an extract from a novel project by Myra Sophia Dedekind
The day evil died, screams filled the air. Cries of defeat and destruction. Shouts of happiness and victory. The menace hovering over earth had been defeated. No more lives would be sucked away. No more creatures had to quiver in fear of being suddenly torn from their world. Their children could dream and awaken once again.
Yes, screams filled the air and with them spread power. The nightmare’s soul had been released from its body. It disappeared to the place where all conscious must one day end their voyage. As evil as the soul had been in the eyes of the living, after death it would be sucked away as any other, ceasing to exist, leaving nothing but the pure spirit, the energy of life. It would spread through the world becoming the fuel for the newly born that would always continue to appear. Earth was a planet full of spirit. Not all could sense it. But it blessed each and every living thing.
However, the spirit balance had been disrupted. The cause was now defeated. Their sacrifices had been great. But little did they know it was just beginning. As the nightmare stole spirit from where it belonged, the balance of life fell into disarray. With its death the stolen force was finally unshackled, exploding into the atmosphere, racing to fill the voids its theft had once created. Masses of spirit washed over the earth. But instead of giving life, it had now turned fatal. As cheers of celebration echoed through the world, the lives of countless new and unborn were sapped. Only the strongest could survive. Only a born spirit wielder had a chance to withstand this force.
And so the next generation was born. The smallest in history. The greatest in history. For power was the gift of all who survived.
Author’s note
A few years ago, the question came to my mind of what happens after the main villain dies. Would it be simply a happy ending? What would the fallout be? In my novel Beyond Zero (working title) I began to, and continue to, explore this question. Prologue I describes the day on which the main villain threatening the story’s people died and the immense casualties that immediately followed. It sets the background from which the story and its society is built and gives the first insight into the trauma that any and all characters have experienced or inherited.
The novel explores the first 20 years following day zero and will likely span over three books. Its genre is Sci-Fi.
