Chapter One.
Shattered Republic ( Part 1).
The skies of Rein City were golden , the fluffy clouds appearing as massive towers gating the slow sunset. Beautiful.
A young girl , probably around thirteen years of age , thanked the shopkeeper for the loaves of bread that she had sold her.
“ Your welcome dear , now run straight home and don’t take any naughty detours. Don’t forget to say hi to your mummy for me ,” the kind old lady replied as she watched the little girl skip across the street .
“ Oh how the little ones flow with energy,” the old lady smiled.
The girl was obedient and she took the path that led to the suburbs , where the city residential buildings were located. Here , the number of cars passing by was drastically reduced.
Their house was the third on the seventh street , unmissable from the fact that it was the only one with red roofing tiles.
The door was open , which surprised the little girl. But she quickly brushed off the feeling when she remembered that her mother had mentioned that she’d be coming home from work earlier than usual.
She salivated at the thought of gorging down on the delicious snacks she would have brought her.
“ Mummy mummy , Madam Gilbert said hi to you when I went to buy the bread. Oh , and school was really great today. We have a new teacher and she promised to buy candy for everyone tomorrow ,” the girl dumped the light carrier bag on the carpet and leapt for the remote control on the couch. Her favorite show was just about to start.
“Mummy , the power’s gone . I’m gonna miss watching Snow Bear again ,” she complained ,sulking and blowing off a strand of her blonde hair that had fallen out of place and was obstructing her face.
A loud crashing sound came from below , from the basement , like that of heavy equipment falling over .Not long after , the continuous sound of splashing high pressure water followed.
It reminded the girl of seeing her father trying to repair the washing machine down in the basement the previous morning.
“ In the meantime , avoid coming down here,” her father had said , referring to the basement. He had not completely fixed the appliance and he feared that his daughter might get hurt.
A horrific scream , that of her mother , followed. It was a loud blood curdling cry , one that was so loud it felt like her mother was standing right next to her. Literally.
The little girl panicked , quickly grabbing a pillow and hugging it tightly against her body.
“Mummy,” she squealed , the sound barely audible .
She heard sounds of a struggle , before everything went stopped. Quiet.
The girl waited , and long minutes passed without anything else happening.
The tension gripping her muscles gradually started wearing off and she was finally able to release the pillow. The girl felt a sense of relief , and decided to check on her mother.
She had made a mistake .
Deciding to go down the basement to find out what was happening was the last thing she should have done. Her life would have been spared had she just walked out of the main door and waited for twenty more minutes.
The mages dispatched by the government would have definitely found her since their house was on the mages’ planned route. At least one person from the family would have lived. Her father , though not present in the house , was going to perish in the city anyway.
The stairs that led down the basement were metallic and old , each step causing loud resonant taps that reverberated throughout the room. The girl stopped herself when she saw that the floor of the basement was flooded. She at first thought that this was the leak she had been hearing.
She caught her breath , literally , when she saw trails of blood floating on the water , spreading across its surface in long fibrous strands. She turned on her torch ,trailed blood with the light and it led her eyes to the drenched motionless body of her mother .
She was facing the other side , standing and staring blankly at the wall.
Her grey vest was drenched and partially shredded ,which allowed her daughter to see the large bleeding arc across her back. The flesh was sliced clean through.
The mother’s right hand was gripping a long slender shard of glass . This shard had already dug underneath her skin and warm throbbing blood was trickling down her clenched fist .
She did not feel the pain , she couldn’t.
“Mummy , is everything okay,” the girl stepped into the water , her feet sinking ankle deep. She placed her torch on a stool , positioning it in a way that could illuminate most of the room.
She was about to call out to her mother again when the woman suddenly turned .
"Huh," the small girl gasped.
Her mother's face , pale and bruised , immediately came back to life when she saw her little daughter , standing innocently in front of her.
She quickly dropped the shard she was holding , fearful of scaring the little girl.
“Honey,” she whispered to her daughter. It was clear that the little girl was oblivious to the danger around her.
The glass shard sank quickly into the water , and as the blood on it dissolved , the glass was able to reflect a hazy dark figure silently gliding across the ceiling.
“Come here sweetie , don’t worry your mum is right here with you ,” the woman kneeled and hugged her daughter’s small body.
Her daughter put her hands around her mother cautiously , weary of touching the gaping wound across her back.
The mother was relieved by having her daughter in her arms , but the little girl was not. Not when she could see a dark menacing shadow concentrating on the wall that her mother had been staring at.
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The Prestor Group company building sat prominently at the centre of the Rein City , the capital of the Rein Republic . It was just next to the Parliament building.
Inside , the employees were doing the home stretch just before work hours were up and they could go home to their families. Some to the nightclubs .
Jack Kamphar sank slowly into his office chair and pulled out his mobile phone . The work had been killing him , and he decided to go through the notifications that may have arrived. Perhaps a text from his mother.
"There aren't any , " it was a slight disappointment.
“I’m warning you , one day Timothy will come and find you throwing a tantrum mid game . Wait till work hours are up to start grinding on your account,” Linzy Chase said as she walked over to his desk with another file of documents to pile onto what he already had.
She thought Jack was planning on playing a few rounds of Call of Duty. It was a work hobby of his that he used to turn to whenever the work had exhausted him .
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“Just give me time , I’ll soon rank up and catch up to you. I’ll even surpass you,” Jack said, his thoughts far off the subject , tormented and wondering when he would ever get done with the new workload that Linzy had brought.
"Looking at another all-nighter ," he thought .
“ I thought last night’s 1 v 1 would set things straight,” Linzy reminded him of how she had wiped the floor with him in the game, shocking every member in the clan.
She had threatened to post the game results on her Whatsapp status to cement that fact , a threat Jack knew she couldn’t see through.
Truth be told ,Linzy just enjoyed Jack’s company , something which she never quite felt like she was getting enough of.
“ You know there is a life outside that small screen . Take Linzy for example , she knows how to balance things in the real world and still kick ass . Your ass ,” Hamilton spoke up from his corner desk, stretching his hands and doing a big yawn after finally having completed his quota for the day .
Jack let it slide , his mind was too overwhelmed .
“ Shit , it’s the boss,” Linzy noticed as she was getting done with Jack.
Timothy Chester walked slowly yet meaningfully , letting his presence fill the room gradually and methodically. Most of the employees caught their breath , hoping that Timothy’s attention would not fall on them. The man had a tongue without filters and he hated slackers above all else.
Timothy smiled at beautiful Linzy, glad to see her dutifully performing her roles , then his gaze fell upon Jack who was seriously engaged with printing out the soft copies of documents on his computer.
The boss grunted grudgingly , he had hoped to catch him unawares.
“ Keep up the good work Kamphar , I like the ethic. And Hamilton , find something meaningful to do when you’ve finished your duties other than reading that useless magazine.
Help out Linzy or even Jack with his work , be productive,” Timothy left the floor , feeling unsatisfied . He would have to go to the other floors and comb through the offices till he found a slacker to yell at.
The air in the room finally relaxed when the man was finally out of sight.
“ So will you help me out?You know I wouldn’t ask unless I was really out of it ,” Jack turned to Hamilton.
“Make it worth my time,” Hamilton demanded , willing to help out his friend but still reluctant to turn away from his magazine.
Jack’s face turned sour.
“ Help him and I’ll owe you one,” Linzy stepped in. She made herself sound earnest and sympathetic , but Hamilton knew she just wanted to buy Jack time so he could play video games with her.
He smirked ,“ You can do better,”
“It will make Cynthia happy ,” Linzy sprinkled more icing to entice Hamilton . She couldn't bother to hide the scheming grin.
Cynthia Snow lifted her head immediately when she heard someone mention her name. After a brief search , her eyes fell on Linzie and Hamilton. Hamilton saw her and waved his hand. Cynthia’s face flushed.
“ How much work is it,” Hamilton yielded and stood up , walking towards Jack .
Linzy had deliberately gotten Cynthia involved , knowing that Hamilton could not let Cynthia catch him being anything else other than a caring kind hearted loving gentleman. Peak blackmail.
“ I really appreciate you helping me out , Hamilton. I’m feeling a slight headache because of staring at the computer for so long , do you mind starting out while I take a few minutes to relax?” Jack thanked him.
He knew exactly what Linzy had done and would have joined in the fun had it been any other day.
Hamilton’s face contorted as a million repugnatives swelled up in his mouth. He looked back and saw Cynthia still smiling at him.
“Take all the time you need,” he smiled at Jack.
Jack had not been lying about the headache though. For the past few days ,he had been getting insane migraines every time that he looked at any computer or television screen.
Phones were slightly better , but no paradise either. Over time the pain had gotten worse to the point that normal painkillers weren’t able to do anything.
He had gone to normal hospitals and when that had failed , he consulted the mages hospitals. No one could help , all they gave was useless medicine that cost a pretty dollar. Always make a profit.
This was the reason he was falling behind on his work , and also why Linzy had been destroying him in video games.
Today especially , the pain had elevated to a new level . It was literally taking everything he had to remain composed. After all ,he could not have people worrying about him. He was a grown up adult , and everyone else had their own matters weighing down on them.
He left the office floor , acting calm as his brains raged a storm . The washrooms were right around the corner , and Jack needed to splash his face with cold water. It often helped relieve the pain.
“It’s like I have something growing inside my head ,” he thought to himself. The hospitals had checked him for brain tumors and nothing had come up.
When he got to the washrooms , he found his boss already there.
Timothy was smashing his fists at one of the toilet doors with a half smoked joint between his fingers . He was seriously pissed off at something , or rather someone.
The smoke floating in the air worsened his headache , one of the many reasons Jack was a strict non-smoker. Hamilton was another story , though he had recently started making efforts to change. Cynthia was doing some serious magic on him.
“You saw nothing,” Timothy turned to him , his pride wounded at having one of his employees see him in his deplorable state. It was also against the company by-laws to be found smoking while at the workplace , something that if leaked could cost him his job.
Jack nodded and his boss swiftly left the premises, dumping the cigarette into one of the toilet seats. He couldn’t care less about what the man was doing with the raging headache frying his brains out from the inside.
“ Slow deep breaths , calm yourself Jack,” he stared at his reflection in the mirror.
There were no visible signs of stress , which explained how he had been able to duck the keen eyes of Linzy , a former medic .
He quickly turned the knob on one of the taps and drowned his face in the relief of cold water. The throbbing , as expected , started slowing and calming down.
“Blood?” Owen was shocked and wiped a small amount of blood that had flowed down his nose with the back of his hand.
The trickling left an odd sensation , like something was trying to pull his blood vessels out through his nose.
" AAAAHH!! "
A woman’s scream tore through from the other side of the washroom door .It came from the office section , where he had left his friends at.
Two of the fluorescent tubes lighting the washroom immediately exploded in violent golden sparks as another scream followed. Jack wanted to respond , recognizing the second scream to be that of Cynthia , but his body froze on him.
A flash of white light came over his eyes , blinding him on the spot. With it a headache so powerful came clocking him senseless. It was so painful that one could sum up the total of all his previous migraines and still not hold a candle to this one.
Luckily , it wore off in seconds. Any further and he would have succumbed to it.
A blue screen floated in front of him as his eyes cleared out and he started adjusting to his surroundings. His nose had bled even more during that brief moment of pandemonium , staining the top regions of his white office shirt.
Jack stumbled a little , trying to get back his foothold. His body had grown weaker for some reason.
“ What in the world,” he noticed that the blue screen followed his field of view as he balanced himself on one of the toilet doors.
The blue screen took prominence , displaying over everything else that Jack laid his eyes upon, though still being translucent enough to give him an idea of what was behind it.
A notification appeared on the screen:
[ SYSTEM INSTALLING …]
“ What is happening to me,” Jack wondered whether the headaches were making him delusional.
The washroom door flew open as a woman rushed in then shut it quickly behind her and leaned her back against it.
She planted her rubber heels onto the tiled floor and used all her might to push against the door, definitely trying to keep someone or something out.
Jack was just about to start wondering what a woman was doing in the men’s washroom when his answer came.
A loud thud crashed into the door from the outside with a force so strong it was unnatural. The bottom hinges of the door gave out and flew off .
“We’re dead , we’re all gonna die,” the woman screamed hysterically , adrenaline and instinct making her recover her footing and press herself against the door again.
Her head had taken a violent hit , and she saw multiple after images when she tried looking at Jack. Her hands grew sweaty and started slipping off , but she was determined to keep off whatever was out there on the other side.
Jack’s eyes narrowed.
He wanted to move , but his body was still stiff as a rock. The blue screen was still in front of him.
[SYSTEM INSTALLING…10%...]
He was pulled back to reality when three claws , each the size of a human arm, pierced through the door’s woodwork. The middle one had impaled the woman’s chest , and she coughed up thick blood as her legs gave out.
Jack’s eyes bulged and he unconsciously took a step back.
The claws , after having done their job, slid back through the door like a sword returning to its sheath.
Drifting between consciousness, the woman felt the claws leave her body . No longer nailed to the door , she dropped, slowly , leaving a wide trail of blood on the door. Her head landed softly on the cold floor as her eyes shut and her mouth bled out.
[SYSTEM INSTALLING…37%...]