Author's Notes:

Below are the normal author's notes, but before you read this just know that the first few chapters are pretty bad. Chapter 3 is kinda mandatory to read, but if you wanna skip the first few chapters up to then, then I won't blame you. If you really want too, skip chapter 3 too. But just know that if you do that, then the story up until chapter 10 won't make much sense. I plan on rewriting the prologue - chapter 3 at some point, but for now, just keep all of that in mind.
You've been warned.

Sorry if this is kinda short. I didn’t want it to be long since it is only a prologue.

Originally this was written in 1st person, but something about it didn’t sit well with me, so I re-wrote it in 2nd person. I’m planning on making other chapters longer than this, but I can’t say that there will be a word count that I stick too. I’ll just wing it and see how each chapter turns out

The streets of New York were surprisingly empty. The night was unusually calm for the city that never sleeps, almost unusually so. Never the less, the bag of shopping you had just purchased was in your hand and you were ready to make your way back to your apartment. Sure, you weren’t exactly living the high life, but you enjoyed what you had. All you really needed to be happy was a bed, a computer and a TV.

Of course, you also needed food to keep yourself alive, which is exactly why you were out right now. Why not buy food in the day? Well, you’d like to say you were busy, but in reality you just forgot. Your life wasn’t exactly busy, but quite often you find yourself getting wrapped up in TV shows, many in the likes of ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’. More often than not you get so engrossed the whole world seems to fade away around you, immersing yourself in that world. For some reason, the show always held a special place in your heart, due to its fantasy setting, un-plagued by the real world, and the amazing characters.

Anyway, right now you had to get back to your apartment and get some rest. It was surprisingly late, and the queue at the store was abnormally long.

After a 5 minute walk, you finally reached the intersection that had been under some maintenance for quite some time. The only way to your apartment block from here was to cut through an alleyway. The dark, sinister, definitely not dangerous alleyway. The street lights failed to shine down this crack between buildings, leaving it left in the shadows. But you knew you had no choice but to pass through it.

You’re not scared of the dark, yet something about this alley set of a sense of panic within you. It had always made you feel uneasy, due to it being so close to you’re home, but never straight up panicked. Something was wrong, you could feel it. The presence of eyes piercing you suddenly made every hair on your body stand on end. Was it paranoia? You hoped it was, but to your dismay, you got to see firsthand the cause of your uneasiness.

Three hooded figures, barely distinguishable, emerged from around the corner. Their faces were covered by shadow, yet a flash of light caught your eye, slightly below one of their waists.

“Grab ‘em,” The middle figure commanded in a leader-like tone. His voice was raspy, almost like he hadn’t talked in weeks. Frozen by your own fear, your arms are held behind your back by a fourth figure who had approached from behind. Forcefully, he pushed you against the cold surface of the wall, slamming your face into it.

The commanding figure grabbed you by the hair, twisting your head around to face him, but even then his face remained unidentifiable.
“Got any cash on ya?” He asked, but something told you he was gonna take something from you either way. His breath smelt like cigarettes, but that was the least of your worries. Now you were up close and personal, you could see what had caused the light reflection earlier. In his left hand he held a somewhat large knife. This was gonna end badly.

There was nothing you could do. You tried to fight, yet your pinned arms could not nothing but burn with effort. You couldn’t run, as you were surrounded by the figures friends. All you could do was answer.
“N-no...” You responded to him. And you were being honest. You had only brought enough money to cover the food you needed, but surprisingly, the figure didn’t accuse you of lying like most of these stereotypical muggers would do in this situation. Instead, he gave you a much more chilling response.

He laughed. Through the dark shadow on his face, you could faintly see a sick smirk grow on his face.
“Guess I’ll be taking something else from ya instead,” He stated. You wanted to question to him, but before long you didn’t need to.

The blade sunk into your chest as you were twisted around to face him. It didn’t hurt, not a single bit. You simply stared at the blade lodged in your chest.
The mugger pulled the knife out of your chest, and plunged it back in slightly above the first wound. Again, no pain came. You watched the knife puncture your chest again, and then turned your gaze back up to him.

Your arms were free, yet you didn’t have the energy to fight. You saw the blood spilling out of your chest, and then felt your breathing become heavy. Now face to face with death, you stare at the knife wielding crook and smirk. You laugh softly, realising how stupid of a way this is to go out, but no laugh came out. Instead, drops of blood shot out your mouth and leaked slightly down your lip. The knife had done some serious damage to you.

You understood what he meant know. He meant your life. He was taking your life away from you.

Satisfied, the gang turned and left the scene, leaving you to bleed out. You slumped against the cold wall, sliding down until you sat on the floor. Your hand rested on your bleeding chest as black fog closed in around your vision. The empty void of death was welcoming you with open arms, and you accepted.

As the dark embrace of death consumed you, the feeling of breathlessness vanished, replaced by a feeling of peace. A feeling of harmony. And it stayed like that for a while. All you could see was a wall of darkness. No pain, and no feelings other than relaxation.

But then, once again, your senses had been warped around in less than a second. It almost felt like wind was beating against you heavily, as if you were...

Falling...

Then, almost expectantly, the dark void returned as you felt your body collide with the ground. You weren’t conscious long enough to feel the pain, yet the sound you heard. A horrifying crunch of what you assumed to be your bones shattering as your terminal velocity fall was halted in an instant.

But this time you were more than ready for death, for you already knew what it felt like.

But nobody will ever be ready for what comes after it.