Prologue

The Goddess

Since the beginning of time, I have watched as the world spiraled out of control. The purity, bountifulness, and beauty have been destroyed, replaced by greed, violence, and the vilest transgressions that I could have never foreseen when I added humans and humanoids to my perfect world. What was once rolling hills full of endless flowers and untamed foxes, rabbits, and reptiles had been reduced to dead piles of nature with tunnels through them, and my glorious wild animals, once free and lively, were nothing more than bones covered with a thin, sagging skin searching for food that barely existed anymore.

What once was oceans full of clear water and sea creatures more beautiful than anything that had been created before was now trashed beyond recognition. Cans, plastic bags, and countless other things thrown into them created an environment too toxic for my lovingly designed animals to survive in. What were once mountains that were so tall that they created euphoric feelings of bliss had been demoted to demonic rocks that humans and humanoids both gave their lives to ‘conquer.’ As if I only gave them the very breath from my lungs to be at war with perfection. What was once land masses filled with valleys so low that it encouraged life to form and offered every possible way to sustain it was turned into cement atrocities to make traveling easier for my most regretted creations. Humans and humanoids. The only thing that I wished I could wipe off the face of the planet I called Earth, or as I used to refer to it in the before times, my home.

I once walked among the plants, coaxing them to live with barely a whisper of my fingers over their fragile bodies, and yes, that was what they were. Every cell in every stem, leaf, branch, bud, seed, or flower was part of the very body that kept my plant children alive. I missed the days when I could frolic in the most glorious gardens, where the air pulsed with energy, just waiting for me to acknowledge its existence. I missed the days when I could ride on the backs of what were now mythological creatures. The sky was filled with dragons, pegasi, and griffins, who lived in harmony with the other winged creatures, only eating what they needed to survive. Floating on the air, watching the harmonious dances of my beings moving away from and toward each other, each going their own way while going in the same direction.

It was magical. Everything I created was. From the tiniest microorganism to the biggest, hulking beast that ruled the planet. Everything had its place, its role in the world. For millions of years, everything was perfect. Peaceful. And then I got tired. Fatigued. Lonely. Watching my creatures reproduce and form bonds with others of their species made me long to be able to do the same. And thus the idea of creating the first human was born. I worked on him for another million years, rejecting imperfections, replacing them with qualities that would rival my own. After all, he was meant to rule at my side. I couldn’t have a being that was unworthy of what the world I created with my very hands offered. I had put too much love, blood, and sweat into every single living, breathing thing. Metaphorically speaking, of course, because I didn’t sweat or bleed.

After living with my human for thousands of perfect years, I made the barely thought-out decision to create more of him without some of the more powerful attributes. I hadn’t wanted to create jealousy, resentment, or conflict over him being my chosen companion. We had simply wanted children who would talk to us and need us for everything. Everything was fine for thousands of years. Each new generation worshiped us. That is, until she was born. Esther. The mother of the line of humans that corrupted the world. They started to covet what others had. Nothing was safe from them. Food, dwellings, and companions. They killed for everything. I trembled with anger as I thought about the first time I had come across the body of one of my slain children, hidden deep in the lush forest, almost completely concealed by the trees’ roots as they mourned for their brother. I sat there, cradling him on my lap for many rotating moon and sun cycles, grieving the loss of not just my child but my perfect world. The eternity that I had created for each and every creature. They were mine, but this line was slowly destroying them. Perverting the innocence that my humans had lived with since creation.

And so I had turned my lost child into the first humanoid, a vampire with unrivaled capabilities and a bloodlust that was focused on evilness, unleashing him into the world with the orders to bring me the heads of Esther’s line. He had been successful until he fell in love with a descendant of Esther, who corrupted him, and just like that, I had to create another humanoid to fight back. A werewolf, who had a different skill set that would allow him to successfully hunt both the humans I needed to eradicate and the vampires they infected with their sins. It wasn’t long after their creation that the werewolves themselves also failed me, forcing me to create another humanoid with the hopes that this time, they would succeed, but alas, every new species did for a few generations before Esther’s descendants sank their claws into them, enticing them over to the dark side.

I was fed up with the turmoil her line wreaked on my other creatures. Wars led to destruction and an unnecessarily enormous loss of life. Tearing my world apart led to a shortage of food, as well as weakening the stability of everything the world needed to survive. I had purposely made it harder for them to exist, but it had been to no avail. The only creatures that truly suffered were my original creatures. The ‘wild’ animals, as the vile creations called them. But they weren’t the wild ones. My animals lived, even to this day, inside of the natural instincts that I gave them at the time of their creation, struggling to balance it with the cruelty of Esther’s line.

“And that’s where you come in, little one,” I murmured to the little ball of clouds, floating in front of me, waiting for me to set it free.

I ran my fingers through it, thoroughly enjoying the way it clung to my skin, leaving little spots of wetness behind. Hands landed on my shoulders, instantly making me feel more peaceful as I tilted my head back to look up into his eyes. The mahogany-colored eyes that I gave him were based on one of my favorite trees. The deepness of the brown, swirling with a hint of red, always made me feel weak in the knees. I sighed as I leaned back against him.

“At least you never changed,” I murmured.

He bent down to kiss my forehead. “There is no need to. It’s not what you created me for.”

“I know,” I whispered, distraught as I waved my hand to encompass everything. “It wasn’t what I created them for either, but yet they did it.”

“I have every confidence that you will fix it. Only you can,” he told me.

I sighed as I stood up to face him, wrapping my arms around his waist as I leaned against him for the last time.

“We can fix it. We both have to do this,” I whispered, my voice quivering with sadness because I knew it was true.

I had put too much of myself into him when I created him. His arms tightened around me as he took a deep breath.

“I know, my love.”

I tilted my head back so I could look into his eyes. “Will you wait for me?”

He nodded his head. “Forever if I have to.”

“Even if you get lonely?” I asked.

He kissed me softly as he nodded. “Even then. You are my past, my present, and my future. I will always know that in my heart. Even when my mind no longer remembers your face or your voice, it will always remember your essence. It will always remember that I was created for something greater. I was created for you.”

I blinked back tears, the feeling of loss already consuming me in ways that I never knew I could experience. I put my hand over his heart, letting it beat under my hand for a moment before closing it into a fist.

“I don’t think I can do this,” I said.

“You can and you will, because you must. You are the mother of creation, and we have to right all of their wrongs,” he murmured.

“Okay. I’m going to miss you.”

He brought my hand to his mouth, kissing it before placing it back over his heart. “I’m going to miss you too. I love you, Aleksandria.”

Emotions choked me as I pulled his essence from his body, whimpering a little when it disintegrated and floated away in the air, leaving nothing behind but the pulsing, warm light that represented everything that I held dear. All the goodness the world was meant to be was encased in his soul. I carried it over to the tightly bundled cloud before allowing his essence to sink into it. I put my hand under the cloud, lifting it up a little so I could blow it down to the Earth, guiding it to exactly where I needed it to go. He was right. I was the Mother of Creation, and it was time that everyone remembered it, too. I took a deep breath as my little cloud was absorbed into the vampire queen’s body, shedding a single tear as it rooted in her womb. Now, I just had to find the perfect candidate to bring me back into existence on Earth, quickly settling on a beautiful vampire fetus already named Tawnie, who had the strongest ties to the original vampire line. She would do perfectly. I would see to it.

“Until we meet again. I love you, Osirus…”