Realm Wraith

by T. R. Briar

  He continued to stare down at the water’s surface as he tried to discern the source of that light. The water beneath him rippled, and a dim shadow reflected in the water’s surface as a solid black form. He froze, realizing he was no longer alone out here on the lake. Trying to be as silent and still as possible, he turned his head to glimpse the source of the shadow. There was nothing before him, save a black, towering mass of unrecognizable shape. It was enormous, as if a mountain had followed him into the water and now sat behind him, waiting. A sickening familiarity stirred, and his sense of placid calm evaporated like mist. The water beneath his feet became just as ordinary water, and his entire body plunged through the cold surface into its infinite depths. Like a stone he dropped deeper towards the light that illuminated the watery world around him. Off in the corner of his vision, he saw two thin, black tentacles torpedo through the water, seizing him with choking tightness, and dragging him back upwards, back above the lake, before the great black mass.

  He clenched his eyes shut, knowing full well what would happen next, but it was too late. Before him the great violet eye opened, piercing his soul, and even blinding himself to it did not save him from its intensity. He screamed and struggled against the two limbs that bound him, but failed to free himself. Around the monstrous eye, two more now opened, equally maddening with an unfathomable power burning inside each one. Mindless desperation seized Rayne, and he screamed.

  The foremost eye widened, expressing a sense of surprise.

  “You again?” a haunting voice sent waves across the top of the lake. “That’s far too many times you’ve encroached on my lord’s domain!”

  Rayne couldn’t calm his terror. The energy shining in those eyes affected him far too intensely, and just being near to them pulled his mind into deep, horrifying madness. Even in the wake of everything else that threatened him, only here did he feel a very real fear. He clenched his teeth, struggling to find his voice again.

  “Speak, mortal,” threatened the voice. “Speak, or I shall eat you right now.”

  “Ahh, ahh, h-hello,” Rayne stammered.

  Before him another gap appeared in the black mountain, ripping open with an overwhelming roar. As it split, it revealed long, jagged blades, infinitely sharp fangs surrounded by smaller pointed forms. A swirling void of nothingness loomed behind them, ready to erase Rayne’s very existence.

  “W-wait! Can’t we be more civilized about this?!”

  The mouth paused, only partway open, and the tentacles continued to suspend him. All three eyes burned through him, their slit pupils arbitrarily widening and contracting.

  “No.”

  The three eyes blinked open and closed in rapid succession. In these brief moments, Rayne experienced slight reprieve, the ability to think returning for the smallest instances, before they opened again and sent his soul numb with horror. When they blinked closed again, he didn’t waste any time, and focused his spirit elsewhere, anywhere that wasn’t here. The world slipped away, and he felt the welcome numbness spreading through him as he changed location, free from the demon’s hateful clutches.

  But to his shock, when his eyes focused again, howling winds surrounded him, blowing shards that tore across his flesh as he lay on the peak of a frozen mountain, overlooking an endless drop.

  “More ice? I’m still here!” he cried out. Before he could try again, another black appendage burst from the snow and grabbed him again, and he heard the voice of the beast once more.

  “What,” it demanded, “was that?”

  Rayne searched the white storm for the creature’s body, unable to fathom how it had found him so quickly. His captor lifted him into the air. “You must be pleased with yourself, being able to travel through the Abyss so easily.”

  Without being able to see the eyes of the beast, Rayne found it much easier to speak. He felt the slightest bit of added confidence.

  “Can’t we talk about this?” he yelled out, his voice swept up within the winds. “I didn’t mean to trespass!”

  “Are you trying to bargain with me, mortal? You think others haven’t tried that in the past?” the voice hissed, broken into many voices by the severing winds. “You have nothing that I want!”

  Though he could not see it, Rayne could hear the sound of that immense mouth creaking open.

  “Oh—Oh yeah? Well you don’t have anything I want either!” he yelled out into the air.

  “Don’t gibber nonsense. I have your existence in my grasp. Fairly certain you want that.”

  “Go on!” Rayne hissed. “If you want it so badly, take it!”

  The beast froze. “What was that?”

  “Go on and take it! What’s the matter? Are you afraid?”

  “Are you mad? You care nothing about being devoured?”

  “If it means getting away from you forever, I welcome it!” Rayne wasn’t quite sure what he was saying at this point, in his maddened desperation the words poured from his mouth on their own. But his apparent insanity had confused his captor just a bit, and as he continued to yell his strange threats, he grasped the tentacle binding him in his hand. He tried to recall the feeling on the lake, spreading the coldness in his soul outwards. He felt the slimy surface of the rough, wet tentacle, and the cold flowed from his hands across the slithering form, freezing it. Though superficial at first, to his surprise the ice spread deeper into the appendage, solidifying it into a crystallized chunk at the point where he touched it. He drew his hand back and struck at the frozen portion, shattering it. A howl cut through the wind around him, shrieking cries of pain, and he dropped into a snowbank. He got up and ran straight off the edge of the mountainside into the endless void below it, not caring what he’d find at the bottom.

  He planned to use the time spent falling to pull himself somewhere safer, somewhere not in this domain of ice and water, where the monster couldn’t reach him. But his scheme came to a screeching halt as he found himself falling beside a massive black form, with a great eye that burst open, leveled upon him, burning him with the full intensity of unholy fury. It eradicated Rayne’s brief confidence, and fear overtook him again, his ability to clearly think vanishing into the winds that flew past his soul. The air around him filled with menacing laughter.

  “I see. You’re only cocky when you’re not making eye contact, is that it? Tell me, mortal, who gave you that power?”

  Rayne gulped, finding it very difficult to speak again. “Nobody.”

  Another tentacle wrapped around him, and stopped his fall. They now stood back by the turquoise lake, where Rayne hung suspended in the air, shaking before the violet orbs of fire that stared through him.

  He heard a decisive voice speak. “Answer me, and I’ll make your death quick! Who gave you that power?!”

  Rayne still had trouble speaking. He tried to force himself to calm down.

  “Well? Spit it out.”

  “E-eyes,” he choked.

  “Very well.” The three great orbs snapped closed. A tidal wave of relief washed over Rayne as his emotions settled back under his control. “Now answer me!”

  “Answer what?”

  “Who taught you to control the power of this place?”

  “I control the what now?”

  “That ice!”

  “I—it’s the degeneration. I’ve just been getting colder since I started coming here.”

  “So you’re a lost soul meant to be frozen here in my god’s realm?”

  “Your god?” Rayne suddenly understood. “You must be Tomordred?”

  “Who told you that name?!”

  “I, uh—” The tentacle rattled him. “It was another demon! A reaper! He said you stalk this place and eat intruders!”

  The voice spoke, thick with disgust. “A reaper. Betrayers.”

  “He’s not such a bad fellow. Though he warned me I shouldn’t come here again.”

  “You should have listened to him,” Tomordred replied after a short silence. “Wanderers do not come here. You escaped me.
Then you returned, and escaped a second time. And now here you are again. You have a death wish, mortal.”

  “Is it really that bad, having one mortal showing up here for a few short hours?”

  “You antagonized the souls in the endless oceans. You even had the audacity to freeze the lake of my god’s throne. Your presence is a disruption here!”

  “I didn’t mean to! I mean I—it was an accident, really!”

  The foremost eye snapped open, exposing Rayne to its full intensity. He stiffened up in terror, reason lost once more to fear. The eye closed shut again.

  “Stop doing that!” he stammered, composing himself once more.

  “My eyes truly frighten you, don’t they, mortal?” Tomordred’s voice taunted him. He was like a cat playing with its food. “That is the power of Nen’kai. You would crumble in his presence.”

  “Who?”

  “My god!” Tomordred roared.

  “Never heard of him. I know about Tyris, and Kaledris, and Othgar, and Azaznir—”

  “Do not say that name here! Who told you those names?! Was it the reaper?!”

  “Y-yes!”

  Tomordred shook itself. Though he appeared as a black mountain to Rayne, he could see it did have something resembling heads, several of them at least. Their alien motions had an unnatural rhythm.

  “Tell me, which reaper was it? I want to find him.”

  “I-I don’t know his name,” Rayne lied.

  “Then I have no more use for you.” The creature leaned close to Rayne, and the great eye burst open, startling him and almost knocking him from his perch. His flesh felt as if it were being pierced by thousands of needles, his nerves crawled, and his mind screamed. “We’ve had our little conversation,” the beast continued. “I can eat you now.”

  “Can’t we work this out?” Rayne stammered. He tried to clear his mind of the overwhelming fear that ate away at him, and failed. In those eyes he could see everything, as if the emotions of every horrible experience he’d ever had in his life came rushing back to him with crystal clarity, though they came with no accompanying vision, or rational recollection of what could have happened to make him feel so overwhelmed.

  One fear stood out to him the strongest. That horrible feeling of being trapped, that his physical form was some kind of monstrous apparition. The memory of his broken body pulling him back, with its empty, twisted look invaded his thoughts and dominated him, until he couldn’t think of anything else, and as he thought, he felt himself fading, pulled towards that same entity. He slipped through the tentacle supporting him, falling though the air as the Abyss faded around him. He had never felt this sensation inside the Abyss before, and as much as it unsettled him, he welcomed the escape from the angry demon’s mouth. He could hear Tomordred roar as he lost his prey once again and he laughed, a lingering cackle that echoed throughout the frozen realm, the only remaining evidence that he had even been there at all.

  Chapter 9

  Rayne sat up in bed dripping with sweat. For the first time since the accident, he had become aware of the very instant he returned back to his world, back into his physical body. He preferred the vague sense of shifting between sleep and awake, and found this new sensation incredibly unpleasant. But he was glad to have escaped. He resolved that from now on, he’d be more attentive to Darrigan’s warnings; his heedlessness had almost cost him his soul. No matter what happened, in the future he’d stay away from any realm of ice and water.

  It was still dark outside, he noticed. For a while he lay there in bed, waiting for the sun to come up, but not daring to fall back asleep again. Instead, he just stared at the ceiling. Hours passed, and the sun rose. After a while, the door opened and David walked in to wake him, startled to find his friend already alert.

  “Well, you seem to be in a good mood today,” he commented, throwing open the bedroom curtains.

  “Do I?”

  “Well, you’re smiling. Did you have a nice dream or something?”

  “God no.”

  “Then I guess you’re excited about something else. You do remember what today is, right?”

  Rayne had almost forgotten. Today he got the casts taken off of his arm. He would finally be free of that cumbersome weight.

  “That’s right, I nearly forgot,” he remarked.

  “Come on then, don’t want to be late for your appointment.”

  David helped Rayne to get ready, but let him wheel himself out into the kitchen. Though he insisted that Rayne have a decent breakfast, once again the latter had no appetite, and had a piece of fruit shoved into his hand to tide him over, and appease his friend’s concerns. Levi was there at the breakfast table, David having made arrangements for his friend to take him to school while he brought Rayne to the hospital. He seemed despondent that he couldn’t accompany his father, but Rayne assured him that they could spend time together later that afternoon.

  They traveled to the hospital in silence. Rayne peered out the window as they drove. They were on the cusp of spring now, and though the skies were still cold and overcast, budding leaves now grew from once-barren trees, and flowers were starting to peek their heads out over the chilled earth. Outside the hospital, small shrubs showed shades of green, a more pleasant contrast to the white and grey concrete of the building.

  “All right, here we are,” David said, helping Rayne out of the car and into his chair. He’d taken more care to park somewhere better this time, so not to abandon his friend in the waiting room like before. They passed through the sliding glass doors, and David greeted the same receptionist from their last visit.

  “Oh yes, the seven-thirty appointment. The doctor will be with you shortly if you’ll just take a seat.” The receptionist beamed at Rayne. “Of course you don’t really need a seat now do you? You’ve gone and brought your own!”

  Rayne forced a smile, wondering how often she told patients that little gem. David leaned over the desk, to have a casual conversation with the woman, so he wheeled himself over to one side of the room. He leafed through a pile of magazines on an end table nearby, but nothing really seemed that interesting. He sensed someone walking by, a short distance down the hall, and looked up, recognizing a familiar figure.

  “Miranda?” he called out, not sure. The person turned. “Oh, it is you!”

  “Oh.” Miranda smiled a wide, but stiff smile. “Rayne, fancy seeing you here.” The cheerfulness behind her normally soft voice seemed on edge today.

  Rayne cocked his head, concerned with her attitude. “Is something wrong?”

  “Oh, oh no, nothing. I’ve got some work to do, very busy!” she laughed through clenched teeth. “I’ll be off then!”

  Rayne felt David sitting down next to him. “Does she seem a bit off to you?” he asked.

  His friend appeared a little confused. “Miranda? She seems the same as always.”

  “Are you sure? She’s acting a bit rattled. Maybe something happened recently.”

  “Recently?” David glanced upwards, trying to think. “Nope, nothing recent.”

  “Mr. Mercer, the doctor will see you now,” the receptionist called out. Rayne once more denied David’s help, preferring to wheel himself.

  “Right, try not to get lost,” David called out as he rolled away.

  He traveled a short ways down the hall into a small room. There was nobody else there at the moment, so Rayne moved further into the room to wait.

  “Mr. Mercer, thank you so kindly for waiting.” The doctor entered the room, a scrawny thin man with a bushy mustache and receding hairline. He glanced at the charts in his hand. “I see we’re going to be removing the cast from your arm today? Splendid. If you’d be so kind as to sit on the bed there. The nurse will assist you.”

  The door opened a second time and Miranda walked in. She paused when she saw Rayne in the room, but smiled while she shut the door behind her.

  “Well, Mr. Mercer. Let’s get you up on the bed, shall we?”

  Her actions still seemed forced.
She took a hold of him and helped him out of the chair. The sensation of her hand on his body made him gasp, startled by something he couldn’t quite understand. He sat, perched on the edge of the small patient’s bed, as the doctor took out a small saw.

  “All right, hold still, Mr. Mercer. You won’t feel a thing.”

  He started the saw with a whir. Rayne watched him, but his attention turned back to Miranda, who stood beside him, helping support him. Her eyes were reddened, and wet, as if she’d been crying recently. His curiosity began to overwhelm him, a mixture of concern, and a need to know hidden secrets, a seeking of information. He stared at her more carefully, and unbidden his eyes began to see past her flesh, a sensation that caught him off guard, but he did not stop himself. At first it was a bizarre perception, but gradually his mind began to understand what it was he saw within her, and before him stood two Mirandas. One, the lovely young nurse, with tied back hair and a cheerful demeanor. Yet beneath he saw another, a twisted white creature, eyeless, with a mouth sewn shut, hunched over in pain with limbs far too long wrapped around itself. He jerked back with a start as recognition dawned upon him.

  “Mr. Mercer!” the doctor cried out, drawing the saw back just in time as Rayne twitched. “If you’d like to keep that arm, you will not do that again!”

  The doctor’s stern voice jerked Rayne back to reality, and he held still as the professional continued his work. But he couldn’t hide his clear expression of shock, and Miranda’s face told him she knew what he had seen. She turned her gaze, staring at the wall, too shamed to make eye contact with him.

  The saw continued its business, oblivious to the unspoken exchange, and soon, both of the cumbersome restraint binding Rayne’s arm together cracked open, and the doctor pulled it off. The sickly appendage underneath was withered from weeks of disuse. The doctor pulled away the discarded halves and dumped them in a nearby trash bin.