The Demon's Lover ✓

Lover - Ten

2011 © Sonia Bartlett ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Chapter 10:

The woods were dark - a black darker than any pitch Christian had ever seen.

Glancing from side to side he recognized nothing. The trees were blurs laying darker shadows over the grayed-out ground. The sky was a heavy cobalt no star could ever hope to lighten, not that any were around to be seen. Christian mused how strange this was. There were not many places he'd never been.

A man of action, he decided to set about finding where he was rather than waiting for something to show that might never appear. Setting off where the woods thickened to an incomprehensible tangle of undergrowth and low-hanging branches, Christian decided the hardest way was, as usual, the best.

For hours he walked, the careless tossing aside of branches soon becoming frustrated firing. The forest was silent as ever with not so much as a breeze to ruffle the leaves. Christain's curses the only sound to be heard. His irritation increased tenfold as he walked in a straight line toward nothing... Or so it seemed.

A few feet to his left he heard a crackle and froze in place. Snapping his head in the direction of the distant sound he silently waited for it to be repeated, but was disappointed when all that sounded was his now harsh breath.

In a flash he took off in the direction of the noise. The forest became harder and harder to pass through, Christian now having to put actual effort into separating the tangled masses. Panting in effort he finally broke through the underbrush stumbling slightly upon taking in the scene before him.

His disbelieving eyes met a mirror image of himself. Jaw gaping open in shock, Christian watched as his twin - himself - swiftly navigated the undergrowth disappearing quickly behind a tree.

Christian shook himself from his trance, following his shadow, more off balance than he wanted to admit. Slipping behind the same tree, Christian found himself in a dead area. Fallen trees bordered the edges of the sickly withered, grassy patch of nothingness. A dark sickness pervaded the acidly corrosive atmosphere.

"Hey!" Christian called at the image. Some tangible force seemed to keep him rooted to the spot, still clutching desperately at the tree he had just rounded. No matter what directions he gave the body he had so ruthlessly taught to obey his commands, nothing could free his frozen muscles.

The image was unmoved. It was as if Christian was a figment of it's imagination... and not the other way around.

"Who are you?" Christian called again desperately. There had to be a reason why he was seeing this. Why couldn't he understand?

Right when Christian was about to call out for a third time, another rustling sounded to his right. Christian watched the image in front of him turn to face the noise, it's face impassive. From the colorless darkness came the brilliant splash of vibrancy that was Serlina.

"Serlina!" Christian called, now trying with more vigour to break from his immobile state. "Please, Serlina. What's going on?" Her very presence seemed to flow throughout the deadened wood - the grays now not quite so dark.

She, too, ignored his pleas. Instead she faced his twin. Christian finally resigned himself with a sigh to the role of a spectator. What was this?

The pair faced each other, their faces impassive. Suddenly, it lifted a hand toward Serlina. Glancing down at it Serlina took a hesitant step forward, then another. And another, until she was within his reach.