"And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown

into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false

prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day

and night for ever and ever."

- Revelations 20:10

Once long ago, we were able to look towards the heavens and smile,

Knowing we were being watched over by The Creator.

It was prophesized that one day a saviour would free us from carnage

And bring us back to freedom and light. Because of this prophecy,

We believed that someday we would be saved from this world.

Well, we have waited; no one will come save us now.

Preface

It was strange- I often felt- how much my past and human life differed from each other, and how much they seemed as though they were one in the same. The boarders of my past life and my human life were clouded. If someone was to ask me to tell the story of both lives, I would have a difficult time finding where to begin. I never thought of myself as something extraordinary; in my mind, I was normal. But what was really considered normal? Normality was only ever a figment of my own imagination; something to cling onto when life went in another, less desirable path. Normal was when routine became a way of life without a stray or bump in the road. But how can anyone ever learn or grow when their people discourage getting lost- only when one becomes lost are they able to find themselves.

During my life in the Human Realm, a familiar sense of blissfulness overwhelmed me as I lay in the fields of tall wild grass behind my parent's farm house. I would stare up at the sky and all my problems just seemed to fade away. The wind howled its usual tune, and the warm light of the sun embraced my skin with its warmth. The scent of manure clung to my nostrils, but it did not bother me. I grew up in the country and this scent was what told me I was home.

As I lay in the tall grass, my parents would tend to the gardens and my little sister Meagan, nagged at me to play with her. I missed those days when my brother Daniel would be out with his friends. I would watch as my parents worried more about our old, black pick-up truck coming back in one piece, than my brother himself. There was no need to carry deadly weapons for fear that an evil sorcerer who sought my death, would come for me in the night. Instead, I would tag along with my father and brother during their monthly hunting trips, where I would practise my skills using a shotgun. I did not live in the shadows haunted by my past, nor were there creatures - which according to folklore - existed only in my dreams. The only creatures I was concerned with were the ones living in my back yard. Life seemed to make sense, but I still felt incomplete. Was this the life I was meant to live? Many times I found myself daydreaming, imagining myself as an animal or another human being. My essence knew that there was something else I was supposed to be doing, something bigger than just this. But when you're human, what else is there?

I guess you could say I was happy in the Human Realm. It certainly appeared so. But I was wavering- lingering through life unsure of where I was going, what I was doing, or where I wanted to go. Limbo has never been a place of prolonged lingering. I felt incomplete, empty, and alone with no idea why I felt so. My memories were devoured by an ugly case of amnesia and I felt like I had been trapped behind a brick wall- I knew there was something on the other side but I had no way of breaking through. I was a prisoner in my own body.

All this had been for my own protection, but at what price?

It felt like my peaceful human years vanished as soon as they began, and too soon was I forced to give up my child-like innocence- for a bow and arrow.

I know now that life will never be as simple as it was during my time in the Human Realm. My life will always be flooded in a sea of blood, as long as there are those who threaten humanity's fight for freedom. I realize that now. But like many before me, if I knew then what I know now, many things would be different.

This was how things had been arranged from the beginning. I was never meant to awaken. To relive the horror that began thousands of years ago. Never, was I meant to return to the place where it all started. Where evil was born and grew like an incurable plague. No matter how much they tried to keep me from my destiny, whether in this life or the next, my purpose of existence will always be to protect the people of the realms. It is my destiny as the Host.

My name is Christine Gallaway, and I was eighteen when it all began- technically a lot older than that- but that is an entirely different story. This story dates back to when I was Human.