And Death Shall Have No Dominion
Prologus
Julia?
Why can't I see you, Julia?
Darkness enfolded his senses, a black cloak of midnight that drenched his soul in oblivion. He thrashed and struggled, trying to break free, to escape the confines of that dread darkness, but with each movement he grew weaker, with each gasp of breath the next breath became harder to force into his lungs.
Julia!
Don't leave…me…
Something moved, a trail of energy like a comet flickering at the edge of his senses. He reached for it, but it was so far away, so distant to his…
Self? Do I have a Self?
I don't remember! I can't remember!
His struggles weakened, until finally he lay, silent and still. The darkness was so warm. Why did he want to escape it? It was…
Comfortable.
Yes, that was it. It was comfortable. Like a mother's embrace. Like her embrace. He gave in to it, let it overwhelm him, and as he slipped into it like some smooth oil, he thought he could hear a snatch of song. It sounded like…humming.
I've bled all of that blood away.
Then…why are you still alive?
The apartment door swung gently closed, leaving nothing but the wind blowing in from the broken window. Pale moonlight filtered through, highlighting the broken and bloody corpses.
There were quite a few of them.
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The chair in which the man sat was as simple as the room in which he made his residence. It was not for him to engage in luxuries. He had work, important work, and for his mind to be focused, his body must be free of all comforts, all desires.
Three words appeared upon the computer screen in front of him. The flickering and ethereal light turned his face into some sort of Gothic sculpture, emotionless and cold.
And slowly, that unbroken expanse of stone cracked and split into a smile, a ghastly grin of satisfaction. It was the smile of a predator, a beast of the wild in which the instinct to hunt and kill was absolute. He turned off the computer, but the afterimage of those words still burned into his retina.
HE IS AWAKE