, until everything was scorched, decimated. Leaving in its wake piles of ash as tall as the buildings that had once tall and proud. A graveyard of bones trailing across the lands, instead of the thriving societies she had once lived there. That she had once been so proud of.

All of this may have been started by her.

But it will end with me.

This was not the result of the world-scale war that was on the cusp of fruition.

Not because of the impending missile attacks threatened from beyond the seas.

No, it was not caused by any of that.

The cause of this catastrophic destruction, on this worldwide magnitude was...

Me.

***

POV - Unknown:

"Hello?!"

"What should we do?"

"Hello?!"

"Why don't we try-"

"Hello?!"

"Do you think we should -"

"HELLO?!"

Muffled voices were surrounding me, their presence slowly suffocating me. I could feel my lungs depleting, as if the the oxygen was being sucked out of them as the crushing pain in my chest intensified.

If I was going to die, I wanted death to hurry up and consume me. This arduous, prolonged torture of never ending pain, was something I could not take anymore.

I really did just want to die.

These voices were distant at first, but each time one of them spoke, their voices drew closer. They weren't just growing in volume, their voices were laden with emotions, no matter how handled they thought they were trying to conceal them.

I could hear the urgency in their hushed exchange. I could feel their uncertainty Overwhelming me. I could taste their fear, the salty droplets of their perspiration as they leaned over me, their faces now inches from my own.

I didn't need to open my eyes to know who they were, to know what they wanted. I didn't need to be able to see my surroundings to know where I was or why I was here in the first place.

I knew everything and everyone.

I even knew what was coming, before it had even happened; events that were coming, looming over us all like a heavy oppressive cloud. A series of occurrences that no one could prevent from happening, that no one would see coming, until it was too late.

Life was always the same, like a broken record repeating itself.

Born, contend, die. A continuous loop she had manifested for her creations.

Everyone of us had a predestined fate, myself included.

Truth be told, the choices made throughout our lives, were ineffectual, immaterial, irrelevant, a false hope given to us that lead us to believe that we could change our Fate. But in reality, the journey never truly mattered, we were all heading towards the same destination: to the dark abyss, to the finality of death. One way or another.

As my consciousness returned, it became harder to block out the light, to ignore the warmth that radiated from their bodies that were too close to mine. Too hard to ignore their breath on my face as they learned over me.

It was difficult to remain in control of the situation, knowing all that I knew, unable to prevent the sequence of events that were yet to happen.

I didn't want to wake up, at least not yet anyway.

I was not ready to accept my fate.

I was not prepared to face the reality that would befall upon me, once I opened my eyes,

***

Alice

It was the start of winter when colour began to drain from the world, into a monotonous canvas of grey.

Gone were the songs of birds, which became the soundtrack to life, which harmonised in the wind that softly fluttered the petals of blossoming flowers.

The feeling of dread and sorrow as life wilted and withered under the weight of the oppressive atmosphere and the drastic change in temperature.

The wind that was once gentle battled against branches of centuries-old trees, threatening to uproot them and destroy the wildlife hiding within. Sheltering from the bullets of ice cold rain that would attack from all directions.

Today was an omen of what this season was yet to bring. An omen of what was yet to be discovered, about the world, and about me.

I always knew I was different, that I saw things that no one else did, felt things in a way which was unfathomable at first.

I wasn't your typical university student.

"Move over! Make some space for me" her voice called, stirring me from my reverie, from my observation of the world behind the fogged up window.

The scent of the damp earthy smell radiated from her, overpowering the sweet floral perfume she usually wore.

Reluctantly I tore my eyes away from the dreary scene outside, of the world beyond the bus window, to see who it was that spoke, although I knew the answer without having to look at her, but I did so nonetheless.

A pair of honey gold eyes bore into me like fire. I could feel them piercing into my soul. as I studied her, unmoving,

Her typical platinum blonde hair was now several tones darker and clung to her face like a frame around a photograph. Water droplets beaded at the very ends of her strands of hair, clinging on to the tips, threatening to fall, unrelenting in their desperation. Or to succumb to the gravitational pull which was weighing them down.

Before me, staying with the movements of the bus, unsteady s little on her feet was Effy. My best friend. We known each other since practically since birth.

In this part of town, it wasn't rare or uncommon to known people your entire lives. Once you were here, you spent your whole life here, stuck in limbo here, as if this was purgatory. Everyone knew everyone and families and friendships ran generations deep.

Apart from my family. my parents moved here when my mother was pregnant with me, were fresh meat, new blood. According to her, they had found it difficult at first, to be welcomed into such a community, the whole suburb didn't like change, didn't like intruders.

Although things did start to improve once I came along, once they had proven to everyone that they had made this their home, has shown them that they made no plans to leave any time soon.

Effy's mother was the first one to show kindness to my mother, to include her in the book club she ran, until eventually my mother started running her own little cookery club in the local community centre. The hub of the community. It was supposedly haunted, by some of the mayors from time gone by, who shot himself and his wife.

"Are you moving or not?" She asked me, growing impatient. She had always been the bossy, domineering one between us, I think that was why we got on so well, and what had made us good friends since the age of nine, when we used to talk to the village primary school together, considering at the time she lived three doors away from us.

Now though, she live more to the outskirts of the village, due to a messy divorce between her mother and father. Divorce was a taboo subject in the village, it was 'hot' gossip for years amongst the other housewives and mothers. That was the reason Effy gave me for the move anyway, that the whispers had driven them away, but I knew because her mother that told mine, that she was struggling to afford the upkeep of such a grandiose house in the village.

I shuffled closer to the window, moving my bag and coat of of the seat beside me. The way she slumped down, I could tell she was in a mood with me, annoyed because I had kept her waiting whilst my reminiscent daydream played our,

There was a perk for being as close to someone as we were, for knowing her as if she was an extension of my own self. I probably knew her better than she would ever know, knowing her various mood swings from the different facial expressions on her face. But she would never fully know me for who I am, or know all the secrets I was able to bury.

"You ok?" I asked her, as she shrugged off her sodden backpack, and flimsy denim jacket.

"Yeah" she murmured as she sat back properly in the seat. "You?"

I nodded, as I took in her heart shaped face, pale complexion, the small black smudges of her mascara beneath her honey gold eyes. She was by far the prettiest out of the two of us, without a shadow of a doubt the one all the boys in uni were attracted to.

She has the figure, the height, the defined cheekbones of that of s model. What guy wouldn't they want her? Especially in comparison to me: an average looking girl with ginger unruly tangle of curls for hair, who was both short in height snd in temper.

Despite the her stubbornness, despite the pissed-off look on her face, I could feel her energy, this thrumming of excitement, buzzing within her. It was clear her annoyance with me was only temporary.

Within a matter of seconds she smiled at me, her unable to contain it any longer. "so..." her voice chimed, high pitch snd have you heard about Josh?"