The Life and Times of Alex Lucard: Prologue

New York. The city that never sleeps. The city of hope.

Well, not anymore.

It is now more like hell on earth. It was like someone found a big red button with skulls drawn on it and DO NOT TOUCH written with capital letters and pressed. All in a good natured curiosity.

Ever heard of curiosity kills the cat? It looked like someone just kicked it aside, getting it run over by a truck, and eaten by a bunch of rats.

Yeah. It was that bad.

As I dragged my tired feet towards the towering Empire State Building, I tasted rust on my lips and dust on my skin.

A car flew by me with its passenger still inside. The driver was staring at me in horror, as do others who are trapped in their vehicles. Electromagnetic charges had destroyed every electronic devices in the city.

Just a block on my right, a grandfather drew his last breath while surrounded by his grandchildren, who died with their head crushed by a fallen telephone pole.

Buildings uprooted by towering tornados, the ground cracked and flamed hellfire. People age a thousand years in mere seconds, crumbling away into dust. Is the dust I felt sticking to my skin used to be human? I can no longer tell. All I see is destruction.

Total holocaust. The Judgment Day. Ragnarok.

Then I saw a boy standing before me. He was unaffected by the surging wind. He spoke to me with a voice that reached my ears a second before he moved his lips, his eyes glowed bright with heavenly shine.

“The final trumpet has been blown,” he said with a matter-of-fact attitude. The fresh color of blood dripping from the hole in his hands and head contrasted with his deathly pale skin. “The world is ending. And the Angel had blown the horn once.”

An old woman clung to my feet and wept. “Oh, God! Oh, God! Please help! I don’t wanna die!”

I tried to take her hand, yet I could only watch as she crumbled into dust. In the distance, I saw a baby went through puberty, adulthood and old age and waste away all at the same time.

Time is bleeding through, I can feel it pass through my hands like sands.

“The old gods return once more. Time itself is beginning to run amok.”

I looked up at the sky. An eyeball the size of Grand Canyon gazed upon the city. Dark clouds and thunder and old nameless gods poured down from its pupil, relishing their freedom and razing the forsaken earth.

“Why?” I asked him. “Why now? Why this city? We did not do anything wrong! I have changed! We all have!”

“Because...” He said to me with an accusing tone. “You made the wrong choice.”

Memories. Unwanted memories that has been haunting me every waking moment reared their ugly heads and attacked me with their poisonous fangs. Engorging, feasting upon my wretched heart.

I’ve lost my family. I’ve lost my friends, and now I am alone.

It was like that then.

It is like that now.

I brought ruin to my empire.

And now, the world.

Then, a throng of old gods turned and flew straight at me in a whirlwind of death. Gods whose names are forgotten. Gods whose believers are long gone. They are hungry. And they want my flesh.

I gripped the silver cross on my necklace tight, feeling it burning my hand.

The boy tilted his head at me and said, in the midst death and despair.

“Well, Alex? What are you going to do now?”