Prisoners of Prophecy

Chapter 28

Melany - Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019; 6:14pm

     After we had said goodbye to everyone, Xantara and I had left Kai's room. Kai had refused to move from the hallway, staring at the shadows that still swarmed around us now, his eyes wide and horrified. They had all stared, but he seemed to be the most afraid. Perhaps it was because he knew that they could extinguish his precious flames.
     Calypso had looked at both of us solemnly. "Be careful," she had said. "Be careful in that house, and you be careful waiting on her." She nodded towards Xantara, with the ghost of a smile on her gorgeous face. "Because I know you will be."
     Outside, the day was bright and warm, but there weren't many people enjoying it. There were a handful of students and a few masked guards, but that was it. It wasn't much of a surprise, though. At least that worked in our favor. If they could see the mass of shadows traveling with us towards the abandoned house... I didn't know what they would do, but I was sure we would be in trouble.
     "How long have you known about this?" Xantara asked me as we walked. She was pointing at the ground, at the darkness surrounding us.
     "Well, at first I thought they were something new. Something that started happening the moment I got to this school," I responded hesitantly. "But I think they've been with me, and I've just tried all my life to forget them. Along with everything else."
"Is that what Kai had been talking about, the night that we met Achiq? He seemed real shaken up about the sight of them."
I nodded. "Maybe he thought his powers made him invincible. Proving him wrong must have scared him as much as the unruly sight of them did."
     A few seconds of silence passed before Xantara spoke again. "You know, I think it's weird that all of our lives are blurry now. I mean, my life before that incident is... It's just blank. And the others... It's like, the more time we spend here, the farther away our past goes. Like the people that we were then... They just don't exist anymore."
     Xantara's words send a chill through me, and stopped me in my tracks. She stopped with me, eyeing me worriedly. For a while I couldn't speak, the truth of her statement terrifying me infinitely more than the sight of the house - which was very close now - and the presence of the darkness I possessed, controlled. Once I had moved into my grandparent's, I had tried to force my past away. But it would come back and plague my mind in my lonely moments; they would come in dreams in which I'd wake from sobbing and sometimes even screaming.
     Recently, though, there had not been many dreams. I didn't think about it much at all, not even the time I had stayed with them. It was like it was all slipping away... Or maybe it was ShadowWood, taking it away from me. I thought that that may relieve me, to never again remember my childhood - but it horrified me deeply. What kind of power could something have to do that, if that was what was happening? I did not want to know.
     "Are you alright, Melany?" Xantara asked.
     I looked down to see that my shadows had gathered much closer around me, wrapping themselves around my legs tightly like a million black, slithering snakes. I could feel the strength in them, though they didn't appear to even be solid at all. Their touch was cold but pleasant. The terrible things they were capable of disturbed me, but the almost euphoric feeling they gave me made that hard to consider.
When I glanced back up at Xantara, she was still watching me, her black eyes - as black as those shadows - wide and filled with concern. "I'm sorry, I'm alright." She sighed and appeared to relax a little after my words. "I'm still new here, remember. I still don't really know how to accept all of this."
"You're right," she sighed. "Are you scared? Are you going to be alright?"
"Of course I'm scared," I said honestly. "But everyone has been alright so far. I hope it goes the same for me."
"Me, too," Xantara whispered. "This is as far as I can go," she added silently. I wondered briefly what was worrying her so much.
I recalled the powerful energy that had coursed through every vein in my body when the both of us had tried to walk Illisha some of the way towards the house, before she'd have to finish the trip alone. We had stopped at the same time, startled by the force of it. The intrusiveness of it. It had felt like a cluster of curious blades, searching every inch of me and slicing me up as it did. It was excruciating; it felt almost fatal. But, if you took one step back, that feeling disappeared immediately.
     Tonight, though, the invisible forcefield around the house allowed me to pass through. How is that possible? I asked myself. How does it know who's coming, and which one of us to let in? And what is it? What's it stopping the rest of us for? It all made no sense.
     "I felt it before I reached it this time. I might could go a little further, but... it's pretty painful." Xantara was looking at the house, which was now less than thirty feet away. "Like it's stronger now, or something." She turned back to me and regarded me with a care that was somehow both recognizable and shockingly foreign. She uttered a short, harsh laugh. It eased my racing heart a little. "I don't know why I'm so scared. You're strong; there's nothing down there that you can't handle."
     I grinned at her, grateful for her words. Grateful for her presence, too. She radiated warmth and comfort and familiarity, and that was wonderful in a place where nothing was as it seemed. "You think so?"
     She smiled back, and the scars on her cheeks made it look unusually large. But it wasn't as scary as it had been at first. Neither were her obsidian eyes. Her face was one I had been used to; it was one I could get used to again. I felt alone at night, but I wasn't. I could find power in that. We all could.
"Of course I do," she answered.
"But you plan on waiting for me anyways, don't you?" I joked.
"Well..."
Before she could answer, I pulled her into my arms. She hugged me back tightly. We stood like that for a moment, just holding each other. Her touch was gentle but sure, and I took strength from it. A cloak of confident acceptance washed over me. This was happening; this would happen regardless. I was positive of that. I would go in and face whatever horror was down there, and I would come back.
"I'll wait by the river, a little ways away," said Xantara as I finally pulled away from her embrace. "So as to not draw any attention to you in there."
"Thank you for waiting. You didn't have to, you know."
"I'll be here when you're done." She grabbed my hand, squeezed it, and let it go.
"I'll see you then," I muttered softly.
The house seemed to want to meet me in the middle in its haste to have me inside. It appeared in front of me much too quickly, like it had grown legs and shuffled itself closer. I had to crane my neck to look up at it. It looked much larger than it ever had before. And it looked alive, too. It's windows - dark and broken - looked like eyes, the sun reflecting off of the shattered glass making the house's glare seem to glint mischievously. The door was open - not just beckoning me but demanding me to come in. And I would, even if it was most likely the gaping jaws of death disguised as this dilapidated, forgotten home. I had to.
It may not bite down tonight and swallow me whole, but it could. It could any time.
I walked inside.
The door shut behind me, closed softly by some phantom wind. It was dark, and the sunlight appeared to be too afraid to seep in through the cracked windows. But, if this was dark, then the shadows crowding in the hallway around me were simply... Nothing. Voids empty of anything, even matter itself. Something so deep and infinite that even being near them would send you falling for eternity.
Inside, the air was drastically colder. It felt like a dead night in the middle of Winter. I rubbed at my bare arms, which were now covered in goosebumps.
The door at the end of the murky hallway, which had been closed, was now opening slowly. Inviting me in; inviting me to go down. The idea of it sent a shiver through me. I didn't want to be in that basement; I didn't want to know how it would feel to be in the same cramped room as a God who may have been a witness to the beginning of time, one who would be one of the few things that would survive long enough to see it's end. I didn't want to feel the extent of their power and know it is real, to know this is all real and that it's happening now, and nothing will stop it. I didn't want to.
     But I swallowed my fear and did it anyways.
     The basement was as terrifying as always - but infinitely more so now, for the reasons that I was here. The shadowy mass slipped silently down the stairs alongside me. They covered the rough concrete  floor entirely, making the room's once seemingly impenetrable darkness pale in comparison. Their company was comforting, despite their unnatural existence and the malignant strength that they possessed. No longer was it the dark in the basement that scared me, it was what could be hiding in it, awaiting my arrival.
     As I waited in the silence, a series of horrible questions came to mind. What kind of God would this be? If they had chosen me, how would they be like? What kind of all-powerful, ancient being would give such an evil ability, such evil thoughts, to some poor child destined to live a life of fear and sorrow? What kind of God thought that would turn out well?
     I found I had only one answer - one that I was frightened to meet.
     "Are you here now?" I suddenly asked aloud in the room that had never felt empty, despite how derelict and abandoned it looked. My own voice startled me, loud in the otherwise quiet house. "Watching me? How long are you going to wait? Until my skins crawling and my hearts racing and I'm readying myself to run upstairs and go outside?"
     There was no response other than my own words bouncing off of the walls and echoing back to me, but that was really all the response that I needed. I stood in the calming yet somehow also unsettling tenebrosity until I felt as if I had become a part of it. I concentrated deeply on breathing evenly, and on distancing myself from my own panicked thoughts. Once again, I was both relieved and horrified of how easy it could be to become utterly numb. Was that another trait this God has given me? I wondered, a bit spitefully, before pushing that away, too. It only made me worry if even that would not be enough to help me cope with who could come at any time.
     The minutes stretched on, each one its own separate eternity. As time passed, the image of a great, burning, and horribly disfigured demon bursting through the floor and devouring me grew more vivid, and harder to ignore.
     A familiar and paralyzing agony coursed through me and instantly brought me to my knees. I tried to scream, but all that would come out was weak gasps. The physical pain immobilized me, but what I suddenly saw in my mind's eye was torture. That would break me, I was sure. I would never meet my God, for this would drive me insane first. Maybe even kill me.
     Memories flashed by, one after another, so quickly that it was dizzying. Recent memories; old memories; memories I had tried so hard to forget. I saw it all. Lived my life again in the span of a few of the most traumatizing moments. I tried not to comprehend any of the rapidly moving pictures that had consumed my thoughts, but some things were terribly persistent. I saw my parents, how happy they had once been. And I saw what they had both become - creatures of their own darkest demons. I watched my father throw the glass bottle at me as he once had when I was much younger; I even felt the slivers of glass cut my skin. I saw my mother, on the floor, staring up at the ceiling with empty eyes. My grandparents gazes turn from sympathetic to wary to outright terrified. Ashley's mangled corpse. I arrived at ShadowWood once again; I met my fellow murderers for the second time. I found myself in this basement for the first time and every time after that. I experienced everything, cowering on the cold stone floor. I was sure that this was the end, I would lose my mind and then the pain would finish me off for good.
     Then, those memories - the complete loss of my own will to choose what I even thought - stopped abruptly. The agony only subsided, but that was alright. Even though the pain was torment, and I was beginning to grow certain it would kill me - it was alright. Just no more of my past. No more of that.
When the shock of reliving the horrors of my life had dissipated slightly, the energy that had been restlessly battering my weakening body was much easier to notice. Its intensity took my breath away and caused my heart to skip beats. I could sense the malignant power feeding into my bloodstream. It was similar to the frightening strength I felt in the company of my shadows... And that awful voice. It was wrong; it was evil, and as it flowed through my veins I felt the entirety of my body and soul trying to reject it like the poison it was. It caused this maddening feeling of both dying and becoming something more - something vile but great, ferocious in its amazement.
"Get up."
For an instant, the person who spoke had the voice of every person I had ever known - people I had loved, like my mother; people I had hardly known, like my teachers or the cops that had found me after Ashley's death. The voices of the unlikely friends I'd found at ShadowWood. The basement was suddenly terribly cold, the air so heavy that it was difficult to breathe.
"Get up, Melany." It spoke again, this time the voice of one man - but it was deep, assertive, and chillingly convincing. "You are very much able to handle this pain."
I had never been so afraid, but at the same time, I could not resist looking up and into the face of the God I had come here to meet. I could not run, and I was sure now that I could not even allow myself to succumb to the agony that his very presence drilled into me. I could only sit up and face him, and whatever he might ask of me.
     Though no light had found its way into the small room, this otherworldly man seemed to have some sort of faint glow about him; some strange luminescence. He towered over me - I could tell crouching on the floor, that he was taller than Cato; taller, even, than my father. A chill coursed through me at that comparison; I had not willingly thought of my father in a long time before now. He glared at me, his black eyes full of curiosity and contempt. They reminded me faintly of Xantara's, until I started to fall deeply into them. I found myself wanting to express to him all of my fears and darkest desires. The longer that I stared, the farther that I felt from myself and my own rationality. He smiled, almost menacingly, showing off blindingly white, perfectly straight teeth, as if he knew exactly what was going through my mind. His skin was so pale that it almost looked blue. His skin was giving off that faint blue light, I realized, startled. His sharp, handsome features were somehow both intimidating and inviting. He wore a crisp, expensive black suit and his long, black hair was put up in a loose bun. In his hand was a clear glass halfway full of some brown liquid. I could smell the alcohol from here. It made my stomach churn.
     "Stand up, dear," he commanded, still smiling that eerie, knowing smile. The shadows that moved across his face made it look like it stretched from ear-to-ear for one horrifying moment.
     Once again, I was reminded of Xantara. Was it possible that I had unconsciously created her image from the idea of this malicious but divine being that I wouldn't meet until now, so many years later? The possibility brought the looming threat of insanity ever closer.
     I stood, knowing that he could convince me to do so and feeling too weak to find the will to fight against the demand. The effort it took to get to my feet sent a fresh wave of agony through me. My whole body trembled. I had to crane my neck - my head felt like it weighed a hundred pounds - to look into his dark gaze.
     "How are things outside of here, Melany?" He asked me in a smooth, pleasant tone that echoed off of the walls for longer than seemed possible. He studied me and I could see no end in his eyes. That's the only way I could comprehend it - you stepped too far into that tempting, boundless darkness and then you would become it.
     "Wh-What do you mean?" I asked weakly.
     "On Earth," he said, a little impatiently. "More specifically, the school they have got you trapped in."
     "Wha..." I started, my voice trailing off. My mind was a mess of shock, pain, terror, and the lingering memories that I would have to learn to forget all over again. "The school? Don't you know?" I asked, my own words sounding distant and unimportant. It was hard to think, much less speak anything sensible.
     "Of course I know," the unfathomable being before me snapped. The annoyance in his gaze was intimidating, but it was nothing compared to what else I saw there. The chasms of blackness that were his eyes were not just endless as I had thought, but also timeless.
     He had always been; he always would be.
     "I-I'm sorry," I stammered. "I'm not sure what you want to know, if you already, uh... If you already do."
     "Melany," he growled. I tried not to flinch away from his tone. "I understand that you are quite overwhelmed now, but be reasonable with me. My time is short."
     "Can you not see? You can't go outside of here, and you can't see out of here?" I asked dubiously, not understanding.
     He narrowed his eyes. I could see the muscles in his jaw twitching as he clenched his teeth. In that frightening moment, I wondered if he would attack.
     Then, the anger that had been steadily growing in his gaze cleared. He shook his head, sighing, before focusing on me once more. "Forgive me," he mumbled. "I haven't talked to a mortal in a long time. Hardly ever have. Curious people, you lot are."
     I could only gape at him dumbly. Between his frighteningly impressive presence and the torment it was putting me through, I could not think of the words to say to please him. I had no clue what he wanted from me, and didn't want to anger him any further. Someone who could possess such strength that he didn't have to move to knock a person to the ground was no one I wanted to mess with.
     The God before me took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "The longer that we have been away from Earth, the harder it has become to even take a glance into how things are going," he admitted, a little scornfully. I could hear the spite in his tone. "And this place... it's invisible to us now. Which is of a concern to me. Kallpa told me of what your friend, Calypso, introduced to her."
     My blood ran cold. "Do you mean that thing that's following us? That bad thing she thinks is trying to stop us?"
     He tilted his head to one side curiously. The movement was quick, almost cat-like. "Yes. That is what I mean."
     "Do you know about it?" I blurted. My fear had faded beneath my desperate need to know anything more than I knew now about my fate - which had apparently been in his hands my whole life. "Is it really true? Is it not... like, human?"
     He chuckled. It was an abrupt sound, not very humorous, but the booming quality of it echoing off of the walls, in harmony with my heartbeat, was almost soothing. "I'll tell you what I know when you tell me what you know. Have you seen any more of this thing? Is there strange things occurring outside of here?"
"No," I answered hesitantly. "I haven't personally seen anything. None of us have seen it. And this place is strange in general. It's hard to tell if it's something wrong or just ShadowWood. There is a new student, but..." I paused for a moment, feeling utterly lost. "Who are you, anyways?"
"Must you know everything right this moment?" He asked, the impatience in his tone growing again.
"You're giving me nothing!" I exclaimed suddenly, startling myself. I had not meant to speak, much less so bravely. But I continued anyways, despite the doubt I felt. "None of you guys are, as far as I know. I mean, you pick us out like strays from a shelter, give us this incomprehensible job, and then leave us in the dark!" He was gaping at me now, eyes wide with surprise. "What do you want us to do, blindly accept this and just go along with it?"
He held a hand out, almost defensively. "Alright, Melany. I understand. Don't get so worked up. My name is Llanthu."
His name sent a sharp, cold blade into my heart. It was a foreign word that held unimaginable power. It reverberated off of the walls, surrounding me. For one scary moment I couldn't catch my breath, and black spots dotted my vision.
My panic eased slightly when he continued speaking, chasing off the strength in his name. "I am the God of bliss and death, and I choose what happens after." He sighed, shook his head. I could see a hint of some deep sadness in his stare before he glanced away. "Or I used to." He looked back at me again. "Does that make you feel better?"
It didn't. It made my stomach churn and my mouth go dry and brought a million horrifying thoughts to mind. But I couldn't say that. I couldn't say much of anything. So I only nodded.
     He studied me for a second before continuing. He examined me like some bothersome yet interesting species he had never seen before. "You said something about a new student? Is that unusual?"
     "I don't know," I responded. I recalled the terror on Cato's face, though, and the urgency in which he wished to tell us of the student's arrival. "I haven't been here long enough to know how often they come in. But... Well, my friend seemed real upset over it. Said it felt wrong."
     He dipped his head in a sort of hesitant acceptance. For a few minutes, he said nothing - only looked at me as if I were some alien. He seemed to be debating on what to say - maybe even what not to say. Then, he cleared his throat. "I once knew someone," he began, his voice low and rough with many emotions I couldn't define. "He betrayed me, and harmed many things that I held dear to me. He turned his back on us just to have more power than he could handle. He left us all.
     "And if he's back," he growled, a sound more animal than human. I flinched away from his icy tone. "He won't escape this time. And I will show him no mercy."
     I swallowed the coppery taste of fear and managed to croak weakly, "You know who it is?"
     Llanthu sighed. "I can't be sure. And I can't see to find out." He finished what was in his glass with one gulp. "I have no reason to really believe it is him, but I don't know who else would want to stop us. Who would even know about us, anymore."
     "Who is he?" I asked.
     He shook his head. "Until we know for sure, I don't want to speak any more of him. I must go now, Melany. I feel myself growing weak."
     "But-"
     "I'm sorry," he interrupted. "My time on Earth must be cut short. Keep an eye out for anything strange. Come back here next week. We'll be able to discuss what we must do next."