Vessels

Chapter 4

The sun was still rising well into the sky casting shadows upon everything that cut off its path. Birds chirped as they sat perched on their branches, their songs cut through the air adding to the white noise that was many people talking at once while they worked. People from all over examined the wares at the busy marketplace which was small compared to others but still had plenty of items to offer. Each shop had people that made their way in and out, the bells that each store had added to the chirps and buzzing in a symphony. 

One man who owned a flower shop, named Harled, was taking some of his garbage into the dumpster area behind his store. He let out a sigh, his face sour as he chucked the bag into the waste area. He clapped his hands together, the dust swirling off into the sunlight and he turned back to the doorway. A cat hissed somewhere in the alley and he stopped in his tracks, silent as he felt a chill run down his spine, his body shaking with the feeling. The sense that someone was watching him was all too real and he turned slowly so he was facing back towards the seemingly empty alley way. 

"Who's there?" He called out and was only greeted with an echo. A breath of air escaped his lips and he laughed off his paranoia, feeling rather foolish he turned once again to head back to work when he was greeted with a pair of yellow glowing eyes staring at him. He faltered back in a panic but the dark figure followed him. Harled's chest heaved up and down and he almost lost his footing but couldn't seem to break eye contact with the creature whose eyes seemed to be peering into his soul. The black figure seemed to turn into a puff of smoke and surrounded Harled's head in its inky blackness. The man coughed and heaved trying his best to keep the creature out but to no avail, and soon the cloud was gone and Harled stood unmoving. 

A minute passed by and the man's finger twitched to life and a crooked smile crossed his cheeks almost too wide for a human's face. Yellow eyes blinked at the ground until his hands were in view. The shadow now controlled the man completely and it tested out its new body by staggering back into the shop. Trying to get a feel for the mans magic it moved its arms in distorted ways at the plants that peppered the shop. The stems and leaves that protruded from each pot began to shiver and sway under its control and it finally had a grip on the mans magic when he gathered each plant fine together to create one large mangled vine and sent it crashing through the front window, causing panic in the busy streets outside. 

Raiden had been walking down this particular street when he heard the loud shattering of glass behind him followed by terrified shrieks of the bystanders who had been near the blast. The glass that flew through the air resembled twinkling stars, the sound that followed was almost ethereal one could forget for a brief moment that something devastating was happening. 

Raiden turned to face the source of the crash and witnessed the man who appeared to be Harled step through the broken window and onto the fallen stars in the streets. The birds and bells were now replaced with shrieking women and the sound of shoes beating the dirt roads below as each person unharmed ran from the scene. For some reason Raiden stood frozen in his spot, a feeling of dread washed over him like a wave as the man looked in Raiden's direction, his yellow eyes flashed. 

The creature raised up its arm towards Raiden and the same vine that broke the window shot towards Raiden sending him flying back into a brick wall as it crumbled around him.