Sword & Demon

Hi, everyone! It's Cece (account name CirrusCat)- *bows* 
This is my first story here, so...hope you enjoy, I guess :D Please don't copy the cover or the story itself in general; otherwise have a good day! ≧◇≦
Also: TW, blood and violence
__TOC__
== Prologue ==
"Sorry," a voice by my ear whispers, and I shift a little at the sound. Cracking one eye open and feeling my lips move before my senses can catch up with me.
"Wh-"
"Shhh." The same voice places a finger over my mouth, and I'm startled into silence. I close my eyes, biting my tongue, wondering. What's going on? 
But it appears my answers are going to go unanswered, because for a few moments there's nothing but silence. I dare to open my eyes one more time, but immediately close them again. On one side there is cracked, shattered, nothing inky blackness stretching for miles on my right. Jagged lines of white crawl up the shadow, like my eyesight was broken into a thousand pieces and only a few lucky shards remain.
I hunch my shoulders, pain slicing through my vision with every breath. And I can't help from wondering, yet again, how this came to be.
After a few minutes, there's still no sound. I draw in a breath, whisper, "Hello?"
No reply.
"Is anyone there?"
I don't know where I am, sitting in the loneliness here, my voice barely pushing its way past my lips, strangled sounds in my throat, my heart bleeding out onto the ground, leeching the poison from my words. Now I'm just tired.
Just so tired.
I let out a sigh, the sound stolen from my lungs. My head lolls against the seat, and I taste the metallic tang of blood in my mouth just as the footsteps come nearer.
"She's here," they say. "We have her." There are jagged cracks all around me now, pale against the shadow. And I smile.
I'm so tired, Ally.
I wish you could be here to see me.
I'm sorry.
== Chapter 1 ~ Two years ago ==
=== Alice's POV ===
We're at war.
It was officially confirmed last night by Queen Arica - as if we didn't already know. As if we weren't counting the days until our luck ran out. As if we didn't already expect our country's days of neutrality to vanish over what happened.
I'm just sixteen, not quite old enough to enlist. Though I don't believe I'd want to. Rohan - my older brother, would be 22 in a month - enlisted last year. He was marked as "missing in action" and we never saw him again.
The clock says it's 3:16 A.M. in the morning, but I don't care. I'm not sure what woke me - maybe a bad dream? But now there's a voice in my ear and it won't leave.
It hisses at me all the ways this war could go wrong. Our country could be obliterated. The queen could be assassinated, cut down as easily as the rest. Another massacre will happen.
I bite the inside of my cheek, begging the tears to go away. A drop of salt slips down my cheek.
I'm sitting in my bed, wider awake than ever, the covers thin and cold against my skin, my nails digging into my palms. I squeeze my eyes shut, wonder how I'm ever going to get through the day like this if I bolt at even the slightest mention of the massacre.
But Elly- 
Stop.
There's blood carved into the half-moon hollows I pressed my fingertips against, and the pain centers me. I relax my grip slightly, leaning against the headboard for support.
How did it ever get like this?
I remember the last things she ever said to me. We're done, Al! Until you get yourself out of this mess you've made, we're over. Things are getting dangerous, and I don't want you roped in something like this. It's not my decision. I have to let you go. 
The way her gaze softened as she added, For now. 
The memory unleashing the floodgates, silent tears pouring down my cheeks in the aftermath of her words. The soft pang of my heart as her hands briefly touched mine. The way she looked at me, day after day, with the certainty we'd always know each other. Even if we mess this up, I'll love you, she said the first day, putting in a teasing, But platonically, of course.
I exhale, releasing my harsh grip on my palms. I get up for the medicine cabinet, wrap a bandage around each hand, and try to go back to sleep.
But some things aren't meant to stay unearthed.
== Chapter 2 ~ Present time ==
=== UNKNOWN - NAME NOT FOUND ===
The dark is pressing in around me. Tears pricking at the corner of my eyes, I take in a deep breath and wait.
Shadows.
Shadows.
Shadows. 
And-
Category:Stories