An Entity Within | Stephen Strange

Prologue

Genderless, shapeless and vicious. An ancient being of pure chaos and destruction had the contradicting, ethereal form of an orb of light - bright as the sun, but with a cold heart made of crumbling stone. The Entity. Whilst there were many of them, it was the only one of it's kind. Each were a separate existence within the universe, created by a mere thought or a simple action. It had never known love or kindness or compassion but it wanted to. For billions and billions of years, the Entity had travelled through the universe, bringing death and destruction to most that it met however now it was tired. Tired of it's soul-sucking work. Tired of bringing fear to everyone. Tired of being hated. For once, it had had enough of it all. Whilst its heart was like a frozen castle, the ice was thawing gradually, taking tiny parts of the unstable stone that surrounded its heart with it.

It wanted to learn love.

For the past few weeks it had spent most of its time searching and exploring and trying to learn the human's secret to empathy. Seeing young lovers walking hand in hand, children racing around parks and playing made up games with each other, families caring for their grandparents, a mother comforting her upset child - the Entity admired the bond everyone appeared to have with each other.

Why couldn't it have that too?

In search of the answers it so desperately wanted, it had gone to Kamar-Taj. This being wasn't dim in the slightest, it was intelligent. The Entity had heard of the Ancient One (and had certainly been around far longer than her) and hoped that she would have the power to give what it so intensely craved. It had managed to get into the relic room except it didn't notice the sorcerer who was guarding it at the time.

"Stop, right there." The sorcerer spoke to it with concern lacing his tone, "Who are you and what are you doing here?" He questioned the Entity sternly.

They were fair questions to any stranger that would randomly appear in Kamar-Taj. The sorcerer that had confronted it was of an average build, had auburn hair and dull green eyes and wore a forest green tunic. In his one hand he held a staff but, contrary to most who would assume it was a relic, it was actually just a normal, non-magical weapon. Master Hyde wasn't expecting a fight.

As the Entity spoke, it's light would intensify at certain points as though it had a mouth, however, it would have sounded as though the Entity were really in his head, "I'm looking for answers. I must talk to the Ancient One." Came its answer, only to the second question.

Master Hyde appeared to take a cautious step towards the being, "But who are you?"

There appeared to be a slight hesitation, "An Entity."

This time, Master Hyde took a step back, holding his staff a little tighter, "Do you know - "

Before he could finish, the doors to the relic room opened behind him and another sorcerer marched in with a scowl upon his face, "Why would you send her away?" This other man completely dismissed the presence of the Entity.

"Marcus, not now." Master Hyde hissed to the other man.

Marcus saw the glowing orb hovering there and paused a moment. His gaze shifted between the both of them before settling back on the sorcerer. The entity could tell that he didn't even care that it was there to watch but that only made the Entity wonder why.

"Why did you make her leave?" Marcus repeated his question again in a frustrated growl.

Master Hyde gave a nervous yet trustworthy glance to the Entity. It could see his mind racing with little anxieties about his situation but there was a small bit of faith. Faith in the Entity. It hadn't done anything destructive yet so maybe he could figure something out quickly.

"Marcus, please - "

"No!" He slammed his fist down on the one table close enough to him, sending a sharp glare to Master Hyde, "She was safer here. With me. Jack - "

"What did you say?" Master Hyde had a look of disbelief and confusion plastered across his face in a frown, "She's my wife."

Both sorcerers now completely disregarded the Entity as they worked themselves into an argument. Their voices raised with every word that left their mouths. This wasn't like the other things the Entity saw. There was no love, only hate - the one thing the Entity wanted to move on from. Soon, it became push and shove between the two men, letting out their frustration at each other through physical harm until Marcus started to use his magic. Jack - Master Hyde - looked surprised at this sorcerer's attempts to use sorcery on him but he didn't fight back with his magic. Instead, he was now blocking and begging for Marcus to stop. The Entity still floated there but if it were to have any physical manifestation of facial expression, it would one of distress at the current situation. Whilst drawn to the chaos, it found that it despised what was happening. This wasn't what it wanted or what it expected. Instead, unnecessary violence had stemmed from an unanswered question and had evoked the destructive emotion of vexation within the both of them.

Marcus formed a glass-like shard and continued to advance on Jack. Pleading for him to stop, Master Hyde continued to block rather than attack except the only problem was that his words never got past his searing rage. Marcus was too overwhelmed by his fury to listen and instead kept going, his actions never faltering as he was blinded by his current, savage thoughts. As he brought the shard down again, Jack missed his chance to block and the shard ended up piercing him in his chest. At this point, Marcus stopped, a look of shock crossing his face as the realisation of what he had done dawned on him. Master Hyde stumbled back, grabbing one of the cabinets to try and steady himself but his grip slipped and he fell back on the hard, wooden floor. Worry crossed Marcus's face as he kept stumbling back himself.

"Oh god - Jack - " His tone was whispery.

The creek of the doors sounded again and a little girl stood there, rubbing her eyes tiredly, "Dad?"

Marcus looked to the young girl and then to the Entity before creating another weapon. This time he had a fiery whip and he threw it towards the orb of light, "Run, Tessa! Go find some help!"

The little girl looked up again, wide-eyed now and a little more awake after having been yelled at, "Where's dad?"

The Entity knew what was happening now. Marcus was going to blame Master Hyde's death on it. If that happened then no one would listen to it. They would all be too terrified. Dodging the strikes from the magical whip that Marcus held, the Entity ended up moving closer to Tessa.

"You need to go!" Marcus frantically yelled at her again.

However, he had failed to realise that Tessa had caught sight of the body on the floor and was now rooted to her spot, "What's happened to dad?" She began to cry.

The Entity remembered what others did when they saw children crying. Some would offer embraces, some would talk in the attempt to comfort them. This wasn't its fault but maybe it could help. It could still help the little girl. Her memory of the awful sight could be erased and she could forget it. The Entity could help her, it was certain of it. Hovering closer to the crying girl, the orb that it was shone brighter and wispy beams of white light appeared to reach towards her. The room became brighter and eventually, Marcus couldn't see as the glow blinded him. Tessa was mesmerised by the sight as tears streamed down her face.

In an instant, the room was dark again and Tessa had fallen to the floor, unconscious.