Prologue

“This world is lost.” said an imp like demon with a Cheshire smile to a chained down, blood soaked figure. The figure had been beaten down so harshly that his bones have been shattered, limbs mangled, left eye burned and gouged out of his skull. Betrayed and imprisoned by his former master and king the forgotten hero remains silent as his demons come out to taunt him.

“Come on, give in to your desires. You're already more dead than alive as it is. Why not go and take some of those that tormented you along for the ride?” hissed another demon as it clawed its way into the world through the shadows, it's eyes burn red like coals straight from a smiths forge.

The knight chuckled at the demons that tempted and poked at his inner and most hated desire, the action of the chuckle that is slowly turning to a laugh sends waves of pain rippling through his...BEEP... body. Wither as the rebounds........BEEP......... of my laughter......BEEP......BEEP.......BEEP.....BEEP.

Stretching out my sore arm I smashed my clenched fist into the snooze button of my alarm clock. Groggy from the sudden unwelcome awaking from one hell induced dream to the hellishly boring nightmare that is ironically called reality.

The day started like every other for the past year before I have to head to school; mainly stretching out all my sore muscles from the pain I felt in my dream, after all, it isn't the first time I have felt pain in a dream, even though it felt like I was dying, hell, it isn't even uncommon for me to experience death in a dream.

After I survived yet another day of torment at the clutches of the apocalyptic Tartarus that even demons try to avoid; I am of course talking about high school. More specifically, in the backwater side of the world people call Astenes, U.S.A.

Though today there is an old spade memorial service at one of the old storage warehouses on the other side of the serpent's river. Apparently it’s being held by the “Hearts” as tribute to their once great rivals. Being the last remaining remnant of the ‘Old Spade’s’ as well as being the older brother of the “King of Spades” it is my duty to attend. My sister, Lily, was the glue that held the gang together, and with her ‘accident’, the gang shattered to pieces, if not for honor, then it’s my duty to give a final farewell to the ones that didn’t make it through the collapse of the “spades”.

On my way to the service I meet up with some of the old gang members who I kept in contact with, despite having converted over to other gangs to avoid getting absorbed into the new spades gang, which attempted to fill in the hole left by my sister.

The serpent's river got it’s name by the first settlers in the area as it winds like a snake in the hills that run through the city. In order to get across the river we need to cross over an old train line that leads to the store houses. The five of us were joking around and talking about how the day at school sucked when we reached the old tracks that was only wide enough to go single file over.

I decided to take point as I was always carrying the least of the group and could help move gear to the other side if need be. About half way across the bridge I heard footsteps running towards me, finding it strange I turned to see what was up, that's when I was knocked down to the cold, hard, rust stained steel of the abandoned train tracks. The hard steel made my entire body ache as I moved to look up. I first noticed Charlie on his knees after running into me but he seemed oddly different than his normal reserved self, he seemed....... excited.

He wasn't wearing any of his usual gang colors that he always wore, in fact he wasn't wearing anything related to the hearts. But he did have something in his hand, but what is it? His hoodie covered the object just enough that it was hard to make out the exact shape.

I felt a sharp stinging pain shoot through the back of my left shoulder. I touched my shoulder with my hand to see what the damage was when I felt a wet sticky feeling; I instinctively brought my hand up into my line of sight. My hand was red; a single word came to mind at that exact moment “blood”.

I touched my shoulder again; and felt around to find the spot with the most blood until I felt a hole that kept pumping the out crimson fluid. I clenched my shoulder with my hand and ripped the sleeve off of my long sleeve shirt, the shirt was under my sleeveless hoodie is meant to keep my tattoos hidden at school, with the sleeve gone I can feel a deep gash going from my shoulder to the mid section of my bicep.

For a moment I hesitated before tearing my sleeve completely off and tightly binding the wound together the best I could with a hand and my teeth. By this time Charlie was on his feet again. He looked at me like I was some sort of animal that he was going to finish off, that was also the first time I saw the small four inch pocket knife in his hand.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together at this point and I had a feeling die hard Charlie wasn't the mastermind behind this attack nor will he be the last to strike. Taking in a deep breath I stood up straight and glanced over at the rest of the gang at the other side of the bridge, what I saw was them glaring back with the same look as Charlie, ready to rush in at a moment’s notice.

Charlie at that moment was looking for an opening to strike at my vitals, the look of his murderous smile twisted made his usually neutral face into a look of a real killer, the more I looked at my former gang member and acquaintance, the harder it was to hold back a smile from creeping across my face, I even had to pull the hood of my sleeveless hoodie over my head to keep it from being seen and possibly scarring him off, well at least not before I could have my turn in the blood bath.

I clench and unclench my left hand to make sure I can still use my hand and arm, because I was already at a disadvantage being unarmed. All I had was a satchel that had my sewing gear in it and a couple medical supplies in a first aid box with matches, some light snacks and my ipod with a solar charger, but then again I love a good challenge.

My fingers all moved with a limited amount of difficulty and I'd have to see what my arm can actually do in combat. Charlie saw that I lowered my guard around my neck area while putting on my pair of no slip climbing/fighting gloves and he rushed in to thrust at that opening, but what he didn't know was that I was baiting him.

He charged in with the knife straight out in front of him aiming right for my neck hoping to get my jugular. Just the action of him charging at me from ten feet away like he was jousting was enough to push me over and start laughing. Charlie probably didn't see or hear my laughter, well not until I grabbed his arm.

I gripped his wrist tightly with my right hand, twisted it sharply clockwise with all my body rolling behind the movement, his arm rotated in a perfect circle, his wrist, elbow, and shoulder cracked as all his joints popped from their sockets. The look on his face changed as it went from the face of a predator to the face of prey right before death.

My left hand came up from the gap between our bodies and smashed into his jaw with a sickening cracking noise as his mandible shattered into pieces between the roof of his mouth and my fist. Blood gushed out from between his broken lips.

My right hand let go of his arm and gripped his face as I stared into his wide, horror filled eyes as they saw my lightly tan face with a broad white smile stretching ear to ear through the gaps of my fingers. Charlie trembled like a leaf in my grasp as I lifted his body off the ground, he knew that out of everyone in the group I was always the last to snap but when I did it left the victims traumatized, well the victims who recovered that is. I brought my face close to his ear and whispered into it with a playful tone “Hey Dandy-Dick, you missed”, his eye's shot wide as I put all my weight into my hip and through him straight off the bridge and into the rolling water below. He screamed in terror before the current of the river consumed his body whole, I broke out into a fit of maniacal laughter when he resurfaced several meters away fighting to stay afloat.

I turned to the rest and shouted “So who's the next to take a swim”.

Fear fell across of Luke's face but Erin and Fred remain unmoved by my act of insanity knowing that it was only meant to shake them up a little so that I could get away. Luke who fell for the threat turned tail and ran as fast as he could living up to his name “Scaredy Cat Luke” whereas Erin walked calmly to the tracks entrance and started the walk towards me letting his large nine inch hunting knives hang from in his hands as there was no need to hide them anymore.

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“So I go from level one Charley to the floor boss fight with only an open threat?” I asked jokingly “hardly seems fair”

“Not really Raven.” he pointed one of his knives at me “if it was anyone else in town then yes, I would be excessive but we aren't talking about the average gang goon that wander the streets, we are talking about the old spade’s “Ace of Death” on top of being the only person to reject all of the “kings” invitations to join their “suits” and live to tell the tale.”

“Do I take that as a complement or a declaration of war?” I replied not really caring for the answer, after all the fact that Erin the “Jack of hearts” was moving meant only that the “king of hearts” has finally decided that having a “Joker” around wasn't a great idea.

“Sorry Raven, but that's the price of being the 'Skeleton Joker'” he answered in a sympathetic way but because of who he is he never let down his guard.

“Ya, I hear that a lot.” I said ready to react to an attack “Let’s get this started”

“Yes. Let’s.” he raised his knife above his head the slashed it down through the air and proceeded to walk forward. I thought nothing of it as I also walked towards him; well not until I saw three throwing knives rushing towards me. The first knife caught my right shoulder while the second caught my hip and the third flew by my neck missing only by a hairs breath and into the river. My hip collapsed under me and I once again collided with the bridge.

Erin walked up in front of me with a frown on his face. “Sorry about this Raven, but I don't have time to deal with you right now so if possible; don't make this any harder than it has to be, just up, and please, give my regards to your sister for me.”

I groaned as the pain of the two knifes still inside of me flared with pain as I moved on my knees. “Ha, that’s a good one. You can tell her yourself when you see her.” I got on my feet and looked at Erin and with a chuckling taunting voice said. “Cause it looks like I'm going for a little swim.” and leaned back over the rushing water.

His eyes grew large and he shot forward in a last ditch effort to hit me but by the time he got his knife around I was already out of his reach and a second later in the icy rolling water.

He glared at the water and screamed at the top of his lungs “Raven you rat bastard!”

That was probably the last time I will ever see them and that city again but I have no remorse and even less regret. Actually I do have a regret. If I knew this was going to happen then I would have gone out with a bang instead of that measly excuse for an execution.

“I won't die here. I can't die yet.” I scream to myself as I fight the current to the surface. The black depths of the river surrounded me leaving only the surface bright from the sun. I am actually thankful for the light because being spun around so much in this torrent of blackness I'm not sure which way is up and which way was down anymore.

After getting to the surface I breathed in so heavily that it knocked me back under the water making me fight to get back up, but when I was back on the surface the water seemed to calm. I looked around the water to see that the shore was almost completely surrounding the pool of water around me.

“Whew. Must have got sucked into a pool along the way.” I sighed.

The water of the pool was still and calm as I made my way to the bank. When I got out of the water and on to the shore reality and gravity hit me. The wounds on both my shoulders and hip had been bleeding out and now left my already weaken body tired and exhausted. The knife in my hip had fallen out and the one in my shoulder was about to fall out as well so I just pulled it out.

I was left with three options at the time one go back in the water and hope the current takes me to civilization, two die like a dog on the shore or three look for help through the forest at my back. As a survivor and an idiot who doesn't know when to roll over and die I choose option three. After bandaging my wounds the best I could with the waterlogged first aid kit that was still miraculously in my satchel which was even more surprisingly still in one piece and washed up beside me.

The hike through back country was tough and long as the ground was slick from a rain shower that happened in the morning, the roots of the trees on the unmarked animal path tripped my heavy water logged military grade black combat boots and it didn't help that they had nail plates and steel toes built in weighing my already tired and exhausted body even more down. My limbs felt like they were made of concrete but still I moved on deeper into the forest.

After hours of walking on the path I turned off on what looked like a dirt road and continued the slow walk in no particular way as I have no idea which way civilization is at this point so I am relying on my legendary, shitty luck to guide me to help, ha, I should have just drown in the river.

After another hour of walking the sun was just setting in the sky and my clothes were now only moist to the touch but I was far too exhausted to even care. The sheer will that kept me going at this point was all I had left in me and I know better than anyone else that if I fall over one more time I don’t have the strength to pick myself back up. So down the trail I go in the blackness of the night, down the centre of the road at a pace that would make a snail cry, you would think with all things considered I would be relatively safe, right?

Well say hello to the legend of the shitty luck reaper. I not only got my foot stuck in a random root in the road, I rolled out off the main route, tumbled down the sloop that lay behind the tree line and then plummeted off the side of the cliff that stood twenty feet above the forty foot tree line before smashing through forty odd feet of tree branches then slammed into the hard clay/rocky soil which broke my left hip and shoulder, as well as my rides, my left knee was flipped the wrong way, my jaw was dislocated, I got a concussion and my elbow on my left side was also flipped the wrong way.

I am so glad at this point I couldn’t feel a thing because of the throbbing in my skull which numbed all other pain or it was all blended together. I reached over my broken body, grabbed my elbow and in the sharpest downward motion I could manage, snapped my elbow back in place so that it was in the right position with a gut wrenching crack.

After I stopped screaming and holding down my vomit, I took my shaking hands and grab a hold of my ankle and knee. I inhaled deeply because I know this was going to hurt, a lot, and as I exhaled I spun the knee around so it was on right, then there was the “snap”, the joint popped back in place, the sound seemed to echo through the forest. After a moment of silence, came a blood curdling scream that sounded so shrill that it had to be an animal, as no human could make that kind of sound. I soon realized that, that very sound was the sound of my voice. After several minute that felt like an eternity, silence came again, not because I stopped screaming, god no, but because my voice had given out.

There I lay on the ground body broken, silently screaming in pure agony, losing consciousness from the pain and blacking out due to blood loss, all while forcing myself to stay awake because if I give in I am going to fade away, and this time it will be permanent, so as the colour of the world fades into the shadows and death start to latch is claws onto me.

Something that I never thought would happen happened.

In my fading vision I can make out torch light and I can hear voices whispering above my head, but chances are that they were yelling or shouting. With my voice gone I couldn’t reply so with the last of my energy and strength I scratch into the tough soil breaking my nails and ripping my fingers to bloody pieces “HELP ME”.

My exhaustion, pain, fatigue and all around lacking of energy caught up with me and my adrenalin finally wore off and I passed out.

The last words I heard before I was completely out of it was “Please don’t die” which was being screamed at me by a young girl that appeared to be about fourteen with a scared look in her eyes and then I blanked out.

Damn I think I died again.