Well, here I go. Please don't be to harsh:
The Shadow's Lure
I am the last of the Shades. I know that I will be the last because I will not pass the Scythe on to another. I will not condemn another to live a life surrounded by death and darkness. The Scythe allows me to do good. But it always has it's own agenda. For an inanimate object it does a surprising amount of plotting. However, it occurs to me that I'm being quite rude. I guess I should tell you how all this started.
It all begun when I met Hurien Faerl. That isn't his real name, annd I guess he'll never tell me what it actually is. But that is what he calls himself, so I guess I'll call him that. I was just shy of my eighteenth birthday when Hurien showed up. He was a short, ugly boy with gray hair, who looked about forty years older than he actually was. He joined my school during the middle of Term 2, and I kinda gravitated towards him because I was also a bit of an outcast. My other few friends didn't like him, but he had a way of making you swing around to his way of seeing things. Soon all of the school was under his spell, me and my friends were VIPs, we got into all the parties, we went out with all the popular girls, I finally got to go out with a certain girl who I had had my eye on since Year 9. But a bargain with the Devil always has to be paid.
The day after exams finished was when it happened. During recess a rumbling shook the school and fires broke out all over the place for no apparent reason. While everyone was standing around in shock Hurien fell to his knees and started sobbing. A hole in the fabric of the world, a portal if you will, appeared before Hurien and from this portal a shadow emerged, a shadow with the shape of a man. The Shade was holding a large scythe over both his shoulders. He approached Hurien who sobbed even louder. The Shade bent down and whispered in his ear. Hurien dried his face, and a little more calm looking, spoke back. The Shade rose, and with a booming voice, declared:
"Children! Observe this young man. He made a deal with my Master, and now he shall pay for it with the soul of one of you."
People started muttering and backing away, as Hurien thought. After what seemed like an age, Hurien looked up, and pointed a finger straight at the girl I loved. I don't even remember charging him and punching him in the face. People say that I pounded him to within an inch of his life, but I don't remember any of that. I only remember the look on her face as a hole grew in the air behind the Shade, and her screams as the Shade dragged her inside. And the calling of my friends as I bolted in after them.
The world I found myself was horrific and confusing. My love and the Shade were nowhere to be seen, and terrifying screams filled the air, mingling with thick, dark smoke. I don't remember what followed clearly, but I will relate it all as best I can.
I wandered in that hellhole for an eternity. When I finally found my way out of the smoke I saw an immense plain, studded with pits, fires, and a concentric series of walls encircling a great castle, at the centre of the plain. Strange creatures wandered the plain, judging by the size of stunted trees near them, as big as a four-story building. I turned and saw a sheer mountain range behind me, with hideous winged beasts soaring through it's heights. I turned back and saw another mountain range on the other side of the plain. I looked down. Rolling hills extended out to the plain. I could see columns of things that looked like marching men. I decided to head towards the castle. Silly idea.
The Shadow's Halls
The castle loomed up on the horizon before me. I had managed, somehow, to evade the marching columns and towering beasts I had seen from the mountains. I had been travelling for several days, finding small berries and scurrying creatures for sustenance. The plain was massive. I could no longer see the far side as it was shrouded with fog, likewise with the side I had came from. The castle was the biggest thing I had ever seen in my life. At least one hundred stories tall, and as big as fifty football fields, it dominated my field of view. The stones were dark, and looked like they were stained with blood. The entire place reeked to high heaven. Over the next few days I trudged towards the castle. Luckily, it had no moat. A singular entrance would have been the end of me. As it was I had to sneak past dozens of guards to enter the castle. Inside, the castle seemed even larger than it did on the outside. When I entered the grand hall it seemed even larger than the whole castle had looked from the outside.
On a throne at the end of the room was a being composed almost completely of fire, coals and ashes. On his right hand stood the Shade. On his left stood my love. With a beautiful smile shining on her radiant face. Dressed in the livery of the Shade.
The guards threw me in some kind of cell deep in the fortress. The trip there took ages. The cell was dank. But at least it was empty. The other cells contained horrific things I don't ever want to think about. Things straight out of H.P. Lovecraft's books. And when something is compared to him, you know its fucked up. The creatures didn't feed me for days on end. I was starving by the time they chucked me out into the yard.
The other prisoners were quick to educate me as to the method of aquiring food in the jail. Several of the creatures, all of them seeming to belong to the same species, closed in on a larger creature with bulky tusks and claws. They proceeded to tear the beast limb from limb while the other prisoners crowded around. I managed to get my hands on some kind of organ, smeared in blood. There was no way to cook it so I consumed it raw with my hands like an animal. My fellow inmates showed a surprising understanding of English. From them I learnt that this was one of many parallel dimensions, Earth being among them, which they had all stumbled upon by accident and had been imprisoned. The oldest prisoner revealed that several other humans had been incarcerated here, and had imparted several human languages to the other prisoners before it was their turn to be consumed. I learnt that these humans had made deals for power with the master of this realm, one of the few who had learnt the art of travelling the dimensions. This power had taken many forms, with some desiring wealth, others desiring authority and a few, like Hurien, wanting charisma.
After a few hours I was placed back in my cell. I took the opportunity to converse with the prisoners on the other side of the corridor. I listened to them for days talking about their homes, and in return told them about mine. Without that interaction I would have undoubtedly gone insane.
However it was not long before I began to think of escape.
The Shadow's Destruction
My thoughts of escape paralled those of the other inmates. Many of the more long-term prisoners had given up on their dreams of freedom, but others who had only recently been incarcerated still entertained hope of escape. None, however, had any idea of how to accomplish this. The weakness and malnutrition forced upon us by our captors were as effective an imprisonment as the bars of our cells. Even the frequent killing and consumption of our fellow inmates wasn't enough to stave off starvation, and many died of this as only the strong and fast got anything worthwhile to eat. I fell into the fast category, stealing gobbets of flesh to gnaw upon from the kills of others. Some just gave in and offered up their flesh to others to feast on.
After one of these infrequent feastings the Shade walked into the prison yard. All the assorted creatures imprisoned in this facility, some triple the size of this being, scrambled to get away from him as he advanced on me. He seized the tattered collar of my shirt and dragged me to the exit. His strength defied anything I knew about the size of a being like him. In his other hand he held the Scythe. I always saw him with the Scythe. Even when I saw him from afar, he was always carrying the Scythe. He dragged me back to the hall I had entered on my first entrance to the castle. My love was not present behind the throne of the master of that realm; I had not seen here since that fateful first night.
The beast of fire and coals somehow spoke to me without speaking. I heard him without listening. He was there without being present. What I'm trying to say is that he was really fucking weird.
He sentenced me to death by the Arena. The Arena was a massive pit in the foundations of the castle, even lower than the prison. Many prisoners had gone there before me, and every single one had died. Even if an inmate survived the Twenty Trials, the 21st trial was mortal combat against the Shade, whom no-one defeated. I resigned myself to death.
In a few days the Arena attendents came for me. They took me to the preparation rooms for combatants. I saw mountains of weapons, some from my world, some unrecognisable. However, not a single one was a gun or crossbow. After a while I selected an iron spear, a steel scimitar and an alien throwing disc that returned to it's user. I was fitted in blue and gold livery, the first new clothes I had worn in many months.
Then I was sent into the Arena. It was colossal. I cannot describe it's gargantuan size. It must have been 3 kilometres at it's widest point and was ringed with iron walls. I didn't have time to marvel at the incredible engineering involved in building such a place as my opponents emerged. There were five of them. Large, horned beasts, all bipedal, all over six feet tall. The largest charged at me and I cast the throwing disc, which bit into it's hide, eliciting a bellow of pain, the second raised it's hammer and launched itself into the air with powerful push of it's legs, propelling it onto the shaft of my waiting spear. I made quick work of the others with my blade and recovered my weapons. A horn sounded. I had completed the first Trial.
The other Trials were a blur, none of my opponents mannaged to severely wound me, only light bruising. But when the twentieth horn sounded I despaired. This signaled the coming of the Shade. Then, sure enough, there he was. Marching onto the blood-soaked ground with the Scythe held at the ready.
I resolved to give him one hell of a fight, and lashed out with my spear. He casually swiped with the Scythe, cutting the shaft in half. My other weapons met with similar fates. After my disc had fallen to the ground in pieces the Shade began to laugh. I could only stand there, waiting for death, as he laughed and laughed. Slowly the rage began to build inside of me. Finally the rage peaked. I charged at the Shade, shoulder down, and caught him in the gut. I don't know whether it was because he was unprepared or because of the adrenaline flowing through my veins, but he tumbled to the floor, losing hold of the Scythe. I grabbed it up and swung blindly for his head, which promptly fell off. The horn sounded. I exhaled in relief; I had won.
There was a hissing sound and I looked down. The Shade's form was disintergrating, leaving... a man. His dis-embodied head looked up at me and laughed. I glanced to the Scythe, ready to end him again, only to scream as my arm was slowly covered in shadows.
The Shadow's Embrace (UNFINISHED)
The shadows coiled up my arm, bringing with them a horrific feeling of cold. I heard a booming laugh and jerked my head around to face the fire creature advancing towards me. He congratulated me on attaining the position of Shade. He confessed that he had thought I might have been able to do it. I wanted to kill him, but the shadows stopped my arms from moving. They swarmed up my chest, over my legs and head. And I died.
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Topic: GamerKnight has written something and needs feedback. (Please don't hurt me) (Read 622 times)