Tricks of the room of mirrors; unedited Version. Check out page for edited vs.

Chapter 6: The darkness

Sorry its so short. xo

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“DAMNIT NEMO!” Jack slammed the palm of his hand into the table.

Nemo jumped but remained silent. Jack continued pacing back and forward in the kitchen, “What am I supposed to do now? I don’t understand how he moved that fact. It doesn’t make sense. What am I supposed to do?”

Nemo looked as though he was about to say something but thought better otherwise.

“Nemo!” Jack snapped, “This is your fault. I told ye to look after her.”

Nemo swallowed hard. He was half angry and half scared. Jack was the most dangerous men he knew. He had known that the first day he met him. He had always given Jack what he wanted without questions or arguments. Jack always got the best beer, the best girls and Nemo’s best rooms.

Nemo had a big cut across his face, from his ear to the corner of his mouth. Jack hadn’t even bothered asking where he’d got it from as he was so concerned with Emily and pointing fingers. Nemo had gotten that cut from Azuel. He had tried to get to Emily but Azuel had moved to fast and slashed Nemo’s face, sending him flying backwards, unconscious.

“Jack I think I know someone who can help,” Nemo said softly with his head down.

“Well who is he?”

“It’s a she. A witch.”

It was black and lonely. Like Azuel’s eyes. She hadn’t noticed them at first but when she saw them she couldn’t help but stare. They were a beautiful sort of black, but not alluring. They were deep as if you could fall right into them and never be able to get out of them again. Every happy memory, everything to be happy for was suddenly gone.

“Emily,” whispered a voice behind her. She spun on her heel. Jack was standing there in all his wonder, the only thing to be seen in all the darkness. His face was shaven and his clothes neat and tidy. Not a scratch or bruise was to be found on him.  His arms, outstretched in an invitation of embrace, “Emily,” he repeated.

She was no doubt scared but she felt as though he could protect her, from something that no one else had been able to protect her from; loneliness.

She threw herself into his arms and he wrapped them around her. She sobbed silently, “Please don’t leave me Jack. I’m scared. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

“Don’t worry Emily, Were going to go soon,” Jack assured her. Emily’s ear tickled against his chest as he spoke. But something changed. Something about Jack silently changed. His voice was different. His smell was different. His touch was different. She pulled herself back to find herself in the arms of Azuel. He grinned maliciously, “Hey sweetheart, your poor Jack isn’t going to protect you now.”

Emily gasped as Azuel moved to her side and she saw what was behind him. Jack was lying awkwardly in a pool of his own blood. His head caressed in cuts and bruises and his body bent in ways they shouldn’t bend. Emily ran to his side but she was going nowhere. She tried harder but the more she tried to reach Jack the further away the image of him was. She collapsed on the floor in a heap. Azuel’s voice was like a carousel as it closed in on her, “No one to protect you now. He’s gone.”

Emily’s eyes shot open. Her sweat soaked shirt was partially transparent, her hair stuck to her forward with dry blood. She panted profoundly, getting over the bitter aftertaste, that of a nightmare.

She knew it wasn’t real. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen? What if he never did come back for her? After all why would he, she was just somebody he was going to load of in the end anyways.

But no matter how hard she tried to deny it, she had grown an attachment to Jack. It wasn’t that she loved him, or like him but she felt safe with him.

Night had fallen while she was asleep and it was still very dark outside.

There was a rough knock at the door. Emily sat up, shakily she said, “Come in.”

The door flew open violently. Emily could just make out the man’s burly figure in the shadows, “Get up,” he commanded. His voice was soft, yet instructing, “Azuel said get up.”

As Emily got up and walked past him she caught a glimpse of his face. He was beautiful. His black hair framed his face perfectly. His eyes were cold yet intriguing. His mouth curled into a inimical corner smile.

A cold shiver ran down her spine. She walked down the narrow hallway, followed by the man who awakened her.  They came to ending of the hallway and she came to a stop. She peered into the room it led into. It was dark. The only source of light was the lamp which sat on the wooden table, glowing dimly.

The man nudged her forward. She stumbled into the room. “Take a seat, Azuel will be with you.”

Emily hesitantly sat. Her pulse fastened with fear. Never before had she been more afraid of the dark than at that moment. Oh yes, as a child she had always checked under her bed for monsters and figments of her imagination but now it was real. The things she thought to be impossible were real. And she didn’t understand how much of it was real and how much of it wasn’t. That was the scariest thing of all; not knowing after you know.

“Emily,” A voice called out of the darkness in front of her.

“Azuel?”

“Yes Emily,” He put his hand on the table so she could just see it in the light of the lamp.

“Can we turn the lights on?” Emily said in a half whisper.

“No, Darkness is much more dramatic. Now if you want to make it out of here alive, here’s what you are going to do.”