+ Incubus +

[Chapter 31]

Chapter Thirt-One: The Hellish Truth
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"Black souls, empty bodies
You had me fooled straight from the start
We pray for an answer.
We have to fight or be hollow just like them
Walking lifeless,
Have we been left for the dead?
Black souls, empty bodies
We have to fight or be hollow just like them"

~Blessthefall, Hollow Bodies
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Anna's POV

I was now tied to a tree watching a ridiculous and scary and amusing scene unfold before me.

Sheesh, I felt so desperate like a damsel in distress...

Officer Darwin was standing among the many other creepy, yellow-eyed, expressionless people that I had seen before. He was standing atop a flat rock that hit out from the ground like a platform. How convenient...

As I curiously watched from the post he had strung me to, I see officer Darwin stretch his arms out, to the sky, palms open and fingers splayed at the crowd of onlookers, and yelled something in another language that sounded like fire crackling, snakes hissing and worse, nails scratching a chalkboard. It made me cringe and back away into the tree I was tied to.

His head was pointed toward the sky and then down at the earth. His arms went from raised, to being spread out on the ground beneath him. He was now crouched over, hands on the earth, chanting the same sounding words over and over again.

I was clueless and powerless to stopping whatever creepy ritual (because that's what it had to be by looking at their glowing eyes, listening to their twisted language as they nodded in agreement occasionally to whatever officer Darwin had hissed out). I watched on as officer Darwin raised his head and then suddenly, like a bullet being shot, their was a high sound, almost like the sound of glass shattering.

Then it was there. A mass of the blackest smoke, floating, shimmering with sparks of fire and evolving into...a human. The form of the human came easily and quickly and I sucked in a breath as I saw its--or his--silhouette. It was clearly a man, judging by the broadness of his shoulders and the leanness of his body. I couldn't see his face but by the looks of him, he could snap me in half if he wanted.

The black silhouette became into a light skinned, fair haired man who wore all black. His eyes were almost the same shade as the other 'people' around him, but I noticed they were brighter, shiner and looked like they had seen the stars. Well, considering they called him 'Starlight' I guess he had.

"Prince Starlight," officer Darwin whispered out, though it seemed to reach everyone's ears. "We are to next summon the other prince." He concluded and I wondered who exactly the 'other prince' was. How many more of these creepy, demonic, devil worshippers were there...well that's what they had to be, right?

"Okay, get on that right now. I want Incubus here too, for this is his...task." The way 'Starlight' said it made me cringe and shiver in a emotion I could not decipher.

Officer Darwin nodded once, curtly, and set off to do another one of his little summoning rituals. Great...

Everything officer darwin did was the same, except for the words. They sounded more...sharp, cut and jagged, as if they could cut you if you understood them. And I guess that could've been a possibility seeing how at some points the other yellow eyed people would cringe or visibly grit their teeth. It was the first emotion and action I had seen play on their faces and hollow bodies.

I blinked and when my eyes opened, after that one millisecond, there was a deep red cloud of smoke floating and changing and glowing with strikes of what seemed to be lightning. The cloud swirled and shifted, moved and rested on the ground, forming itself into another man.

The silhouette of this man was lean and broad shouldered, though not at muscly as the other man. This guy was taller and more skinnier; more lanky. Though it didn't look at though he could break me in half, I could tell he was more powerful or respected than the last guy who emerged from smoke. The way they yellow eyed people stepped back, hooded their eyes as if the sun (which was not present) was blinding their eyes and slightly hissed, showed me enough to believe this guy could snap me in half--maybe not with his physical strength, but with his power over these loonies.

The clouded silhouette of red smoke and lightning shifted again and then, with a spark, formed itself into a man. It was a man that I could not see at first because I had closed my eyes of the light the spark had given off.

When I opened my eyes next, what I saw was something that struck me more harder than it did when I got those nightmares of myself dying, of when I found officer Darwin in league with a bunch of weirdos and harder than when I found I had failed an exam (though I still somehow passed the course with a alright mark).

Andrew was standing where officer Darwin had been (now he was on the floor, blood leaking from his body), a viscous, deadly, pointed--literally, he had fangs!--and devilish smirk lining his red lips. They were red, along with his teeth, because they were tainted with office Darwin's blood. He was far from me, though he was looking right at me, in the eyes, and I could see the subconscious message there, in his now ruby red eyes: Your blood is next.

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Thank you guys for reading! I really appreciate all the votes and reads and comments!!! <3 :)

**Sorry this chapter is short and I took so long to update... :/ I just couldn't find a way to expose and bring Incubus--not Andrew--to the story and into Anna's life. Hopefully this chapter caused you guys to forgive me! :)**