Prologue: Purgatory

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There was nothing but darkness.

No, I shouldn't say that... nothing but this darkness would be infinitely more pleasurable than what I had to endure. Certainly, all I could see was darkness. A complete and utter void: not like the night, speckled by stars, or even the shadows cast by a streetlamp. But darkness was bearable, if not pleasant.

What made this so hard to endure was that he was here with me.

He... my other self, my true self. Riffael. I thought... I hoped... I desperately wished that I had killed him. Had I killed him? I couldn't make sense of it. I had thought he was dead and gone. Instead, he was here with me in this emptiness.

"Of course I am. Do you really think that you could exist without me, Riff? That an artificial soul could truly overcome the real being he was born from?"

Then there was laughter. Cold, hard, cruel laughter, something that would come from the mouth of a demon. A demon from the deepest pits of hell. I couldn't even tell how long he laughed. Moments, minutes, days, weeks... time didn't exist in this place. There was only us. Riff and Riffael. Was this some sort of punishment? Atoning for some sin? Surely, I would wake up soon... what would Lord Cain do, if I wasn't there? I wasn't selfish enough to think that he would care any great deal, but...

My last memory of him was still haunting. He smiled when I tried to push him away, running back into my arms. Then... then what happened? Pain. That was all I could remember. But he had smiled, right before everything around me had turned into this void. That was something I could remember, something that could even keep Riffael's cruel voice from intruding too far into my solitude. It seemed so fitting, somehow, like everything had come full circle. The first time I had seen him, crying and lost... to my last memory of him, smiling and rushing towards me.

"I wonder what he's doing without you. Do you think he's gone insane? Perhaps he's killed himself by now..."

Lord Cain wouldn't do that. He couldn't kill himself... not for me. But, once again, Riffael's laughter rang through the void around me, and a memory came to me... something I didn't want to remember, not when I could so easily relate it to Riffael's words. The time when I had lain strapped to a bed, held down in the throes of venom-induced hallucination. Lord Cain... shouting, going into a panic, meeting with Mikaila, that horrible, poisonous girl... just to keep me alive.

It had been impossible to let Cain take that burden by himself, to let him try and sacrifice himself for me. I hadn't let it happen. I wouldn't let it happen this time, either. But... where was I, now? This nothingness was more complete than anything I had ever known. Around me was nothing... I was nothing. I didn't have a corporeal form at all... just a consciousness. What was this? What... was I?

You are forgiven.

Where did that thought come from? It wasn't Riffael... it was simply something that came to me. A knowledge that was unquestionable, yet... nonsensical, at the same time. Forgiven? For what?

Everything.

Once again, that feeling of certainty, of ultimate truth, filled me. And then... I saw.

Before then, I couldn't say that I was really seeing anything. There was nothingness... almost as if I had shut my eyes to the world. But suddenly, a small pinprick of light cut through the darkness. It widened, slowly, invitingly, alluringly... drawing me closer. I didn't go to it, not really. I didn't have any way to walk or move, but it was slowly beckoning me, and however it happened, I responded. I was vaguely conscious of Riffael's disapproval... his hatred. This light was something that he abhorred.

So it must be good, right?

Then I stopped. Something was holding me back from the inexorable pull of the light. Why? It was so beautiful... what could I want, other than to go to that beautiful light?

But the darkness could be so beautiful too. Darkness, like God's cursed child, like... Lord Cain?

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Author's Note: Reviews are adored, as always. And, of course, I don't own Godchild, or any of the characters.