1 Prologue

"Run Chuck!"

Carlos bolted upright, clutching the cross around his neck. It was okay. He was in his room, his home for the past 12 years. It was in all the same shades of gray and white he was now so familiar with. Time hadn't magically re-winded. He really should've forgotten about the night by now, and for a few weeks, he'd thought he had...

That was a wrong assumption, he thought as he quivered at the flashbacks he got every time he closed his eyes.

Carlos ran his hand across his face. Of course, he wasn't the only one who lost family and friends that Night, and even expecting it, the shock of the population drop as well as grief had left Amaris signed for years afterward. The only reason he thought he'd moved on was because he usually did. He was breathing hard.

It was 5:00 AM, he'd have to get up in an hour anyway. Carlos dropped onto the floor, rolled, and stood; 'Gracefully' as everyone said. They thought everything he did was graceful, though he suspected they were doing it because they knew it annoyed him.

Dorks.

He didn't know how not normally getting up was 'graceful' to them. To him, it was just a childhood habit he never got over. It made him feel kiddish. Something from before that Night. Even now, 14 years later, talks of the One Day War are always hushed, people fearing that someone would overhear. He was still breathing hard.

All those things were of the past anyway... It didn't matter anymore. Something that happened 14 years ago didn't matter anymore, no matter how devastating or bloody it was, or whatever the consequences had been.

Carlos groaned and fixed his bedhead. He despised messy hair, admittedly messy anything but he had to admit combing was not his favorite thing to do. He stared at himself in the mirror; His grey eyes after which he was called 'Long Face' until he punched Raven half to death. He'd failed in protecting his first family 14 years ago, but the Dios had been kind enough to grant him a second one.

And he would not fail this time.

Carlos Sanchez Garcia smiled.

And that's when he heard the screaming.

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