Boy of Light and Dust

Dayin

There was something in the room with him. He could feel it.

Dayin woke up with a start, heart racing, cold sweat rolling down his back. He took a shuddering breath as he glanced around his room, wondering if he was just imagining things. He hadn't woken up like this in a long time.

There were far too many alarm systems and guards to slip past before anything could ever reach his room, or the Palace. With a deep breath, he turned beneath his silky sheets and looked toward his window to watch the stars, to count them. Counting the stars that dotted the midnight sky calmed him. Usually.

By the time he reached twenty, he'd stopped shaking, though his breathing was still fast. His mind kept slipping back to what might have woken him in the first place, what was in the room with him.

After a good five minutes of counting the stars, he convinced himself that he needed to get out of his bed and find food from the downstairs kitchen. Anything to calm him and hopefully escape whatever was in the room with him. He clambered out of his bed and grabbed his robe from the tall end post of his bed as he continued toward his door, shrugging the robe onto his shoulders over his nightclothes, and tied the string loosely at his waist before opening the door.

At his door, he realized that something else wasn't right. There wasn't a guard posted at his door. A terrified breath escaped his lips before he could force himself to calm down. He could not panic out here. Not if there was someone or something in the house with him. He turned the corner and nearly jumped out of his skin. He stifled a squeal with a hand flying to his mouth. The dumb statue of his father stood there. He silently swore at whoever had put it there.

After he was terrified of the Palace, he continued to creep down the hallway, trying to keep as quiet as his feet would allow him. He knew it wasn't working. His breaths were still heavy. He hated it when he got anxious. And though he'd been panicking for several minutes, he didn't scream when someone grabbed him by the shoulder. Not that he had time to scream.

The person whirled him around to face them. The view did not overly please Dayin.

The person was an older man with greying hair, a straggly, wispy beard that Dayin felt compelled to chop off, and dull, pale hazel eyes that seemed to follow him wherever he went. His face looked like it was trying to melt off, the wrinkles piling up so much that he kind of reminded Dayin of the dog that his uncle used to have. The man was wearing the guard uniform, though Dayin knew better than to think he was actually a guard. He couldn't have been. He was far too old. Jonathan never would have allowed him to be a guard at his age. But his face was strangely familiar, though Dayin couldn't pin where he'd seen it before.

"Who are you?" Dayin demanded, his voice falling short of the volume he'd hoped for. He wondered if the man had woken him.

"William Johnson," the man told him, his dull hazel eyes watching Dayin in curiosity. Dayin didn't like it. William pulled him further into the shadows of the hallway by his shoulders. "We have to get out of here. You're in danger."

Dayin swallowed painfully, golden gaze darting down the hall and then back to the old man. Those weren't the words he wanted to hear. "N-No, I can't be in danger here... The alarm systems... The guards—"

"The guards are all dead or gone, boy," he huffed, rolling his eyes at Dayin. "Look at me," he said, gesturing toward the armour and robes that he wore. He had a point. There was no way that he could've gotten the guards' armour without all of them being completely displaced. "I'm not sure what happened, but the power is down across the city and the people have lost their minds."

Dayin stared back at him with his mouth gaping open, half in fear, half in disbelief. He stammered over a few words before finally spitting out intelligible words. "Can I get clothes?" he murmured, his eyes again sweeping the hallway for any of the guards. The lack of them disappointed him.