Sanguine
Prologue
Tolouse, France 1557
The cold, piercing moon sifted through the canopy amongst the stars faintly shining in the sky, uninterrupted by the presence of passing clouds. Leaves rustled in the canopy of the dark forest as a breeze slipped through, shaking some from the heavy branches of looming beeches and distorting the light cast down from above. The shadows danced across her golden hair as she lay sprawled across the forest floor, her breaths stretching out longer and longer as time progressed. Her steadily blurring vision noticed the dull, slowly dying embers from the oil lamp shattered further down the dirt path. Woodchips and small pebbles dug into her arm like she was lying on a bed of needles, but it was almost drowned out by the sharp, throbbing pain at the back of her head that flooded her entire body. All her joints ached and her arms felt lifeless, relieved only slightly by the numbingly cold chill that ran through her, sucking the warmth out of the very marrow of her bones. She could feel something wet against her cheek, soaking her nightgown, and could taste the bitter metallic flavor of blood. Sweat beaded across her forehead as whispering voices began to echo from every direction, and she offered little resistance as darkness enveloped her like a blanket. Within a fleeting moment, her whole world ceased to exist.
Chapter 1
Edan
Edan Mathis had not had a good day. He had just come back from a 10 hour shift at the office, rotting in front of a computer screen . On the way home, he bagged himself a front row seat to a four car pileup involving two semis and a public transit bus. Needless to say, all four lanes were closed…right in front of his exit . He could have saved time and just walked home, he was so close. Well, at least it's a Friday, he told himself. As soon as Edan entered his studio apartment, he slumped into his office chair and rolled over to his desktop. What a great way to spend a weekend, escaping the drudgeries of an office job in front of a computer screen only to continue the trend on his own personal computer. Eh, there's wasn't much else to do.
Edan propped his chin up with his hand and skimmed through his RSS feeds. World's first cloned capuchin. Cloning's no biggie, but if you clone a monkey you've got yourself an article in a nationally recognized syndicated feed. Must have been a slow day. Edan pulled up a live feed from the local news, dragging the tickmark across the progress bar to pick up tidbits of the day's going-ons.
"—first cloned capuchi—"
"—part of a series of gruesome murders, a lady was found with two puncture wou—"
"—primary school burned down. Police point to arson.—"
Edan shrugged and looked past his monitor through the studio windows. The skyscrapers in the distance were silhouetted against the burning, orange sky. The light filled his living room with its vintage retro furnishings, hardwood floor, and post-modern paintings. It was a nice place, but people didn't usually visit him so it was all pretty much a waste. The sun disappeared over the cityscape. Pretty soon it would be dark and he'd have one more day he could look back on and contemplate on how much of a waste it was.
Edan sighed and leaned back on his chair, kicking off his shoes and resting his feet on the edge of his desk. He wondered what it would be like if he fell asleep right then and there. If he shifted his bodyweight just right, he could find a center of balance and remain that way throughout his nap.
Nope. Fell right on his ass. Pretty hard to balance on two wheels. Then, Edan wondered what it would be like if he fell asleep right then and there….his cell phone rang. "Ah shit…." Edan just let it vibrate until it inched its way off the desk into his hands.
"Yes?"
"What's up, lazyass"
"Hi, Geoff"
Geoff was Edan's best friend since middle school. He was a pain in the ass, but he had his redeeming moments.
"So what you up to, Edan?"
"Ah, nothing much."
"Having fun?"
"Time of my life."
"Bullshit. Knowing you, you're watching the Game Show Network. How 'bout you and I hit up that new nightclub tonight? "
Edan shifted a little on the floor. His ass was going numb.
"I'll see if I can fit it in my schedule."
"See you at seven." Beep.
Edan sighed again. He was just getting comfortable. The arm of the chair had just finished digging into his right kidney. He let out a grunt as he pulled himself back off the floor. He shuffled over to the bathroom and looked in the mirror examining his stubble. He pulled out a razor and got to work. Shower, shuffling through clothes, brushing teeth, all that shit that he thought would help him be more presentable in a public area.
Edan didn't really stick out that much. Not too tall, not too short. Dark auburn, scruffy hair and thin rim glasses, dark brown eyes. During the slow times at work, he daydreamed about being a killer martial artist… kinda like Bruce Lee. In reality, he was a nerdy programmer. Not a programmer for video games or a major software company. No, that would be interesting. He debugged spam pop-ups, just enough to make them adhere to the law. He may look lazy or depressed, but he really wasn't. He did his work, and he did it well. Shit just didn't pan out too well for him and it left him cynical towards everything. Why can't good things happen to good people? He always thought about just saying "To hell with it all" and doing whatever the fuck he wanted regardless of the consequences, but that just wasn't his style. Too much of a softie. Eh, what really mattered now was that he was going out tonight.
He took one more look at himself in the mirror before he walked back out into the living room and put the computer on standby. He made his way to the door, grabbing his keys and reaching for his coat. As he closed the door, he flipped off the light switch leaving only the blue blinking of the computer's status button.