Author note:


    The perspective may (probably) switch to 1st person present in CH 2 or 3. I would welcome any thoughts on this. Also note that I am writing in a Midwestern US accent, so spelling and especially past tense verb structure will be affected*. This is also my first attempt at writing, so hopefully it will be a novel experience for us.


    *For example, my dialect has ‘drug’ as the past tense of ‘drag,’ while the ''proper'' English has it as ‘dragged.’ I think ‘dragged’ sounds stupid and the connotations of the word drug fits the use better.


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    Prologue


    Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.As usual, my hunger was what drug me back to reality. Peering across the street my alleyway adjoined, I saw a young girl being forced through the Quarter gateway. From my vantage point in the alley I could easily hear and see her desperate sobbing.


    My eyes watered as my own… journey through that gate resurfaced.


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    Hush little one


    Your mother is near


    I will never fail


    to protect you


    Hush little one


    The Watch is near


    Must hold the veil…


    “Seize the traitors!”


    With that the door became vapor and the Watch flooded the humble apartment like high water through rapids. My parents never stood a chance and I was torn from my mother’s embrace. My mother sobbed my name and I cried for her, to no avail.


    The unfeeling Peacemaker drug me to that gate and sent me careening through it. I sat their until the wee hours of the morning, listlessly crying for my mother.