In the Dark

From the Shadows He Came

Rats. He could hear the chittering teeth and the scurrying of feet of numerous vermin. Hear. Not see. Everything was covered in darkness, but it wasn't a dark room….a blindfold? Not only that, something or someone was dragging him across a cold, wet stone floor. He went made the motion to grab for a tome, but his hands and feet were bound. Not by rope though…but by an invisible force.

'Is this…magic?'

Ricken stirred and groaned. His head was pounded and being dragged across the ground wasn't helping. Something struck him odd as he listened closer.

'What is that? Is-is that humming?'

The voice was cheerful as they hummed to them self. The voice seemed familiar, but Ricken's mind was much to foggy to make it out. Whoever they are, for them to tie someone up and drag them through a rat invested tunnel (he guessed it was a tunnel) then they must be one sick dastard, and Ricken knew above all else, he had to escape and fast.

As of on cue, he heard a door squeak and the voice pipe up. "Here we are~! Home sweet home!"

As his mind cleared, the voice rang through his mind not becoming known, but not being totally lost on him either. 'I KNOW this voice! Who is it?!'

The voice dragged him into the room, and shut the door behind them, locking it as well. Candles or torches were definitely already lit here, as he could feel the warmth emerge from them. He then felt his body being lifted up, rather unprofessionally, with no apparent muscles, so it definitely wasn't a bandit they ran into along the way. His body was laid down upon a chair, and for a split second he felt his hands and feet become unbound, only for them to become rebound again, this time to the chair's legs and armrests, which sent up a strange prickly feeling up his arm that he had defiantly felt before.

'A hex! This is a hex! But that means-'

His chain of thought was cut short when his captor ripped off his blindfold, giving Ricken a few seconds to adjust his eyes, waving to him as he revealed himself.

"Haha! Well hey there, Ricky! Welcome welcome!"

Ricken's eyes widened in shock. "H-Henry! What-what are you doing!?"

The Dark Mage laughed in response, which in turn made the young Mage very uncomfortable. His eyes darted around the room to see where the hell he even was. Low ceiling, dimly lit, blood stained floor, blood stained walls. 'Oh Gods this is a dungeon!'

Henry's laughter continued as he spun around with his arms in the air, only ceasing when he stopped to face Ricken, a large cheshire grin forming on his face.

"This is my humble abode, silly! When everyone is asleep, I bring alive things here to make them dead! And If they're already dead, I try to make them undead! Isn't that fun?"

Ricken, who was no doubt scared out of his mind, but tried his best to put on a brave face in the face of utter madness.

"Are-are you going to kill, me Henry?" he asked, trying so hard not to shake, but his body betrayed him.

Laughter filled the air again, trailing off as the Dark Mage got closer and closer to the young boy's face. "Oh no no, I'm not gonna kill you! While that would be REALLY fun, I'm gonna do an experiment! On you!"

Henry's face was now incredibly close to his own, causing Ricken to sink his head into his shoulders, His heart beating rapidly against his chest. He gulped loudly, terrified on what the experiments were going to be about, but he couldn't stop himself from asking.

"Wh-what k-kind of experim-ment?" Other than being in a dungeon with a mad man that was scaring him senseless, there was something about Henry's aura that was…off. Even WAY more so than usual.

"Ha! I'm glad you asked Ricky! The experiments are gonna be on how fast it takes me to break you! Aren't you excited?"

At that Ricken began to struggle, rocking the chair from side to side, trying his best to get loose. Unfortunately for him, Henry was very proficient in hexes. So no matter how hard Ricken pulled, his bonds wouldn't come free. And along with binding him to the chair, his bonds were also cursed so that whenever he struggled, he would be met with a small, but still powerful electric shock.

The electricity coursed through him quickly and painfully, making him scream at the top of his lungs as his body was ravaged by a small Thunder spell. The spell caused the chair to become unbalanced, and it fell to the floor with a resounding 'THUD', resulting in Ricken banging his head against the stone hard floor.

Henry walked up beside him and kneeled down, shaking his head as he did so.

"Tsk tsk tsk! You shouldn't have done that~! Every time you struggle, you get a jolt! While I enjoyed that a bunch, I'd rather you save all that for when we get to the really fun stuff!"

Ricken groaned as the pounding in his head got worse, his vision was blurred, but he was still able to make out Henry's shape. Almost on the verge of tears he looked at the Dark Mage the best he could.

"Please Henry…" he pleaded. "Please…please let me go! Chrom-Chrom will know! He'll find me, then you'll get it!"

A chuckle erupted from Henry's throat, which unsettled him even more. He leaned down next to Ricken's face and smiled. "Oh~ don't you worry about Chrom, Ricky! No one will bother trying to look for you! Everyone thinks you're dead!"

Ricken's heart stopped as a pang of horror ran through him. Why he lying? Was he messing with him? Was he telling the truth? 'D-does everyone really think…I'm dead? No! NO it can't be!'

Tears now welling up in his eyes, he sniffed as he shot daggers at the Plegian mage.

"WHY are you doing this Henry?! I thought-I thought you were my friend!"

At that, Henry's hand shot out and grabbed a handful of Ricken's hair, jerking it up violently. He moved in extremely close to his face, now bearing an almost inhuman grin with his eyes open wide. They were merely pools of darkness with slivers of white and nothing more. The sound he produced from his throat was guttural, and almost demonic sounding, which made Ricken's blood run cold.

"I…was many things, Ricken! But I want you to understand….never, at any point in time was I ever your friend!"

He dropped Ricken's head back onto the floor with little care, which resulted in a mild 'thud!', and stood up. He walked, almost skipped, to the door and opened it passing through it, only to turn back and peer out from behind it, a smile never leaving his lips.

"Now I gotta head back to camp to avoid suspicion! Buh bye now! Sleep tight~!"

Activating a wind spell as he left the room, all the torches went out in a flash, leaving only a small hissing noise in their wake. He shut and locked the door behind him, laughing all the way back till it trailed off to the point where Ricken couldn't hear him anymore.

He left his former comrade alone, betrayed, tied to a chair on the floor with a piercing headache in the dark. With the added bonus of Chrom and all his friends believing he had died.

Ricken's heart sank as he sobbed himself to sleep.