Memories Lost - First of Apocalyptic Hell Series

Beginning

    Heat radiated from the asphalt, the dry breeze blew leaves and paper across the empty lot. Few vehicles were left, some were just husks of what was once a car, now it was only a metal frame that had been burnt. There were no signs of life, nothing stirred, even the birds were silent. The only sounds were the leaves rustling in the breeze, the clicking of my mount’s, Vivaldi, iron shoes against the asphalt and his breathing. There were empty storefronts, many with shattered windows, some with no glass in them at all and a few that were completely intact. It saddened me to see what was once a busy plaza to be so deserted and in ruins.  

    When the Hellmouth opened, society crumbled and fell, the hunters tried to hold back the spawn from touching this world with its darkness, but even they succumbed to the powers of Hell. Lucifer even joined the fight, but Lilith was determined to open the gates to Hell and unleash all the powers of Hell with it. I remember fighting beside Lucifer in the front lines, but when we lost to Lilith in the Great Battle all was lost. Lilith reigns supreme in this realm, her demons hunting down all humans and those who oppose her. Many of the Fae have aligned with her, some for the power and some just to survive her insanity. 

    The Queen has assigned many of us to search for survivors and to bring them back to her, she has opened her kingdom to those seeking protection and a new life. My mission was more than that, I was looking for my friends, the ones that I had accepted into my life as more family than simply friends. Lilith wouldn’t dare challenge the Queen, no one would, but with her being the only queen and the goddess hasn’t told her of the next queen in line, she couldn’t aid us in the Great Battle. Her realm has always been a safe haven from the forces of darkness, but now she is opening her gates to humans. 

    Before, humans were never allowed into the Fae realm, the exception being familiars or consorts to immortals. Consorts never left the realm, staying till they were either turned into a Fae or died of old age, Familiars however, were allowed to leave and return to the human realm. They were the immortals’ connection to the human world, allowing us to have business with them as well as keep tabs on what was going on. Although some of the updates certainly would shock the Fae realm.

    Sudden movement broke me from my internal thoughts, there was a shadow that moved from the large windows of one of the smaller stores. I quickly dismounted, drew my sword, preparing to fight. Vivaldi and I moved as silently and quickly as we could through the parking lot, up to the store fronts, the large windows took away our advantage. We edged across the store front when a man burst out of the store with his hands held up. 

    “Please! I’m not one of them! Please don’t hurt me!” He cried out. I lunged at him clamping my hand over his mouth to silence him, I glanced around and listened carefully to make sure there was nothing nearby that could’ve heard this man. I quickly dragged him into the store before locking the door. 

    Vivaldi knew what to do and moved as far from the windows as he could standing at the very back of the store. I dragged the man back there before pushing him down onto the cold tile floor, I motioned for him to stay silent and not to move. He nodded silently and watched me cautiously while I moved about the store with stealth and precision. There was a back room which I opened up and motioned for them both to move to quickly. Once they were in I closed the door, but left it cracked open so I could watch the windows for a short time before closing the door completely. 

    After what seemed like a few hours had passed I relaxed and turned to this man. Looking him over, he looked as though he hadn’t had a proper bath in months, his hair was unkempt and shaggy as was his beard. His skin was a light brown, his eyes a dark mocha, he showed no signs of injury either. I froze as he started to move about searching for something. Suddenly the room was filled with light as he turned on a light in one of the smaller rooms. 

    “What are you doing? They could see!” I hissed at him. He flinched away as I snapped at him. 

    “They can’t see the light from here, I put a seal on the bottom of the door so they won’t be able to see the light from the outside of this back room. I promise I wouldn’t do anything to draw those monsters here.” He looked down solemnly, his eyes grew dark with sadness. 

    “Well you’ve survived this far, for a human I’m impressed by that feat.” I looked over the small room for weapons of any kind. “And with no weapons either,” I looked back at him skeptically, “How could a mortal survive this long with no weapons?” He suddenly looked at me sheepishly. 

    “I learned from a friend on how to pick locks, this entire plaza has been a huge resource for me to survive. This was once the safe haven for me and a few others,” he looked away again, stopping his sentence. I approached him and placed a hand on his arm. 

    “Many of us have lost loved ones, but those of us who are still surviving must keep going. Giving up is not an option and you’ve survived this far,” I gave him a soft smile, “Lucky for you I found you before Lilith’s spawn. I can take you to a safe haven where they can’t reach, all I need is for you to trust me.” He looked at me before looking away as he thought about it all. 

    “To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have survived much longer out here. I know how to do some things, but this is beyond anything I’ve ever learned. I can shoot a bow, I can do crossfit, but how does that help a person survive? I can’t keep going at this alone and watching the people that not only were my employees, but my friends, taken by those monsters, it was one of the worst things I had ever seen. One of them was an athlete and mother, the other was a close friend. They were good people and to see those monsters come here and take them away, there was nothing I could do to help them, to save them.” I could see tears welling up in his eyes, he started to shake the more he spoke. I couldn’t help with the trauma that he experienced, I can’t go back through time to save them. If I could I would’ve done that tenfold and would’ve done what I could to stop Lilith. I put a finger against his lips to silence him. 

    “I wish there was more I could do to save the ones you lost, but sadly I can’t. I don’t have that kind of skill. For now I can save you and get you to safety.” He nodded his understanding, “Now part of my mission is to stock up and resupply on as much as we can find in this plaza. I’ve been stocking up on as much as I can find to take back to Eindenia.” He suddenly looked confused. 

    “Do you mind if I ask, what is Eindenia?” 

    “Eindenia is the realm of Queen Alenia, it is the safe haven I was telling you about. The queen rules there and Lilith wouldn’t dare to challenge her, especially not on her grounds. No one would dare try that.” I could see that he was still confused, I sighed, forgetting that he was a human after all. “The queen is the embodiment of the goddess Nyx, every queen that is crowned is chosen by Nyx.”

    “Who is Nyx?” He asked, still confused on everything.

    “Let me explain as much as I can so you can better understand the world you are about to enter. The current queen, the High Counsel, the trackers, the chosen one and high priests and high priestesses are sent premonitions from Nyx herself. The trackers then go out and find the chosen one to mark her and bring her back to the current queen, then there will be a ceremony that is held where the High Priests and Priestesses come together from all the Fae races to help the new queen to solidify her connection with Nyx as well as gift her with all the strengths from all the fae races. The queen's only weakness is she does have to drink blood, but the longer she holds the crown the less she has to feed, same concept for vampires the longer they live the longer they can go without feeding. Many queens have several consorts so she has a steady supply of fresh blood at all times. The queen is gifted with the strengths of all the Fae races and is gifted with immortality, their lifespan can go many centuries before Nyx chooses the next queen.” 

    “Wait, so do they die when their reign is over?” He sounded shocked and appalled at the idea. I chuckled at him and shook my head. 

    “No, they don’t, some choose to live on as Queen Regent and some choose to join Nyx. Each queen is different, we have two Queen Regents currently that assist the reigning queen with matters, but for the most part they only assist when it comes to matters of war. They assisted the queen by taking her place in the fray during the Great Battle. I had the pleasure of fighting by their sides.” He nodded in understanding, but didn’t ask anymore questions. I started to retrieve the equipment that we would need to gather the supplies, he watched as I began to lay out many small leather drawstring pouches that looked as if they could hold only a few books and each had a different colored patch on them. After everything had been pulled out of my saddlebags there were matching pairs of each colored patch, several tools and small weapons to assist in gathering supplies. 

    “What’s all these for?” He started to pick up one of the bags, “How can these hold anything that can be useful? They look like they can only hold enough supplies to last us a few days.” 

    “These satchels each have an extension charm on them so they can hold endless amounts of supplies, each color represents different kinds of items. For example, the green patch is for fresh produce and bread, the blue patch is for all food or drink items that have to remain cold, the red is for all medical supplies, the yellow is for all non perishable food items, black is for firearms, ammunition supplies, explosives and explosive making supplies, silver or grey is for all weapons that do not require ammunition such as knives and swords, white is for everything that doesn’t fall under the other categories such as clothing, soaps, and other supplies. There are also charms in place to keep supplies from spoiling, it is as if time stops and prevents them from aging and rotting. Magic can do extraordinary things and it can certainly save our lives in circumstances such as these.” 

    “So if you put in things such as raw food they won’t rot?” He asked, I chuckled as he looked on in bewilderment.

    “They will certainly not, when they are removed from the bag it will be as if they are fresh as they day we placed them in there.” I chuckled as he looked on in shock, then his focus shifted to all the tools and weapons. “Before you start picking things up, let’s get you ready to go scavenge. Toss me the white patched satchel and let me pull you out some clothing, what size clothing do you wear and what size shoe?” 

    “Um a size medium shirt, 32/38 in pants and a size 13 in shoes.” He looked completely confused and bewildered as I started pulling out leather armor, linen shirts, thick deerskin breeches, thick leather boots, belts and other accessories that will aid in holding the satchels and few weapons. After I laid it all out I looked up at him before chuckling again. 

    “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed or taken a look in the mirror lately, but you look a bit ragged. Here are some durable clothes that will last you far longer than what you are currently wearing. It’s not steel armor, but light leather armor will still protect you.” I turned away from him as he began to sort through the clothing and began prepping other supplies. 

    “I feel like I stepped out of the Pirates of the Caribbean films,” I heard him mutter, it caused me to chuckle. For the first time in a long time I wasn’t fearful or on constant alert, I felt relaxed with this human and something about him seemed vaguely familiar but whatever it was was so far off in my memories it clearly had happened years ago in a time that no longer existed. As I waited for him to finish, my mental walls fell and my mind began to wander through old memories, memories that were once locked away for good reason.