Burning Road

Broken Halls- Part IV

Of the three of them, Helsing was the only one who'd been to the lower levels before. True to his warning, the place was a labyrinth. They turned down two dead ends before finding the proper hall, but once they were on the correct path the going was fast. Even so, Mimi grew nervous. The humans couldn't hear it, but there was a heavy wheezing sound and the occasional whiny of a horse growing steadily closer. It was only a matter of time before the nightmare caught them.

Mimi whistled at the sight of the first security door. It was a beauty of shiny brass, steel and lead. She licked her lips with anticipation. Helsing slumped against the wall to rest his leg. DotPrince gingerly felt the extent of the damage to his face.

He'd been lucky. Another inch and he might have died, either way he was going to have an angry scar for the rest of his life. She liked scars, but her time in The World Above suggested humans didn't feel the same. It was one of those things she would have asked Cali if she was with them. She was thinking of Cali when Sweeney's unsettling laughter hit her ears. Mimi turned around and his whip thin host stood at the other end of the hall.

"Miminda, I'd hoped The Shadow Hand would be much harder prey," At his feet crawled a pair of albino rats. "I hired an awful lot of retainers to help me catch you. Don't tell me I wasted my signing bonus."

"Not my problem, missy! I say you go back home, Sweeney. I don't want to kill you," Mimi said.

He laughed and one of the rats released a growl too big for its small form. Bounding towards them it's white fur elongated and its flesh tore. In an instance the rat was replaced by a massive albino bear. The familiar roared and DotPrince blew off the top half of its head. The darkling died in a quick burst of frost. The second rat drew back behind Sweeney, shifting into a coiled serpent. Sweeney looked down at the cowering familiar and scoffed.

"That wasn't even mine, meat bag. Someone is going to have to pay for that."

"You heard the lady. Not our problem," DotPrince growled. He aimed his cannon at the darkling's chest. "Go home, Sweeney."

Sweeney laughed his hideous laugh and it distorted in the air, becoming the whinny of a horse and the scrape of metal against metal. DotPrince didn't hesitate, firing three times at the darkling's chest. His bullets cut through black smoke and shadow to pockmark the wall behind. Mimi's heart sank. Sweeney was no longer the lowly imp she knew.

"Khouri, stop," she said. She gestured for him and Helsing to back away.

"You look surprised, Mimi," said the growing wall of shadow.

"You've changed. How?" Miminda had heard stories of darklings descending into darkness but she'd never known one before and after the change.

"What can I say? I made a deal with the devil for real power. The Countess gave me an advance in exchange for a quick hunt. She wants you so bad she paid me enough souls to buy my loyalty and a new lot in life."

He laughed again and the gathering shadows became a tall pale woman with inky black eyes and large pointed ashen teeth. Mimi instinctively averted her eyes. Part of her knew that it was just Sweeney pulling on Helsing's fear of vampire to alter his form. Part of her also wanted to hide her own fears before the darkling could take advantage.

They said all darklings start out as imps, the lowliest of sentient creatures from The Dark. Over time they accumulate souls and those successful at collecting eventually used those souls to purchase new forms. In that way imps became soul collectors and puppeteers, nightmares or incubi. It was why the currency of The Dark was souls and why the darklings coveted them so dearly. The more souls they claimed, the stronger they became and the more souls they could claim. The cycle of the damned, the descent into darkness.