• It's alllllllll sorts of a rough draft. I have horrible diction and the whole chapter has yet to be finalized. This is just the rough draft with little descriptions and broken sentences. Hope you enjoy!!! haha let me know if it ends up interesting enough, or if there are questions you have on the scene and any other opinions that come to mind <3


    Chapter 1
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Will this be my tomb? The boy thought as the screaming and firing began. It was muffled by the concrete walls that surrounded him, but it didn’t help the sinking feeling his gut. He slowly started to piece together the scramble of coming to this place. So much confusion and panic he almost forgot why he was running. All his attention was focused on the floor boards of the large room that must have served as a recreation room for the building at one point. It long had lost that granger and was nothing more now then an abandoned building, serving what was most likely its last purpose.
    The north wall was bare, except for a few windows facing a brick wall. To the west was entrance to the room. It was a group of 3 towering doors with windows between that covered the whole length. It must have been beautiful when it was first made, but now had succumbed to rotting wood and vandalism. The other two walls resembled the north with various windows peering out to nothing. The east wall use to have a door leading outside, but the buildings structure had collapsed around it and trapped their only other way out.
    The boy jumped slightly as he heard a piercing scream of women from the other room. He looked around and noticed most the other children huddled in groups, all of them brought together by fate and not by choice. Do are lives matter so little? He asked himself. What did we ever do to deserve this? I just want to go home…
    The boy pulled his knees up and wrapped his arms around them cradling his face down. He broke down and began to sob into his tattered jeans. He wore cloths that where obviously handed down; a grey t-shirt with a logo on the front that had worn off with time and had a significant amount moth holes and tares, his worn jeans in much the same condition. The rest of the room gave way to the same feeling and quietly cried as the shooting and yells continued.
    The yelling from beyond the room was of men barking orders only to be soon overcome by the rattling of automatic rifles. They are getting closer. The boy said to himself and looked up again fighting back the tears.
    Just this morning he awoke like any other normal day. He went to say good morning to his parents, ate breakfast, and then got ready for school.
    Now here he was shaking to himself feeling completely alone in amongst a crowd of others that must have felt the same.
    His melancholy was shaken as he felt someone wrap around his arm. The boy looked over and saw a girl about his age wrapping her arms around his and laying in on his shoulder sobbing lightly. He felt his heart cave in and held the girl in return, trying to be brave for them both. No words where needed that they simply wanted anyone there to make them feel as if their world wasn’t ending.
    No one deserves this…
    His feeling of sadness and self pity started to lift. Instead, his fear now matched up with a slow fueling hatred. The boy gave in cautiously at first, unsure if the action was safe. His reason tried to keep him in check, but the unjust of the situation he was in became the spark that lighted such a fury.
    The boy looked up at the rest of the room and saw a few others with fire behind their eyes as well. He knew it was only a matter of time until the soldiers came to find them hiding.
    Just as the thought crossed his mind the lobby area just beyond the windows and double doors erupted with an explosion on the furthest wall. The boy watched in terror as the men started to pore in and where met with some resistance. Some adults had stayed hidden in the room just for such an occasion. As they began to fire in fury, you could hear the bullets pound into the flesh of the first few soldiers, only to be followed by a volley from their rifles.
    Suddenly the boy felt his heart plea to run away from this place, but his body refused. He watched once of adults on the ground stagger to the double doors and try to block the remaining soldiers from entering. He held a short dagger up at the men, giving his last effort to protect them.
    “Just leave them alone! They know nothing about the…” the man cried.
    His cries where silenced by a single shot.
    A well of anger pressed against his heart. He was just trying to protect us… That’s when he saw it for the first time. He could feel a surge of warmth pulse through his arm as if fire had been flowing in his veins. He knew what was happening, it was the ascending. Just as he recalled his lessons he winced in pain as a stone started to press its way through the top of his left hand. At first it was a slit then spilled blood over his palm and soon he could see the clear crystal, covered in blood, make its way to the surface.
    The girl on his arm let go and leaned back in shock.
    Coda could feel the crystal set in place and the skin around it heal accordingly until it sat their, imbedded, on his hand in dried blood. The power now coursing through his veins was exciting and he took to it like alcohol for the first time. He was unsure of what he was capable of like this, but as he looked back up he noticed he wasn’t the only one that had ascended in the room. Another boy, just a little older then himself had shot up and ran for the doors.
    The act was so sudden and unexpected the guard had no time to react. He first dove through the window, breaking it, and then landing on the ground to grab the forgotten dagger. Cuts now adorned the boy’s body from the leap, but as soon as they had appeared they started to close up, only leaving the blood behind as evidence of it occurring.
    This boy attacking also had a crystal on his hand and it glowed with a furious white and yellow light. As soon as his hand gripped the dagger he jumped up and slashed the nearest guard across the throat. The agonizing sounds of gurgling blood filled that mans last senses and then they fell to the floor. The boy tried to make another slash, but was stopped by a gunshot to the side.
    Coda’s heart stopped and his crystal too started to glow a dull white. This can’t go unpunished. He stood up and was about to make a run for guards as well before they finished the boy off, but he was stopped by a quick tug on his arm. He turned and saw the girl had grabbed his arm to prevent him from leaving. Terror was the only way to describe the look on her face. He tried to pull away from her and heard the sounds of more gunshots.
    “You have to get them in the head you fool!” Coda heard one of the guards yell and turned to make his way again to the boy only to be followed by a more forceful tug on his arm.
    “PLEASE!” The girl pleaded. “You don’t have to die too… please stay.” She looked at Coda and the tears trailed out of the corners of her eyes. Coda looked to her and then back to the scene through the windows. One man had come forward with a pistol and ended the boy’s fighting. The gunshot shook Coda, even though he knew it was coming. He didn’t look back at the girl, even after she had moved forward to wrap her arms around his leg.
    Coda wasn’t going anywhere, instead he just stood as the crystal on his hand dimmed and began to press its way back into his skin. He didn’t notice this pain this time and just stood in disbelief of the situation. Tears of his own started to form and matched the girls as they ran down his cheeks.
    Why? Why would they kill my parents?
    The guards came into the room and ordered the mass to file out. Coda could feel the girls hand wrap into his as they walked. It was the only connection he could feel in the world that had gone numb to him. Pilled into trucks everyone sat with the similar faces. The girl next to him seemed to be calmer then the rest and insisted on trying to make Coda feel better.
    “It’ll be alright… my name’s Jade. What’s yours?” she asked.
    “Coda,” he answered instinctively. She kept talking and asking questions, but he didn’t hear her. He leaned his head back and looked up at the metal ceiling of the truck. Why did this happen to us?