Forgotten Prophecies: Prologue

He looked about the place that had been his home for the past sixteen years- his whole life- and felt strangely sad. Not a day had passed that he had not dreamed of escaping the confines of the orphanage, but now that the day had finally arrived it was like nothing he had anticipated. His eyes watered and he forced the tears away, refusing to feel anything for the place.

The other children were tucked away in classrooms, thankfully out of sight as he followed the men outside to a long black car, the first of which he had ever seen. Only the Sentries, and the military, although some speculated that they were one and the same, were allowed the use of cars, and only then for the transport or pursuit of prisoners. The average person was forced to walk or use one of the many types of public transit that were offered, but of course they had to pay for that privilege out of their meager earnings. It was all just one more way to get the people’s money, or so Mr. Crowe was fond of saying.

The back door of the car opened, and the white-haired man shoved Jamis inside, causing him to crack his shin against the bottom of the open doorway. He managed to keep himself from crying out- he wasn’t about to let them have the satisfaction of knowing they hurt him. The door slammed shut behind him as he was trying to right himself, and he was suddenly alone. There were no windows, and no latches on the doors; he had absolutely no hope of escaping. Not that he was seriously considering trying; he wasn’t stupid, and he knew how running from sentries usually turned out: the death of the escapee. Jamis was in no hurry to die, not yet anyway.

The car ride was smoother than he had expected, and much shorter than he had hoped. The door opened again not long after the car came to a halt, and he was dragged out by one of the two faceless Sentries who had brought him. They bound his hands behind his back, and pushed him toward the great, black building that stood menacingly before him, towering into the sky. The white-haired man walked in front, again, and the two guards pushed Jamis with a baton from behind, herding him after their superior. Jamis gawked at the monstrous black tower, standing out as the only building not covered by a gargantuan video advertisement board.

The lobby of the building was crowded with people packed together like canned sausages, forming lines that wrapped around the whole of the room several times. Jamis did not get a chance to see what they were standing in line for, as he was quickly ushered through a set of double doors. The white-haired man and his guards led him through a series of hallways that were painted a pristine white. The immaculate walls were blemished only by lines of a single color that ran the length of the hallways, varying in hue with each passing corridor. He tried to pay attention to where they took him, in case the opportunity for escape presented itself, but there were so many twists and turns that he quickly lost all sense of direction and became hopelessly lost.

The white-haired man stopped suddenly and opened a door that blended so seamlessly into the wall that Jamis had not seen it then shoved him inside. The guards forced him to the ground by striking him on the back of his knees with the baton, then clamped metal restraints around his legs to keep him in an uncomfortable kneeling position, while leaving his hands bound behind him.