Chapter 0: shadow forming

The 14th century, a time of change, tales of knights and dragons, and an age of helpless romance but that's not where this tale starts. A certain man looked at his child.

'A male child brings joy but this night could not be more bittersweet,' he thought.

The baby was sleeping peacefully in its crib, its parents looking at him with tears of joy, tears of sadness, and welcoming eyes, which also say goodbye, as they walked down the empty grave silent hall, the sound of the people grew louder and louder, coming to gripes that they would soon dance to the song of death, they moved to the soft glow of torches and chants for death and stopped, looking into each other's eyes they kissed and walked down, looking at the mounted crosses, they came out a path made for them to the center where two crosses with a pile of sticks below it lay they were tied to the crosses by their hands and legs and a priest stepped out raising a hand for silence.

"Dearly beloved we are here to seek judgment on a most heinous crime done under our very noses sorcery and witchcraft," the crowd ran wild screaming accusations cursing the couple then once again the priest raised a hand and silence fell "Sickness, crop failure, rebellion and death have been caused by them and so now we will do with them, what we have done with sorcerers like them, grant them death, and a reunion with their master Lucifer, that is, if in their final moments they do not seek repentance."

The crowd cheered in joy "Now I ask you, do you both repent of your sins and seek forgiveness in the eyes of the Lord? As it is custom we send you off with a prayer of repentance or do you wish to die bathed in sin and iniquity?."

"We repent," they said simultaneously

"Now that you have, you may Rest In Peace knowing you have found salvation." the priest after saying this walked back drawing a cross across his chest. Torches were then thrown at the sticks and they burned the cross and their bodies with it, leaving only ash to fly in the wind.

Inside the hospital the crazy woman of the hospital prancing around then suddenly she hears a soft voice calling,

"Abigail."

"Who is that?."

"Your voice of reason."

"I have a lot of those which one?."

"Your favourite."

"It's been a while."

"Don't mind that let's just play a game."

Abigail clapped and jumped.

"Alright now follow my lead, you are going to get  something special at the end, when I say hot you're getting closer, but when I say cold you're moving farther from it are you ready?"

"Yes let's start."

She walked forward then took a right, went down a flight of stairs to the bottom floor, walked straight then stopped in front of an open door, she walked in and looked into a crib.

"Do you want your gift?"

"Yes"

Her mind went blank and for the first time in her life, the voices were silent.

"What am I doing here? Who am I? What happened here?" She looked into the crib and saw the baby sleeping quietly

"Is he mine?" She carried him in her arms and started walking with him out of the hospital...

she walked into a cottage just before the village she stepped, in not knowing what to expect, but felt rest assured. She looked around no one was in and she carefully lay the baby on a chair, and sat on another opposite to it she looked at her hands they were dirty, and she had long uncut nails she got a bath and got dressed in a nightgown she went back to her seat nail clippers in hand and cut her nails

She sighed and looked at the baby

"I remember all this but not my own life?" The baby woke up sitting up straight

"What a weird kid you are," She thought "Since I've already gotten this far I guess I'll just take care of you right eh...." She scratched her head looking for a name

"Natas," a voice said

"Natas" She repeated and shivered

"What was that?" She thought then waved it off. The death of a couple, the birth of a baby, the return of one's sanity, a voice of reason, my master's story is quite interesting isn't it?... Ten years later they lived together in peace as mother and son living ordinary lives becoming friends with everyone... "Mom! I'm going out to play"

"Natas be back before dinner"

He ran out the door his short red hair, he never seemed to brush, and his purple eyes filled with joy small frame ran out. Maybe if his mom hadn't let him out things would have never changed maybe he would've grown up normal.....

"Natas!!" His two friends exclaimed

"Mark, Cherry!!" He yelled back running towards them panting

"You're late," Mary said

"We couldn't have done it without him it would have been less fun," Mark said

"What...did...you...have....in mind?" Natas asked panting

"We need to meet up with the big kids first," Mary said

"Come on Natas," Mark said. And they walked deeper into the forest until they reached a  group of teenagers and a tall oak tree

"You kiddies finally made it I thought you'd chicken out," One said

"What are we going to do now?"Natas asked

"We're going to touch that tree," another said pointing to the tree

"That's boring," Mark said

"You guys don't know, do you? A  long time ago a time long forgotten a man was lost in this forest he walked, and cried out, to no avail, at nightfall, he rested upon the tree hungry and tired, and swore whether God or devil he'll give anything to go back with that he fell asleep and woke up to a man more handsome than any he'd ever seen, dressed in a suit with red eyes, and black hair, which steamed down as silk and was taken by the man back home that story was told later on and half the people praised it as a miracle the other castigated the man of selling his soul people came and made wishes for themselves and they were granted shortly after, they offered sacrifices and even kids it was stopped by the church but they never chopped down the tree terrible things happened so they left it and never talked about it," A girl among them said

"Yesterday at the library I saw an account on it and found it," a boy said

"Go home now if you're too scared, but tell no one about it or else you're going to get proper beatings."

Natas stepped up "So what exactly do we do?"

"Easy you step up and ask if offering whatever it wants," the girl said

"It's glad to see people haven't forgotten about me," A beautiful voice rang.

At that moment everyone froze scared to breathe and slowly turned around to the tree the man fit the description and wore business attire and smiled warmly

"I'm sorry if I startled you people just don't come here anymore so I wanted to meet you," He said. He walked towards them and looked each of them over and looked straight into their eyes.

"Girls, Money, Men, freedom, power!" He blurted "that's what each of you wants, and I would give you for a price of one of you I want the red hair dead," He said

Natas stopped breathing as they all turned to him

"Your mom's cute," one said

"It'll hurt her but I'll comfort her," another said

Natas looked at his friends and they looked away

"Don't be selfish it's one life to help six?" The girl said

The boys grabbed him one choked him from the back and the rest beat him up from the front. Struggling for breath, struggling for consciousness he soon lost strength his eyes rolled up and he was let go dropping to the floor.

"That's not enough disembowel him," the man said

One boy brought out a knife and knelt beside him he brought the knife down, probably a millimeter to touching his Natas' skin the tip of the blade broke, he brought his hand up to look at it and noticed his wrist to his hand was not there and saw them scattered all over the place he screamed and rolled round in agony

"So you really are master?" The man said

The place turned black and white the girl had her eyes pecked out by birds and was crucified to a red hot cross, Mark was seen drowning in a pond legs tied to a metal ball.

Mary was locked in a coffin and swords were pierced through.

The other boys were eaten by every form of animal in every way. And they all suffered for what seemed like an eternity as the man laughed at them and Natas white-eyed had a smile which went beyond his teeth as they suffered for what seemed like an eternity then all of a sudden Natas looked up at a tree an oak tree.

"Where is everyone? What was that awful dream?" The sun was setting.

Natas started running home.

"You and I both know that wasn't a dream," The man said at the tree

"Those kids will be scarred for life how fun," He said and cackled