Grey opened his eyes, they felt light. His whole body did, stretched out as if laying in a field of grass. His eyes focused but he could still see nothing but white. He realized where he was. He had been there before. Nowhere, a void of nothing.
Next to him was an old man. He sat at a small coffee table with a teapot and a small mug placed neatly on top. His back was turned but he seemed to have noticed Grey.
"So...it happened again, huh?" the old man quietly asked as he poured himself a cup.
"Yup."
Grey replied, just as casual. He had gotten used to this.
"Are you going back?"
Grey gave him an unamused look. The old man did not turn but he seemed to have expected the pause following his jest. He scoffed, Grey sighed.
"Too bad. Think she left you for dead somewhere?" He took a sip of his tea.
"Unlikely. If she saw what happened, then I'm probably in a jail cell right now. How long has it been?"
"A few hours after dark. So, are you prepared for the worst?" The old man asked.
"Does it matter?"
Everything went black and once again Grey opened his eyes. He found himself lying in the same position but this time in a cell. The basement beneath the castle perhaps, he thought.
He took a breath as white sparks of what seemed like an electric current crawled over his skin
"I hate this part." He sighed.
The aura grew so fast and fierce that it ended up filling the whole room, slightly shaking the castle and striking the walls. He couldn't control it, he wasn't meant to. All he could do was scream in agony as the energy nearly tore him apart.
The shaking managed to reach Emberle in her room. It was small but it managed to wake her regardless. When she opened her eyes, she found a duplicate of herself sitting on her stomach over the covers. Eve, she thought. A look of disdain immediately washed away the drool.
"What did you feed me?" Eve asked, her voice cracking as though she was choking.
Slightly frightened, Emberle asked, "What are you talking about? You're the one who took over. You technically fed yourself."
"You should've stopped me...this is ....*ugh* this is bad, Emberle" She cried.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you came with an off switch, and what do you mean by "bad"? Bad for who?"
"You and I are one, and 'we' are addicted. That thing we drank wasn't human blood. You have to fix this!" She leaned closer, "I can't be bound to one source of food, we will die. Fix. It."
Baring her fangs, Eve turned to smoke and disappeared. Emberle took a minute to breathe. She buried her face in her hands then sluggishly left her blankets with a deep sigh. Dying, would that be so bad? She thought to herself. She couldn't muster the energy to stand from the edge of the bed. Whether she lived or died would affect nothing, no one. She was already hollow. She doughted dying would feel much different, so why need she help the very demon responsible? Then she remembered: the heart did not stop immediately when the spirit left the body. If it beat a second longer Eve would have more than enough time to drown the city in blood.
She grabbed and lit the lantern on her nightstand, then walked out into the dark silent castle halls.
Having made her way to the cellar, she walked past the multiple cells and stood in front of the last door. She found Grey sleeping in complete darkness with his back against the wall.
His white shirt was covered in mysterious cuts and blood, but his body seemed intact. The walls around him were cracked from the floor to the ceiling. The cell door also looked like it had burst open but the chains binding him remained intact.
After taking a deep breath, she hung her lantern inside and then splashed him with a bucket of cold water she had found near the bars. Perhaps the guard's drinking water, she thought. Had he not been asleep at the entrance he might have objected when she took it.
Grey jumped awake as waking from dying in a dream, coughing and clearing the water off his face as he struggled to catch his breath. He thought he was drowning. He noticed Emberle standing in front of him with the empty bucket.
"You couldn't warm it up a little at least?" he said cheekily, feigning composure.
Emberle turned the bucket upside down and sat on it, "That's not how criminals are treated" she said.
"I'm not a criminal," Grey defended.
"You stole my coins," she countered.
"You got them back,"
"But you still deserve to be punished," Emberle shot him down.
"Jailing me isn't enough? And who is punishing you for blowing me halfway across the street? That has to be illegal somehow." he said.
"I wouldn't know, laws don't apply to me. But in this case I was simply trying to stop a thief. I acted as any normal person would."
"I'm pretty sure normal people don't go around blowing up other people with Voodoo purple fire from their hands. Speaking of, what exactly are you?"
" Ah, that's my line. See, that ' Voodoo fire ' wasn't just normal fire." Emberle explained.
" No shit" he scoffed.
"That was the [ hell spawn blaze ]. Magic. The forbidden kind. It burns away the human soul without dealing any damage to the physical body no matter how little of it touches your skin," She sparked the flame in the palm of her hand and began playing with it.
"You were hit by an explosion, mind explaining why you're still alive?"
Grey rolled his eyes back to avoid eye contact.
"Luck?" He shrugged.
"Uh huh," she uttered, unamused, "Your heart stopped beating when I sucked your blood dry earlier as well, yet by some crazy miracle, you're still here. Oh and while we're at it, also explain to me what happened to this cell?" she leaned forward, closer.
"Either I'm talking to a ghost or you are a very shitty liar."
"I think ghost," Grey smirked.
"I think liar. What's your name?"
"Luck works in miraculous ways," he avoided the question, cutting her off to make it seem as though he had not heard,"Besides, it's not unheard of for someone to mistaken a weak heart for a dead one. As for this cell-"
He paused for a moment to search for an excuse, "-Blame bad maintenance. Is this an interrogation, princess?"
"Does it feel like one?"
"Yes."
"Then yes." she smiled mockingly, "You're lying to me, and it's hard to watch because you're so very bad at it."
"I suppose I deserved that," he adjusted his posture, "But I happen to know that interrogation isn't your job. My first guess was that you just felt like ruining my night for no reason, but of course you couldn't possibly be that petty." He leaned closer, shortening the distance between their eyes.
"And if I am?"
"Then I'd ask you to marry me."
"Curious taste,"
"To each their own," Grey shrugged.
Emberle pulled away and straightened her back. He was toying around. Filthy swine, she thought. If only he knew that her composure was the only reason he was still permitted to breathe.
"Look," she sighed, "I understand you're not a normal person, but I'm not here as a prosecutor. Your blood did something to my...uhm...'friend'... and when she suffers, I suffer, so I'll make you a deal. Undo the curse and I'll let you live."
"Oh? An accord with the princess?"
"No. A threat."
◇◇◇
Ignatia was praised and known far and wide as the land of the blue, among its other names. Its clear skies always have a beautiful view of the heavens. However, that night in Marcos, the stories were made false. A swarm of red glowing firefly-like bugs flew over the city wall. They spread over the capital like a blanket, illuminating it in a red magical light. People rushed out of their homes to admire the wonder.
It was almost as though an umbrella of pure light had been opened over the city, one so large it completely hid away the starry night sky.
"Haha, oops, I forgot to see this one coming,"
Merlin laughed as he sat on the castle wall watching them spread.
The sight was serene and it left everyone enchanted, spellbound. A woman at the square raised her hand towards the swarm and one of the flies gracefully landed on her finger. Excited, she brought her hand closer to her eyes to admire the magical creature. However, as soon as it got close enough the bug buzzed and shot straight through her forehead faster than the eye could see. She didn't even have the chance to be surprised, let alone scream.
The woman fell slowly on her back with a hole in her skull, a trail or red light fading from the hole.
The rest of the swarm started shooting the same way in the streets and the masses began to panic. In mere seconds, enchantment had turned to horror. None saw them coming, they merely heard a buzzing noise and then...eternal silence. Chaos ensued. From afar it sounded like the city had been attacked by a swarm of bees. The agonizing screams reached the castle, waking the king and queen. The city guard, the black knights of Marcos, were summoned.
As the swarm shot into houses, breaking through windows, the royal family was rushed into the throne room. It was at the very top of the castle, surrounded by guards, no man nor armie would be allowed through. In a the commotion, all but one of the royals were accounted for. The princess was nowhere to be found.
"FIND MY DAUGHTER!" King Marcos's voice thundered through the castle halls.
Those who the bugs had killed rose from the dead. These things were like creatures from nightmares. They killed and embedded themselves in the victims' brains to take possession of their bodies...then they fed. They began feasting on the survivors like an army raised straight from hell. They had cloudy eyes without lenses, pale skin, and an urge to devour. Their growl could be heard echoing in the dark. Disaster had befallen the city of Marcos and shook it to its core in mere seconds. While people wondered what might have led them there, Grey and Emberle had found the answer. In the basement cellar, something else had come to play.
"shhh! Do you hear that?" Grey had said to Emberle as they both held their breaths and listened. They had heard the guard scream with sound of burning flesh, then silence, and creeping foot steps slowly approached.
A dark cloud of cinder and ash crept near the cell. It stopped at the door as though it had a mind of its own and formed a solid shadow-like being with double eye lenses, a black wavy body, and a trace of red glowing stripes around its arms, chest, and face like tattoos.
For the first time in the ten years they'd been together, Emberle felt Eve shiver inside her and she knew it was run or die. The figure entered the cell and looked around as though it had never seen the inside of a jail cell before, or perhaps it simply did not recognize this place. But it knew exactly what it was there for.
"Tiyanak...wants...heart" it pointed at Emberle while it scanned the cracks in the walls.
"Hey, princess...what the hell is that?" Grey swallowed.
Emberle cliqued her tongue and entered a battle stance. The purple flame bloomed from her hands to her forearms. But before she could do anything she heared Eve's voice echo inside her mind.
"*Emberle. Run.*" she whispered.