| Chapter Three |
| I walked into another room, looking for a dark corner to sit in and think. I should have left, and I should never have spoken to Ray or any of these people again. Maybe I should believe in fate. I couldn't have left that place if I wanted to. There were things I needed to do first, but I wanted to have a clear mind. So I found a dark corner, sat, closed my eyes, and stretched my mind out to the heavens. Actually, I have no idea what it was that I was doing, or how I did it. But when I went to the dark places, the pain stopped. I almost found peace. I wasn't alone in the dark. Hundreds of thousands of voices whispered to me of pain and power, but by now I knew better than to listen to any of them. In the rare event that I wanted to hear what any one of them had to say, the only way to hear one was to shut it out. If you focused on any of them, the others all swelled up in jealous anger. Just like people. I wasn't in the mood for company - even of the ethereal kind - so I shut them all out. I never understood how, I just wanted it, and it happened. It was comfortable in the dark places. They weren't filled with the terrifying blackness among the long list of things we fear as children. Instead, it was the cold numbness of the abyss before a nightmare. It was peaceful. Threads of loosely connected light - conduits of some sort, I suppose - sparked around me. Thousands of light filled paths opened before me, as always, but I'd never followed any of those paths, and I never planned to. I'd always had the feeling that if I did, I would never make my way back. The best laid plans of mice and men... I don't know how long I spent there, floating in the dimly glowing emptiness, but eventually I heard a voice call my name, but it sounded muffled by walls of steel. "David," Soothing, and gentle; the voice was definitely female. I started trying to pull myself back, resisting the pull of all the paths around me. The pull of her voice was greater, as she softly called to me. I didn't open my eyes at first, I couldn't right away because my eyes needed to get used to knowing they were still there, otherwise I would get a migraine from hell. I breathed slowly, trying to remember if my body had remembered to take in oxygen while I was in the Dark Place. My lungs burned. "Who are you, and what do you want from me?" I slowly opened my eyes as I spoke the question, waiting for them to focus so I might be able to identify this woman in front of me. "I'm sorry," Her voice was mellifluous, and soft. Caught between whispering and actually speaking, I oddly had no trouble hearing her over the cacophony of the party here. "Ray sent me to make sure you were alright. He figured you wouldn't want to talk to him." Her words didn't register until after my brain had taken the sight of her in. Green eyes, the colour of soft malachite glowed inches from my face. This girl was gorgeous. Crouched in front of me, her body folded neatly. She cleared some strands of hair away from her face, it was long, black and full of iridescent glitter. She was clothed completely in black. A skirt, and a long-sleeved shirt - both fitted tightly to her body. And damn, she had a body. She also had tiny throwing daggers on the sides of her knee high leather boots. Finally, what she said reached my brain. "Alright," I started warily. Knives, and one of Ray's messengers - something told me I shouldn't touch this girl. "That's part of an answer. Who are you?" "I'm Joy." She reached her hand out, obviously wanting to train me to shake. I looked from her face to her hand a time or two before extending my own. Her long black nails dug into my flesh once our hands had touched, and she pulled me towards her to whisper in my ear. "Be careful here, David. People are going to hate your power." I pushed her away and stood quickly. "What the fuck is wrong with all of you people??" Slowly, she stood as well. She was shorter than myself, but I still felt like she was looking down at me. "There is nothing wrong with me. The problems are obviously yours, and there is so much you do not yet comprehend." "Jesus fucking christ..." Why couldn't I just leave? Weird shit like this always happened to me. "Enlighten me then. Bestow upon me your worldly fucking knowledge." "That would take time that neither of us have, David." Even sombre and condescending, her voice retained a musical edge. Why couldn't I just walk away? "I've got forever," I spoke through my teeth. "Not yet, starling. But you will." She turned, and walked into the crowd. "What the fuck?" I muttered, and went after her. I hate mysterious women. They always get me into trouble. |
| "Hey," Ray said happily, smoothly stepping into my path as I tried to follow Joy. "Where are you going so quickly?" "You've got a talent for getting in my way, Ray. I've got questions for Joy." "Hm. That's kinda sad, because I don't think she has the answers." I felt very tired all of a sudden. "But I assume you do, right?" "You catch on pretty quick, Davey. I've always had the answers. You just never wanted to hear them. I think you're ready to know, now." He spoke darkly. "What am I ready to know, Ray?" I felt panicked. "What you are. What I am. What you can be, what you should have been from the start, but were too afraid to become." That fucking cheshire smile again. I was learning quickly to hate it. "Ray, what the fuck have you been smoking?" I started backing away. Maybe I could still leave. "Don't be afraid, Davey. It's always worse when you're afraid." Ray's voice became soothing, and I wanted to sleep and run at the same time. The people here were rapidly disappearing. I started screaming. I didn't handle stress well. "Why the fuck do you have to pick me? What the hell have I done to you? I don't know what you want, but don't fucking do it!" "Aw, c'mon, Davey..." Faith's grating voice tried to chime in. "You want it, just like I know you want me. Fear nothing, and when it's all over, we can fuck forever." I loathed that bitch, and her stupid fucking voice, and her teased blonde hair, and her 80's clothing. I hated the way she spoke to me, and I hated the way she made me completely lose any control I had had over this situation. I lunged at her throat, knocking her to the ground. I squeezed her annoying little neck as hard as I could, smiling sadistically, and giggling as the whites of Faith's eyes turned pink, then red. I straddled her, almost cackling as her lips turned blue and her white pupils looked toward the heavens. "That is quite enough." A new voice broke in, rising easily over the fading clamor of the dying "party". Faith still struggled beneath me, kicking feebly until Ray pulled me back. Growling slightly, I turned to look at the new face across the now nearly empty room. "David. I've been looking forward to your presence for a very long time." Faith ran to stand behind this new guy. He was taller than I, and his eyes were a mix of cold marble and steel. His face was so serious it might have been crafted from a tombstone. Not another one of these guys. "My name is Enosh. There is much you need to know, and little time in which to divulge the knowledge you need." He was faking a very old accent which I could not quite place. He spoke more words in a language I could not identify, and there are not many of those. My eyes glazed over, and I felt like I was going to fall over. "Tonight, you will sleep a very long sleep. When you awake, this world will be yours for the raping." I looked to Ray for some sort of help, any sort of help, but his eyes - and the eyes of every other person in the room except Enosh - were cast downward. "Ray," I groaned weakly. My mind went blank, and my limbs all felt dead. I fell. "Catch him," Enosh commanded, and made a gesture, and Ray jumped to obey. "I'm sorry," Ray whispered softly as he set me down on the floor and stuck a long needle into my neck. "It was never supposed to be like this." I tried to tell him how much I hated him, how much I hoped that he and I and everything in this world would just die but no words would form. I fell into the sleep that few people are ever unfortunate to know. My mind, my dark place, and my limbs had all betrayed me. I felt dead, but I knew I could never get that lucky. For the first and last time in my pathetic existence, I slept peacefully under the numbing, pain-free umbrella of a drug induced sleep. |