The blast of the explosion roared like a dragon as it flared to life, tearing through the small building with the fury of a tempest. The flames died down at once, sputtering and flickering in the absence of fuel. I stood there with baited breath as the smoke and ash slowly cascaded to the floor.
      "I knew you'd be the one to come for me, Jason" a voice rang out from behind a charred, overturned desk. A figure stumbled out from the shelter and stood up, brushing the soot from his clothes. He was dressed very old fashioned, with a hoodie and jeans that were too charred to discern color. He looked at me, with his silver blue eyes, glowing with the reflection of the still-dying fire.
     "The seven always meet the same fate, you know." His voice was sharp and serious, "No matter what belief we stand for, what cause we champion, the seven always end up dead by each other's hand."
     He feet shuffled as he paced through the ruined building. He then turned to me, looking at me for a few moments of silence as the flames died down to sparks.
     "One day it'll happen to you ." His voice was a deadly whisper. He had the look of a broken man, of someone who had nothing left to stand for.
    There was a slow crackling of wood as the fire turned to smoke and ash. The interior of the building had become thoroughly torched, with only the foundation left recognizable. A blast of snow and cold air pervaded through a gap in the ceiling.
    "Look at you." I said in a broken whisper, "Look at what you've become..." my eyes stung as I looked at him. There was a numbing pain in my heart, of the kind that only comes with the betrayal of trust.
    "Jason, it doesn't have to be like this..." he began
    "Don't talk to me..." my voice shook and broke as a warmth of tears rolled down my face. "Traitor!" My voice was a hoarse shout, a demand for an answer to fill the emptiness of spite he had left.
    "You don't understand." His face was cold and empty, his expression unforgiving. "I couldn't do this any longer." He paced a bit more, the charred floorboards groaning in protest. "I know why you are here." He said with bitterness. He stopped his pacing and turned to look at me. "You've come to kill me."
   His words echoed across the ruined house with a sense of finality. There was no masks, no smoke and mirrors. There was no sense in denying it.
   He took my silence as confirmation, and his expression darkened with disgust.
    "Look what you've become." His voice reeked of bitter irony.

So that's the first part of the first part, so to speak. This is a pet project of mine and I've put a lot of thought into the story line. Let me know any comments or questions, I'll be happy to answer/address them! ^-^ This is just the prologue and I may even extend it. Plan to work more on it in the future. Also, if anyone has a cooler cover pls hmu fam
-Ben out 👈😎👈