Deadly Night Shade

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The voice was kind, it was trustworthy and helpful, not the voice of a bad man, not the voice of an evil villain. When I woke I looked around for the source of the voice, not seeing him sitting in the corner patiently with a small smile of contempt on his face. I deemed that I had been dreaming too early because as soon as I stopped looking, I felt a soft hand link with my own. I jumped with a silent squeal.

 "Who are you?" I waited. "I am darkness" he said. My heart leaped into my throat as I remembered those words. "Who are you" I repeated slowly. I sat down, and so did he. "My name is Shadow." I paused. I had but one thing that I knew, either I was mad, or I was dead. Nothing could have come in to my basement while I was here, and I was sure that I was the only one in here to start with. I came to the conclusion that I had lost my mind. So I talked to him, and told him everything.

As we talked he held my hand and Secret sat by my side, and he listened. He did not flinch, or gasp or even blink. He just listened, and when it was over and I was catching my breath, he let a small smile brush across his lips and said softly, "I know you, now you shall know me."

I sat cross-legged on the floor and listened. I listened as he told me everything. He was darkness. He physically was darkness. His biological makeup was human, yet he wasn’t. "The darkness made me for you. It first created your companion, Secret, to be a friend. Then it made me." I looked into his eyes and asked the question that was tingling on my lips. "Why?" he gave a faint smile, "Because you love."

I was caught up in the moment. I didn’t mean to. It was just the right place, at the right time. I kissed him. It was a shy, gentle kiss. No tongue, no extreme movements, just a kiss. And it was perfect. When we stopped I was in a state of shock. "I'm sorry" I mumbled.

He wore a victorious expression, mixed with surprise. "I forgive you," he smiled. "I'm sure you do" I laughed. We continued talking about nothing in particular, and smiled and laughed. It was the best day I had ever experienced, but when it was over, we just lay on the floor and played children's games like eye-spy. I didn’t want to sleep, but I did, hoping he would still be here in the morning.

When I woke, all was silent. No sound or noise. I could not see or hear him at all, and now that you mention it, I couldn’t hear Secret any more as well. I sat up and listened to the silence. Once I listened hard, it wasn’t silent at all. I could hear the padded feet of my cat’s paws softly moving against the floor, I heard the breath of the man I had met the night before, I heard the slight chattering of insects outside of my basement, and I heard my heart beat. Something I hadn't heard in far too long.

When Shadow came out, he was smiling. I liked it when he smiled, it made me feel good, warm inside. His eyes were calm and bright, with a sparkle that I hadn't noticed earlier. We smiled pointlessly at each other for who knows how long and as our gaze began to flicker, we started to talk. He told me of darkness. "It is not what light leaves in shadow, it is more than that. It is beauty, and fear and mystery. It creates love and magic, and is the god of the nocturnal." he said his voice never quivering or faltering. He looked at me. "Humans are born in darkness and die in darkness; they use the darkness as cover, or escape, and use it for romance and fear."

I opened my eyes. "There can never be light without dark. Light does not create dark. Light only opposes dark." the words had come out of my own mouth. I glanced at my hands and then at Shadow. "I am in Love with the Darkness," he nodded and said," ever since you were a girl." I let a tear fall.

"Why are you here?" I asked my voice shaky. "I am here for you. You love the darkness, and the darkness loves you, it created me, and Secret, to be your companions. Yet I am not just created by darkness. I am Darkness" I looked up. I could see clearly. I saw him fully. His skin was naturally tan and his hair was brown/black. He had eyes that were deep brown, like dark chocolate and, he was beautiful.

I stared at him, my expression blank, but my heart burning. . I closed my eyes, and felt the dark. Before creation, darkness roamed free. As if it was alive, and it was friends with the light, they were one. But the light saw that the dark was too strong, it turned on the darkness and tried to take the power for itself, but it failed and backfired. The light became blinding and horrific, too much so, that the darkness hid in the shadows. And the light took over. In the lights rage, parts of its energy broke away and formed the stars. The darkness was afraid. It was hit by many stars and the planets were formed from a mix of the light and dark. The light lost control and let go, being cursed by its power to never extinguish. And the darkness saw this and helped the light. He shrouded the light with dark to hide the anguish of the light, making it beautiful. He then hid, as he was afraid that the light would come back to its horrific power. 

I was getting sleepy, and my eyelids were like weights, pulling to close, I said goodnight to Secret and Shadow and I went to sleep.

*** 

I saw his face, again, and again. That dark crazed smile, those black eyes. My heart raced as I dreamed. I was walking through the snow, it was cold. I walked with Secret beside me, but she was not her usual self, she was a panther almost as big as a horse, with wings. And we were walking in the cold and I saw him.

He was sitting cross-legged on a cliff edge, a sword on his lap; he looked to be frowning, almost worried, even with his cut mouth, his black eyes, gazing over the landscape, looking for something, or someone. He picked the sword up by the blade and cut his hands, he watched the blood, drop down about ten meters to the ground then saw me. The worried expression left, and was replaced by an anger of untold magnitude. He jumped off the cliff and landed, on his feet, right in front of me, his blood melting the snow around him. I could feel his breath as he walked towards me and he asked, "Claire, where did you go?"

He tilted his head and clasped his bloodied hand around the handle of the sword. He lifted it up and pointed the tip of the blade at my throat. "I challenge you to a duel."

I smiled a little as I remembered that line from a book I had once read, but in that book, the speaker was drunk. I didn’t think that Jason was drunk, but I wouldn’t have been surprised.

I drew a long blade. The handle was Amethyst crested and purple with a pure black snake wrapped around the handle to be the grip. The blade was a purple so deep that the darkness looked like snow with a flame pattern running up the blade. I touched my blade and shivers went down my spine. It was light weight and extremely sharp, sharp enough to cut through bone.

I held it up to my face, as to show that my face was halved by the blade. Jason lowered his sword and jabbed at me. I blocked it. Once we had gotten into the rhythm our fight became graceful. Forehand, backhand, thrust, block, backhand, block etc.

The music of our ringing blades echoed across the ice. Then he started to laugh at me. Hatred bubbled with a new emotion. Victory. It was getting warmer and the snow was melting to reveal… the clearing.  I gasped and a fear came into me. This clearing made him, Jason, more powerful and his horrific grin stretched across his face and he started winning. My fear swirled around me as a purple light and I struggled to defeat this enemy. My eyes sprouted tears of crimson blood and I kept fighting, no longer for revenge, but to stay alive.

Backhand, block, forehand, thrust. We were falling into a rhythmic pattern as we fought and, though I was struggling for my life, he was smiling with a soft sort of glee. He then spun and created momentum for his final blow and killed me.

***

I was quite surprised when I woke up, hot and sweaty. Secret was sitting close by Shadow and they were both staring at me. It was a deep penetrating stare that looked not at me, but into me. I could not think why before I looked down. I screamed.

There was a large gaping wound in my side. Crimson blood was dribbling out of the fleshy injury. Pain suddenly flooded me and I screamed in agony. It was like fire, spreading through me, like ice, freezing my body. I kept screaming and tears ran down my cheeks.

As my screaming subsided, the pain was still quite real. Shadow came to my side and threw his arms around me, I cried into him and he comforted me, whispering sweet nothings, making me almost forget my pain. Almost.

My eyes slowly drooped and sleep took over me.

As she lay on the floor, a black light lit the room, the boy and the cat both stared as the light descended from the air. It floated towards her in her unconscious state and reached out with a wisp of darkness, touching her wound.