Red Lightning - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I can hear them, hear their screams as hundreds of blades rain down from magic circles in the sky, the sharp steel piercing their flesh in flashes of red and black. Blood and blades litter the ground, setting the stage for the massacre. I see myself standing amidst the flames, my eyes now glowing blood red in my rage, gleaming in the evening sky. A mild breeze gently blows through my hair and caresses my face, comforts me, tells me everything will be alright. The fire is extinguished and then comes the darkness, in both my heart and my soul. I had become a killer.

For the past few days that nightmare has been haunting me, punishing me by denying me my sleep time after time again. The loss of my family seems to have changed my life more drastically than I had expected, changes that aren’t necessarily for the better. It all started with the explosion. After the blast tons of people came running out onto the streets to see what happened. As soon as they stared at me in disbelief, I knew what I was in for. Those idiots thought they had it all figured out, that I was the one who caused it.

“You’re the mage, you did it!” is essentially how they justified their suspicions. As ridiculous as it all sounded to me, the cops instantly recognised it as the truth when the bystanders told them their version of the facts, probably because they too were afraid of me. I was held at gunpoint, not even given the chance to explain why it couldn’t have been me. I would’ve been used as a scapegoat and held responsible for the incident anyway, regardless of the credibility of any explanation I was able to offer at the time. Furthermore, any mage found guilty of committing a crime is executed in a matter of days. Why? Simply because prison guards wouldn’t be able to do the first thing to stop a mage should he decide to use his powers to escape. I knew I was going to die if I didn’t retaliate, so I did what everyone expected me to do: I killed. Seventeen innocent bystanders and two police officers who opened fire on me were ripped to shreds in a sea of swords, axes and spears. Nineteen people died because I wanted to live, nineteen families that will have to deal with the loss of one of their loved ones. Nineteen families whose hate for mages will only increase, all for the sake of my own pitiful life. A life that I wasn’t even happy with! So why is it that I chose to live at the expense of so many people? Maybe I just didn’t want to grant those people the pleasure of emerging victorious over a mage.

Still, you might wonder how a teenager like myself managed to survive a situation where two cops, both trained in the proper usage of their weapons, opened fire on me? Perhaps I should start off by explaining what a mage actually is. The word itself has recently become a general term used to describe a person who displays any inhuman abilities, but as of right now there are only three powers known throughout all of Europe and North America. The situation in the rest of the world is still one big question mark to us westerners, mostly because some governments aren’t too keen on sharing their information with the rest of the world. Hell, the Chinese government still denies the very existence of mages to their people and Mother Russia still doesn’t get along with Uncle Sam all too well.

Elementals are the most common and as their name suggests, they have complete control over one specific element. While this can be a formidable power in the hands of someone who has mastered his abilities, it’s also the most dangerous power to have as a child. Every now and then newspapers write stories about all sorts of awkward incidents involving kids. Stories along the lines of children accidentally killing themselves (and more often than not, their family as well) in a fire they had started themselves, or dozens of people getting electrocuted in a pool because one of the children just so happened to be an elemental discovering the power to manipulate electricity. Then there’s vampires, mages who temporarily gain incredible physical strength and speed after drinking blood. They’re by far the rarest of all known mages and not much is known about them, but it has been suggested that every single vampire born thus far appears to suffer from albinism. I belong in the last category, the mages known as blacksmiths. Blacksmiths can create virtually any weapon, with the exception of functional firearms. Although this may seem useless in an era where every man and his dog can whip out a gun, blacksmiths are pretty much made to fight up close and personal. If you shoot a human at point-blank range there’s nothing he can do to escape the shot once it’s fired, but any blacksmith intent on living will most likely avoid the bullet and chop your arm off before you can pull the trigger a second time. Most would agree that it’s all a matter of subjective time perception, which seems like the most plausible theory out there to me as well. Just think of some annoying fly, always one step ahead of you no matter how hard you try to squash it.

Powers or not, considering the things I did I decided to flee the city and move into my sister’s house with some of my personal belongings: clothes and electronics such as my laptop, my Playstation 3 and the videogames to go along with it. Even though it pains me to live in the house that belongs to my deceased sister and her fiancé, it’s really the only place I could go and I do feel remarkably safe here. Probably because I’m literally the only living soul in all of Rebecq. When I got here, the entire place had been transformed into a ghost town. At first I had no idea what had happened, but that all changed yesterday. Not only that, but I found out who was responsible for what happened back in Halle, my hometown. A strange man in red, demonic armour had hijacked a local news broadcast by slaughtering half of the crew members and then forcing the survivors to broadcast his message all across the country. He took off his helmet to reveal his red hair and bright yellow eyes before starting to speak. I instantly recognised the voice. The man introduced himself as Lucifer, one of the many Lords of Hell. He then proceeded to explain what had happened, claiming the explosion in Halle was all his doing and was in fact nothing but a cry for attention. I wrote down the rest of his speech, so I’ll just quote him from there:

“I have come to this world with hopes of testing the strength of my men. For centuries I have awaited the awakening of those you now call the mages, anticipating a glorious war for survival. That’s right, I come to you with a declaration of war, good people of Belgium. What you do from here is entirely up to you, but know this: my Devil brethren thrives on chaos and thirsts for battle. Should you fail to quench their thirst, they will surely penetrate deeper into your lands in search of worthy opponents. For now, the area around this city you call Halle shall be transformed into my stronghold. The gates of Hell have been opened, and while humans seeking to test their might are always free to challenge my armies I am especially interested in the powerful mages who now walk the face of the Earth. By now, my men will have rampaged across the town of Rebecq, a sacrificial lamb slaughtered to fill your hearts with such rage that you shall take up arms and fight!”

I knew he spoke the truth about Rebecq, everyone was gone, but had Halle really become a gateway to Hell? I returned to the outskirts of my hometown one last time that day. It was a futile attempt at convincing myself that it was just a nightmare, that it wasn’t real, but it didn’t look like the nightmare was going to end anytime soon. I hadn’t even entered the city and the terrible stench of Death already clawed at my throat, preventing me from venturing any further into the city. I tried to learn as much as I could by observing the city from the highway. An enormous black castle had been raised in the city’s centre, bathing in the dark red glow being emitted from the portal hidden inside the central courtyard. I stared into the gate that supposedly leads to Hell and heard the cries of the dead. Lost souls soared through the sky, seeking salvation, but damnation was all they would ever find. Dark, menacing clouds covered the ruined city in darkness as an otherworldly thunderstorm plagued the skies. Red lightning struck the ground every so often and lit up the streets, revealing the true nature of the destruction that had taken place here. Every flash of light bringing increasingly grotesque images of the slaughter to my attention. I watched as crows feasted on the dead, driving their beaks into the corpses below them and ripping out pieces of human flesh. Hundreds of bodies had been dumped into the canal, turning it into a veritable river of blood. I saw the corpses gently floating in the water as another bolt of lightning struck the ground near the crows, making them take to the sky in search of another meal. At least they were able to benefit from all this.

I drove off, leaving the smell of decay far behind me. I didn’t try to understand what had happened, I didn’t even want to know. I just wanted to return to my sister’s house and get some sleep, perhaps I would wake up and find it was all just a bad dream after all?
_________________