Prologue: Welcome To The Club, Blazing Horseman
~WESTLEY~
* * *
Feelings of approaching doom seemed to cut through the calming dream that captivated my attention - my lips locked on the woman I'd once loved and lost at the hands of selfish beasts. I fought hard to remain in the striking atmosphere, to be lost within the swirling emotions of love and devotion.
My subconscious knew the truth, that this wasn't the reality I lived in - that time and age was far away in the past - yet I clung to every moment until I was awakened to the present.
Today's awakening was abrupt, a loud boom of force rocking my surroundings. I immediately sat up, blinking away the sleepiness as I let go of the romantic moment with my love within the depths of my dreams.
I knew something was wrong based on the sensation of magic floating around us. The temperature was off, the movement of air seemingly different for the time of night, and the odd feeling in the pit of my stomach told me something bad was about to happen.
No. It had already occurred.
"What was that?"
My eyes turned to the woman sleeping next to me - the woman of my present and the one I was beginning to fall madly in love with. She didn't understand the extent of my devotion or how sensational she was - not yet.
Alice H. Blaze.
She was our Blazing Queen and new girlfriend, one we'd bonded with in order to save her from the shattering seal that threatened to kill her. She was the savior of many students at Blazing Academy, risking her life and sanity to save many students from an apparent “mix-up.”
That was all being investigated. But because of the dreams I continued to have of the past I had once lived, I hid away my cautious nature by acting like a sleepy fool.
None of them knew of my paranoia, the fear of losing those I began to love and care for. It was amusing to think of because I was basically setting myself up for failure. It felt that way at least, and now as I sat on her bed trying to figure out what had just occurred, that anxiety shot through me.
I didn't think of it as a weakness, but instead it was the motivation to protect what deserved my utmost attention. As of now, that was the woman blinking her weak eyes, which looked like they could barely remain open.
"GRR!"
My eyes caught onto Cyrus, Alice's familiar, as she raced off the bed and began clawing at the door within seconds. That immediately alerted me that something was terribly wrong, and all I needed was a second to close my eyes and heighten my senses.
My ears caught onto rushing footsteps, sensing the foreign waves of magic that didn't belong to anyone I knew. A stranger in the darkness was in Alice's home - a predator with a purpose that had something to do with the woman I cared for.
What suddenly shot worry and potential fear was the metallic scent that I knew with one sniff: blood.
My eyes opened immediately as energy coursed through my irises. I knew they had to be silver as my magic rushed through my body in preparation for a fight.
Jolting out of bed, I rushed to the door and was already out and moving down the ladder in a swift movement.
"Westly?"
"Call 911 now!" I ordered with urgency, my feet dropping to the ground as I raced to the set of stairs that led to the living room. The scent of blood grew stronger, and the spike of magic told me the intruder knew I was heading their way.
I crossed my arms like an X as I charged my magic in preparation for a fight, but the moment I entered the living room, I was thrown through the air. I went flying and fought to correct myself to land on my feet, but all that did was put me in the perfect spot for the intruder's attack as a black dragon came surging at me.
I cursed and my crossed arms suddenly became my shield as I pushed as much of my magic forward as I could, to protect me from the assault. The room shook from the collision, the impact too much for me to withstand as I went flying back and crashed into something.
My body dropped to the floor as a groan escaped me.
That hurt...
I had to fight to keep conscious as my eyes opened slightly to try and get any type of hint of who this individual was. They looked as though they wanted to finish me off, their body cloaked in black as they pointed something in my direction.
Racing footsteps caught my attention, my saving grace as the surge of energy sprinting towards this very area in the house was enough to make the intruder retreat. They turned away, but that was the moment I noticed the tiny tattoo that was located behind their ear, just below their earlobe.
My eyes squinted while I urged them to focus on the very symbol, and lo and behold, a tattoo of a key approaching a lock that was up in flames was revealed. I took in every detail before the intruder disappeared in a portal of darkness.
I fought to get up, but pain surged through me, which only made me groan yet again. Temporarily giving up on the idea, I let myself relax against the wooden floor before seeing Alice come to a dramatic stop, dropping to her knees.
The phone in her hands went skidding across the floor, but I doubt she cared as her eyes quickly scanned me and she reached out her hands to try and heal me.
This selfless woman.
I stopped her immediately, knowing she wasn't in any condition to spend such energy on me. I decided to distract her the best way I could.
"I'm fine. Did you call 911?"
"Ya. W-What’s going on? Was someone here? Where's grand..." she began to ramble the list of questions before her words suddenly trailed off as we both seemed to peer over to what was parallel to us.
My breathing came to a halt while my eyes expanded as I took in the scene before us.
There was Alice's grandmother, Violet, from what I recalled. She was on the floor while a pool of red surrounded her limp body. A gun was next to her right hand, but I immediately knew it wasn't suicide by her position.
I soon realized it didn't matter because the sign above her dead body only confirmed that this woman didn't kill herself.
Far from it... Someone killed her in cold blood.
It only took a second to read the words in red, which were surely from the blood of the woman below the hanging white banner.
"Welcome to the club, Blazing Horsemen."
The words seemed to echo in my mind, again and again, as I tried to figure out who could have done this. My immediate thought was the very group that was threatened by our approaching takeover, but doing such a thing would easily make them bait.
It also made no sense to make Alice's grandma a target, but there she was.
Dead in the pool of her blood.
My attention was stolen by Alice as she slowly rose up on shaky legs and began to head to the woman's body. I gritted my teeth and fought to sit up, clenching my waist that had to have been injured during the collision, but my physical pain was surely nothing in comparison to the growing agony thrumming through Alice as she stood in the pool of blood over her grandma's body.
"G-Grandma?" she questioned quietly, and I noticed how her hands trembled. Her whole body shook as she fought to keep it together, and she suddenly took a step back as if she didn't want to ruin the scene.
Her breaths were erratic, going in and out rapidly while the movement of her aura went from minimal to ballistic.
Dammit.
I forced myself to rise up, hearing the sirens in the distance. They sounded far away, and even if they arrived, there would be nothing they could do to fix our current reality.