The heavens seem to cry on this day. No one knows why it rained a red stained rain, but it did. It was as if someone had put red dye in the rain, for whatever the rain touched, didn't seem to have any damage or pain to it. It was as if this was normal rain, but it was the day the heavens cried. In the small town of Mary's wood, a town founded by a Mary Gera, the clouds shed their tears.

On this day a boy at the age of 15 sat on his front porch, and watched this strange phenomenon. Greg was the boy's name, Greg Gera. He stood up and put his hand out to let the rain touch his flesh.

"The rain…. Its hot."He said to himself in a small quiet monotone of a voice. His eyes seemed life less, and he had a blank stare on his face. The people knew Greg to be a bit strange at times, but he was a normal human, despite the stories of his ancestors. When Greg has this blank stare, he tends to fit things in better then when he is normally thinking, as if he is tapping into a sixth sense. Greg let the red rain trickle down his hand onto the ground and he watched the street and sidewalk as the water hit it. Even though the rain was hot, there wasn’t steam coming off of the sidewalks or streets, which Greg thought was odd for no apparent reason. He just felt that steam should be coming off the roads that have been buffeted by colder rains in the past few days.

He looked across the street when he heard that familiar creaking of the wooden porch of Jacob Kring. As Jacob came out of his house to look at the rain, the thumping of his cane hitting the wooden porch could be heard. He had a book in his other hand, while his first hand held the cane that kept him steady. He sat down in his porch chair and opened the book. Greg, who came out of his daze, decided to go talk to Mr. Kring. He took a step off of his porch and felt something like a change of pressure and his ears popped as if pressure changed. The world seemed to shake in his eyes, and his equilibrium seemed to be changing. He felt like he was standing parallel to the ground and then, the feeling was gone and the world seemed to focus again. He shook it off and pressed on forward towards Mr. Kring. The hot red rain bounced off of his body as he crossed the street quickly.

Greg isn’t that tall of a guy, he is only about 5’7’’ tall and he isn’t as built as other people in this small town. In fact, he doesn’t seem to have that much muscle mass at all, but he is also very skinny and doesn’t have much fat either. A long thin birthmark ran across his right arm, and if one looked closely it would seem to resemble that of a snake. This birthmark is the same as his great grandmothers was. Mary Gera also had this birthmark and those old enough to remember her would swear that she was a magic woman. The things she did were far and few from miracles. She once brought a man back from the dead and she even saved Jacob Kring from death, or so he says.

“Mr. Kring, what are you doing?” Greg asked the old man as he stepped onto his porch.

“Watching,” He said simply. “And waiting.”

Greg looked at the rain as it came down and sighed, “This is quite the strange thing that is happening isn’t it sir?” He asked Jacob and he then heard the shuffling of pages. He turned to look at Jacob.

“ ‘The tears of the heavens shall be stained with the blood of her children. The ground will release his warriors, and the heavens will release hers. When heaven and earth collide, the dark void will release his Knights and take both worlds to oblivion.’ The prophecy of Earl de Altan, King of the southern desert. It’s time, Greg. Your ancestors knew this day would come, and Mary wanted me to guide the heir of her power. Your father refused his birthright, went crazy and killed your mother and then himself.”

“Don’t talk about my parents, Jacob.” Greg said coldly. He didn’t like what his father did, making him an orphan, and he didn’t like anyone talking about it.

“Don’t interrupt me boy!” Jacob yelled as he rose to his feet and brandished his cane as if it were a sword, “The world is changing! Your grandmother knew it was, and the time she predicted has come!”

“What the hell are you talking about? This rain is just a strange anomaly, it doesn’t mean anything, its just rain!” He yelled at the man. Greg was so confused, he didn’t know what was going and Jacob was acting stranger then usual. He was starting to regret coming over to speak with him.

Suddenly, Jacob moved, quicker then an old man should, and pushed Greg to the side. He aimed the butt of his cane at the sky and twisted his thumb. To Greg’s amazement, the resounding ring of gunfire went off and as Greg looked up, he saw something floating in the sky. It sent chills down his spine, a bull skull seemed to be connected to a gray mist like body that looked like rags and to the side were claw like bones for hands. A hole was in rag like mist.

The strange thing swerved and flew towards Jacob, claws outstretched to rake at his face. Jacob aimed his cane gun again and twisted his thumb again. A crack of gunfire, and then the strange thing fell to the ground, its skull shattered from the gunshot wound. Greg looked at it with shock on his face, watching as it withered in pain and the rag like body seemed to dissipate into the atmosphere. All that was left was a shattered bull skull and claw bones. Whatever it was, it was dead now.