Twisted Darkness

chapter four

Upon awakening, I see that night has fallen about my semi-conscious being, a slight cool breeze ruffles my fiery locks. The ground below is a pillow of dead grass. The sky is black, much like death itself. I felt as if I was blindfolded, then thrown into a safe with no light or air. My chest is aching for air and my body feel as though I'd been beaten a thousand times, with no mercy given to my tormented soul. My head begins to ache when I try to recall what I'm doing on the ground in the middle of nowhere. A deep bottomless void lays in my memory of yesterdays events, for I'm pretty sure that it is a little past midnight. The wind picks up and carries with it laughter... Laughter? I must be going crazy, why would any sane person be out here this late at night, just before a storm is about to roll through.

The wind continues to howl, but there is no sign of laughter now. Imagination, such a deceitful thing, yet for some it is a lovely escape from reality. Reality is my escape, imagination is my enemy. The relentless howling stopped, and laughter thundered around me, as though the storm was made of a lunatic whose hobby is running about at night seducing victims, and then murdering them. Nerves launching into defense mode, I begin to scramble away; or attempt to bolt to the closest civilization. Something knocks me back to the ground, pressing hard on my already aching chest. Pain blossoms through my body, wrapping around me like a vine, choking out what life is left in me. Death reaches out its bloodless hand for me to take, as stubborn as I am, I try to escape my fate, fighting for my right to live--- No reason for my second chance on earth. My consciousness fades, but that only means that death will crawl back from whatever hole it came forth, with empty hands. Amidst my fading light a tinkling voice echoes in my emptied head.

"What are you doing out here, Hunter?"

Hunter... How does my attacker know about my past life? Could this be one of my demons, who've come to tear apart the new life I've built for myself? Just when I thought the fire burning inside me would destory me, it began to seise its rampage on me. A weight has been lifted off my breast and I begin to waken from my sedated state. My vision blurs as I roll onto my side, and attempt to hoist myself up. I froze once I saw a silhouette in the distance against a back drop of golden ash, still burning after it had been hours since one could start a fire.

"Ah! And so the dead lives once more."

The voice so soft, yet lacking any empathy or emotion, is projected in a feminine voice. A voice so eerily familiar that I tense up at the sound of it.

"Who... Who are you?", I reply in a steady tone, whilst my insides are churning with anxiety.

"Ha, I'm no one to be trifled with.", cackled the stranger. That laugh sounds like the one carried by the wind, could it be that she attacked me?

"You. You're the one who attacked me, aren't you? You must be one of the people I'd wronged in my past life, or your a Dream walker that I failed to exterminate."

"I applaude you on pinning me as a Dream walker, but no; I wouldn't try to kill you. You had been attacked by the monsters you once controlled, I was trying to heal you. Look at the grass about you... its all dead... like you would have been if the monsters had fully taken control of you. You're welcome."

Gawking, I sit befuddled by what she said. Unable to fathom why a Dream walker would save me, when I was the reason that many of them are dead. She turned into the glow of the dying ashes, exposing her face to me. Stormy grey eyes, high cheek bones and a small sharp nose. Straight, golden brown hair, an hourglass figure and she burns with a mystirious charisma. A smirk played across her full, pink lips, giving her the apperance of a woman with many notches in her belt. She was much more stunning in real life, when she wasn't bleeding or deep into a drunken oblivion. Tonight she seems to be sober, but I can sense how weak she is. The alcohol consumption and the healing has drained her completely.

"You're Synclare. My dreams have been about you for the past month... and I've finailly found you. Please, understand that I'm not what I used to be."

"Y.. yes I am. That means that you must be Lelana, correct? You look exactly like the woman in my latest nightmare. The same red hair, crimson eyes, sharp cheek bones and full dark red lips. You must be the one from my dream."

"Yes, I probably am, I'm the center of many nightmares.. it doesn't surprise me that I was in your dream."

"Hmm, you seem decent enough. Nice taste in clothes and I like your personality, I like you.. and I can tell that you mean what you say. Now we better leave before the storm decides to roll through."

At her mention of it, the sky lights up with a single strike of lightning, a symphony of thunder follows. The wind rushes by leaving one chilled to the bone, and the fabric of our minds exposed. Ear shattering cries float from behind us, campers have seen their last woodland night. Gleeful screeches echo all around us, closing in, excitedly awaiting another bloody feast, one that's been waited for very patiently. Pounding follows us, no matter how hard and how fast we run, there is no escaping. Black ominous forms rise up in the sky, drifting between the earth and space, glowing white appears in the dark clouds, prying into the minds of unknowing travelers.

Syn, had taken off toward the east, away from town and toward the meadow, leaving me to defend myself. Frozen to the ground on which I stand, unmoving, squeezing my eyes shut; I imagined that I was invisible. As my luck would have it, I never turned invisible like I used to when I did that, instead I radiated with some sort of hot light... giving away my place, but yet protecting me. A hoard of demons plung toward me, unaware of the light's heat, they plummet ever faster at me. My back against the ground, facing these monsters I once called friends, I watch the collision between good and evil. A blinding explosion happens just a few inches above me, shock takes over and I lose consciousness once more.