Darksiders: Among the Shadows (Book 2)

Valley of the Lost Souls

Damiana sighed deeply and leaned back against the tree, feeling uneasy. She has been gone for a week and she could sense her brothers' anger and concern growing everyday. Custos was nice and actually allowed her to....live, and he seemed to want her to stay.
"Maybe I should stay...they were doing pretty okay without me thousands of years before...." Damiana thought out loud, glancing at the pacing Custos just a few yards away.
Custos looked at the thinking Damiana and waved, smile faint upon his lips.
'I can't believe he is a demon. Then again, Shadow is a rogue hellhound-'
"CRAP!" She exclaimed, jumping up.
'I forgot all about Shadow! She'll tell them where I am when she gets wave of what happenen!'
"Something wrong, Damiana?"
Damiana jumped at the sound of Custos' s voice and quickly shook her head.
"My arm is better, I guess I should leave?"
Custos's smile died down to a faint frown, saddening his very being.
"Do you really have to? You said it yourself, they treat you like a child, you want to be free."
"Yeah, but, they'll find this place and I don't wanna cause anymore trouble than I already have." She breathed, waving for Betrayal to come over.
Custos sucked in his breath and shook his head.
"Unless they have business here, they cannot enter here."
"I AM their business, theirs and the Council's, I have to go and be punished for the rest of eternity."
Custos went on to say something, but intead sighed deeply and gently patted Betrayal's snout as it walked up to the two. The small, timid girl walked up to Damiana and grabbed her hand.
"Do you really have to leave, Dami?" She asked, looking up at Damiana with sad dull orange eyes.
Damiana paused and nodded once, gently placing her palm against the girl's pale cheek. "Do come back soon...its been really fun with you here."
'I don't think I'll be alive to come back.' Thought Damiana.
The girl grinned and embraced Damiana about the waist, digging her head into Damiana's side. Damiana hesitated; she hadn't felt another person besides from the brotherhood touch her in a century, nonetheless another young child. She gently hugged the girl back, cheeks burning in embarrassment. Custos broke into a grin, happy to see that Damiana might stay after all.
"I gotta go,"
The girl nodded and backed up.
Custos sighed, knowing he couldn't change the teenager's mind, and helped Damiana into the saddle.
"You have a way with picking riders, Betrayal." He said to the mare, backing away.
Betrayal stared at him unblinkingly, either not knowing or caring about his existence. Damiana shifted uncomfortably and examined her twin blades in intrest. Custos replaced the damaged leather handle a day ago, something Death had promised to do when he got around to it over and over again.
"You're welcome back anytime, ya hear? Don't be a stranger, if your brothers would wake up."
"I dunno, I might not be the one to wake up when I return home."
"Well, they're wasting a good warrior by making you stay behind. Goodbye, Damiana the Anti Christ." He laughed, stepping away to allow Betrayal to gallop off.
Damiana smiled to herself and turned back to wave at the two figures, growing smaller and smaller with each yard Betrayal took.
★★★★★★★
After an hour of riding, Damiana's mind drifted back to the blissful valley, knowing deep within her being there was nowhere in HELL her brothers will leave her unsupervised again. Custos supported everything Damiana thought, being an actual person as opposed to being silent or cynical or shooting down her ideas with logic like most people.
"And there is the house...but no one is home...good, maybe I can lock myself in my room and avoid my punishment." Damiana thought unhappily as the stone mansion came into view.
Jumping down from the saddle, Damiana gently patted Betrayal's snout lovingly as she passed.
"You never did tell me how Custos became your rider for a while." She cooed.
Betrayal made a noise similar to human sighing and leaned into Damiana's touch. Although the two were together for a century, Betrayal wasn't used to Damiana's touch, making every little gesture of affection 10 times better.
"Damiana!" A voice barked, running up to Damiana.
"Hey Shadow."
Shadow's eyes glew bright like the fires of hell from which it was born, anger stirring in her veins.
"Gone for a week and a half and that's all you can say!?"
Damiana rolled her eyes and glared down at tbe hellhound.
"Do you have any idea how angry they all are?!"
Sighing deeply, Damiana shrugged; this, she did not miss.
Shadow sighed angrily in disgust, snapping at Damiana with her razor sharp teeth in rage.
"Just wait until they come back. They weren't that far from when I was with them. No punishment is too great for what you did!"
Damiana sighed dramatically and looked towards the horizon.
"Annnnnd, like clockwork, here are Fury and Death." She speculated, looking away from the approaching horsemen.
While waiting for her brothers to come scream at her, Damiana struggled to force the odd feeling of dread building up inside of her. They can be really scary when they wanted to be...
"Damiana, what in the 9 hells?!" Fury screeched, anger filling her usually calm eyes.
The two horsemen yielded their mounts and jumped down from their saddles. Unlike Fury, Death seemed to be calm...
Which was twice as scary...
Damiana looked down as Fury went off, earning her right to bear her name. Inside, Damiana mocked her, anger clouding her better judgment.
'They saw her...they lied to me about my mother...' she thought.
When Fury was in the middle of her sentence, Death interrupted with a raised hand, taking a few steps up to Damiana.
"Look up when we're speaking to you." He snarled, resisting every urge in his body to discipline the insolent girl.
"On who's authority?" Damiana grumbled, looking up to meet Death in a cold manner.
"On-"
"No, you go tell War and Strife we found Damiana before they go off too far, I'll take care of this." Death said quietly, waving the simmering Fury away.
Fury opened her mouth to object, but quickly retreated back to her mount when Death glanced back at her.
Damiana watched her go and instantly cursed herself.
"Where in the hell were you?"
"Not here."
"Don't play with me, Damiana, you're in as much trouble as it is."
When Damiana didn't answer, Death toon another menacing step towards Damiana, almost standing toe-to-toe with the youngest horseman.
"Answer the question!"
"First of all; step the fuck back. Second of all; you answer my questions and you answer then right!" Damiana hissed, crossing her arms.
"Why the hell are you treating me like a child? I can go off for weeks at a time if I feel like it, you do it all the time."
"You're embarrassing yourself, so, shut up and-"
"No, you shut up! I know what you, Fury, Strife, and War did and how you kept it from me. I don't believe I should respect those who keep info from me when I have the right to know!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Please," Damiana scoffed, turning on her heels.
"You lied to me about knowing my mother, you selfish bastard!"
"Watch your tongue!" Death raised his voice, crossing his arms.
Damiana's face twisted in anger and she quickly began singing the word sweetly, over and over again.
"You insubordinate ingrate, I tire of your fruitless attempts to become one of us! You never went through what we went through and you never will. You're weak, insufficient, whinney, and you barely listen to a word we say." Death screamed, losing his usual composure.
Damiana stopped and looked up at Death.
"If you can't listen to simple instructions, how the hell do you expect to-nevermind, your simplistic mind wouldn't comprehend the actual logic to your inability to be a horseman. You were a bi product to a disgusting mistake, that's why you are here." Death stopped and looked at Damiana for the first time in her eyes. Seeing her pained look, Death finally processed what he just said.
'Oh no.'
"I'll show you weakness," she mumbled, reaching down to her waist.
"In you!" She yelled, swiftly grabbing the handle of her blade.
Moving quicker than Death, Damiana brought up the blade and, while holding onto the chain, whipped it across where the eldest horseman stood. Hearing a tearing sound, Death looked down at the gash across his chest. The cut was so deep, it actually hurt the horsemen, although ever so slightly.
Shaking away his bewilderment, Death brought up Harvester in defense.
"I refuse to fight you."
"Its not about what you want!" Damiana growled, bringing her blade back.
Knowing she was far from reasoning, Death eased into battle mode, senses heightening and muscles tightening.
"If I'm that much of an embarrassment, why didn't you just kill me!" Damiana screeched, whipping the deadly blades of shadow at Death.
"I wouldn't-"
"It would've saved you seeing me grow up to be waste of space." Damiana rushed in closer, using her blades now as dual swords.
Death doged her rage filled attacks, careful not to injure Damiana.
"You aren't a waste of space,"
"Stop pretending that you care!" She screeched, successfully slashing Death across the shoulder.
Death recoiled and with the smallest flick of his wrist, smacked Damiana across the forehead with Harvester's blade. Disoriented, Damiana stumbled away from Death, holding her head. Siezing his chance, Death turned and swiftly kicked Damiana in her midsection, using as much fore to make her fly back a couple of feet.
"You aren't ready to spar with me." He said.
"I don't care!" She screamed, standing up.
"I'm tired of everyone controlling me, especially you."
Damiana brought both her whip like daggers back and used all her force to bring them forward in a hailstorm of metal.
Death sprinted to the side and just missed a whirling blade towards his head. Sensing the young girl was slowly becoming unbound, Death reached into his pocket to pull out the talosman the Council bestowed to him.
"When she becomes unbound Into her anti christ form, use this. It will hurt her severely, but nonetheless, use it whenever she steps out of line." The Council's message to him a century before rang inside his head.
"Calm down, Damiana, I was wrong, please."
"You don't tell me what to do!" She answered, voice becoming two, one hers and the other a dark entity.
"Then you leave me with no choice." Death answered.
Quickly muttering to the talisman, Death watched in sick wonder as it glew a sinister blue. Damiana stopped yelling curses in dead languages and began screaming in agony.
"Stop, STOP!" she begged, falling to the ground.
"I said stop you miserable bastard son of a whore!" Screamed the dark entity within Damiana.
Death allowed the curse to pain the young girl, cringing at the sound of her begging and screaming, looking only once when she stopped.
"Done?" He asked finally, looking down at the heaving Damiana.
"Yes, yes, please don't do that to me." She cried, choking back a sob.
"Good...you are grounded until further notice. Not just in this realm, but in your room. The second you leave, I won't hesitate in doing that again."
Damiana looked up at him with a tear stricken face, eyes silently thanking him for stopping the pain.
Death tore his eyes away from here's and turned around...
Only to come face to face with his shocked brothers and sister.
"Don't ask, I don't want to talk about it."