{ℌ𝔢𝔩𝔩𝔦𝔰𝔥 𝔇𝔢𝔳𝔬𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫}

Maddness Returns

Axxel didn't sleep at all that night. He lay curled up on the couch, still trembling. He'd smoked nearly an entire pack of cigarettes. Fang was nestled closely by his side, fast asleep. He didn't have a clue how long he'd been sitting there by now. He was scared to even move. He still couldn't wrap his head around what had happened before. Was that thing still out there? Had it followed him home? What was it?

Slowly, he finally slipped off of the couch. He had to use the bathroom. He anxiously made his way across the living room and through the hallway. Just as he was about to reach the bathroom, a pain shot up through his toe and setting his nerves afire.

"Ow, fuck!" He cursed aloud, reeling in pain.

He looked down in confusion; he'd stubbed his toe, but there wasn't supposed to be anything for him to do such in the middle of the hallway. To his surprise, there was a loose floorboard-well, loose was an understatement-it looked more like someone had ripped it out of place and haphazardly slung it back down into place. It was jarring. He certainly didn't do this, and there hadn't been anyone here that he knew of that could've done this. Hidden beneath he could see a small, square-shaped object, off-white in color. He crouched down and cautiously retrieved the object. It was a folded up peice of paper, yellowing at the edges. Scribbled across it was gibberish; it looked like a combination of several different languages, leaving the meaning of the words shrouded in mystery. He tried to sound out the words under his breath, which wasn't an easy feat. With every syllable that rolled off his tongue came a weird feeling-something was off-and yet he couldn't stop himself. He felt as if he had to continue, he craved the ending of this cryptic passage.

As the last word left his mouth, everything fell silent-too silent. It was as if someone had pressed mute on the whole world. Axxel wondered whether or not he'd gone deaf. Nightfang wandered up beside him to investigate what he was doing. Just as the small feline approached, an ear-shattering screech suddenly rang out through the air, sending Axxel scrambling to cover his ears and Nightfang bolting across the house. It felt as if his head was splitting. His vision went double and his balance was off. Every excruciating second that passed by felt like hours.

Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped.

The eerie silence returned, and this time, Axxel really did worry that he'd gone deaf. He cautiously removed his hands from his ears, eyes darting swiftly around him. What the hell was happening? Had he finally gone mad? Had his past finally caught up to him? Why now? But, then again, Nightfang had reacted to the noise as well, he couldn't have been hallucinationing, which left him with even more questions than anything.

Just when things seemed like they couldn't get any weirder, they did.

He was suddenly blinded by a bright red and yellow light, similar to fire, that lit up the dark and narrow hallway. He covered his eyes in pain. The light grew brighter and brighter. It was like the sun was somehow in the room with him. Then, slowly, it began to grow dimmer. As its light faded, he looked up, and, to his horror, there was something there, something not quite human. It bore resemblance to the creature in the park, but this one was different. Where the other was white, its horns faded to black. A small flame flickered at the end of a long tail as it whipped back at forth. Long black hair was tied back into a low ponytail. It was dressed oddly formal, an opened dress coat revealed a white button up and a corset. The worst part of it was the eyes-much like the other, it had a piercing gaze, stabbing right through him, but it's eyes were golden. It stared at Axxel with a mix of confusion and disdain. It pulled back it's lip into a snarl to reveal sharp teeth. He clambered to his feet, stumbling in the opposite direction as it took a step towards him. Running seemed to be a mistake, as the moment he began the thing started after him. He took off across the living room, trying not to trip over anything in the dark. He bolted towards the front door, struggling desperately with the locks.

"Shit!" He hissed. The lock was stuck.

He turned swiftly to his left, going towards the stairs, running up them as fast as possible. He nearly fell down them, but managed to regain his footing swiftly enough to reach the top. He reached about halfway down the upstairs hallway before he felt a sharp pain in his back. He cursed in pain, falling down onto the floor. As he fell, he heard whatever that thing behind him let out a loud hiss in pain as well. He shot a look behind him in surprise. It seemed like it was in...pain? It stared back at him with the same dumbfounded expression. Axxel scooted back in fear, eyes never leaving the figure. For whatever reason, he didn't move, just stared in silence. He slowly reached towards his back. Axxel could just barely see the dark colored liquid coating his hand in the dim light of its tail-flame. Its golden eyes flicker back and forth between Axxel and its hand. Axxel did the same to himself, finding a similar syrupy red liquid. The thing took a few steps forward. He stopped dead in his tracks, hissing in pain again, and again, Axxel did the same. They stared at each other in awkward, bewildered silence. It brought its arm up, pulling up its sleeve. It pulled off a white glove, then out of its hand popped out sharp claws. It pushed them against the flesh on its arm and slowly but harshly dragged them downwards. Axxel clenched his teeth as pain shot through his arm in the exact spot. Within seconds he could feel something hot trickling down his arm. He squirmed uncomfortably as he pressed down on the wound that had miraculously appeared on his arm.

"How—" it spoke, voice smooth and deep, laced with an English accent. "—how are you doing that?"

"You can speak?" Axxel mumbled.

"How are you doing that?" It repeated, raising its voice.

"I—I don't know," Axxel stammered out.

They stared at each other for a second time. What the hell was happening? Could things get any weirder? He was being spoken to by whatever the hell that thing is. It sat down in front of Axxel, eyes still fixated on him. Axxel scooted farther away, wanting to keep as much distance between them as possible. He could feel the blood trickling down his back and onto the floor below. He squirmed uncomfortably under the gaze of the—for lack of a better word—the demon. He didn't know what to do. Should he try and escape again, or was he safer just sitting here? Last time he tried to run, it quickly followed him. But, then again, they were both injured.

"Dainion," the demon mumbled.

"What?" Axxel replied.

"My name. It's Dainion," he said a little louder.

"Mine's Axxel."