Wings of Grace

Chapter 36

      The knocking stopped.

     The silence following had all the hairs on the back of Lyon's neck stand up. The young King laid in his bed, sweat beading across his forehead as he waited in trepidation for them to make their move.

     Lyon's drug induced senses screamed for him to run.

     Without warning, the deathly features of partially flesh-stained, miniature skulls flew out of the shadows heading at lightning speed towards him. Cringing into his pillow, Lyon recoiled, ready for their attack, only to have them disappear just millimetres from his face, reappearing again almost immediately, in the form of a giant skull at least five times the size of his own.

     'They're here ...' a ghostly voice resonated as it opened its mouth.

     From the hell-bending depths of each black eye-socket, came a small pair of blood encased scrawny hands striking out to grab at Lyons eyeballs. Lyon strained his neck, forcing his head back into the pillow, unfortunately just not far enough as he could feel their broken fingernails scrape across his closed eyelids leaving a burning sensation in their wake.

     They're not real. They're not real. He whispered. Feeling slightly victorious when he opened his eyes to find the room empty once more.

     Sitting up, frantically Lyon rushed to get out of bed, his pulse rate jumping dramatically when he realised, he wasn't going anywhere.

     Why can't I feel my legs?

     With intrepid despair he finally accepted that no amount of effort could get his lower limbs to work.

     Shaking and rotating his arms, he let out a sigh of relief. At least he had full movement of his upper body.

     Lyon struggled to clear his head as his nebulous eyes searched the recess shadows of the room. The jungle had seemingly disappeared to be replaced with shards of soft blue.

     His memories of the previous night were hazy. Whatever was in that potion Threlu had given him went beyond anything he had ever experienced before. Even now, it still appeared to have some control over his true perception of reality, as he was losing the battle to be able to concentrate on just the basic of things. Like his sanity.

     Laying back onto his pillow, a sudden chill swept across the room. An eerie stillness breached his chaotic thoughts, followed by a feeling of trepidation echoing deep within his body.

     'They're here...'

     Breathless murmuring, drifted slowly at first into his head.

     'The Deathbrone. They're here for You...'

     Suddenly, the words came rushing all at once, firing like the automatic machine guns he'd seen in Lara's world.

     'There's nowhere to hide. Nowhere to escape. Your memories will be theirs. You will never feel safe again. Once they are inside your mind, you are theirs and they will never ever leave you alone.'

     When the silence hit, the voices receded, the aftermath was even more intense. Lyon's hands came up to cover his ears, trying to make the internal ringing stop, only to drop them slowly as his attention was held steadfast in front of him.

     His heart missed a beat; stomach tightened, as he watched the door to his room open ever so slowly.

     Then closed with a loud 'bang'.

     "What the..." Lyon quickly sat up, blinking rapidly; the room flashed red, then white, before returning to the blue moon tint.

     A shadow flittered across the room. Then it was gone.