Three years ago on the night of May 15th, a child was born in a tiny mountain town in Italy. It was a tumultuous night, soaked with torrential rain and consequential mudslides. The stars were brighter than they'd been in years, somehow fighting to shine through the cloud cover. The planets had literally aligned in the sky above a small cathedral tucked into the shelter at the base of the mountain.
A young woman, nameless, homeless, penniless, had shown up on the step to the cathedral, begging sanctuary. The Father and nuns stationed there gave her the solace that was needed and were present for the delivery of her child. Upon arrival, the golden-haired girl let loose a shrieking cry before being toweled off and handed to her mother.
Cradled protectively in a mother's arms, as all children should be, the young babe new contentment and safety for brief moments before, from some freak occurrence of nature, her mother passed away.
The babe, christened Ladonna, grew at an exponential rate. With their deep-rooted faith and surprisingly vast connections, Father Gino Esposito and Sister Mary Donna managed to track down buried religious texts that the Vatican had attempted to hide. They spoke of a child, born among extraordinary circumstances. Gold of hair and pure of heart, without parents past her first hour of birth. A gift hidden in the body of a child.
Simultaneously a gift and a curse, this twice-blessed child would either be the beginning, or the beginning of the end. Everything else remained unclear, hidden from their knowledge, hidden from any divine sight that any had once mustered. The marking on the nape of her neck did not reveal anything. No records of it were found anywhere, all it did was add to the mystery of who and what this child was. What did the nightmares that plagued her every night reveal? Were they sights, portents of the future, or something else entirely? Only time would tell. The question was...how much time was there?
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"Get out, child. You must run, flee for your life, flee for everybody's life." Ladonna had been hidden in a run of the mill orphanage just three weeks ago after the portents of impending doom had grown stronger day by day. The young girl, now the size of an eight year old with the cunning mind and intellect of somebody years older simply looked up from the table where she was drawing pictures.
The nun who was speaking to her looked down at the paper, immediately taken aback. Most children drew pictures of their families, their pets, their toys. This...child, this creature, she drew extravagantly detailed pictures of what looked to be a Heavenly war. Angels clashing against demons and man against fellow man. In the center stood a small figure engulfed with golden light, tinted black at the edges; Ladonna.
"They're coming, girl." The soft voice of the nun was not comforting to the child who knew that the world was on her shoulders, yet did not know a single reason as to why. All she new was that she was different. She learned fast, the grew fast and in the short amount of time that she had been alive, an insurmountable weight had been put on her shoulders. Ladonna did not know what the exact reason was, she was not privy to the prophecy nor to the fact that if those who were after were successful in killing her, it would only make Lucifer's return that much easier. All she knew was that destiny had allotted her this job and she supposed it was up to her to do her best to adequately fulfill it.
Wearing a pair of jeans and a dumpy bright pink sweatshirt, her hair in pigtails and a backpack strapped securely to her back, Ladonna took to the streets that she knew like the back of her hand. Equipped with all of her worldly possessions stored in that backpack and the incredible intuitiveness that she had been bestowed with, her journey truly began. Trust nobody had just become her life motto and her only goal to make it through this ordeal alive.
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