New Pravus

Chapter Six

An abrupt whisper of hurt flew through Mikhail's mind. He sat there on the sofa, wondering about the time he peered over to see the clock stating "11:29 p.m.", there was still time before he and the others had to go after John Hoffman but the apartment was empty, the others were nowhere to be seen. He remembered telling them about taking a break back at Wintergold's place before they went to The Viper and must have fallen asleep. The apartment was quite, barely lit, the lights of Virtus did not shine through the windows tonight, in fact, there was no source of light inside except for the lamp on the table in front of him. Soon he understood that this was in fact not Wintergold's apartment but another place, unfamiliar to him. It was as if the darkness had surrounded him like an audience, and watched him quietly.

He rose from the chair and walked toward the bedroom, stopping instantly after hearing a murmur, a certain hissing to it.

"Who's there?" said Mikhail while standing there in the wretched dark, looking over his shoulder. Silence returned but was shattered as the whisper was heard once more, followed by a set of very agonising noises, as though something with its throat and chest torn open was trying to speak. Inhumane and incomprehensible sounds.

Mikhail heard the first familiar sound, the sound of wind whistling outside, louder, then quieter. He approached the source of the noise and found himself in an eerie street illuminated by the stars above in a shattered sky and the street lights that barely illuminated their surroundings inside an undistinguishable part of Virtus. He processed what was occurring around him, looking around. Footsteps were heard beside him, he turned his eyes to their corners without flinching. The footsteps grew louder, and louder, but they were not sounds made by shoes, but of bare feet, smacking itself against the hard ground.

Mikhail watched across the street and spotted a little girl, about six years old, walking in the blistering cold. She had a set of curly blonde hair, a little nose on a round face, a gentle creature who just looked as if she only wanted to get home, or so it seemed by the expression on her face.

It was cold tonight, the kind of cold that travelled inside your body and pricked at your soul, it was cold enough to make even Mikhail tighten his coat around his body and tuck his hands deep inside his pockets; cold that was hell-bent to freeze whoever crossed its path. Mikhail wondered if the girl was lost.

The voices were heard again, this time beside his ear. He could only make out a few words from it, "Das Verdu Nis", the rest of the sentence was completely indistinguishable.

He exhaled strongly and then searched for the source of the whisper, perhaps the winds were making these noises that were perceived as actual sounds, and maybe his mind was playing tricks on him once more. He looked back at the child who walked in the cold pavement across from him, she halted, and slowly turned her head to Mikhail, looking at him with her big curious eyes. He did not move, he did not want to frighten her away or make her scream.

"Stay away from him Mikhail!" blared another voice. But this was The Blind One's voice, Mikhail knew it was him, "stay away from Umbra," he said, Mikhail was confused over who 'Umbra' was. Then he saw him, it was the name of that demonic silhouette, the haunting man, he was Umbra.

Before anything could be done, some paces behind the girl on the same side-walk, Umbra appeared walking the way he walked, in a slow fashion, toward the girl.

Voices inside Mikhail's head constantly conflict with one another in an incomprehensible form, things began to get unstable, the shadows present around him were not filled with darkness, but the creatures of darkness that were camouflaged as shadows, bringing with it all the horrors of the dark and more, always more.