Shadows of a Life

Chapter 16:

    Ra and I stood there hugging until the inconsiderate Harpie decided to come back and ruin everything. "Ra I must speak to you urgently, there is a something wrong with the balance between the realms," I glared at the harpie whose name was Kana as Ra let go of me. "Dark I have to go," He looked at me also slightly disappointed. "Sorry, it's urgent," Ra walked through the portal the Harpie had created. I sighed. It's like I was destined to be left alone with idiots. I opened a portal back to the mortal realm not wanting to deal with Klaus anymore. My portal opening skills weren't exactly amazing and I ended up not directly in the castle but outside of it. I was in the forest that surrounded most of the place. The name of the castle was Brennenburg. I whistled and Aeron ran through the trees and to my side, wagging his tail and panting. I looked around at a sight of destruction and demise. Some trees had fallen and there were a few random sinkholes scattered around the landscape. Aeron clearly was just happy to be outside. His mouth was wide open and his tail was wagging so much it made him walk funny.

    Before we even managed to reach the castle a rumbling sound started to emit beneath our feet. I backed up out of instinct, Aeron close at my heels as the rumbling noise grew. The ground started to shake violently and I nearly fell over from the sudden movement. A crack had formed in the earth growing and spreading. I continued to back up even further pushing Aeron's snout back with my hand. As the crack grew trees snapped and rocks fell into the hungry mouth that had opened up in the ground. After the earth stopped shaking and crumbling a loud cry broke through the forest, "Is anyone there?! Help please! I beg of you!". The voice appeared to be coming from the crack in the ground which was big enough to be considered a fissure. The earth had stopped having a epileptic fit so I ran over to where the voice was coming from. A boy was hanging on to the edge of the chasm, ground crumbling at the grasp of his finger tips. If I didn't do anything he would fall to his death. I reached down grabbing the boys wrist and pulling his upwards with all my might. I managed to get him off the edge and he was now lying on the ground. He had short black tousled hair with two side burns that went down to his neck. The boy was wearing a coat with a black t-shirt and grey jeans. He lied on the ground with his eyes closed breathing heavily. Poor mortal was probably traumatized for life from nearly dying and being saved by a demon girl. "T-thank you," The boy stuttered. He opened his eyes and gave me an awkward smile. His eyes were a bright gold color that shone in the sunlight. "I don't know whats going on," The boy let out a huge heave of breath, "But, thank you very much uhmm..." His voice trailed off as he looked at me expectantly.

"Dark," I replied giving him my best socailly awkward smile. I was not a people person.

The boy smiled and nodded in agreement, "Dark," He repeated. "That's a lovely name but I'll question whats wrong with your skin later," I shot him a look of offence. Seriously. I just saved your life mortal and you decide to insult my skin color... "Anyways, I'm Apep," The boy closed his eyes again still laying on the ground. Apep. Why did that sound familiar. That name sounded awfully familiar. I glanced back at Apep to see that he was sitting up staring at me and I swore that his eyes were slitted like a snakes for a second. Or maybe my mind was just playing tricks on me. I decided to think otherwise as I extended my hand to help the boy up. He grabbed my wrist and I pulled backwards nearly tripping over my own feet. Aeron growled at Apep when he stood up, nipping at his fingertips. "Aeron," I scolded glaring at my dog. Apep just patted Aeron on the head, "Is he your pet?" he asked. "Yeah," I replied as I began to continue walking towards Brennenbrug. Apep followed me with an expression that resembled a smirk more then a smile.

     As we reached the entrance to the castle I could see visible signs of destruction already. The caslte itself was never in good shape but it looked a bit worse now. There were no humans in sight in the main entrance area which was uncommon. Brenennburg Castle is a special place in the mortal world that is a dimension within another dimension. The castle itself would be impossible for mortals to reach without so called video game designers creating portals for them. These designers were most likely just half bred demons who wanted to cause some chaos amongst the humans selling them a portal where they could play as a human avatar within these dimensions. The half breeds seemed to find it funny when they made so called horror games were they could watch endless amounts of humans scream and cry without actually being physically present in the castle. Spirit though seemed to be an exceptions although I had no idea how she managed to get here.

"Have you ever been inside Brenennburg Castle before?" I asked Apep as we walked through the corridors aimlessly.

"No," He replied, "Why would you ask?"

"I don't know...I was just wondering I guess," I told him. For a mortal I guess he wasn't all that bad. He was pretty decent looking and seemed pretty nice. Even better he didn't seem to really judge me for being a demon, in fact he seemed to have just brushed this reality off, unlike other mortals who would be constantly hammering me with random stupid questions. After walking around for a bit we finally found some form of life in this place. Spirit who was walking out of a room noticed me and waved running at me and tackle hugging me in the process. I fell over from the impact and Spirit laughed a bit. "Where have you been?!" She asked.

"I was at home," I said blandly hoping she understood what I meant. We helped eachother up before she managed to notice Apep who was watching us curiously. "And who's this?" Spirit asked giving me a hint of a perverted grin.

I glared back at her, "This is Apep," Apep smiled at her and shook her hand.

"And how did you meet him," Spirit asked raising her eyebrows.

I resisted the urge to smack her and was about to answer but Apep beat me to it, "She saved me from falling into a fissure in the ground. If it wasn't for her I would be dead," Apep sounded absolutely grateful, and I don't blame him. Mortals didn't have any magical powers that could save them from death. Apep put his arm over my shoulder in a possible sign of thankfulness or affection. I flinched slightly and glanced at him. He was smiling happily. Spirit looked at the both of us skeptically before grabbing my arm and pulling me away from Apep. "Are you dating him?" She whispered at me so Apep couldn't hear.

"No" I whispered back angrily, "I thought you knew that I was dating Ra!" Spirit rolled her eyes as we walked back over to Apep who looked a bit confused.

"What was that all about?" He asked.

"Nothing!" Spirit and I both lied. Apep shot us a skeptical look. We both smiled at him. A portal opened in the wall next to us and we all turned out heads to face it. Kana, the harpie from earlier stepped through glaring at Apep.