Prologue: A Human Life En (1/1)

A/N: This is the first of the rewritten chapters.  I added a lot more detail and also it makes a lot more sense now than it did before, so I hope that you enjoy it!  There should be about 5 rewritten chapters before I get to new content, but the old chapters were so long ago that you probably need the refresher anyways honestly.  Also I'm sorry that this chapter is a bit short, I wrote a little more than 20 pages handwritten for the prologue and still had a lot to go, so I figured it'd be best to split it into multiple chapters. The shortcut home was a dirt path through an overgrown stretch of the woods, lined with white oak benches that had warped over the years.  The path connected the back of the local high school to Mark’s subdivision, and from there he only had to cross the street to reach his house.  It turned a half hour walk into ten minutes, but he barely ever used it because it made him nervous.  His best friend Jackson never failed to make fun of him for taking the long route—an extra twenty minutes because of a senseless fear, as he liked to put it—but in Mark’s opinion, twenty minutes was a fair exchange for his peace of mind.  Nothing good ever happened in the woods.  He was probably just being paranoid, but at least he wasn’t going to end up dead.But today Mark had a good reason to get home early.  Jackson had spent the past nine months abroad in South Korea so that he could train at a prestigious dance studio.  Today was his first day back in the States.  It was the longest that the pair had ever been apart, and Mark couldn’t wait to see him.  He wanted to throw himself into Jackson’s arms and kiss him until he couldn’t breathe.  Not that he would, of course.  Not that he could.  It could very easily erase their ten years of friendship in just a couple of seconds.  And even if it didn’t, Mark couldn’t handle the rejection—not from Jackson.But the thoughts were still there, of course.  All Mark could do was keep holding those feelings in.  He wondered how long it would take before he destroyed himself in the process.  Even now he was rushing to Jackson’s side just like always, dooming himself even further.Mark’s steps froze and he nervously ran a hand through his cherry red hair.  He was at the edge of the woods.  He tried to stifle his fear, but his limbs were shaking and goosebumps prickled his arms.  Mark knew that there was no reason to be scared, yet he kept hesitating.  Images of ax murderers and blood-soaked body parts fluttered through his mind.Mark jumped at the buzz from his pocket.  His cheeks burned bright red as he fished out the offending device, silently cursing his own cowardice.  There was a text message from Jackson on his lock screen:Just got to your house.  Your mom let me in.  I can’t wait to see you.  Hurry home ^^The spell was broken.  Mark took a deep breath as the toe of an off-white Nike crossed the line onto the wooded pathway.  Nothing tried to attack him.  So far, so good.  The cedar trees towered above him, snuffing out the harsh June sun.  Mark sighed as his steps grew quicker.  He was always running after Jackson; over and over he would just keep on running until one day he was too exhausted to take another step—and at that point, he would probably crawl.His hesitant steps became a jog, and the jog turned into an actual run.  The quicker he got to the end, the less likely he was to be murdered.  He was almost all the way through the path when he heard a sharp scream of pain.Mark faltered.  It wasn’t worth the danger.  And yet his feet were already dragging him from the dirt and into the dense trees until he was hovering just at the edge of a grassy clearing.  He cursed at his instincts to protect other people above himself, no matter how afraid he may be—which due to his paranoia was usually pretty damn afraid.  A coward with a good heart, that’s all Mark was.The scene that was laid out before him wasn’t an easy one to process.  There were five men in the clearing, and one of them was dead.  The corpse lay on its stomach, head turned at an awkward angle, eyes glassy and wide.  His throat was torn open and still dripping thick red liquid from the mangled flesh.  His skin was already turning grey, and his lips were parted as though he’d been shocked to meet his end.Mark’s skin was crawling; he wanted to tear it off his body.  He wanted to scream.  But he didn’t have control over himself anymore, couldn’t move or speak or even pull his eyes away from what was in front of him.  White spots filled his vision and he swayed, only moments from falling over and joining the dead body on the ground, though he probably wouldn’t have even noticed if he did fall.  His brain was too busy trying to convince himself that what he was seeing wasn’t actually happening.  His knees buckled and somewhere at the back of his consciousness he felt himself sinking.A pair of strong arms had him in a headlock before he even made it to the ground, and with a sudden whoosh he was standing in the middle of the clearing.  He had an unobstructed view of the three men in front of him, who were now close enough to reach out and touch him.  One was maybe in his thirties with a blonde buzz cut and an eyepatch over his left eye.  He was digging a thick piece of whittled wood deeply into the gut of the second man, who couldn’t have been much older than twenty.  A trickle of blood dripped from the second boy’s lips as he gasped in pain.  Sweat made his shiny silver hair stick to his forehead and his trembling hands tried desperately to force the weapon from his body as Eyepatch Guy dug it deeper.  The third man with long, dark hair stood slightly to the side with a crossbow pointed right at Mark.“Kill Jaebum and t