The Twisted Tales

See you in the shadows

              She looked at me. As in, really looked at me without blinking, without screaming and without fear. The look in her eyes was different to anything else I had ever seen in my life. I can't see anything else but her, and I don't want to. If this is all I will see for the rest of my life then I will be a happy man knowing that she looked at me this way. I let the connection in our eyes fill up my body with happiness as I felt my energy ebbing away – I would not need energy when I had her to sustain me. I had never felt for anyone like this before, not even my first love. It was like my love of her was etched into every fibre of my being, and just being near her set my body on fire with a passion rival to anything ever felt before.

I felt my soul being drawn to her, as I stopped trying to feel what was going on in my body. All that matters was her. She stood in front of me, and I could see her eyes through the mask she wore on her face. The mask had a painting of beautiful music etched delicately onto the surface and painted in with an exotic red blend. Her body was covered in layers of robes, bearing the rank that she held. I could not believe that a woman like this would ever look at me this way.

When I felt her hand being placed on my chest, over my heart, I could feel a cold radiance of power where our skin collided. It was as if everything in me was sacrificing itself for her. My knees felt weak and try as I might, I could not stay standing any longer. As soon as my knees touched the cold cement floor, I felt the rest of my body go limp too as I cried out her name into the encroaching darkness that was my inevitable end.

He had been all too easy to seduce. He followed me like a little puppy follows its master, and as he died I could feel a radiance of power from his heart. Normally when such radiance is felt, is it when one finds their soul mate and connects. I could feel it, but giving into this would just make me weaker so I drained his soul.

I drained every morsel of it to the point where he could never reform. I drained his energy, his time print and his very being. I savoured the flavour of such a taste I never normally take, as such a drain is normally only used for criminals and done by evil priestesses. But I couldn't let him strip my power away by making me mortal. I had destroyed my one chance at happiness so that my power would never be challenged.

He did not fight me. Even as the searing cold pain arced its way through his body he did not fight, why didn't he feel it? The only thing he fought was his inevitable death as he fought to stay standing, a feat which I have never seen anyone complete before. As his body turned to dust, I felt my heart dissolve into dust too and tears flowed freely down my face as I felt my whole body convulse in pain. I had never heard of any priestess killing her soul mate before, so no one knew it would be like this. A scream erupted from my mouth as I felt the overwhelming, sick wrongness of what I had just done.

As I collapsed onto the floor I felt his dust on my hands and tried to move, tried to ensure that no part of him would leave a mark on me. I wanted to run away and forget, but something was forcing me to stay. The ashes started to take form as they swirled as if caught in a mini tornado. Faster and faster the ashes spun, until they had spun into the shape of him. I was on my knees as I looked up at the now morbidly twisted copy of his face, made completely of the black dust that had once been him. He smiled at me – the scariest, creepiest smile I had ever seen.

At that moment I wanted to pray to him, to give myself to him. I thought the security of my power would cushion me from the inevitable blow that obliterating the existence of my soul mate would have, but alas, my power had now left me. It drained out of my hands and into the dust copy of the man as he started down at me with empty eye sockets. His warm smile changed into a snarl of pure fury as my body allowed me to move.

I scrabbled up to my feet and ran down the rabbit warren of alleyways, past all the familiar places I used to lure vulnerable people so that I could drain a part of their soul in order to keep myself alive. I ran past the old park and up the stairs to the church of the everlasting and threw open the doors. I turned around and screamed sanctuary as the dust man growled at me. He stepped over the boundary to the church, and I ran to the statue of the all mother for protection, but the statue was now dripping blood. Everywhere I looked, there was a torrent of blood as the dust man grew larger. Every door into the main room slammed shut. I felt my arm start to bleed, and when I looked at it I saw that the words "promise breaker" had been etched into my arm.

I went to my knees in a desperate bid to beg for my life, but the dust man pushed me backwards so I was lying sprawled out in front of him. I felt the blood move from the floor to wrap around my wrists and ankles as I looked up in sheer fear at the abomination of the man I should have loved. He reached forwards and removed my mask, showing my face to his darkness for the first time. His snarl changed to a smile as he whispered the words "see you in the shadows" as I felt my lungs expand.

My lungs were forcefully ripped open by magic in order to breathe in all the dust of the abomination stood over me. I felt my skin contort to try and keep the volume of dusty air inside, and the pain seared through every single filbre of m being. I screamed louder then I ever had before. My skin finally gave up, as my chest exploded in a shower of viscera that coated the nearby area. Just as the light of life drained from my eyes, I saw a silhouette of his face.