The Beginning of the End

The Beginning of the End 9

Students and their parents began to gather at the school to hold a candlelight vigil for their fallen classmates, the students carrying and lighting candles, and over half of the parents’ carrying pistols and hunting rifles. Flowers, posters, and candles began building up outside the shattered windows of Mr. Katz’s classroom as the sun began to slowly set behind the trees. Ravens were gathered on top of the school as well as the power lines, and in the trees of the forest. Silently they sat and watched with their unblinking blood red eyes. As night began to overtake the landscape, the candlelight began to grow brighter, and the shadows of the woods seamed to grow darker. A slim young man stepped out of the darkness of the woods and slowly walked up to the back of the growing crowd, even though no one knew him, or hade ever seen him before, no one noticed him.

Those gathered began to sing Amazing Grace as the sun fully set, this was a small town with a very close-knit community and this event had shattered their feeling of calm and tranquility. Stuff like this happened in other towns not here, never here. The football team gathered around the shrine and knelt on one knee bowing their heads, the rest of the crowd following suit. Father Lakes preparing to say a blessing over the gathered people, the ones who they lost, and the ones who were not able to attend. He prayed for the police and asked for a swift end to this tragic event. At the closing he asked the gathered people to recite the Lord’s Prayer with him, most of them did as he had asked, there were a few who’s attention had not been on the Father, but scanning the parking lot, tree line, and tops of neighboring building. When Father Lakes finished, the gathered students began to file in front of the shrine laying down flowers, candles, pictures, and letters. One by one the students joined their parents then they slowly left. School would be out for a few days so the police could try to catch the mad man who had don’t this unspeakable act, and the students vowed that each evening they would gather here relighting candles until the man, or woman, was caught.

The stranger stood there, watching and listening, amused at the little show playing out before him. ‘If these retched humans knew what was to come,’ he thought, ‘they would be more interested in saving their pathetic little lives.’ As the last few students pulled out of the parking lot the stranger walked up to the shrine and one by one, blew out each candle. He summoned a family of small trolls to nest under the school and begin to wreak havoc on all who entered, then he looked around, his keen eyes seeing more in the night than any human ever could, and he thought about what to do next as he walked out to the street and stood there just looking around. The few souls lost that day was just the beginning, he had no way of finding Noralf and would not waist his time pretending like he could, he knew that eventually he would return to his building possibly consumed with a strong desire to protect these pitiful creatures, especially the young. His only two options now were to wait for Noralf to appear, or to use his creatures to draw the light elf out then confront him. He walked as he thought about it, using the creatures would be a lot of fun, but could bring the battle too quickly. He has anticipated this battle for many centuries and did not want it to end too quickly. This was, after all, going to be the end of one of them, with the darkness beating the light in the last three battles he did not want to be the one to break the dark streak,

As he walked along, deep in thought, his keen nose picked up an odd, but familiar, odor. He stopped and began to look around, taking notice of his surroundings for the first time. Almost at once his gaze fell on a welcome site, it was a small graveyard and there appeared to be a few graves that were probably a week-old judging by the growth of grass on a few bald spots. ‘This will be excellent,’ he thought to himself, ‘In just a few days the humans will lay their young to rest. I have just the treat for them.’ He crossed the empty street and entered the graveyard to put his trap into action.