Rekindle the Darkness

0.9

For a moment, there is only silence aside for my heavy breathing. Then, a click echoes throughout the warehouse as the lights switched on above, with an intensity that caused the shadows to sizzle.

A frustrated whimper escapes me as I squirm under the lights, powerless.

Then a silhouette blocks the light and I open my eyes, squinting up at the unrecognisable figure standing above me.

They hover there for a moment, before a calloused hand grips my wrist and I get dragged to my feet, thrown against a wall, causing further bruises to form down my back.

I groan, my breath catching in my throat as a hand clamps over it.

I blink several times, stars dancing before my eyes as I try to make out some features of whom I had now identified as a male.

Cold, piercing blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair.

"The place just seems to be crawling with Necromancers today," he sneers, his fingers pressing further into my windpipe and I freeze up. "Nethertheless, I'll have fun killing the both of you now."

I scratch at his hands, my assault merely having an impact. My feet scrape the ground but aren't firmly planted on it, causing me to panic further.

Then I see a silhouette a few meters behind the male. I blink multiple times to try and focus on him, but being oxygen-deprived clearly had an impact on my vision.

Before either he or I could comprehend what was happening, a thick shadow tendril, similar to mine although much lighter, wrapped around his torso, pulling him away from me. I slump to the floor, my arms clutching my neck as I do so.

When I glance up, I am able to make out who it is. It is the male. The male who I had helped save, mere moments before.

The Resplendent looks infuriated as he places his palms on the tendril that was wrapped around him and it slowly sizzles away. He drops to his feet, at ease as the Necromancer's start to blacken and I gasp inaudibly. He was slipping into Necrosis.

Necrosis was the most ravenous state a Necromancer could slip into. It only lasted a short while and was often used as a last resort, when we had nothing left to lose. It caused them to be void of emotion, become ruthless and inhumane. They would slip into a state of destruction and death absorbing every dark matter within their radius, including the darkness of other Necromancers. The lights were indefinitely dimmed as shadows seep in from through the cracks, the windows completely blackened.

Feeling my energy being drained from me at a steady pace, I struggle to stay conscious to witness the first Necrosis I had ever witnessed.

The male is thrown against the wall as waves of shadows continue to crash into him at an increasing rate. I struggle to sit up and do so with great difficulty as my body starts to shut down, exhaustion overpowering ambition.

The only drawback in terms of Necrosis was that using such an immense burst of power in such a short space of time exhausted every muscle in your body, hence leaving you defenseless and as I slowly start to give way to slumber, I can feel my energy start to flow back into me.

The Necromancer had fallen to his knees, his reign clearly over; his body screaming with fatigue, his eyes holding mine in silent apology for dragging me into this. I get to my own feet, my body heavy but becoming lighter as my darkness all but returns, nethertheless I use the wall for support.

I finish my fumbling just as I look up to see him restrained by the two burly henchmen; he looks up at me, apology replacing cold fear in his eyes. As I stumble away from the wall and towards him, my hand up as if to stop the henchmen from touching him, my still cloudy mind fails to identify the light beam thrown at me.

It collides into me with such force that it throws me off my feet and I hit the wall with a sickening thud; only then does a groan escape my lips as I place my bruised jaw on the cool floor.

I resolve to curl up; in too much pain to move, in too much pain to cry.

I simply close my eyes as the pain increases; my back throbs and a rib is clearly bruised too, if broken.

From behind my closed eyes, I see shadows from movement and I open them to only see the Resplendent, an untainted smirk on his face as he looks down at me as I simply lay there. Then, he grabs a handful of my hair, pulling me up and a shudder escapes me as I attempt to take a deep breath which results in pain spreading over thorax cavity. I struggle to stay standing and a buzzing settles in my ears as my knees buckle and I all I want to do is curl up once more.

And then I see hear it; I hear him. At first I am unsure but as he repeats his words, it cuts through the humming in my ear my eyes try to focus on his figure.

"Princess?"

My breath leaves me in a whoosh as the Resplendent drops me and I fall to the floor once more, a kick accompanying me on the way down.

Kit's expression darkens immediately."You get the fuck away from her Ethan. Right this second."

The Resplendent, who I now find goes by the name of Ethan, rolled his eyes at him, before turning to face Kit, not before kicking me again.

I coil up, my stomach responding too well with his boot and a strangled choke escapes me as the pain sears through my body once again.

I could hear footsteps as my vision started to darken, accompanied by a long scraping sound which I realise to be the other Necromancer being dragged away.

Ethan speaks. "Don't tell me you've some affection for this Necro, Christopher." He raises an accusing eyebrow at Kit.

Kit doesn't respond.

"Hmph, as I thought." I hear him shuffling and it doesn't take me long to figure out he has turned towards me. He places his heavy foot on my slightly outstretched forearm, applying pressure on it and fire courses through me as I come to life, screaming as I thrash under his foot.

"I warned you." Kit's voice snarls from his place.

One second I feel the pressure of his foot on my arm, then the next, it's simply gone.

I sit up in time to see Ethan being thrown into the wall and held there with further light beams, clamping around his ankles and wrists.

I frown, blinking a few times, unable to understand who the other Resplendent would be.

It hits me all at once as I turn my head to confirm my realisation.

Kit stands there, fury in his eyes as he throws beam after beam at Ethan who groans in pain.

"You don't fucking touch her again, do you understand?"

As my vision started to darken once more, a single thought passes through my mind.

I had fallen in love with none other than a Resplendent.