Ethereal Reckoning

Chapter One - Eyes in the Shadows

The edge of the forest towered over the small village which lay beside it. An odd ambience surrounded the woodland; people who ventured too deep into them were said to of gone missing. No one knew what happened to them, it was almost like they disappeared off the edge of the earth. The mystery of what lay in the forest went unsolved for as long as humanity could remember.

A young girl, freshly out of college, stood by the impenetrable jungle. Forcing her way through, she excitedly entered the so called 'canopy of death'. She gazed around the place in amazement. Spider webs clung onto the trees for their dear life. The forest floor was a blanket of writhing, crawling insects. Fascinated by every little thing, she inspected all the nooks and crannies which lay in the gnarled trees, their branches grabbing at her ankles and arms as she edged her way through, going deeper and deeper into the forbidden territory. Her brown zip jacket catching on every little thing. Fear was nothing of her concern; in her mind, the towns people were overreacting. I mean realistically, what could there possibly be? A murderer lurking in the woods? Hah no. That is stupid. Small rain drops dropped onto her bouncy brown hair as they dripped from the enormous leaves above. Walking around mindlessly and aimlessly, before she knew it, she had no idea where she was. Completely lost in this mangled mess. She shrugged and tried retracing her steps. Nothing was of worry yet.

Skipping happily on the ragged floor of roots, which was covered by rotting leaves, a sudden rush of fear rushed over her. Something she was not used to. She felt a pair of eyes lay on the back of her head. She froze, not knowing what to do. Deep breathes del, you'll be fine. It's nothing, you're tricking yourself. She muttered to herself, shakily. Rustling filled her ears, she was aware of every single movement. Jumping at the slightest of sounds. Paranoia. I'm making this ten times worse than it needs to be, the thought ran through her head. Slapping herself lightly a few times, she took a deep breathes and focused on finding the way out. Night had already fallen at this point and last rays of sun rays shone through the leaves. Snap. She spun around, expecting someone to be there. Nothing. Out of the corner of her eye, what looked like two floating spheres of deep purple light floated in the sheer darkness of the endless trees. Just like someone, or something was staring directly at her. A scream formed in her throat but couldn't come out. It's just my mind, she told herself. No creature has that eye colour. A cold chill rushed over her body, frozen in place she could only stare as the lights slowly moved, remaining the same distance from each other. Her heart pounded, smashing against her chest, her breathes grew deep and heavy. "Who's there?" She managed to croak out after what seemed like years. Silence. Other than the chirping from crickets every so often.

After an eternity of hell, something crept out of the shadows. A human like figure but at the same time it didn't look human. Uncanny. Although she couldn't make out much, she could tell its skin was black, or well a dark colour. It was tall, way too tall. It towered over the young girl, who for record, was taller than the average height for women her age. It crouched down, and just stayed there. Her pulse raced and she started wide eyed at this creature, who was, in turn staring right back. The sun had completely gone by the time the creature made its move. It edged closer, remaining crouched down. It was walking like an animal, not human even though it had the body of one. Was this the thing killing everyone? The bodies were never even found so maybe it did something much worse. Her body moved backwards without warning, her nearly tripping over her own feet. Every limb in her body wanted to run, but she couldn't. She watched in dismay as it came closer and closer. Stopping right as its head was in front of hers. Its eyes glimmered like sapphires as they stared into her soul. Honestly, she couldn't help admiring how beautiful they were. Tilting its head, it observed the girl, like it had never seen a human before. Narrowing its eyes every so often, glaring intently and taking in her face. She gulped. Even from this close up, she still couldn't make out much of its face, or body; blackness just covered it from head to toe. Its hand brushed against her cheek. She jumped back startled and the demon like creature instinctively pulled its hand away. Its skin was rough and it felt like sandpaper scraped her skin.

Moonlight washed over the grove as the clouds blew away. Light highlighted its face, the mesmerising eyes glistening. He lurked backwards into the shadows, not wanting to be in the harsh light. She slowly crept towards the thing, crouching as not to seem threatening. What am I doing, what thought to herself. She was curious, but was this really worth risking her life for? She didn't want to be the next victim. Putting her hand on its frizzy long hair, she could feel his razor sharp horns, slicing her skin open. Frustrated, she sucked on her finger, trying to stop the blood from pouring out. The creature cupped its hand around hers, pulling it away from her face. They were giant. Over triple the size of her delicate hands.

Out of the blue, markings all over its body blossomed into arrays of red glowing lights. Radiating light all over the whole area. Mesmerised, she didn't even notice the sharp pain in her hand. She just stared at it; it was magnificent. The markings made it looks so beautiful. It was like out of a fairy tale. Deep black hair fell over its eyes, its pitch black skin being illuminated by the glowing markings which shone a bright deep red. Scars distorting a few of these gorgeous shapes. Moving its messy hair from its eyes, it looked up at the girl and smiled. Lifting both their hands up in front of her face, she noticed her wound was completely healed. She stared in amazement and awe, she inspected where the wound once was. Absolutely nothing. Not even a mark. She looked back up at it, its purple eyes staring back at her confused face. Laughing lightly as though it found her amusing. "What- or who are you?" she asked curiously. It just shook its head and looked back at her, watching her every move. "Can you understand me?" It just stared. I guess not, she thought to herself. She completely zoned out, thinking of what to do next when she was forced back into reality by the creature grabbing and pulling her. "HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING???" she yelled, both frustrated and scared at the same time. It ignored her and continued dragging her through the woods, her body being torn up as she was pulled past all the gnarled trees. Eventually, after what seemed like torture, they arrived at the edge of the forest once more. Back at the human village. It hugged her, its body illuminating in a breath-taking pattern once more, her cuts stung like a million needles were forced into her skin, but once more they were healed. "Thank you" she said brightly, knowing it wouldn't understand her. Maybe it would understand her tone at the very least. She pointed to herself. "Deliah" She then pointed at the creature's chest, she waited patiently for it to understand. "Az...rael" it responded in a confused manner. "It's nice to meet you Azrael, I hope to see you again" she wrapped both her hands around his right one, a single hand not being enough to fully clasp it and shook it. He smiled, and walked back into the darkness of the towering forest.