Chapter 02

ZION

The entire drive to our new house in this new town was pathetically miserable. This town was my last resort from all my antics. Any more misdemeanors and I would be placed in a correctional facility which my mother hated the thought off.

They always kept me close to them, kept a watchful eye on me, and how I used my magic. They didn't trust me enough to send me into the outside world without them tagging along. The way my temper boiled I guess they always assumed I would incinerate someone with a beam of light.

From what my mother taught me, light magic had more healing properties than harmful ones. Before my mother left her realm, she was an angel that brought unexplainable healing to mortals. When she left the realm of heaven she couldn't resist the urge of wanting to help and heal so she, therefore, became a general practitioner.

Dr. Ciana Collins!

That's my mum's name. Her name was as beautiful as her. I had never seen both my parent's in their true forms but my mother looked breathtaking in her human form.

My father was tall and big built. His voice gruff and hoarse. He didn't have a gentle touch and unlike mother, the magic he wielded caused great destruction. I always wanted to know why my father chose Lucifer's side over the creators. But I never asked why because both the creator and Lucifer were selfish in their own way. That's why I was stuck amongst mortals being a realmless being.

My father abandoned hell and decided to live a simple life amongst the mortals as one of them just for the sake of the love he and my mother shared. He became a constructor and developer. He made good use of his strength and anger demolishing and rebuilding projects.

Phoenix Collins.

That's my father's name. He was a demon but a harmless one after my mother entered his life. I've never seen him wield magic before. I figured he was too scared to use it. Too scared it would turn him into what he was before.

"He can't keep doing this Ciana! Where else are we going to go?" I heard my father's voice boom. We were already at the house and they were busy unpacking boxes in the sitting room while I unpacked my bedroom.

The house wasn't big and sound traveled quite easily. I snuck out of my room and stood in the corridor to eavesdrop on my parents' conversation. My back pressed against the wall to make sure they couldn't see me and I labored my breathing to make sure they couldn't hear me.

"Calm down Phoenix please," my mother's voice pleaded. I couldn't see her but I already knew what her facial expression depicted. She had the brightest blue eyes that drowned you in its warmth. Looking into them would make anyone putty in her little hands.

"Calm down? If he keeps doing this he...he..." my father trailed off as he paced across the freshly waxed hardwood floor. Every time his thick boots hit the wood a heavy sound echoed throughout the room.

"He's going to what Phoenix? Fitful the prophecy?" My mother asked in the faintest of whispers. Her tiny voice nearly falling on deaf ears.

"Yes! How can I teach him dark magic when he might be the reason the realms will seize to exist!"

What? So that was the reason he didn't want to teach me dark magic. I sharply inhaled trying not to make any sounds or movements that would alert them of my presence.

"That's not true," my mother sighed in defeat, "He will find love." Her tone sounded hopeful, she always sounded hopeful when it came to me and that caused a pang to grow in my chest because I always seemed to let her down.

"Love? How will he love when all he does is hate?"

"How did you learn to love?"

"I didn't hate the entire world," my father lossily defended. I could practically imagine him throwing his hands up in the air as he spoke those words. His sharp green eyes filled with the burning fire of rage.

"No, but you hated the creator and Lucifer. Just like our son does."

I felt the pang in my chest grow drastically. My mother was so understanding but my father wasn't wrong. I didn't have any love to give this realm and the beings who lived in it. Neither did I have love to give for the other two realms which I would never gain acceptance into.

Slowly, I crept back into my room. I shut the door and locked it behind me so I could be alone to think. I sunk my hands deep into my pockets, clenching them into tight fists.

Prophecy?

Love?

The reason that the realms would seize to exist?

How did all of this relate to one another and most importantly what did it have to do with me?

Unfortunately for me, the realms were one of the best-kept secrets. I couldn't even google what my parents were talking about because I wouldn't get any answers. My parents wouldn't tell me because there was a reason they kept it away from me. But I needed to know. Was my fate already written, even before my existence, and if so what was my fate?

Heaven and hell were known to mortals. Their different religions depicted in similar ways. Hell being a fiery pit whilst heaven being a blissful paradise. Some people believed that living on Earth itself was Hell because there couldn't be anything worse than this. Unfortunately, that wasn't true. Hell did exist. The Devil did exist. His demons did exist. Heaven did exist. But the true knowledge of them was unspoken.

The curiosity ate at me and I could feel the dark magic course through my veins being fueled by my anger and unsureness. Dark magic had a mind of its own and I could feel it trying to take over me, begging to be used. To be unleashed. I clenched my teeth and tightened my jaw to prevent myself from letting out a gut-wrenching scream due to the sharp pain of the dark magic coursing through me.

My hands found their way to my hair and my fingers tugged hard on the roots. I needed to let the dark energy out before it consumed me. My light energy wasn't strong enough to save me and I could feel myself slipping away until all I could see was black.

And then I saw a faint light and a figure that glowed in the surrounding darkness.

"I'm right here," the figure said in a soothing manner. The voice sounded awfully familiar and I almost groaned when I realized who the hell it was.

"Are you in my head again mum?"

"I am. It's really dark in here, have you seen the light switch?" My mom had an uncanny ability to make bad jokes in a bad situation. It was her coping mechanism that I wished she got rid of or at least wished she'd tell better jokes.

"This isn't the time for your dry jokes mum," I complained, rolling my eyes at her when a ghost smile played on her lips.

"You're right. Why don't you take my hand and I'll take you back into the light?" She suggested, holding her tiny hand out to me.

I stared at her hand for a long second, analyzing how her beautiful skin glowed in the darkness, "I don't know mum. I kind of like it here." I admitted, settling into the dark. Growing up, I never liked the light but I found solace in the dark. The dark didn't scare me the way it did other kids and if my mind played tricks on me and made me think that there were monsters in my room then I simply befriended those monsters.

"No one really likes the dark Zion. It's a lonely place." My mother's wind chime voice tried to convince me.

A sound of maniacal laughter echoed through the darkness that enveloped us. The laughter started off soft and slow, gradually increasing in volume. It made it seem like whatever lurked in the darkness was getting closer and whatever it was made my mother antsy, to say the least.

"Zion, take my hand, we have to leave now! Right now!" my mother frantically said pulling me toward a beam of light. Panic laced her features and I could see beads of cold sweat forming on her forehead. A telltale sign of her being stressed or scared. Sometimes even both.

I didn't question her because of how spooked she was at whoever or whatever cackled in the blackness submerging us. But as I began to reach for her glowing hand, I felt something grip my ankle. I couldn't see it, just feel it. I tried to think of a way to get out of it anchoring grasp but I came up with nothing.

My mother whispered something under her breath and a harsh glow of light radiated off her. She was still in her human form which meant her magic wasn't as concentrated as it would have been in her true, angelic form but it was strong enough for me to be set free. The creatures in the dark hated the light, sort of like how I hated it.

"You've got to go into the light," my mother yelled.

"Am I going to die?" I asked distressed. This had never happened to me before but from experience with mortals, I've learned that going into the light generally meant that you were dying. I might have been a currently aging immortal being that couldn't die from natural causes but I could still die in another way, like decapitation for instance.

"Zion just go!" she urged me with pleading eyes and suddenly all humor left. Well, whatever humor there was from the statement go into the light that was.

"What about you?"

"I'll see you on the other side," she encouraged and gave me a strange look, a look that I could only describe as sadness and unsureness of her words, "the other side of that bedroom door which you locked!"

My tongue darted out of my mouth and I sunk my teeth into the softness of it. There was a rule in my house, never lock the bedroom door. That rule came about after I nearly burnt the house down by trying to wield dark magic on my own with no supervision.

"Zion go!" she yelled but her tone was a pleading one.

I ran toward the light, not looking back. My eyes were sat on my goal and when I was a few feet away I leaped into the beam.