The Creators: Book One by

“You knew?” I hissed at her. She nodded. Betrayal and deception. I had been made a fool of by everyone. Tera, Angela, Brandon and Astrid, had all been laughing at me behind my back. The rocks spoke to me, the earth called for me, but Corruption’s anarchistic indifference wasn’t there to help me pull the trigger. I would’ve flattened the entire arena, I would’ve broken Drastin into pieces, but Corruption didn’t encourage me to, so I didn’t do it. No, I just stood there like a gawking moron, staring at Astrid, and then staring at Brandon. He looked at me with comfort and promise in his eyes, and Corruption told me to go to him. To embrace him, to kiss him, to love him. My equal in all things, my peer in power. Her next prey.

I ran away. I turned on my heel, gripped with a terror I couldn’t describe, and I sprinted into the dark corridors beneath The Pit. A stream of people moved outside the concourse, and I skidded to a sudden stop, not wanting to be surrounded by eyes who knew me, only wanting to find the darkest hole in the world, and crawl into it. I made my own exit in the wall beside me, and ran through it; burrowing the earth before me as I charged into the darkness, creating a tunnel to nowhere. I ran until my heart thundered and my lungs breathed fire, until my legs ached and my feet were bloodied. I fell to my knees in the darkness, scraping flesh from sinew, feeling blood running down my shins. Tears dropped from my eyes, wetting the cold stones, shimmering faintly from the keyhole of light that shown a mile away.

“Why are you doing this to me?!” I sobbed to Corruption, “Why are you letting me feel? You’re supposed to take the pain away! It’s what you promised me!”

There was no answer in the void, no comfort from the thing that had raped its way into my mind.

“I’ve cast you out before,” I whispered, “I can do it again. I swear I’ll do it.”

But I knew that was a lie. There was no guilt left in me to tear Corruption from my soul, no shame or broken heart to cleanse me with pain.