"I miss you Lumine...why did you have to go away?"
The striking clock's bells tolled eight times as the sun rose over the town of Heartstone. With the sun rising, Lumine was awaken to the bright rays of sun creeping into his room, despite the fact he had long blackout curtains covering it. As the minister began to come back into the waking world, the throbbing pain he felt from last night resurfaced, this time inside of his skull. The headache he felt quickly come on was miserable to say the least. The small amount of light that was seeping through the curtains in his room felt like blinding rays of sun pointed directly at his eyes.
It was abnormal that he got a migraine, especially one this bad. Hell, he couldn't even do his normal morning prayer because of how much pain he was in. He knew that even if he wanted to go to the church that day, he'd barely be able to even stand behind the podium to preach to the day's visitors without collapsing from the sheer soreness. He didn't want to do this, but he had no other choice, since the consequences of dragging himself to the kirk wouldn't end well.
With a pained, slow reach over to his nightstand, he grabbed his small phone. He tried to turn it on...only to be greeted with the phone displaying a picture that told him it was dead.
"The future is now..." he grumbled under his breath, annoyed by this inconvenience. Unable to really contact the church to inform them of his circumstances due to the fact he couldn't really charge his phone with the charger he broke a week ago, he simply tossed his phone to the floor. He rested his aching head back down onto his soft pillow, the pain still just as prominent as before. He swore it felt like a bus had barreled through him at 30 miles per hour with how much pain he was in.
Wanting to seek relief from this agonizing pain, he gently closed his eyes, letting the dreaming world take him back with open arms.
————————————————————————
"What did I done wrong?" he pondered. "Why am I here? Who is this person? What's going on?" His brain was running wild with thoughts of why this was happening to him. No matter what he thought of in his head, none of the answers he could come up with explained what was going on. His legs were tied tightly together with a strong rope, his body being dragged to somewhere he'd never been before by a masked, tall figure. It was too dark to even make out what clothes this person was wearing, especially since the night sky was almost entirely starless.
With no reliable light sources anywhere nearby, he was forced to endure the pain of his body being dragged across what felt like gravel and grass. After what felt like forever of this feeling, it suddenly stopped. The masked assailant clearly had arrived at whatever destination they wanted to go to. They roughly gripped up him by the collar, hoisting him up into the air with a strength the boy never seen a person have before. They threw the poor boy with all their strength into a nearby tree, resulting in him receiving a bruised rib from the impact.
The assailant seemed to entirely ignore the boy's cries for mercy, stomping over to him and gripping the waistline of his pants. The boy didn't even have to think twice to know what was going to happen. He tried to fight off this masked person, but he was at too much of a disadvantage. His cries went up into the night sky, only being heard by the surrounding birds that were scared off from the sudden noise. After that night, he didn't go out alone. He never wanted that to happen to him again.
Why? Why him? Why did this happen? Why?
————————————————————————
Sound abruptly flooded Lumine's ears as he was shot back into the waking world, his body covered in a cold sweat. He had no idea why he had that dream in the first place. "What the fuck was that?" he thought to himself, trying to lower his extremely rapid heart rate. As he managed to calm himself down, he realized that his face was stained with tears, ones that felt like they weren't his own. They almost felt like they belonged to entirely different entity, one with more trauma than the minister could ever comprehend.
He wiped the half dried unfamiliar tears away from his face and climbed out of bed. Sleep was clearly something he needed, as that headache he had earlier was almost entirely gone. Feeling better than he did earlier, he made his way to his living room to check the time. The analog clock nailed above his living room clock read that it was midnight. Wait, that couldn't be right.
If it was midnight, he would hear twelve bells from the striking clock. Something was wrong, if it wasn't already apparent by the fact his clock wasn't moving either. This odd feeling of dread was only strengthened when he heard something crash off in another room to the left of where he was. Thinking there was an intruder now in his house, he quickly made his way toward the sound.
Rather than what he thought would be an intruder, he was met with a broken mirror he'd never seen before. From outside of the room, he didn't recognize the frame at all. It was much bigger than any mirror he'd ever brought before, almost matching his height. As he crept into the room, he began to see the broken glass surrounding the old fashioned mirror frame. The material and the style resembled something from a fairytale. Or, at the very least, it seemed to be something straight out of an old castle.
Carefully avoiding the sharp glass pieces scattered around the floor, he made his way to the mirror. Up close, he could tell that the mirror had clearly been from a long long time ago. It's outer shell was built from painstakingly carved obsidian, coated in a silver-ish paint. It seemed to have been really scratched up from how old it was, what seemed to be claw marks covering the thing.
The sight of this mirror gave the minister a feeling of unease, especially since he knew no one in town really had something this old. So why was it in is house? More importantly, who the hell put it in his house?
He didn't want to stay in the room long with the amount of unease that was coursing through his body, so he ended up leaving the room, being cautious as to not step on any glass as he left the room. Stepping out of the room with the broken mirror in it felt like a weight off of his shoulders. The tense, worried feeling suddenly dissipated into nothing...
but only for a moment.
A muffled cackle echoed throughout the house, its source coming from the same room that the cleric had just left. The wood in the room he was still facing his back towards began creaking as something happened. It persisted for an entire minute before it fell silent. Lumine, terrified, slowly turned back around to face the room.
There the mirror stood at the far backside of the room, entirely put back together. It's glass was now polished and clean, almost if it was brand new. The minister felt as his body approached the mirror without him doing anything. Someone was controlling him, and he was now entirely unable to fight back as he was pulled up close to the, in pristine condition, mirror.
Words couldn't describe how terrified he was. He couldn't move a muscle, his body now feeling almost paralyzed as he was forced to gaze into the reflection of the glass. There stood that creature again, but this time he had a better look at it. It looked like him, down to the littlest detail, but now with more demonic qualities. His reflection still resembled the succubus he'd seen before, but now he also could see how it's body almost had an unnatural look. The figure it had seemed barely achievable, and it's look of seductiveness only struck more fear into the heart of the petrified minister.
It began speaking in plain english, it's voice resembling low-pitched female's voice.
"We meet again Lumine. I can tell you missed me too, judging by that look on your face." the succubus said before letting out a laugh that pierced the cleric's eardrums. It sounded like it came from everywhere but it's mouth.
"Seeing you so scared brings me so much joy!" it cheerfully exclaimed, only making the minister more terrified. In a fight or flight response, he suddenly forced his body to produce words that came out in an almost sobbing tone.
"Who the fuck are you!?-"
"Just shut your fucking mouth, save the boldness for another demon, and listen to me you snotty, whiny bitch." it interjected, catching the minister off guard entirely. This demon was hostile, or at the very least, almost entirely fed up with how the cleric was acting. The minister, not wishing to succumb to a dark fate, began reciting a prayer. The demon reacted to this by letting out a chilling laugh that would strike fear into the hearts of anyone that was unfortunate enough to hear it.
"Oh my god this is amazing. Do you really think your stupid fucking prayers work on me? No prayer from that little bible of yours will stop me from doing what I want to do." it snidely remarked, crossing it's arms as it still seemed visibly agitated.
"I expel thy demon from my-"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." it butted in. "You won't like what happens. You wouldn't want to die, would you?"
It clearly knew what it was doing, as the words seeped their way into Lumine's head. This demon was good as it's mind games, and it sure as fuck knew that fact.
"What are you talking about...?" the minister croaked out, seeming to be on the verge of tears. His voice was almost breaking as the words came out.
"Well, in case you haven't realized this by now..."
"I am you."
