‹ Prequel: Wretched and Divine.

Vale

Preface: Fear Will Never Die

Have you ever been so scared, that your hands shook and you couldn’t catch your breath and every move you made made you grind your teeth to nubs, because you keep getting flashes of what will happen to you if they catch you?

Maybe not...

But if you can try to understand, maybe you do. The monsters here... In the Vale... They’re deadly creatures that will rip you limb from limb if you so much as show the slightest bit of affection towards the militia group known as ‘The Wild Ones’.

Four years ago, F.E.A.R regained power over the wasteland and attacked us in the cover of night, and took all of us captive, but not before they gripped our heads in their vice-like grips, forcing us to watch the horrific scene unfold before us.

The pushed and shoved the Legion Leaders from their tents, and kicked them to their knees, their faces already bloodied from previous blows.

The Prophet lifts his head, his dark hair hanging in his eyes, his lips parted in disbelief and his eyes wide in concealed panic. He meets each of our eyes in a silent apology before the head F.E.A.R mercinary gave the order, a quick twist of the wrist, and his skull was impaled with the staff bearing the emblem of F.E.A.R

We couldn’t scream, cry, or protest. They threatened to kill us all if we so much as allowed a tear to roll down our cheeks. So there we stood, stone-faced, watching the five men who defended us to their deathbed from these God forsaken people.

One by one, they drop, until they get to the last one; The Destroyer. His face was always full of some kind of smug, sarcastic joy. He was kind, happy, and always had a smile on his face and a positive lookout on life... But now his face is creased with anger, desperation and grief.

“Perhaps you should get to see what good you all did.” One of the F.E.A.R soldiers laugh lowly, pacing in front of him briefly before turning and pulling a child from our lineup, the youngest of us, Jason Wilder. They pulled that boy, and he kicked and screamed, his voice causing us to wince in pain as he cried out in shrill desperation for someone to save him.

Before any of us could even twitch a finger, the same spear that had killed The Prophet, The Mourner, The Deviant, and The Mystic before him, befell him too when they drove it through the backside of his ribcage into his heart.

His death wails were agony on ears as he crumples forward, his small body unable to process the terrible thing that had happened to it. He twitched and squirmed, gasping at the blood.

I remember when that was almost me... Five years ago, when I was a little kid that showed up from a dream. At least I had The Legion to look over me, now we have nothing but each other, but I’m sure before long, we’ll be relieved of that, too.
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VALE HAS BEEN CONFIRMED DUDES.