Guardians: The Last Elder

Prologue

The night was cold and dark and a strong, chilly wind threatened to blow away the few leaves clinging desperately onto the branches of the trees lining the cracked sidewalk. Melted puddles of snow splashed as Lukas hurried down the dimly lit path, shivering. He clutched his coat tightly against himself, trying to save his body heat. But the cold slowly and insistently seeped into his skin and down into his bones.

He stole a glance at his wristwatch and grimaced. Few minutes were left until midnight. Maybe a drink with Eric at Barry's Bar wasn't a good idea after all. He quickened his pace, eager to end this day with a good night's sleep. Quite abruptly, the streetlights illuminating his path flickered. He stilled for a second but then dismissed it and walked on, knowing his house was just a few blocks away now.

Suddenly, he had the most unusual feeling of being watched. A chill spread down his spine, making him stop in his tracks. His senses were tingling, to put it in a way. He kept himself alert, as he has been trained to do, and listened for any sort of footsteps or maybe even breathing, other than his own. But all was quiet. A little too quiet. 

With his heartbeat escalating, he turned around and his eyes took a long sweep of the area. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he was about to turn back around and head home, when he heard a faint whisper.

"Lukas...." a voice murmured, ominous and cold. At that exact moment, all the streetlights went off simultaneously.

Lukas straightened, his hand instinctively going inside his coat pocket where he kept his small dagger hidden. He called out in a loud, deep voice, mustering as much courage into it as possible. "Who's there? Come out right now!"

A throaty chuckle rumbled through the empty street. He turned towards the sound, whipping out his dagger even as his hand trembled.

"I said come out this instant!" he demanded.

"As you wish," the voice replied with amusement. But it seemed to come from the exact opposite direction from where Lukas had heard the chuckle. He turned around, his stance poised and his dagger at ready.

A figure appeared, but from neither of those directions. It instead emerged from a narrow alleyway, hidden in the shadows of two tall buildings. He was dressed in a long trench coat and a broad-brimmed hat that covered his face. He silently glided forward, as if his feet were barely skimming the ground. Despite the hat veiling his features, Lukas spotted the malicious smirk curving his lips. 

When he saw the figure, Lukas knew who he was. Of course he did. A demon. And one of the most dangerous out there.

"What do you want?" Lukas snarled, trying to sound brave. "I have nothing to give you!"

"Oh, but that is not true. Not true at all," the figure murmured, his smirk turning into a grin. "You have something very valuable that I seek."

"What are you talking about?" Lukas said, staggering back a little.

"Your blood," he whispered, his voice carried by the wind. "Your blood is what I seek."

Lukas drew in a sharp breath and lunged at him, his dagger out. But someone gripped his wrist in an iron-hold, halting him. The hand was skeletal with pale, dry and chapped skin stretched across the bones and sharp, ragged nails protruding from the fingers. Lukas felt his hand getting numb and turning to lead. The dagger dropped from his grasp and he jerked back, falling onto the road, cradling his hand. A dark form hovered above him, dressed in a shabby, torn black cloth with a giant hood covering its face. Another similar form joined it.

Lukas shivered uncontrollably and tried to dive for the dagger lying just a few inches away. His fingers had barely grasped its hilt when he felt the same sensation of numbness spread through his leg. He turned around, just as the form started dragging him with his leaden leg. He felt stings shoot across his arms and legs as they scraped against the rough tarmac. Screaming, he threw the dagger at the figure, his aim still precise. It struck the figure at the leg. But it just stopped and plucked out the dagger from its skin, looking completely unhurt.

However, it gave Lukas enough time to stand up in his legs, although he felt unbalanced. Without any more weapons at his disposal, he readied his fists, recalling his years worth of training. He wouldn't go down without at least putting a fight. 

Suddenly, a sharp ache spread from the small of his back to his spine and down to his legs. He dropped to his knees, his eyes widening in both pain and surprise. His back arched and he fell on the ground, hitting his head with a resounding clank. His vision blurred as he gritted his teeth, tasting blood. He writhed and thrashed as the agony invaded every inch of his body. 

He watched his hands in horror as his veins turned black, threatening to burst against the strain. Tearing open his shirt, he saw a similar sight. He tried to scream but invisible hands seemed to be clawing at his throat, shredding his insides slowly. From the peripheral of his vision, he saw the figure in the trench coat, standing a few feet away, now flanked by the two other hooded forms.

The figure walked forward calmly, his right hand stretched out with his palm up while his lips moved and uttered words in a strange, foreign language. Black, swirling rays emerged from there and creeped towards Lukas, slowly soaking into his skin and sending another round of pain. Lukas clawed helplessly at the ground below, his nails scratching against the asphalt when the figure knelt beside him, a sinister dark smile twisting his features.

Lukas attempted to crawl away in a last effort to escape, but in futile. The figure gripped his arm tight enough to draw blood. Abruptly, his pain ebbed. So did his vision.

Before the void of blackness could claim him, he caught sight of a sharp blade in the hand of the figure, glinting harshly in the moonlight. 

Fun fact: I'm a pantser. Well, that's not the fun part. But I started this novel with absolutely zero clue about where it's going to go. Like, seriously, all I had in mind when I sat down before my laptop was the line 'The night was cold and dark...' 

And even that line came to me because I was watching Goosebumps. Remember the part where the author in that movie sits down to write a book to save the day and everything? Haha, yeah, gotta thanks Goosebumps for giving me inspiration to write an entire novel with a sequel.

Anyways, if you enjoyed the prologue, don't forget to vote and leave me a comment on your thoughts!