The Two Kings

Skeleton Key

Warning: the chapter will have implied child abuse at the beginning, read at your own discretion. Now, on with the story!

Parker's vision was black. Well, more like his surroundings were shrouded in black. The area around him was something straight out of a horror film that Mei had showed him not long ago. He looked around the seemingly empty landscape, but as he took a cautious stride forward, he noticed how soft the ground felt beneath his feet. He crouched down, feeling the darkness below him.

"Grass." He murmured as he walked in a different direction. Coming to a halt, when he bashed his face into a wall.

"Rocks! Ow!" Parker cursed as he rubbed his nose, groaning whilst he picked himself up.

He walked forward, this time cautiously waving his arms around him as to not bump into anything anymore. He brushed his hands against the invisible caverns walls, dragging his nonexistent fingers along its smooth surface. Eventually, Parker, came to a halt when he heard soft laughter coming from the other side of the wall.

"Hello?" Parker called out, hearing the laughter turn into quiet giggles. And only when the soft pattering of feet came ever closer to him, did Parker freeze.

There, at the center of the darkness, was a large wall with paintings strewn across it. Scrutinizing the artwork, he could make out the crude, chaotic scrawlings of a child's hand - stick figures, a bright sun in the corner, and, most prominently, two figures, one much larger than the other, with a splotch of red across the larger one's body and an orange stick-like object clutched in the smaller one's hand. Parker reached out to trace the outlines of the figures, his hands brushing against the textured surface.

"Boy!" Suddenly came a low rumbling voice, literally shaking Parker and the area around him. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the childish giggles had fallen silent, and a tiny figure with large red orbs for eyes, shrouded in shadow, cautiously peeked out from behind the colorful wall. 

The child's body language radiated fear as he fidgeted with the hem of his pants, head bowed low. Parker's heart sank as he realized the source of the child's terror - a massive, shadowy figure that now loomed over the tiny form, its presence palpable and oppressive.

With a sinking feeling, Parker recognized the imposing silhouette. "Bull King?" he gasped, staring up at the towering, menacing figure of the demon king himself. 

The giant bull's shadowy hand then latched onto the child's arm, fingers digging cruelly into the delicate wrist, eliciting a pained cry from the small boy. Parker shot up from his crouch, every fiber of his being demanding he intervene, but his shout of "Let him go!" was met with indifference as the Bull King's iron grip tightened around the child.

Panic and desperation welled up within Parker as he cried out "No! Wait!" to no avail, watching helplessly as the Bull King dragged the child away, disappearing into the encroaching darkness.

The child's cries grew more frantic, his tiny fists shaking as he made a pathetic attempt to free himself from the king's crushing grasp. Just as the boy started to punch at the King's massive claw, he was suddenly lifted into the air, leaving Parker to shout "Stop!" in a last-ditch effort to save him. 

But the darkness began to fade around Parker, as if he were trying to wake from a terrifying nightmare. Yet, he knew he couldn't abandon the child to this fate, so he pushed forward, ignoring the growing light of dawn behind him, desperate to catch up and intervene.