I wanted to run far far away but I made a promise, one that I could not break. The fate of sixty-four million people would be decided with a game of chess. The chess pieces held a pearl each.
On the white side, the pearls held humans. All of them people related to me.
My father, mother, brother, and both of my sisters, Cedric, Natalya, Noir, Blanche, James, My grandfather, my eldest uncle, Nerva, Nero, Maria, and Dante. Each of them was held inside one of the pearls.
'WHAT?!' I was beyond shocked.
Opposite them, on the black side, an assortment of beings peered out from within the pearls, their forms twisting and writhing in an unsettling display of otherworldly presence.
Eldritch creatures, with eyes that seemed to pierce through the veil of reality, mingled with humanlike figures whose features bore the mark of ancient wisdom and untold secrets. Lilith was also there, looking at me with her shimmering golden eyes.
