Rise of the Omega

ne's

mth to my morning light. I always pictured it to be different-the

yes. A drop of sweat fell down from my forehead. With eac

managed to choke out the words, th

re a means to an end. I needed the location of that artifa

ced right through me. "

was strategy. I needed you to trust me, to give

ing my vision. "So everything

voice full of contempt. "And you fell

al was so vast and searing, pain aching through my

"I don't. And now that you served your purpose

ere was finality in his departure. I just slumped to the flo

would have racked through my body like quick-fire lightning-blowing apart the ve

avy, treading a chore with every step as I walked toward our home. The ac

solace, I collected around me a few cherished personal belongings and began putting them in a bag i

d muttering of the pack in the distance but couldn't stop now. I had to

e was a slice through the middle of my chest. The connec

be when my body was already screaming with the strain. My vis

e human

om, their voices loud and stri

eir rough hands shredding my garments and my skin. I clawed back at them, but my st

rceived as a sort of crude weapon. I cried out, the pain almost blinding. The desperation

d not stop, their n

y breath I took seemed to require an effort. I at last pushed them back with an effort and wearily

ore falling to the ground. Trembl

agged gasps, but the pain consumed all-a t

far above, and I could hear the long attenuated sounds of the

s clutched to my chest, the family necklace be

teetering on the edge of death, my body was

ng dim. My thoughts ran in confusion-only one wish was vi

l in me, on the necklace-the last piece of my past that remained with me. It was my token of

lf to stay awake. There was still a chance, the faintest of hopes, that

new I would not let Lucas's b

s slipped away. I spiraled all the way to the grou

est, with only the sounds of the wood

a tenuous link to my past. The dark cold