1 Prologue (1/2)

A beacon of bluish-white light suddenly shot upward from the center of the school's commons area. Cracks started appearing across the sky, as if it were someone were driving piles into gla.s.s in a sloppy polkdotted pattern. The cracks from the small holes extended into even smaller fractals of branches that expanded radially outward. Panic ensued throughout the campus. In a peaceful world like ours, something of violence on this scale was sure to traumatize the whole lot who experienced it. It appeared that no one would make it out alive. This is what my instincts were telling me, even though I'd obviously never seen anything similar to it before.

”What's going on?” my friend hurriedly asked.

*Not like I have a clue, either, man. Why are you asking me?*

”... Go.”

My sister, normally so caring, so gentle, had an unusually agitated look on her face and an icy look in her eyes.

”What? What do you mean? What's going on?” I replied.

*Go where?* I thought, but thinking about it clearly, there really was only one place to go.

”Just leave! I've been trying to prepare you for this your whole life! You're not about to render my efforts nil!”

*This is really my sister, isn't it? Is that her true nature? What's with that vocab, anyway? Preparing me for what?*

”Why are you so mad all of a sudden?” I inquired.

Most likely realizing her abnormal condition, she suddenly froze and took a deep breath, which softened her features back to normal.

”Listen, Jon. As you can probably tell by now, it's not safe here. If you want to survive, you must leave. I'll take care of things on my end. Just trust me, okay?”

”... okay.”

How can I say no to her when she's looking at me like that? I looked around the world again, most likely for the final time.

*I don't really get what's going on, but I trust you, sis.*

I turned away from my sister's slightly bewildered smile which seemed to say, ”You really can abandon me that easily, huh?” and started off towards the commons.

*I'm not abandoning you. Don't you know of a little something called trust?*

Slowly, step by step, I started off towards the light.