Chapter 1: April 3

After a short pause, an aged voice could be heard responding, “We are all cursed because of our parents, Adam and Eve. They brought death into this world, and nothing is going to change that.” A sigh escaped his lips before he continued, “You say we don’t deserve our fate, but we have all at one point made the same choice… the choice to do what is wrong in place of what is right.” There was another pause as the elder caught his breath from the strain of walking and talking. “Come, let us go and pay our respects to him in peace instead of lingering around murmuring about things we cannot change.”

As this conversation faded into many others, the passageway containing the robed outsider ended abruptly with a wall, but this did not alter the traveler’s pace. He continued toward the barrier and passed through it as though it did not exist. Only when he was on the other side of the wall and in the midst of the crowd again did he pause when his eye caught sight of a young woman with curly, reddish-brown hair peeking out from her hood, coming toward him carrying a young child with identical hair on her hip. Sadness enhanced the beauty of her face, and her deep, emerald green eyes held him mesmerized until she passed him and was lost in the crowd. Composing himself and remembering his mission, he continued his march with the rest of the throng.

The entire first chapter of The Corruption – Book 1 in The Age of the Watchers – will be published on this blog throughout the month of April!