The Depths of Darkness

by Laurie Bowler

  “Did you see that?” I gasped excitedly.

  “I did,” he replied uneasily. “Do you think we can leave now?”

  I laughed. The sound was glorious amongst these people. “I think so,” I said. “They really are gentle you know?”

  “Really,” he commented dryly, “I hadn’t noticed.”

  The Meniagier lay on the ground, their breathing heavy but their eyes gentle. I spoke softly to them, enduring their large eyes staring wistfully at me, while Luke stood slightly behind me shifting from foot to foot with impatience.

  Finally I managed to find the strength to leave these strange animals that had been misinterpreted over time by different people. They were no more ferocious than a vampire was, which was odd and conflictinged with rumours and stories documented. Field journals hadn’t reflected their dire need to feel loved and mothered in an odd sense of the word.

  “Did you see how they reacted to me?” I asked the minute we stepped outside.

  “I did,” he admitted, “very commendable. Have you bothered to see the air around here since we stepped outside?”

  I shuddered at his tone. He was unkind when he wanted to be but straight to the point and the object of discussion he wanted to take hold of. The atmosphere in this world had changed dramatically, signaling that Lilly must have left already while I was busy with the beasts. Her scent had long gone and so had any orbs which would have been a telling sign for my portal to trace to transport us both back too.

  “Crap!” I muttered angrily. “She’s long gone.”

  “I know,” he answered soothingly, “we need to head back to the house anyway; they’re still fighting on our behalf.”

  His gentle reminder about the epic battle taking place back at his complex which he referred to as a house, was enough for me to want to straighten out the entire situation. But without knowing where the crazy witch Lilly had gone, it was impossible and our best option was to return to try and salvage anything from his house. That is if any walls were actually left intact by the demons! A common battle involving demons had always left the walls non existent and plenty of rubble on the ground, and the body count had crept higher, tolling any other battle that could possibly take place.

  “Your right,” I quickly agreed setting forth a portal to take us into the garden area of his home. “Come on,” I shouted when he stood staring at me in a peculiar way.

  “You're getting the hang of using your magic, aren’t you?” he asked with a smidgen of venom edged into his voice. “I mean you can summon a portal like that,” he snapped his fingers, “and I saw how fast you called the shadow thingy to manifest.”

  “I suppose I am,” I agreed, “I don’t really keep a count on how fast I can use my spells; it all comes naturally,” I said. “And lately I’ve found some new strength that I can’t understand that’s been helping me to get them right without screwing them up.”

  He seemed to be extremely quiet on the short few seconds of the journey back to his place. Once we were safely landed on the soft grass, we both saw the devastation of what had once been his dream home; smoke filled the area, thick and black.

  Blasts of fire continued to hit the building, shaking everything inside and the inhabitants. It was something from a movie that I never thought could happen first hand in this world. Earth was not the place for demons or anything from the underworld that wasn’t supposed to exist, to begin to unfold and cause such a sight in front of humans. It was scarily intrusive into the world; the realm tried desperately to hide.

  “Luke,” I pulled at his sleeve. “What can we do?”

  “Go inside I guess,” he replied scanning the area with his eyes. “We have to help I suppose.”

  We trudged along the short distance carefully, so we didn’t attract the attention of the demons. In the depths of the smoke I saw one of the demons whose eyes stared through directly at me, a shiver of fear trickled down my spine for the umpteenth time since beginning to investigate this little mystery. I stopped and tugged Luke’s sleeve and nodded in the direction.

  I found myself quickly segregated from Luke and warped to another dimension belonging to the demons. It was here I stood inside a shallow pit at the foot of an altar waiting for their leader to appear. Emphatically the rattle of chains sounded and chorus exploded around me as they heralded the entry of their leader; I waited holding my breath, scared to move a muscle and scared to breathe. He sat in the chair above me, smiling and placing his arms in the air to order silence and order to his people. I had respect for these people and I didn’t want them harmed or for any of them to lose their lives, if that was the correct term for a demons death.

  “Where am I?” I asked. “Where’s Luke?”

  I searched around and I couldn’t see him, although I could feel him close. It felt like my body was still on the ground in the exact place where I’d last been, but my spirit had ripped out of me and taken into this place.

  “Silence witch,” he hissed bending closer to me, his eyes appearing dark and bottomless with no ending. “You do not have the right to speak here at this sacred circle.”

  I sighed heavily, I should have remembered that part at the very least. Sometime ago Matace had shown me something on these things. A strange gathering of demons that didn’t necessarily cause harm or any grievance unless they were forced to and pushed beyond their limitations. Once an insider was sent to the sacred circle, it was here they weren’t allowed to speak. Just for me asking one harmless question, he could have sent me back to the world where he once inhabited and killed me instantly without asking any questions under their own laws.

  “We are here witch,” he snarled, “to determine whether we should spare your life or simply kill you. Do you have anything you want to say to us?”

  “Forgive me for being rude,” I answered, “but I honestly don’t understand why I’m here. It seems a little strange that you’ve used so much power over me wearing one of your ancient robes for a disguise.”

  A snigger erupted; the energy passing through me. Too much of it hurt me, every bone and muscle felt ripped apart with the sudden dispersion of energy from so many locations around me. When I searched around me the crowd had multiplied, far too many of their kind had stepped out to see the sacred circle and the witch who’d caused something.

  “Silly witch,” he erupted angrily, “you killed Matace and now you expect us to believe in your sweet innocence. How stupid do you think demons are young lady?” His voice bellowed across, sounding hollow in the air. “Tell me, how would you like to die? The traditional witch way or something else?”

  “So you’ve made up your mind to kill me?” I asked quietly, bravely I faced him, my eyes met his squarely from the pit. “I thought this was a sacred circle to decide whether my life was worth saving or not?”

  My final challenge I sent directly back to him, the sacred circle could not be denied, and neither could the rules. Although he was the leader he still had to abide by the ancient rules of his demonic state.

  “I see you know our kind,” he said almost toppling out of the chair to answer me. “Tell me more of the reasons behind your actions to kill Matace. You know he was a good friend of mine.”

  My mind went blank, how could anyone accuse me of such a thing? Unless he’d been given the wrong information in a deliberate attempt to steer him away from the real perpetrator; there was nothing that I could say to proclaim my innocence. I traveled back in my mind, recalling the event when I’d read partially written documents given to me by Matace.

  “I don’t think I need to read these,” I laughed excited at the disclosure from Matace. “I mean,” I’d shrugged, “when am I going to meet a demon?”

  Matace had entered the room quietly and stopped short staring at me, his old wrinkled face erupted into the fatherly smile I’d become accustomed to.

  “You’ll need them no matter the job you do,” he’d replied, “so you’d better get reading because I have plenty more material on different subjects t
hat I want you to see.”

  I smiled and resumed my slow paced read of the document, studying every word, syllable and line, sentence by sentence, devouring the words and allowing them to sink into my brain, the sponge I’d become; always begging for new information.

  “Why don’t you come down here and read my mind,” my voice erupted across a rather shocked crowd. They spoke in their own native language, muttering and arguing with each other. “That’s another aspect of being a demon isn’t it?” I asked, “You can read my mind and see for yourself that I am not the one responsible for Matace’s death. Who told you I was?” I asked him thoughtfully.

  He pondered for a few minutes, allowing his people to continue with their own arguments, until he seemed to have enough and raised his hand to order obedience amongst his people. He stood, his gown floating around his legless body, these demons were half formed, their bodies floating above the ground but their gowns made to cover their secret of the build of their bodies. I rocked sideways when I saw that his gown slipped to the side revealing nothing underneath. This was another first encounter for me with a demon, none of them had ever stepped towards a witch, much less captured one and locked him/her away like they’d just done to me.

  “I’ll see for myself,” he said. “I will warn you, if by any small chance you are lying I will kill you on the spot. Do you understand?” The challenge was clearly visible in his eyes when he looked at me; many different emotions swept through me, fear and my own manner to which I wanted him to believe me and clear my name from a crime I didn’t commit.

  “Who told you it was me?” I whispered back to him, my bravery had evaporated and dissolved the minute I saw his body for what it was in its true demonic state.

  “It was the high witch,” he replied coming towards me, floating gracefully and purposely, “Lilly.”

  I gasped audibly, aware that he’d heard me and was intrigued by my reaction. When he reached me the air froze. It was a paradox of uncertainty inside of me, while I waited for him to begin his reading, I had no idea how he would begin, and I only hoped that it wouldn’t hurt.

  “This won’t hurt,” he said gentling his voice, “stay still.”

  I remained rooted to the spot, unable to move due to the frozen air, my breathing began to hurt and I felt my mind become a scrambled mess of unrealistic thoughts, my body ached and I screamed for release. He bent his head so it touched mine, the coldness caused a shiver to erupt from me and I couldn’t stop shivering from the shear coldness of the moment. I saw my breath leaving my body, shallow and in short bursts, clouds of my breath entered the air. I felt my mind begin to be invaded, gradually every memory of my entire life pulled out of me, bit by bit I felt the entire story unravel itself. Lilly’s face appeared so many times, envy, hate and jealously poured from her soul, it was a section I’d missed earlier.

  “I see I’ve been given misleading information,” he whispered in my ear, “your life,” he said, “is most interesting. You’re strong, I sense that. Passionate about the realm, and ready to defend the lives of others around you; it’s very commendable for someone so young such as you.”

  He stepped away, just as my knees buckled and I fell to the ground. I lay still and curled myself into a small ball to preserve some kind of heat inside the atmosphere he’d created.

  “I will send you back now,” he said. “We won’t trouble you or anyone around you anymore. But tell me one more thing…”

  When I looked up at him, his face a few inches from mine, his lips moved but words didn’t come out. The spell he placed over me took its hold and heat began to spread through me, my limbs, mind and body began to become my own.

  “Why didn’t you kill Lilly earlier when you had a chance?”

  “Because,” I swallowed through my dried cracked lips, “I need to know why she’s doing this. I’ve only ever known her as kind and bossy, but not full of envy and hate like she is now. I don’t understand any of it.”

  “Your life has been interesting,” he said again, “but you don’t see the inside information like I’ve just done. I’ll give you two days Patty to destroy her, if you haven’t by then I will have no choice but to summon my people back to earth to do it for you. Is that a fair deal?”

  I nodded, unable to answer; I didn’t feel capable of answering. I was completely spent, my energy had been zapped by his power and his intrusion into my mind, and I was exhausted. I felt myself fall into a light sleep, and I felt my body begin to return to me. My soul had left their demonic hideout and had been fully restored, leaving me exhausted and sleeping on the ground.

  I vaguely heard Luke call my name, and through sleep laden eyes, I looked at him to reassure him I was still alive. My whisper of everything is fine appeared to be enough because he carried me into the house. For some time I slept, peacefully, and in stages and at other times waking to horrific nightmares of dark beasts attacking and demons stealing my soul and refusing to return it to me. The past few days’ events were taking their toll and I was still none the wiser as to why Lilly was doing any of this.

  “Are you awake?” I heard Luke ask from beside me.

  “I am, barely,” I answered sleepily. “Have they gone?”

  He chuckled slightly before answering me.

  “They have,” he replied sighing. “Pity about my house though, most of it has been destroyed; the fires have been put out though.”

  “I’m sorry,” I muttered. “Can I have a drink?”

  Without saying a word he handed me a glass of water, emphasising the point that I needed to sit up. I struggled slightly with my exhausted body to get into a sitting position, but with the small aid of Luke it was quickly accomplished.

  “What happened?” he asked quietly.

  “They’ve given us two days to sort it out before they send in their own kind to kill her,” I replied, easily remembering the details. “How long have I been asleep?”

  The room was dark, the curtains drawn tightly against the outside world, blocking my view of the time of the day. I had no idea how long I’d been asleep or how much time had passed and what was left for me to be able to unravel the mystery of Lilly and Matace.

  “About four hours,” he responded tersely, “what else did they say?”

  “He thought my life was interesting,” I said. “I don’t know why though. What’s interesting to them isn’t interesting to me. Where is everyone?” I didn’t want to talk about my collision with the demons, it was a sacred moment that never happened to anyone, or anyone that I knew that had managed to leave unscathed. Their own perceptions had been sketchy and they’d found themselves dead under rather mysterious circumstances; there was no way I was following them.

  “Waiting patiently for you to wake up downstairs,” he replied. “Did they say anything else to you?”

  His persistent questioning put me on edge, and I felt like he wasn’t telling me everything that he knew and somewhere there was some missing information. It was strange that I would think he would lie to me or withhold anything from me, especially under the current state of affairs.

  “No,” I shook my head. “He read my mind. Did you know Lilly had the audacity to tell them I was the killer and I killed Matace? Ironic to think she would do that, just so she can get away quicker. But they’ll find her and won’t stop until they do, so we have two days. I had to prove my innocence and allow him entry into my head; it hurt and I was so cold,” I moaned.

  “I bet you were,” he answered,.“It's not nice allowing someone to get in there,” he smiled. “Besides, I’ve given up trying these days since you’ve managed to artfully block me out,” his light teasing was all we needed to be able to realise that the situation was gradually slipping out of control and having the spiral effect that would send us both into oblivion.

  “Let's get downstairs,” I said and I moved from the bed. “I need to see if everyone is ok.”

  “There’s actually something you need to know,” he stopped short and looked at me, his eye
s heavily concealed underneath his long lashes. “A few lost their lives, so the ones remaining want revenge. I tried the best I can to calm them, but they insist on speaking to you. Just don’t be afraid of them, and stand your ground against them.”

  “Oh no,” I cried. “How bad was it? And humour me by leaving out details; it won’t help me understand their anger when I get downstairs.”

  “It was bad,” he said. “One of the coven leaders is heading this way. He wants in on what we’re doing and he won’t stop until Lilly has been destroyed once he finds out about what has happened since; the vampire killed was his son. He took his life when he was a young boy, his only remaining true relative and let me just say he’s pissed beyond your imagination.”

  His words had the desired effect on me and I shot out of bed, suddenly feeling rejuvenated and refreshed even though that was impossible without food or a decent night’s sleep that my body begged me for.

  “I see the weather has changed again,” I commented. “Its finally sunny out there.”

  “The demons caused the over cast grey skies. They bring it with them as a warning of their impending battle upon the people they are aiming for. Did Lilly cause the change of weather earlier on?”

  I nodded, and cleared my throat before I answered him. My mouth had gone suddenly dry at the mere mention of the demons. Today I’d been to the pits of hell and come back; I was lucky to be alive and lucky that my skull was left intact.

  “She did it to cloud everyone’s judgement that she was there on the planet. My guess is that whenever she walks anywhere she subconsciously shifts the elements of the weather and changes it. Her mind is no longer her own and she is not in control of what she’s doing. Evil has already spread through her; before it went this far I could have performed a ritual to stop it but now there’s no hope.”

  He stood and nodded as if accepting my information without complaint or comment, simply waiting for me. His face didn’t move and neither did his eyebrows. Nothing about him screamed human except for the fact that he appeared in human form, but he was already dead; his heart had stopped beating a very long time ago.