#3 The Legend Begins: "The Chosen"

A cold chill ran through the vents. Mary tightened her arms around her baby. Looking down at his peaceful sleeping face, a slight smile crossed her lips, but soon faded. While the silent air throughout the room was bliss, a disturbing aura seemed to surround the child's head.

"Is everything alright," a Nurse entered. Mary nodded with a fraudulent expression happiness.

"No you're not," the nurse said. Mary watched as the nurse approached. A tall skinny woman, wearing an angry scowl as she approached. "Neither of you are," she said. Mary went to speak but found her voice frozen and stuck inside her throat.

"The child is not yours to keep," the nurse said. Mary gazed at the woman with bewildered eyes. Hairs began to stand on edge. "He has a job to do, and he can't have you interfering."

Mary looked down at the child still resting peacefully in her arms, and knew everything the nurse was saying was true. She couldn't keep the baby. He was too important.

The nurse reached out her arms. "Give him to me. I'll set him on the path." Mary hesitated. She wished there were more time. Another moment she could spend with him. She hadn't even given him a name.

Relenting, she lifted the child up and set him in the nurse's arms. "It's the only way." The monitor keeping watch of Mary's vitals flickered. Hairline cracks began to slowly draw across the ceiling. The floor trembled. The walls quivered. "It's the only way," the nurse said again.

The shadows cast throughout the room began to dance. Soon, each shadow converged and fumed like flames. A raging fire surrounded them. Its roars crackled. "It's the only way."

Mary sat up in bed, wide eyed and terrified. Her mouth hung open, trying to let out shrieks, but nothing would come.

The nurse's white uniform turned into a darkened ashy black. Veins shown through her pale ghostly arms. Her finger nails turned to claws. Her eyes began glowing red. "Et spiritus mori spes cadit," the nurse's voice spoke in an echoing monotone. "Et spiritus mori spes cadit."

The demonic figure opened the window. A breeze wafted in, stoking the shadowy flames. "Et spiritus mori spes cadit." The nurse held the baby out the window. "Hope falls and spirits die."

"Is everything alright," the nurse said again. Mary looked down at her child, still resting peacefully in her arms. "Yes," Mary's voice quivered. "We're fine."

FOLLOW THE LEGEND