Chasing the Daemon - Book 2

Prologue

“Let me out!”

It’s no use. The darkness echoes back silence. No matter where I go, I’m met with unending shadows. Sometimes I think I can see things flickering within the dark, but when I chase them there’s never anything there.

There was once.

It sounds funny, but I close my eyes to shut out the darkness. I conjure the memory of the Angel that once brought me light. It was only for a few seconds, but that was enough to give me strength. I had already been stuck here forever. Wandering aimlessly, alone.

Normally, I would embrace the darkness. Hell, I am the darkness. I’m made from the very fabric of shadows. I am a demon. It’s not the dark that is breaking me, it’s the loneliness. I need to get back to Helis. To my home, my pets, and… 

Mikkas.

My head feels fuzzy whenever I think of him. We were bonded, but anything after that is gone. Even worse, I can’t feel the bond anymore. That means that he has severed the bond, because I didn’t do it.

Unless you are dead. That would do it.

I don’t feel dead. I feel trapped. But what would I know of death. I’m practically immortal. Almost impossible to kill.

Almost impossible….

Still, I don’t think I’m dead. And what of the Angel, what does he have to do with this. Sometimes I feel like he is near me, but he is never there. It doesn’t stop me from searching whenever I feel his presence though. Sometimes it’s just a light touch, other times it’s almost like I can feel his arms around me. But he never shows himself. And each time he leaves, my mind breaks a little bit more. Why is he leaving me here? Is he the one who put me here in the first place? It doesn’t feel like it.

I continue to trudge along. I might as well. There is nothing else to do. I don’t get tired, I don’t get hungry, I don’t need to use the bathroom. Just unending nothing. So I walk. If I don’t do something, I’ll go crazy. So I continue. It doesn’t matter which direction. It’s never the same. I once tore a piece of my shirt off and left it on the ground. I backed away counting my steps, until I couldn’t see it anymore and then walked a straight line back towards it.

There was nothing there. I circled out to see if I got turned around, but still nothing. After hours(?) of walking in circles, I noticed that my shirt was whole again. The tear was gone, like it never happened. I almost lost it then. I almost gave up entirely. I would have if it wasn’t for the Angel. That’s when he appeared. His image is seared into my memory. It’s the only thing keeping me sane at this point.

So I wander along, trying not to stare into the abyss. What else is there to do? The darkness never changes, and I’m starting to think the flickers are just my brain playing tricks on me. Like I can’t comprehend the nothingness that is out there. Like a dying man in a desert, imagining and believing that there is water just ahead.

What is that!

It’s nothing, like always. Again, tricks of an unstable mind. I know what is happening. Eventually my mind will break. I close my eyes to banish the illusion that my mind is making up. I count to a hundred before opening them. But the light has only gotten brighter. My heart beats hard in my chest as adrenaline courses through my veins.

No! I won’t be fooled again!

Too late, my brain floods me with thoughts of hope. I try to control myself and walk slowly towards it, but my hope has taken control and my slow walk turns into a sprint. I fully expect the light to continue to move away, like the mirage does to a dying man, but it doesn’t.

I eventually find myself stopping before a doorway filled with light. I can feel the Angel near. I close my eyes and fill my sight with his image and step through the door.

When I open them again, I find myself lying in a bed. He is standing above me, his blue eyes filled with lightning. My hand moves on it’s own and gropes at his.

He’s real! He’s really real!

“Angel”