Prologue

There was never a time humans were more ripe for the picking.

They had become so deafened by the loudness of life. With distractions saturating all senses, they moved through their days oblivious; they focused on the next news clip, the next flashy trend on the small screens in their hands, the next fleeting moment of indulgence and hedonistic numbing to the pressures around them.

It was a feast for those that salivated at the scent of humanity like an old dog waiting on the arrival of its next meal. Shadows of ancient things best left unseen, with bloody maws that ached to rip into flesh and bone, to taste skin and meat sliding down its gullet in an attempt to satiate it until the next meal wandered too close, too vulnerable to fend it off. When it was done, there would be nothing left of the person that once existed as a friend, a son or daughter, a parent . . . nothing but unending questions, terror-filled nights where too much was left to imagination; nothing but mental torment to weaken and prepare the next course for the horrible things that waited.

Those that labored to protect humans kept their hope, however. They recited the Great Premonition over and over as though it were a spell that would eventually subdue the evil things in the world; the staunch conviction that there would soon be an awakening of Those That Could See and Hear. They would face the terrible things in all clarity, they would drive them out, down into ancient prisons waiting.

The horrors laughed at this. After all, it had been so long that they roamed free, through every civilization, every age of humanity. There had yet to be any such person that knew who they were, much less how to vanquish them. Now, with their power amassed in such might, and humans so weakened, there was far less of a threat than ever before.

And so they feasted, gorging on the vulnerable, cackling at the futility of those that toiled to keep them at bay. Nothing would stop them. No mere human could challenge them.

It was with this unwavering belief that two brazen specters awoke the first challengers.