Demon Hunterz: Annihilation (Book 3)

Chapter 1: What we desire

The 1st year...

Cruising through a canvas of flowing black. All around me are white, glimmering dots that wink in and out of existence. Scattered in the untold millions. Yet the stars appear only as if they were at arms-length apart from each other. They shine like diamonds above me. Always just out of my reach, but forever etched into the cosmos. A blueprint of stars. Hope in the form of dazzling white. 

The air here is heavier than back on Earth. I had to inhale with more force just to get some wind in me. But the magic inside me flexes my lungs to their limits and the process becomes second nature.

Garadex and I were stationed on a hovering chunk of rock. One that rivaled the size of a small home. With the top craved into a smooth slab by Garadex. Nestled in the center, was a single tree with green, healthy bushy leaves on top. When I asked him why he chose this particular rock, he told me it because the tree itself was something from his younger days and was to him a symbol of hope. I remember countless days where I would nestle under it and count the shimmering lush of green leaves. Some would drift off and get left behind. Until they would be swallowed up by the void, curling in on itself as they shimmer from orange to brown and finally, to an ashen black that crumbles into nothingness. 

Garadex may have seen it as something poetic, and hey, I agree. But to me, I had something more pratical in mind. In my eyes, it served as a reminder of home. A symbol of normalcy in a universe where right is left, where we use magic instead of bullets, and where the monsters under our bed can come to life and tear you apart if you dare to blink wrong. 

That tree somehow managed to stay full and leafy. Even in the depths of space. But every time I look up, I can feel it. A subtle buzz around me. A faint dome of magical energy was keeping the tree whole and supplying us with warmth and oxygen. 

Garadex's magic to be correct. 

At least...that's how it was a few months ago. But now, I could count on both hands how many of those leaves remained. As the branches above me are now stripped bare of their green.

It was the night after Garadex had night terrors. He sits on the edge of the rocky platform. Alone and hunched over. His shirtless back hunched over and layered in those same streaks of pinkish scars. Face buried in his raised palms. At first glance, I thought he was sobbing. I waited patiently to hear any slight sniffing, or a sudden tremor. Anything really to reveal that he was. But I got nothing.

Somehow, that soothes me inside. I doubt I would have the right words to comfort a grown man in tears anyway. It just would feel wrong for me to even attempt it. 

He exhales in a weary fashion. "Freddie, can you make haste and attend to me."

I pull a face. "What for? Don't tell me it's to scratch your back again? Because if so then you can just kiss my as-"

"I just need...someone to talk to." He finishes in a broken tone that made me stop in my tracks.

I hesitant. Blinkingly so. The mighty headstrong and fearless Garadex now looked as vulnerable as a child. It seems just overnight he's changed into this more feeble side of him. I can't make heads or tails of what this meant, or even how should I respond to him.