The Boot Shiner (Destiny x Male Reader)

Chapter 31: The Serpent of the Trickster

I ride across the city before it gets dark, per the mysterious man's directions. My radio starts to static again as Serene groans, continuing to walk with no sign of tiredness. Reaching the other end of the city, we see in the distance, giant walls that erect themselves. I'm unsure whether those were there or not, because my mind keeps drawing a blank.

Radio: *Static* I know you have been here before, WE... have been here before during better times. The darkness... it's madness... it creates manifestations beyond your understanding...

Y/N: Walls...

Radio: The walls... they exist to hinder your progress in saving the people... It's proof to the fact that maybe... perhaps... they may not be worth it. If you take on the darkness... you will be saving them... He could not have gotten far from where you are, the doctor...

Y/N: Where must I go?

Radio: Leave the walls alone... there is no use glooming over the prison the darkness wants to hold us in... festering over the possibility of no escape. You are in the right place... The water treatment plant... deeper into the heart of the seaport, further east...

Y/N: I got it.

Radio: Be... warned... the darkness will try and change your perception... you must stay focused, Y/N. There will be nightmares, voices, the... forgotten ones that will hinder us... from our goal... burn them...

Y/N: Wait, how did you know I-...

He cuts off again, leaving me to wonder what's really going on. I continue to the next darkness hideout, and what I'm expecting is an actual beast this time, not something that is attached to a robotic frame like my Serene. Serene growls, then begins walking slowly, the wind slowly picking up the further we get towards the water treatment plant.

Shadowy figures manifest themselves along our path, the cracked road covered in scraps and ruin. They look at me, then float off when I get too close. I don't engage with them, but I sit on Serene and wonder just what these things are. Their voices seem all too familiar, like I've heard them before, but I don't know who from.

???: A failure...

???: Welcome, welcome, guardians, aliens, cave dwellers, and people of the great city we call home...

???: Considering your illness, I don't think you'll be around long enough for my kind of needs...

Radio: They do not matter... don't give in. *CUT!*

I manage to squeeze past them as they float around the beast, or they try to touch me. There are some coming up to the beast, but Serene shrugs them off. Neither one of them wants to hurt me, but I think they may want to control me. It doesn't seem worth it to kill them, to "burn them", which... I don't know if I can do that literally...

One of them has a familiar shape, a feminine figure with messy hair, that or its tendrils that look like hair. I hold my hand out to her and she takes it. She stops fidgeting and calms down, sitting on the beast with me to ride alongside me.

Woman: Ooooh... hey, what's that... huh?

I feel her cold finger touch my cheek that's covered by my scarf. It reached through the scarf, tapping my cheek somehow. It gives me a surge of nervousness, so I slap it away. She does it again and again, giggling softly. She then stops once I grab her hand, tilting her head slightly. She hugs me, enveloping me in a surge of warmth.

I absorbed her, her essence or soul or... whatever it is, I can feel coursing through me like it's a stimulant. I pull up my sleeve, the carvings heal themselves and my skin repairs, burning, but healing, and now my hand won't stop catching on fire every time I open it. It doesn't hurt, but I don't know where I got this from.