Chapter 1: Risen From The Ashes

  Erik woke to subtle yet piercing raindrops poking at his naked skin. At first, it felt wrong. Like the rain shouldn’t be able to reach him. A sudden flash of heat licked at his memory. A roaring inferno, walls collapsing, black smoke. He lurched upright, the hard ground biting into his tailbone.

  The air tasted bitter, like a soggy bonfire and blackened meat. It smelled like rot, almost. Erik looked around, recognising the structure but not the visage. His home was gone, reduced to blackened wood and crumbling debris. Just beyond arm’s reach lay where she died. His mother. He could almost hear her wails even now, not just in memory but echoing around him even as the rain fell. The last moments of her life were a whirlwind of hungry flames, yet she had still staggered forward. Toward him.

  A tear traced a path through the grime on Erik’s cheek before mixing with the cold raindrops. The memory unlocked something deeper, too. It wasn’t just her. Images of collapsing beams, burning debris pressing down on him like a suffocating weight. He closed his eyes against it but couldn’t block out the heat, the way his own skin had melted. His lips fused shut in the blaze, the rest of his face consumed before he could even scream for help.

  Erik touched his face, sliding wet fingers down his cheek and lips. He traced them down his body, dragging a deep layer of moist soot along his fingertips. He was whole again.

  Facing the phantom memory of his mother and her banshee wail, Erik remembered he’d found it impossible to scream back, even as she tried to reach him through the flames. Her ghastly face was clear to Erik even then, and though he tried, he couldn’t shake the horrific image from his mind.

  Then came the sound: a wet scraping against stone. Like something dragging itself forward. A rustle that wasn’t quite wind. He rose, bare feet sinking into moist and rotten wood. The house was long abandoned…or it should have been.

  He felt the chill first, like a sharp bite on his exposed skin. Why was he naked? With each passing moment, another realisation rushed over him like icy water: this wasn’t just a nightmare. It felt real. Too real. Darkness enveloped the area with no illumination from streetlights entering from the broken roof.

  He stumbled toward what remained of the fireplace, where stone had somehow melted. How? The brickwork around the fireplace was supposed to protect from fire, not dissolve into slag. It made no sense.

  Erik felt an odd pressure building behind his eyelids, as if something wanted to break through them. He pushed it down for now as he couldn’t ignore the distant thudding in the distance. The sound of heavy footsteps approaching him fast.

  By instinct rather than anything else, Erik entered the cool remains of the fireplace, its shifting stonework making too much noise for his comfort. The stomping stopped, replaced by a wet sniff that seemed to fill every crevice around him. It sounded…animalistic. Almost like an eager dog sniffing out its prey.

  Erik settled somewhat behind the scorched stone, but not before catching sight of something moving at the edge of his vision. The darkness was no friend to him, leaving the mysterious animal just that. Its heavy footfalls headed straight for him. What was the size of the creature that made this much noise? A bear? Impossible. Bears didn’t roam here. A wolf? A slight possibility, but no more.

  The weighty foot stepped onto the charred remains of wood from the entry hall, sending debris crumbling under its pressure. Another foot fell, and the woodwork, still held up by blackened, crisp remnants, shifted. The beast dashed a quick dash into the living room to avoid the tumbling wood, causing more rubble to collapse onto the floor in the hall.

  Erik could see it now: not a bear, but something far worse. Canine…yet not any kind of canine he’d ever seen. Even though its form was like a dire wolf, its rough hide only had a few tufts of hair and a strange dark sheen. Massive fangs jutted from under its snout, curving inward. What chilled him to the bone was its size.

  Seeing the creature in more detail was enough to catch his breath; all memory of grief, of pain and loss shoved to the back of his mind. Trying to ignore his wet eyes and the cold of his skin, Erik clenched his fists and trembled.

  The creature turned toward the rubble, heading deeper into the living room proper. Erik knew it would find him soon enough unless he moved. The only thing keeping his scent hidden was the ash clinging to his skin like a second layer of flesh. Like a hammer hitting a nail, his heart pounded, more with every step the creature took.

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  He rubbed his shoulder and back against the charred stone behind him in a desperate attempt to lessen his own smell. The barely-there stonework shifted at his weight, drawing the beast’s attention straight toward him.

  It eyed him with cold intent and sniffed with hostility. Erik tapered his breathing, though he knew it was too late. He lost all feeling in his legs as a fear-induced panic seemed to seal tight his very veins. It took all he had not to shiver as the creature ambled closer, snarling a low growl from deep within its chest. It was on the hunt, and it had caught wind of Erik’s presence.

  The dark monster pounced, sending its heavy mass into the stonework that hid the man. Bricks flew as claws raked across his hiding place. Erik lurched back against the wall, finding it barely holding together. Another swipe brought the creature closer, so close he could feel the warmth radiating off its wet paw.

  The hound shifted again, scratching away at the debris with a clawed paw to get inside more easily. The moment its foot shot forward, Erik rolled backwards out of the house and into empty air as the decrepit stone gave way under his weight. Heavy brickwork tumbled over the beast in response, burying it beneath tons of rubble.

  Still disoriented about what was going on, Erik rose to his feet once more and ran. How could this thing, this monster, be there? What had happened since…Since when? His heart pounded and his mind raced, clouding his thoughts even as a monster was on his tail.

  Buck naked and terrified, he darted across the lawn, jumping through his neighbour’s hedge before stopping at their front door. The door had shattered into a thousand pieces, with broken window glass littering its base from both sides. No one seemed to be around. Not a single light glowed, either inside or out. Erik let himself in through the broken doorway, hearing the snarling behind him as the beast cleared away stone and wood.

  The house belonged to a friend of his, one of the last ones left in his tiny town. Despite living so close to each other, they rarely spoke. Life got in the way. Most people Erik’s age had already moved away. His neighbour would have done the same thing if not for the child. At eighteen, a child wouldn’t just alter plans; it would tear them apart and force new ones upon you. That was years ago, though. They seemed happy here, despite everything.

  Erik struggled to see in the dark, but he noticed the lacerations in the flooring, claw marks on the staircase leading up to the first floor, and the wardrobe shattered to pieces, full of winter clothes—all torn to shreds.

  It had been snowing on the day of the fire, he remembered. Judging by the temperature outside and the cool breeze on his skin, winter had passed. Spring? How long had he…?

  Flashes of another life lived entered his mind. A pleasant apartment that wasn’t his, friendly neighbours he loved and enjoyed, everything he could ever need or want. Something inside him clawed at those memories, but he didn’t have time to stand around as a violent sprint echoed behind him.

  Erik dashed up the staircase, ending up in a long hallway with four doors lining the walls. Rushing, he opened the first door, finding a young boy’s room abandoned and empty before continuing down the hall in a blazing rush. He entered the second room only to find a gigantic bed and wardrobe standing upright against the opposite wall. The window next to the bed was open, and Erik dashed for it, hearing the demonic monster behind him tearing apart wood with monstrous raking claws.

  He jumped out into the cold air, grabbing hold of the ledge to pull himself up onto the roof in a panic as the beast stomped up the stairs behind him. The sounds of the staircase being torn apart below him blew past. He slammed his ashen hand over the scrapes on his arms caused by the rough tiles scraping against his skin, hoping to avoid bleeding all over them.

  He noticed something strange in the corner of his eye—a black marking on his chest. It had a round centre with four extending arms swirling outward, each one dotted with black hexagonal shapes.

  He recognised it despite having had no tattoos earlier. He was forgetting something. His mind raced even as he clambered up and over the ridge of the roof. He wasn’t certain how long it had been since the fire or why so much of his memory felt like nothing but a static mess, yet now, seeing that mark on his chest, something clicked into place—a critical piece of the puzzle. The tattoo wasn’t a tattoo at all, but a mark that would give him great power.

  He breathed in deep, both to catch his breath and to calm his mind. The monster rummaged through the first floor below him even now, yet somehow Erik’s body relaxed. He remembered dying. In the fire.

  Three months.

  He had died three months ago. He knew it from the start, but the suddenness of his grief rising back up must’ve clouded his mind. Everything fit together. He remembered dying, burning into nothing but cinder and ash. And now, here he was, without a scratch on him. If not for the beast chasing him, he was sure he’d have got there sooner.

  His clenched fists eased as he took in flashes of his recent past—of events occurring after his own death but before returning to life moments ago. He remembered a promise of reunion…a tale of bloodlines. Witches and Titans.

  He remembered Jessie. How he could have forgotten about her for even a moment, he didn’t know. They had promised to find each other after leaving Afterlife—the place he’d first returned to life after the fire three months ago, the place where he’d met her. He glanced around as if she’d be there at his side, but he knew better than to expect her presence. Erik had left Afterlife ahead of her so he could travel to find her where she, too, had died.

  He didn’t know what this monster was or why there was no one else around, but Erik wouldn’t let anything endanger Jessie. Not if he could help it. It didn’t matter if monsters, aliens, or even war had overrun the world—he’d get to her. He had been reborn from his own ashes as something different from the man he used to be. He could use that to make his way past this beast and whatever else might lurk in the shadows. Erik was a Remnant, after all. A powerful, magical descendant of a people long, long gone. He was a Titan.