Untitled

ONE

CHAPTER ONE

Dark's Malevolence

*Xru'lar*

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His brain proclaims its blood. His heart denies.

Xru'lar's heavy breaths slice the silence with sharpness; the metallic tang assaults his senses. Adjusting to the night-ruled room, he forces his feet forward as they fight to make him flee. It's the eerie quiet and familiar feel of power that drew him. The air, leached of warmth, hammers cold-knots onto his skin. Xru'lar inches ahead. Power drenches the air; power he'll never own. Power he wants; power he fears.

Xru'lar halts midway in his parents' suite; terror the name of the tingle in his blood. Tenebrous shadows swirl as ink dropped into water, staining the night-dark with a dark more sinister. And, without doubt, Xru'lar knows who it is.

Come, o'an, the shadow whispers. Come here.

Xru'lar turns the lights on, already fearing the worst. But what storms his eyes as the light comes aglow isn't something he'll ever forget.

It is blood, his heart defers to the truth.

It is so much blood, staining the floor, the walls, the furniture. It pools under the woman fallen on the floor, shimmering, trickling all the way to where Xru'lar stands. Floating above her, the inky mass of shadow whispers lovingly to him. He pays no heed to the sweet words the dark thing croons; he goes to the woman. Her aura has vanished. It is heinous; claws have ripped into her skin, exposing muscle and bone. There's still her birth-blade clutched tight in her hand, but it's no match to her attacker. Xru'lar's knees buckle. He kneels by her, the air evaporating out of his lungs. Her blood soaks his clothes.

Won't you join me? The shadow envelops him. It's cold and the moment contact establishes, Xru'lar is thrown into a harrowing vision of how it tormented her, how she fought, and how it ended her.

D'vo, Xru'lar cries. Prei. No. Stop.

The shadow laughs letting him go. Be mine.

Xru'lar's trembling hands rest over her cheeks; still warm. Her eyes stare at nothing; tears streak her face. The breath catches in his lungs. He shivers. He caused this.

Be mine, Dark whispers. It lingers in the air curling around Xru'lar.

'O'ht?' Xru'lar cries, beholding Dark's malevolence. He shakes her, though he knows it's futile. 'O'ht?'

Be mine. Be mine. Be mine, o'an. Dark commands.

Xru'lar shakes her one last time because a boy doesn't know how to react when he finds his mother murdered.

And it's his fault.

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