"Here in the darkness. Here in the darkness."
All this time later, the words still echoed in the chamber. A ritual's ghosts forever haunting the darkness. Here, the darkness.
Someone real, far from a ghost though he had lived longer than the chamber had stood, swallowed in the words and tried not to be sick. He trembled, barely contained rage threatening to burst through his skin. His fingers curled, nails digging into his palm in a way that drew hot blood to calm him. It did not, even as the blood dripped to the ground.
There were no words to accurately describe how he felt. Closest, perhaps, would be furious, but that could not grasp the depth of his emotions. No, he was much more than furious as he stared ahead at it. At the cage.
What sort of cage could elicit this strong of reaction from someone? A broken one. The remains of a wicked, monstrous cage. It was shattered glass, spiderwebs that would have seemed a beautiful destruction in any other light. It was a sphere, cracked open and held up within metal hands. It was hopeless. It was a desperate helplessness. It was the prison of a wild animal, set on display for the hunter's to view.
No light illuminated the chamber, save for the flickering flashlight Hob had enough foresight to bring. Even the flashlight could not properly dispel the darkness. It simply cast evil shadows across everything, giving life to the ghosts of the place. Terrible memories forever embedded in the stone. Watching, tears bubbling in his eyes, Hob could see the ritual, hear the wicked chant perpetually ringing in the cavern.
"Here in the darkness. We summon you together. Come!"
He shivered away the chant, directing the flashlight back at the cage. A circle, smudged and faded, was drawn around it. Above it, he could see a twisting and writhing form, torn and trapped and exhausted beyond belief, yet still giving its all to escape. It had to escape.
Looking down from the struggling spector, he saw a still form reflected in the fractured glass. Its skin was cast in marble, so starved and cold with a shock of unkempt midnight hair. And its eyes, like they'd been cut straight out of the stars, dripped tears. Mirroring those tears was blood, blood that dripped down the glass long ago and would continue to drip till the end of time.
In pain, horror, and darkness, Hob Gadling was filled with something unnameable, yet similar to a blinding rage.
"So... We gonna do this or what?" the raven beside him squawked.
Hob forced himself to nod, a slow motion hardly perceptible. "Yeah... Let's light it up."
He turned the flashlight's ray to the gate, entrance to the cursed chambers he stood within. Sitting on the stairs behind the gate were two garishly bright red containers. Hob walked over and grabbed one, the raven hopping behind him. Flashlight held between his teeth, he unscrewed the lid before walking about the room, methodically pouring the liquid. Once empty, he tossed the container at the cage. It bounced on the glass, but didn't break anymore.
Next container. It was poured with the same grim determination. Again he tossed it at the glass once it was emptied. Again, nothing more broke.
"Think that'll be enough?"
Back to standing in front of the cage, Hob stared at his reflection in the glass. Beyond it were disheartened eyes set in bloodless skin, staring unseeing back at him. A curled form, naked and vulnerable, forever trapped within. He hoped this would be enough to free it.
"Over a century," Hob growled, slamming his fist into the glass. It shattered beneath his hand, fragments wedging their way painfully into his skin, drawing more blood. Glass rained on his shoes. The raven behind him cawed in alarm, hopping back just in time to avoid getting shards in between his feathers.
