Daegelus | Volume One: Subject 0333

Chapter Twenty-Six | Fragments

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When Elijah found himself in The Darkness, instead of searching for the black-haired man, he focused on the things he'd seen when he grasped the man's wrist.

He chose the vision he had of Haru; the vision of him crying in the corner of an empty, dark room. And as he concentrated, the endless black around him faded, and the room where Haru sat formed.

The moment Elijah set his eyes on Haru, desperation struck him, and he rushed over to him, but when he tried to reach out and touch him, his hand faded through him.

"Haru?" he asked.

But he didn't respond. He sat there with his arms wrapped around his knees and his head down; Elijah couldn't see his face, but he could hear him crying, and there was blood splattered on his skin.

"Haru?" Elijah asked again.

Still, he didn't look at him.

"Haru?!" he insisted and tried to grab his arm.

This time, Haru looked up, revealing a fresh wound on the right side of his teary face. Blood trickled down his cheek with his tears, and as he frowned, he looked straight at Elijah...but he couldn't see him, could he?

Pain ensnared Elijah's racing heart as he stared at Haru's agonized face. He wanted to pull him into his embrace and tell him that everything was going to be fine—he wanted to tell him that he was going to find him; but this was just a dream, wasn't it?

Wasn't it?

"Eli?" Haru asked sullenly.

Elijah's desperation intensified. "Haru?"

But Haru's confused gaze didn't meet his. The demon watched as Haru looked around the empty room as if he were trying to find the source of a scent or a sound.

"Haru, I'm here," he said, reaching for his arm again, but just like before, his fingers went right through Haru.

And then a loud clanking bang snatched both their attention.

Elijah sharply turned his head to look at the metal door, which creaked open, and the moment he saw the faceless doctors wielding their syringes and scalpels, he snarled ferociously and pounced. But he fell through them all and stumbled back into The Darkness. As his heart pounded, he turned around and tried to race back into the room as Haru cried and begged them to leave him alone, but the door faded like smoke on water, leaving Elijah alone in the dark.

"Haru?!" he called desperately, frantically looking around, but there was nothing but black for as far as his eyes could see.

He had to find Haru. He had to get to East Coast and get Haru's location out of Ronan. He couldn't waste any more time. Haru needed him, and he couldn't let those doctors hurt him anymore.

But when he tried to wake himself, he couldn't.

The Darkness remained...stretching on, its indefinite expanse beginning to feel like a cage.

A door. It appeared a hundred feet from Elijah, surrounded by a red glow all too familiar.

He hurried towards it, hoping to find Haru on the other side, but when he stepped through, he emerged into a dark laboratory.

But this one was different.

He'd never seen it before.

Lined along the left and right walls were ooze-filled cylinders; the liquid inside was silver instead of green, and where he expected to find abominations...he saw wings and horns.