Chapter One
The Beginning

“Quiet!” I whispered urgently.

I turned back from looking out of the window to gaze at my family. My wife, Elizabeth, and our children Joe and Mary huddled on the floor of what was left of this house. The furniture was all in tatters, the coffee table had been smashed, almost crushed flat; the sofa was shredded like a giant cat had used it to sharpen its claws. There was dust and dirt on the floors and walls, and of course there was blood. Everywhere you looked nowadays you saw blood, blood and fire.

“Do you see anything?” Elizabeth whispered?

“No, but with what is left of that semi out there I can not see down the street to see if it is safe, I need to go upstairs and see if I can spot anything before we move.” My son, a strapping young man who is not even five yet, tugged on my hand with his over serious bright blue eyes, saying “Daddy be careful, don’t get hurt.” While my daughter who had just turned three clutched at my legs in fear. I looked down and gently stroked their blond hair, hair which used to shine in the sunlight, but now like everything else was covered in dirt. “Hey kids,” I whispered “you know me, I promised I would not let anything happen to you.”

With that I clutched the only weapon we had, an old sword that had been passed down from generation to generation, fabled to have once been used by a Judiscar of the Holy Roman Church back in the middle ages to stomp out hearsay. While not the most effective weapon, it was the only thing we had seen that could damage the demons.

Looking over at my wife she quickly nodded as I put my finger to my lips and “shushed” the kids. Then as quietly as I could I crept thru the house and up the stairs to see if the course was clear. We had no destination in mind, but knew we had to keep moving, staying in one place was certain death. Quietly picking my way thru the debris scattered thru the house and on the stairs I finally made my was to a room that should have an exterior window, but instead of a window, most of the wall was missing, so I crawled on my stomach to the far wall so I could get a better view of the area. Looking out over the city I am still amazed by the destruction. Rows of buildings have been leveled and not all by the demons. The government in their desperate bid to halt the advance had started bombing the cities, trying anything to halt the demons. Fires burn everywhere, and there a thick layer of smoke in the air so thick we have not seen the sun in months. Looking down the street I see a small housecat in the distance, while rare I take this as a good sign. Cats are very sensitive to the demons, if you see a cat, usually there are no demons nearby.

Looking around at the nearby houses, searching each one for movement, listening for any signs of the enemy, my thoughts drift back to our most recent tragedy. It was amazing how fast the demons tore apart our world, in a matter of weeks they had destroyed the city of London, decimating everything we had thrown at them. They quickly spread like a wildfire, nothing stopped them. The government started to evacuate the people, trying to get as many to military bases and to underground bunkers, places they hoped would be safe, exactly what the demons were hoping for. My family and I were in a military truck on our way to a shelter when we were attacked by a demon. It was bigger than a man, about eight feet tall, with wings. Runes glowed upon its body, and in its throat seemed to burn a fire. It landed on the truck and ripped the driver out of the window, causing the vehicle to crash. The officer in charge told us to run while they turned their weapons on the creature. But before we could get away it had killed the entire unit, all five men dead in seconds. As we ran I heard a hoarse laughter coming from behind me, glancing back I saw that the demon was fast approaching, the distance between us shrinking faster than I would have thought possible.

I seemed to glide across the ground, half running half flying, the wings on its back angled so the wind helped lift it off the ground, making it lighter on its feet. It quickly caught up with us, and knocked us to the ground, it seemed to enjoy our fear. As I stood up I pulled the only weapon we had, our ancient sword, hoping I could buy my family enough time to get away, as futile as I knew that would be.

It settled down to the ground, laughing is raspy laugh, and grabbed at my wife before I could react. But it was not going for my wife but the infant she had clutched in her arms. Its claws raked down my wife’s ribs ripping into her flesh, and as hard as she held our child the demon ripped it from her grasp.

“NO!” I shouted and rushed at the demon, but it held our child between us using is as a shield, taunting me. As I watched it started to crush our child in its grasp, I quickly stuck at it with my weapon, but it just bounced off, then suddenly a dog came running from the nearby trees, sinking its teeth deep into the beast, drawing blood. It howled and dropping my child, it turned on the dog. As I watched I prayed. I had never been a religious man, believed that God was nothing more than a myth. At that moment I prayed, but more importantly I surrendered, I gave everything I had to God, begging for help, and I knew I was heard.

The Demon finally caught the dog, and ripped its head off, throwing the carcass aside it turned to me. “Die.” It whispered, a whisper filled with more hate than I though possible. As it came for me I knew peace. As it reached for me I struck the beast again, this time the sword bit deep into the creature, severing it hand from its arm, I quickly turned the sword and thrust straight into the creatures head, killing it instantly.

The Demon dropped to the ground, dead. Then I heard my wife crying clutching at our baby, whispering over and over “Its ok, its ok” I knew then our child was dead. The demon that had killed her quickly began to melt, leaving little trace it was there, the only thing left was a bronze gauntlet it had worn on its arm and hand. As I grabbed it, the red gem set in the back of the hand flared red for a second.

“BRYAN!!!” I heard my wife scream my name from down stairs, I was instantly filled with dread, cursing my self for thinking of the past, as the past is filled with death, only the future can hold life, I started to run downstairs, determined to keep my promise to my family.