Outside Hell

by Milo Spires

  Only one day they’d been attacked and he’d crawled to safety in his hole, but Reizer was killed.

  Inside the hole and unaware that his best friend was savagely torn to pieces, Dracus had dug frantically as the beast had also reached in and tried to pull him out to eat him. He’d felt its claws or the wind that they’d made close behind him, whilst he’d pulled himself as deep into the ground as he could go.

  Then after some time and without success, the monstrous beast had finally grown weary, and then stopped sniffing at the hole with its large nostrils, and went off into the forest looking for easier prey.

  Dracus some hours later, and after he was sure that it was safe to crawl back out, had seen Reizer’s lifeless body only a few feet from the entrance, and the pools of dark blood that were surrounding it.

  Instantly the young boy who’d lost his mother only the year before to the vicious beasts of the forest, had then been racked with pain when he’d seen his only friend in the world, and ever likely to be; laying there dead in front of him.

  Dracus dropped to Reizers side and wept.

  Rivers of tears had flowed, and through that time he’d pulled his friends body up into his arms, nestling his blood soaked fur into him, and that’s when it had happened.

  His mind had gone strange and all he could see was swirling mist. It had formed blocking out most of his thoughts, and looked like white tornados that were floating around his brain. Then as a garish light had appeared behind the mist and grew even brighter in its intensity, he’d tried to open his eyes to escape but couldn’t, before suddenly the memory of Reizer had strangely appeared in the mist too.

  It had felt like hours that he’d been in there, but when he’d opened his weary eyes again, and to his immense joy and happiness, Reizer was alive again and licking his face with his sandpaper like tongue.

  So never telling anyone about it, and fearing the consequences from his villagers should he have done so, he’d kept it a personal secret. He’d thought that if he did tell them, then they probably wouldn’t have understood and in turn then deemed him a spy, or worse, the son of Vrakug because of it.

  The second thing that happened was when he was in the castle after doing his two years in jail was when he was sitting in his cold stone room on his small bunk, with just a piss bucket to his side. He’d imagined a doorway that would take him down through the mist and nothingness beneath the castle, so he could see his love Janus.

  Then as he’d looked forwards he was shocked because there only a few feet away in the darkness of the foreboding room, was a line of glistening light. It was about a few millimeters in width and about two meters high, hovering a few feet up from the ground in front of him.

  Panicking but also sensing no danger from it, he’d then cautiously approached it and after studying it, he’d then realized that on either side of the light, the air was distorted. Then as he’d prodded the distorted air, it had flapped back and forth like a tent door. So then next he’d pushed his fingers into the light and found that behind the light there was a room inside, so he’d climbed in.

  A moment had passed and then when he’d turned back around to look outside, he couldn’t believe it because he wasn’t in the castle anymore, but in the caves where Janus was living as he’d wished for.

  The doorway was some kind of magic portal that he must have summoned from his mind.

  Vrakug had discovered him gone though and then beaten him for fleeing the place, and because he couldn’t or wouldn’t dare say how he’d got down there from the locked castle, he’d spent six months chained in the cells for his disobedience.

  Then as years went by and after he’d been allowed out again, the evil lord had given his old job back to clean the place. Only one day though, and as he was passing the evil lord’s room, he’d glanced in at a book on the lord’s desk that was strangely calling to him. Stopping and then after checking that the tyrant wasn’t around, he’d tip toed inside and then as he’d approached it, suddenly he’d realized that he could read the strange archaic writing in it.

  He hadn’t understood though what reading out the short paragraphs would do, but he’d liked the look of the words as they’d slanted on the page, so started reading them out. Only as he did, he’d suddenly realized that in front of him there was something appearing, and then with every word that he’d read out, he could see that it was becoming even clearer, as if the words were a spell creating it.

  Then suddenly from behind him he’d heard a noise out in the passageway that had sounded like footsteps approaching, and in response he’d stopped reading the words and quietly closed the book. Only as he had, then suddenly the manly shape that was forming in front of him, had vanished too.

  The sound of footsteps out in the passageway had gone as well though, like Vrakug had taken another corridor, and wasn’t coming his way after all.

  The fear that was racing through his soul though for being caught in the room, and what the punishment would be for it had suddenly got the better of him, and then not wishing anymore years rolling around in the squidgy liquid, he’d decided to leave.

  Then as his feet had already started walking he’d glanced back at the book that he’d been reading out of curiosity more than anything else, and then noticed that it had a beautiful crest of arms on the front cover. A moment past and then when he’d stopped by the door to check that the coast was clear, he’d suddenly realized that all the thousands of other books that were on the bookshelves surrounding the entire room, had the same crest on them too.

  So from then on and when he could get back in the lords study by either tip toe or late at night using the portal, he’d flick through the pages of some of the books, and try to memorize spells from them. Then when he was back in his cold stone room by the cells, and sure Vrakug wasn’t around, he’d practice casting them.

  Not all of the spells had worked because some of them as he’d been reading them out, he’d actually forgotten the words. Dracus was sure though that had he not forgotten them, that he would have made them all work.

  Then many years later, and after using the magic portal when he was supposed to be sleeping to see his love Janus, who he’d then married secretly with no ring but a promise, he’d asked her to run away with him, only she wouldn’t leave for fear of being eaten alive by the Zamourn death hounds.

  He’d wanted to tell her that he’d used a secret doorway to see her, only because she might think he was a spy, or Vrakug’s son, he hadn’t had the balls to.

  He didn’t want to mess up the relationship with her, as he’d loved her so very much.

  So all the times that he’d seen her, he’d told her that because he’d been good in the castle, the evil lord had cast a spell that had sent him down to her, and that he’d cast another to bring him back up to the castle by a set time. Then always just before that time, he’d kiss her goodbye and then run around the corner from the cave and jump into his portal.

  He’d hated lying to her but had no choice, because he’d wanted to see her.

  Then one day he’d begged Vrakug to let him go down to his village by foot and see her, only he’d wished afterwards with all his being that he hadn’t, because the result had been a heinous beating. The bastard had cast spells that had held him against the wall of his study, and then whilst stuck there shivering, Vrakug had removed his belt and struck him with it too.

  Then afterwards with his hands glowing crimson red and spittle coming from his mouth, he’d cast another spell and locked him back in the dungeons again.

  Then finally after another year in the shit, Dracus who was now 24 years old and hadn’t used the portal ever when in the cells because he didn’t want Janus to see him dripping in the stuff, suddenly heard the locks on the cell door turning. A moment past and then as the doorway was filled with garishly bright light, and the evil fuckers silhouette had appeared once more, Vrakug gave him his old job back. Only he’d told him sternly with red energy beaming out of him, never to mention Janus’ nam
e again.

  Inside as he’d heard it, Dracus had been wild with rage and really wanted to try casting a spell on the lord then and there, only feared immensely what he’d do to him if the spell didn’t work, so swallowed his anger and accepted his fate.

  Then a few more years on and when he was twenty six years old, he’d seen a new book in the lord’s study that wasn’t red like the spell books but black, and it didn’t have a crest on it either. So walking over to it, he’d opened it and then realized that it was a notebook and that the writing looked like Vrakug’s too.

  Chapter 4 – The Royal Baby

  When Dracus was reading the notebook that he’d found in the lords study, he’d been horrified to read that the lord had been looking for a baby for many years that he was going to kill.

  He was aware from the lord’s writings that the baby would have grown up as the years had passed, and that the only thing Vrakug truly had to go on was that the person had a mark on their back, with the same crest as seen on the spell books too.

  Then as he’d read through the next few pages fast, and was ready to summon the portal for a fast escape, Dracus read that the mark was a royal mark given to the baby at birth by its parents who were the former king and queen of the castle.

  He’d paused at that moment and thought to himself, ’Former king and queen.’

  Then as he’d read on he’d found that Vrakug’s notes had also mentioned that the castle was previously called Leanorisque Castle, and from the magic window that he’d been watching the king and queen through, he’d seen where their powers had gone. They’d given them to their child the day before surrendering, and whilst full of tears then sent the baby away with the child’s nanny, to escape his evil wrath.

  The nanny had been hurriedly rushed out of a secret entrance and took an old path that led underneath the cave of the Jahunti Witches, to escape his powers from following it.

  The strong spells from their cave had masked out his powers and his magic window had stopped there.

  Dracus was shocked because he wasn’t aware that a king and queen had lived in the castle before Vrakug, and that it was called Leanorisque Castle too.

  Dracus’ mind suddenly flicked back to when he’d been outside by the portcullis and remembered that he’d even seen the sign saying Vrakug castle.

  Then pausing for a moment with his fingers turning the next page, Dracus tried to rack his brains for the slightest memory of his villagers ever saying anything about a king and queen. Some moments had passed and then he’d realized that he couldn’t, they’d never mentioned anything about a king and queen either.

  Then as he’d looked down at the next page, he’d found that there was a list of ingredients for some kind of spell, and once cast, it would then make Vrakug more powerful than the witches.

  The list was,

  Eye of a Parchaka killer,

  Shavings from a claw of a Skylark Beast,

  Bones from a villager,

  Dust from Eldor’s ground,

  Blood from the king and queens baby,

  The two things on the list that made him deeply concerned was this.

  The first being the bones of a villager and the second being the blood from the king and queens baby, but then to placate his immediate worries for their safety, Dracus had laughed when he’d read that he also needed shavings from a claw of a Skylark Beast.

  The dark lord knew his magic for sure, but to think that for a moment he’d be able to get a claw from one of those heinous beasts, he’d either have to be crazy or have gigantic balls.

  Dracus had seen him walking around the castle and from his trousers he sure didn’t look like he had gigantic balls, balls that were so big he could quit his evil magic and then get a job as a porn star. Then again as Dracus had reminded himself of the evil fuckers face, he’d realized that he hadn’t got the looks too.

  Vrakug had a sinister looking pallor to this face that was mostly grey and coupled with his straight shoulder length black hair, and his heavy eye brows, plus his twisted nose and rotting teeth, he’d looked more like he could be a head banger in a heavy metal group called the insanely uglies.

  Dracus laughed suddenly as he’d thought of Vrakug standing up on stage in front of hundreds of people holding an electric guitar whilst banging his head to music.

  Maybe Vrakug would send out hundreds of his death hounds hoping as they’d been turned into piles of black ash from the Skylarks inferno breath, that one of them might be lucky enough to break one off, but Dracus highly doubted it.

  Then reading the last few notes, Dracus couldn’t believe that Vrakug was hoping to kill the witches and then afterwards destroy all the planets in the Valstrath realm, before joining his father to destroy another planet called Earth.

  A moment had past and then as he was closing the book with anger building up inside him for what Vrakug was trying to do, suddenly from out in the passageway behind him, he’d heard the distinct sound of the evil bastards footsteps, only this time they’d great pace.

  Summoning his portal, he’d leapt inside it and the thing vanished.

  Then when he’d reappeared in his cold stone room by the cells, he’d remembered back to the castles name being called Leanorisque Castle before Vrakug had killed the king and queen, or whatever had happened to them. So using the piss bucket quick, then after relieving himself he’d decided to go out to the portcullis and check the castles name again.

  Once out there and checking that he’d enough time before the darkness consumed the land and the Skylark beasts appeared, he’d been shocked to see that the name did say Vrakug’s Castle. Only as he’d looked hard at the words with moss forming over them, he’d realized that the stone all around the words held a slightly different grain. So then as he was carefully rubbing away the moss, he’d seen a crack running around the words and reached for his knife. Then as he’d dug it in and twisted the blade, suddenly his knife had flown forwards and the words saying Vrakug’s castle had fallen away, revealing a sign underneath that said Leanorisque Castle.

  Chapter 5 – The King and Queen

  After Dracus had found out that there was a king and queen living in the castle before him and that the castles name was different, he’d put two and two together and got four. Vrakug never bought it from them, so he must have waged some kind of dark magic war against them and stole it.

  Then with his plans to destroy all the planets of the Valstrath Realm including Eldor, he must have already tried it but somehow the witches had stopped him, which is why he wants them dead.

  Vrakug had approached him in the heat of his anger towards him and Dracus had found it very difficult to look the evil bastard in the eye after that. Although because of the grave consequences, he’d known that he had to let the rage inside of him go and not let Vrakug get suspicious of him. If Vrakug suspected that he was acting strange he’d demand to know why, which of course he wouldn’t tell him, but that would lead to more jail time. No he’d play it cool and see if he could somehow find the person with the royal mark that he was trying to kill, and then warn them. If they believed him and then fled, Vrakug couldn’t cast the spell to kill the witches and then in turn all the four planets would be safe too.

  Vrakug then seeking revenge also stepped up his spell learning too. He’d used his portal late at night to get into the study and took some of the deeper dark books from the back shelves, the ones with more sinister spells in them. Then after he’d learnt them and tried casting them in his cold stone room, some of them had powerful results. Windows appeared that he could watch outside the castle from and also follow Vrakug with, only when the evil bastard had turned around once and looked straight up towards the window as if could see it, Dracus had shit himself and closed the spell. Then the other ones he’d summoned had started to form hideous beasts, but again when he’d only a few words left to read, Dracus had stopped reading the words again and let the beast vanish.

  Dracus felt that it would only be a matter of time now until h
e’d found a spell that would be so powerful that he could attack Vrakug with it, but feared deeply the consequences should he fail. So far he only knew how to give life to dead animals, light a candle, summon a portal, make some beasts and apart from a few other things, make his bedding warm before he’d got into it, hardly powerful sorcery enough to kill Vrakug with. No if he’d rushed into it and Vrakug laughed at his spells that he threw at him, there wouldn’t be jail time from the evil bastard, instead he’d just vaporize him with those crimson red rays, which is probably what he did to the former king and queen too, Dracus thought.