Awakening of a Madman (SOUL)

[Raving Madman]

There is a darkness so deep that is encompasses all and there is a night which never ends. There is a pain that extends beyond the grave and there is a hatred which death cannot dispel. I know these things... for that is where I live. It is where I have lived for ages so long I can not remember.

I have tasted a betrayal so great that it has changed me. I am no longer what I was. When I was banished here I was chivalrous warrior, sold out by love. I am now one with my own hatred. My love, my weakness, betrayed me to my enemies. They bound me and sealed me to this prison where I could neither live nor die. There is no hope of escape... unless.

Overcome with madness I return to the hole I have spent ages digging into the wall of this my dark, empty palace. A realm ruled only by myself as my own prisoner. It started slowly enough digging my fingers bare, nails falling off flesh exposed, and blood flowing. Yet as I stop away from the wall my flesh mends leaving me to suffer longer. No exit, and no hope of dying.

There was no way out.

Or so you thought.

But then we're here talking aren't we? Well, I'm talking and you're listening. It's difficult to speak when your tongue has been burned form your mouth. It's hard to see when I've removed your eyes with a spoon. Isn't it?

You see you don't know me but you will remember me. You will remember my voice for the rest of your pathetic life. And you will suffer to know that I have been summoned by a force far more terrifying than myself. Your ancestors thought that they would be rid of me all those ages ago. Did they ever tell you of me? Do you remember my name? Because I don't.

I grabbed the suffering prince to his feet by his long black locks. The blood was dripping from his chin. I looked into the sockets where his eyes once were. I imagined what it had felt like to have pity as I looked into the black orbs. When it came to mercy, I was fresh out. I took the rune from the leather pouch which hung at my side and placed it in his hand.

You will take this and make sure it is seen by everyone who sees your pathetic face.

Do you hear me?

Do you hear me? I screamed again.

The figure before me moaned and gargled his acknowledgment. I smiled. Turning my gaze to the black cloaked figures at my side. Place him on this horse and see that he finds his way to the nearest town. I will make haste to meet my new master. If, in fact I can find him.

[Nether]

Every day was the same. The same meaningless tasks, the same meaningless people, the same meaningless amount of breaths. Nothing changed, unless it was made to.

The grass swayed gently in the night breeze like a sea of silk under the light of the watchfull, spitefull moon. A flash of metal here, the snapping of twig there, were the only signs of somthing that was not supposed to be there.

Like a shadow it moved, effortlessly among the darkness, its form concealed by the ocean of grass surrounding the village. The first to fall was a drunkard who strayed to far from the light of the tavern. His last breath escaped his lips before he hit the ground, where his fluids were drained, mostly consumed some was bottled for later, a strip of flesh rolled from his back like a piece of parchment.

The second to fall was a bar maid fetching another barrel of ale from the storage shed behind the Tavern. Time was taken with this one, the softness of flesh enjoyed almost as much as the look of terror in the glassy orbs that peered up at him. Her lips were closly examined, her face touched softly before being ravagly ripped from the muscle beneath. Her skinned body was left in the alley, the blood left behind shining dully in the moon light.

Third to fall to lifes hunger was a child, hardly 6. His form was not merely devoured, it was obsorbed. His very youth transformed flesh, smoothing away wrinkles and darkening gray hair. In all 5 beings were consumed in the span of an hour, the full face of the moon staring lovingly down on the atrocities.

Wipeing the crimson flood from his pale lips, Nether stepped into the dim light of the tavern. His movements were slow, silent. His cloak hardly moved an inch as he made his way hardly noticed through the middle of the room, his footsteps stirring no dust. His face down, his eyes closed, he remained silent as he moved to the bar, a small smile on his lips.

He could detect her scent, almost as strongly as he could still taste her flesh. The image of her lifeless body twitching and jerking as the flesh was torn from muscle and bone alike. The silent screams in her eyes still echoed loudly in his ears as he took a seat.

Nothing escaped his attention as he sat silently at the bar. Curious a bar maid walks over to him, her escalated heart beat ehcoing in his mind, her breaths bringing a smile of longing to his lips. Leaning up his eyes opened slowly, piercingly green they seemed to look not at her but through her, as if he were examining her soul. She opened her mouth to speak but the words seemed to get stuck in her throat as she stared into the emerald orbs, loosing herself in thier depths.

Faintly she heard a voice in her mind, yet his lips did not move. It was if his eyes were speaking directly to her very essence. Her eyes filled faintly with tears, as the words rang through her body. They spoke of horrid things, things no living being deserved to hear. Walking to the bar she retrieved a blade from behind the counter, tears streaming down her face, and yet he continued to smile, not saying a word, his eyes spoke for him.

With a sob she brought the blade her wrists. Pressing the tip into her skin the dull blade ripped more than it sliced her flesh, sobbing even harder she brought the blad to the other wrists and repeated, her eyes never leaving his. Her cries were muffled as the blade was then brought accross her throat, her cries gurgling in the blood that rushed forth.

Falling to her knees the blade was plunged repeatedly into her heaving chest before she collapsed into a growing puddle of blood. Closing his eyes once more he turned silently back towards the bar and sat for what felt like an eternity before he gathered his cloak about his body and headed out the door, there was a war to be fought