//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Son of Eternity 
// by Secrets and Lies 
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(Prologue)






Once upon our time, in the not-so-magical land of North Carolina, lived a boy named Zachary.

If you passed by him on the sidewalk, you might describe him as a tall man with short, wavy brown hair and a face that was uncommon to smiling. Zack appeared as an intimidating person, but his heart strived towards being better than his current dilemmas made him out to be. He was a strange kind of man who grew up about an hour north of the city; it was there where life was a bit slower. A place where silence between the hills was a rare charm anywhere else. Where the early mountain fog would roll into the plains, and the smell of mist and pines brought an essence of new life into the lungs. After a long breath of it all, one could feel rejuvenated and alive again.
He had moved from this place to go to the city of Charlotte where his college was located, and for the first time in a long time, he was grieved and homesick. He had no goals, though he felt he had to put everything behind him that he had grown up with, so that he could move on with his adult life. He had left behind such enjoyments to try and throw himself into the 'real world', he knew it would be better for him. Through this philosophy, he had unknowingly tricked himself from the beginning.
One peculiar thing he held on to was the last little bit of child-like imagination left in him. This small amount of secluded joy would soon be his downfall. The tad bit of happiness he possessed was his sense of adventure that he had read in so many books before. He was an avid reader and had been since he was younger; and through this, he had a little bit of hope for his future. Zack imagined that maybe one day he could leave the Old North State, to travel beyond his comfort zones either alone or with new friends. To go out and beyond, to live and see it all.
The time came when reality sunk in around him. A great depression in his mind broke through and turned into a void he couldn’t conjure how to escape from. His life was torn in half, and through that tear the last few ounces of his childhood’s happiness was poured into the dark ravine of reality. Down to the last drop of younger bliss, he tried to save it, but to no avail. The worldly mentalities caved in around him. He was broken. He was alone. He was saddened. And most of all, he was terrified of his own being.
How his life had played out now taunted him. To every mistake and rash decision. To every hurtful word he said, to every betrayal and shattered promise he vowed was summoned to haunt him, to shatter him. The demon of depression snared his mind and firmly held it close to the fires of madness. His mind was now his own enemy, eradicating himself from the core out. No form of escapism or inner-light through cracks in life’s framework shown a path out of his entanglement. Lost was the boy from the country hills where the secret magic still thrived, lost was Zachary in the mire of his mistakes.
He was once quite fond of life, but it seemed like a hazy dream to him now. Friends and family, lovers and believers, they had left him in a past he wished he was never apart of. To be given happiness from these people and for it to be so easily taken away–he wished no such horror on his greatest enemies. The relentless scarring and thrashings of time was too much for the lost one. In a split moment, he found himself back in his own apartment. The splinter of time he had discovered was only momentary and he knew he would bring himself back into it soon enough. No form of happiness or high could phase him back to his long lost joy. The tides of depression had ebbed back to the sea of alienation, and he knew they would wash over him again.
So, with one last decision—the last decision he would make in this world—he opened a tightly sealed case under his bed and pulled from it the Devil’s desire. He was ready to leave everything behind. Somewhere else however, another had different intentions for him. For Zachary was a plan in the making; incubated for something beyond the grand design. A new land called for his aid and he would soon answer its call. Zachary was unaware of it, but he was about to begin a new journey, and find a new life.