by Jason Wilcox
“It’s Tagen,” a voice called out. Two dark souls plopped down beside him.
“So it is,” the other spoke with amusement. “Let’s get ya back to Triaad. He’s been waiting for your report.”
“Or we could just eat him,” the dark soul whispered so quietly that Tagen barely heard him. He pushed upwards, quickly gathering enough strength to get up to try to give an impression that he could defend himself, even though he knew he couldn’t. One of them turned his head and looked at him; the closest dark soul helped him up and threw him over his shoulder. The action was surprising to Tagen.
“Let’s move,” the dark soul carrying him called out. Pain shot through Tagen’s leg and body from the bumpy ride as they lifted him and took him through the gate. His wounds were taking a long time to heal.
The trip was fast and before he knew it, the dark souls who had found him, flopped him down on Triaad’s stone floor in his room high in a tower. Feeling the coldness on his back, Tagen tried to stand.
A pale white man stood in the corner of the room.
Triaad.
He walked toward him—his steps a slow rhythmic beat that almost lulled Tagen back into unconsciousness. Before he could slip back into the sweet blackness where he felt no pain, Triaad pushed Tagen over on his back using his foot.
“What happened?” Triaad asked.
Tagen didn’t understand why he was being treated this way. Triaad seemed colder than he had ever been before.
“I…was… captured,” Tagen struggled to speak, taking breaths between words.
“And tortured by the looks of things.” Triaad took a couple of steps back.
“Yes,” Tagen pushed the word out while exhaling. Pain shot through his ribs when he spoke. He took a deep breath to add what he felt was good news. “But he’s gone…Mauldrin won…Azgiel is…dead.”
“I’ve already been updated on Azgiel’s condition.” Triaad brushed Tagen’s news off, making Tagen wonder how he already knew and what this would mean to his survival. “Now, what information did you tell Azgiel?” Triaad asked, sounding angry. Tagen didn’t understand how it mattered what information he gave. Azgiel was gone—he was no longer a threat. He thought Triaad would’ve been happy.
“Nothing…nothing important…” Tagen gasped for air, struggling to get out the last bit of information.
“You fool. Don’t lie to me,” he said as he gripped Tagen’s throat and lifted him in the air. “I already know what you said!” Triaad’s eyes became pitch black as his fingers began slowly tearing through Tagen’s skin. The room began to spin, and Tagen could tell Triaad was pulling the life out of him.
“Azgiel isn’t dead,” Triaad barked. “They merely put him into a cell of time. Don’t you realize how stupid Mauldrin is? It’s only a matter of time before someone figures out how to get him out and when he gets out, he’ll be coming for me. I’m going to need to watch my back at all times, not knowing when he might return. Besides that, his army will be out to get me, instead of joining me, his highest official.” He ground his teeth. “The trouble you’ve caused. You should’ve let them kill you, because when I’m through with you, you’ll wish they had.”
Triaad dropped Tagen to the floor, sparing his life. Tagen could feel small holes in his neck as blood seeped out of them.
A lot of energy had gone into making sure no one knew of Triaad’s attempts to overthrow Azgiel. Triaad only existed because of Azgiel. He had given Triaad his powers and immortality. He had been Azgiel’s right hand man, top advisor, and even governed Azgiel’s kingdom for him while he was at war.
Tagen had thought it wouldn’t matter that he had given up all the information with Azgiel gone. Triaad was the highest ranked official under Azgiel, and he had planned on Azgiel’s armies being loyal to him with Azgiel out of the way. Tagen hadn’t realized that telling Azgiel and the other demons that Triaad had betrayed him would undermine Triaad’s plan, but he really hadn’t had time to think of anything, except to stay alive.
“I didn’t realize…” Before Tagen could finish his plea, Triaad lifted a hand and squeezed his fingers together. Instantly the skin around Tagen’s mouth joined, tightening the skin on his face and widening his eyes. He was unable to speak or blink.
Frantically, Tagen reached for his mouth to tear it open with his claws. Pain ripped through his skin as he dug in a claw. Triaad pursed his lips and threw a hand up. Tagen was thrown through the air and slammed into the hard stone wall.
Something sticky grabbed hold of him before he slid all the way to the floor, and the wall began to pull him in. Liquid rock wrapped around him. With all the strength he could muster, he fought against the pulling. No success.
Acting quickly, he shifted to shadow form in hopes of moving through the wall and escaping. His plan failed. Molecules of the stone began intermixing with his, and he could feel himself pulling apart. He tried to shift back, but it was too late. The rock solidified.
“If you’re still alive when I decide to come back up here, I might let you live as a slave. By then maybe you’ll think twice before ever giving into torture. But I wouldn’t count on living. Now that this kingdom is mine I don’t plan on coming back here. Enjoy being eaten by the rats.” Triaad moved out the door leaving Tagen stuck in the wall with only his head, hands and one foot hanging out. He tried to shift again, but had no luck as his body was too mangled. Despair sunk in.
What a way to go.
Months passed, and then years. The rats had only been able to figure out how to get to his foot. They piled on the floor, a rotting flesh heap, killed from his toxic blood. Almost all of his foot had been chewed off. His body grew weaker with every passing month.
No one knew how long a dark soul could go without eating, but it looked like Tagen was going to find out.
After many years, when Tagen realized he was going to die from starvation, he only wished he had the capability to kill himself.
One day, no different from any of the other horrendous days, Tagen heard a different noise from the rats. There was no strength in his body to respond. After the many years, his skin had stretched, and he had been able to close his eyes. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had tried to open them. Hope of someone coming through the door was gone, and he didn’t normally respond to noises after being disappointed so many times by rats and the wind. But there was something different about the noise.
Dust that had collected around his skin flaked off as he opened his stiff eyelids. His eyes felt like sandpaper had just ripped over them. The light burned making his vision blurry, and he closed his eyes once again. In the blackness, he felt peace.
“Are you alive?” An unfamiliar voice hissed. Tagen reopened one eye and looked. His vision was still blurry, but he was able to make out a dark personage.
“Ahh, so you are. Good indeed.”
Wanting to speak, Tagen tried to open his mouth but was unable. His jaw was locked from being held closed for so many years after Triaad bound his lips together. With some effort, he could finally focus his vision. A younger dark soul stood in front of him, one he had never met before.
“I’ve been assigned a mission,” the dark soul began. He scratched at the stone wall that encased Tagen. “Some would call it a suicide mission. Personally, I think it’s a perfect mission to show my greatness. The problem… I need a servant.” Prancing, the dark soul made his way back toward the door. “A servant who knows his way around. Unlike these mindless beasts.” Clanking of a chain could be heard as the unknown dark soul reached out the door and dragged in a youngling.
He could tell by the shininess of his skin that the chained youngling was probably pulled from a dark matter cell.
Crawling on all fours, the creature darted into the room. His eyes moved about, taking in information. Tagen could feel his heart beat a little stronger. If he could only take a couple of bites, he would feel so much better.
“You want it, don’t you?” Lifting his clawed hand, the dark soul reache
d out and snapped the youngling’s neck. When they had just come out of a cell, they were not fully developed, making them easy to kill.
A small wave of dust blew toward Tagen as the tar black body fell to the ground. “If you pledge to serve me, I’ll feed it to you so you can repair and get yourself off that wall. All I need is a yes.”
Wanting to be let off the wall at any price, Tagen fought with all his might to open his mouth, but it wasn’t budging.
“I guess it was a shame to kill this little fella after all. Triaad told me you might be willing to serve if you were still alive, but I guess he was wrong.” The dark soul reached down and picked the corpse of the ground.
I’m not going to lose this chance! Tagen put the last of his strength into opening his mouth. His jaw let out a squeak while his skin that had been sealed tore open like brittle leather. “Yes.” It came out raspy.
Smirking, the dark soul turned back to him. “I’m glad to hear you come around. I would’ve hated to leave you up here to die.” As he spoke, he tore off an arm of the youngling and held it up for Tagen to take a bite.
The flesh was soft and melted in his mouth, along with the other bites. After about half the corpse was eaten, Tagen found he could start talking again.
“What’s the mission?” His voice was quiet and still raspy.
Letting go of the left leg that he was about to rip off, the dark soul looked at Tagen. “Hunting down rogue demons that are in hiding. At least one of them is outside their territory. Oh, you probably don’t know what the territory is. Well, it’s where the Witch and her followers have put up a stronghold that we can’t infiltrate. Instead, we keep them contained.” He leaned back down and with a crunch, tore off a foot instead of the entire leg.
Insanity, fighting demons! “What’s your name, so I know who…?” Tagen coughed a couple of times, “who I’m serving and will be dying next to.”
“You have quite the wit, don’t you?” He responded while holding the foot up for Tagen to eat. “First off, you’ll serve me, but Triaad is still your master. And the name’s Snyp.”
“Tell me Snyp…” Tagen lost his voice. His throat was dry and hurt. He cleared it with another cough. “What about Mauldrin and…his followers…” It was tough to talk, so he focused on finishing eating the foot offered to him.
“They’re gone. Decided to leave after they put Azgiel away,” Snyp spoke as he got the other foot. Black blood oozed out where limbs had been taken off, pooling around what was left of the body.
“Leave?” Snyp shoved the foot in Tagen’s mouth after he spoke.
“Yeah, I don’t actually know all the details. All I was told was Mauldrin and the other lords thought everything was going to be fine after Azgiel was taken care of and then they disappeared, reportedly never to return. They were stupid to not know about Triaad.”
Even though Tagen had more questions, he was enjoying the feel of his blood circulating, and he wanted to focus on healing. There would be plenty of time to ask questions, but it was time to get off the wall. Pain throbbed in his limbs as blood circulated in his veins. He twitched his fingers, feeling them once again. Thick dust cracked and broke off his black skin.
A strange pain began to develop in his shoulders, chest and stomach. At first Tagen wasn’t sure what he was feeling, but then he remembered, his body was interlaced with the stone.
Blood began dripping from his chewed off foot. After a few drops, the new droplets began to string outward like veins. Flesh began to build around the veins and capillaries. Bones began to grow back, and the black fibers wove together.
“Excellent.” Snyp spoke as he approached Tagen with another piece of flesh, noticing the healing foot and his pigment growing blacker. “Once you are strong enough to shadow, do so. Triaad told me it should pull you back together.”
Tagen held back his anger. That’s all it would’ve taken! Shadow form, and I would’ve been free. If only my stupid body hadn’t been so weak!
Nodding his head in gratitude, Tagen bit into the next serving of meat. His foot was almost repaired, only the skin needed to mend. He was tired of the wall. He was ready to test Triaad’s theory. He attempted to shadow. Surprisingly his left arm did as he wanted, but the rest of the body stayed the same.
The coldness of the stone moved through his arm as he stretched it forth. He was astonished and excited. Fingers and arm were free. He waved it about, knowing he looked ridiculous. Using his facial muscles, he gave an enormous smile, testing to see if his face healed. In that moment he didn’t care that Snyp was witnessing unrestrained excitement. Wanting to be completely free, he closed his eyes to focus inward.
“Keep it up, and we’ll be out of here and on our way to slaying demons. Demon hunters. I’m going to be famous,” Snyp spoke, but his words trailed off.
Grunting, Tagen was able to get his right arm to shadow. Aching muscles limited some of his movement, but he didn’t care, and he twisted both arms back and forth. Snyp had stopped bringing flesh, distracted with his continuing conversation about how Triaad was going to see his true potential someday. Snyp’s feet splattered in the oily blood on the floor as he paced.
Most of the pain was gone in Tagen’s foot, and he looked down to see it was fully healed. Almost inaudibly, he chuckled as he went completely into shadow form. His upper body felt whole as he exited the stone that had been home for many years. Feeling intense anger for his imprisonment in the wall, Tagen turned and scratched into the wall, digging his claws deep into the rock. Black shadowy substance began to fill the cracks in the stone.
Tagen fell to the floor as a loud cracking came from the wall as it split from the floor to the ceiling and broke apart, falling outwards. Tagen watched as pieces of large stone fell many stories to a frozen courtyard below. He hadn’t even realized it was winter.
“How many years have I been here?” Tagen demanded as he spun to face his new taskmaster. Snyp was staring at him with his red eyes.
Anger flowed through Tagen’s veins, but he knew he needed to cool down. Especially if he was going to ever get back on Triaad’s good side.
“I think Triaad said something like a little over ten years.” Snyp walked over to the gaping hole in the wall. “Why did you do that?” Tagen wasn’t really paying attention. His clawed feet made short progress of the gap between himself and the corpse on the ground.
“STOP!” Snyp demanded as Tagen took a large bite. The juices were so enjoyable now that he wasn’t stuck in a wall. “You’re not allowed to eat anymore. Triaad said you could only have enough to get out of the wall. The rest is for me.”
Tagen swallowed and turned his head slightly. “I’m still weak, I need more to get my strength up to full potential.”
“That’s the point. I can’t trust you, so I’m not allowed to feed you enough for you to fully restore.” Snyp tried to stand taller to look intimidating. Ideas raced through Tagen’s mind, trying to decide what to do, if anything. “If you don’t agree to comply, I’ll be heading to inform Triaad of your choice. So, what’s it going to be?”
Using his claws, Tagen ripped one more chunk out of the body and moved back to show his partial compliance. Snyp looked at Tagen for a moment. Tagen figured he was debating if he wanted to make a fight out of the flesh in his hands. Finally, Snyp looked back towards the corpse and dug in. After filling his mouth, he looked back towards Tagen.
“Once I’m done, we’re leaving. You’re not to leave my side unless I order you.” Snyp showed his black sharp teeth as he spoke.
“I hear you.” Tagen bit into his last bit of corpse. You’re lucky I don’t kill you right now, while you’re still relatively young. I’m only going to play along because if I do I might gain favor again with Triaad. He gazed out the hole in the wall that he had made. No sense watching Snyp ravage the last of the body; it would only make him long for more. A demon hunter, we’ll see if we live through that.
CHAPTER 15
There were a few dim lights on in the small
medical room. A quiet hum came from the machine that was hooked up to Caden, producing the only noise. As he slowly opened his eyes, he could see the monitor displaying his vital signs. The rhythmic beating of his heart made jagged mountains go up and down on the screen.
He tried to blink away the blurriness in his vision, but it wouldn’t go away. Even though Caden was under blankets, he felt very cold. There was no one else in the room to ask what was going on or even what time it was. Caden felt strangely alone.
Caden kept staring at the glowing screen to his left, which was the brightest light source in the dark room. Some of the medical equipment was in the way of him seeing the bottom portion of the screen to see the time. The low toned humming was getting to him, and he felt like falling back to sleep, but the screen started to fuzz out like a wire was coming loose, bringing him back to his senses. He tried to sit up, but was unable to. As he tried, he thought he heard someone come through the door behind him.
Caden gave up his futile efforts to move. He needed to listen intently in case someone had really entered his room. The door creaked open. The silence that followed alerted him that this wasn’t going to be a pleasant visit. His vision seemed to be getting darker and a thick blackness settled over the room. Caden struggled to take in air, but his lungs felt stiff. He wanted to call out, but it was a struggle to even think about saying something. Maybe he was going to pass out again. He started giving into the darkness until he heard something move.
With his neck muscles barely responding, Caden slowly turned his head to see who it was. His whole body fought against him, but he pushed harder. He heard heavy breathing. With one last push, he caught a glimpse of a dark shadowy creature.
“Mauldrin,” the hiss sounded evil.
Caden was unable to get a good look before he felt a crushing pressure on his body. Something slowly increased the pressure, causing him to wheeze with each breath as he fought for air. His heartbeat grew weaker. He lost feeling in his hands and feet. A deep exhale came from his lungs, followed by peacefulness through his entire soul that he had never felt before. There was no pain, as if a weight he never knew he had, lifted, and freedom took its place. His heartbeat disappeared along with the pulsing of blood through his body. He felt himself being lifted in the air, but the feeling didn’t last as a scream pierced his hearing.
