A soul, a secret and a saviour
"Most people are idiots. They live their 'ordinary' lives; ignorant to the existences of extraordinary beings and their unfathomable 'powers'. They live, never quite understanding how insignificant they are, blissfully unaware how small a piece they are in this puzzle of a universe. These 'people', these filthy ignorant animals are so base in their knowledge, so restricted in their tiny minds that they fail to notice the magic around them; the magic which they deny. Cowering behind their 'logic', clinging to it like a newborn child to their mother. They cry 'myth' or 'legend' or 'coincidence', even when their 'logic' simply cannot explain it, they refuse to accept us. It makes me so… angry? No. Not angry, it makes me laugh. It's just so hilariously… hilarious! Even now I'm laughing and yet I'm in so much pain. So much pain… So much pain… So much… It's not fair. Life not's fair. I am not fair. I mean, what is 'fair'? An exchange of equal proportions, there isn't a single demon that's not bursting out laughing right now. It wasn't fair when the demon destroyed my body… when it was impossible for me to continue our contract. It wasn't my fault. It wasn't! But it's all okay! One of the ignorant animals came to the rescue. *Cackle*. Now, life is great! So much life, so much love and so little pain. It truly is great to be one of the small pieces… Isn't that right Viola?"
The insane laughter echoed throughout the small huntsman's cabin before cutting to a deadly silence at the sound of a door opening in the distance.
"Viola! Hurry, we'll be late!" 'Father' yelled.
"Hmph, no rest for the wicked…"
Chapter 1 - Old friends and… the 'new guy'
In a shadowy forest, in an isolated part of the world, four teenagers are exploring together; three huddled close talking merrily and one a short distance away walking in a graceful and calm demeanour.
"Dude, we've been walking for f***ing miles!" The first of the friends was Jason. A short man, dressed in plain inexpensive clothes walking with his hands in his pockets. His lack of manners and social skills make him a hard person to relate with and therefore it takes a long time to get used to him. He had somehow managed to worm his way into the small social group after years of following and showing up uninvited but now they accepted him as one of them. He has shoulder-length dark brown hair and brown eyes.
"Calm down, I'm sure we will find some signs of human life soon, geez," The second was… X. That's right his parents are so lazy, that they named there child a letter. He was of average height and dress according to what was in style. With the latest addition to the group being a league above the group in terms of knowledge and gracefulness, as a leader he had to adopt a new false attitude and now tries to seem cool and relaxed to maintain his status. As a result of this, he often shifts between using long complicated sentences and short chatty ones and well as changing between a cheerful demeanour to an overly focused one often embarrassing himself by using complex terms wrong and being corrected by the 'new guy'. He has short dark-blond hair, usually spiked, and has green eyes.
"You seem sure of y'self," The third was Cameron. She was reasonably good looking and the very, very tall. She dressed in whatever was in style, same as 'X', but her height made it difficult to find clothes and so sometimes a mix of styles was required causing her to look… odd. The 'group' actually consisted of six members but only four had come along on the trip and she was one of the oldest members of the 'group'. She usually keeps to herself in a happy manner but if she is threatened in anyway well she… let's just say I wouldn't want to be her attacker. Her height can sometimes make it awkward for members of the group to stand directly next to her and therefore she often makes conversations take a turn for the weird as the men in the group begin to feel insignificant. She has long cherry red dyed hair and dark blue eyes.
"…" The final member of the group was Zael. This quite and graceful individual was the newest member of the group and was the one walking behind the others. He was dressed in a black suit, buttoned up, with white gloves and tie which were visibly expensive. Not much is known about this member of the group but he is incredibly smart and was impressively strong. Along with his handsome appearance he would be considered near-perfect if not for his dark-aura and anti-social atmosphere. He has short pure-white hair and silver eyes.
The group continued their journey along the lifeless forest discussing their school, work and daily lives with the exception of Zael who continued to follow in silence behind the others. After about twenty minutes of walking, the group came along a narrow path which, after a small argument, they decided to follow even deeper into the heart of the woods. Eventually the group came to a halt when they noticed that Zael had frozen and was staring of into the woods to the right of the path. 'X' slowly approached Zael cautiously, as if he would turn hostile if provoked. Finally reaching out to him and lightly taping him on the shoulder before jumping back.
"Z-Zael? You okay, man?" 'X' took a step back as Zael continued to stare blankly into the forest.
"There is something there…" With that sentence Zael and 'X' stood lifelessly in place, like a painting. Until Cameron began to make noises of frustration, trying to emphasize how they were creping her out.
"I don't see anything; could you have imagined it..?" 'X' began to shake clearly afraid of the possibly that some kind of wild animal was lurking in the forest. In response to this Zael took a few steps of the path and into the forest before sharply turning around and saying
"Continue with out me, after I have verified what I have seen I will attempt to catch up with the group. You need not worry about me…" He turned and disappeared into the darkness, fading away. A sick feeling came over 'X' worried that something might happen to his friend unfortunately before he could act upon this Jason called out breaking this trance he was in.
"What the f*** are you doing! Where's the new guy going?"
"He thought he saw somethin' and is goin' to check it out, don't worry 'bout him he'll catch up…" The three continued awkwardly, occasionally look back to see if they could see Zael as they were all worried he may get lost swallowed by the vast forest.
"Hey the f*** is that!" Jason ran ahead leaving the group behind.
"Wait!" The simultaneously cried out chasing after him and after a couple seconds the forest began to clear and in sight was a beautiful and extensive mansion stretching so far you had to strain your head to see either end of it. However before the two could have time to take in the vast size of the mansion Jason had already bolted up to and opened the front door.
"Hey guys, it's open!" Without permission he had ran straight into somebody else's house, 'X' and Cameron gasped and tried to chase after him again but pausing at the door considering if they should go in or not.
"Jason!" Cameron yelled into the house creating a megaphone using her hands around her mouth and peering into the hallway carefully searching for any signs of life. Meanwhile 'X' pressed the door bell several times in nervous anticipation that something may happen to Jason.
"Damn! Nobody's here!" A short time had passed since they had began pressing the doorbell and 'X' had began to get frustrated and was losing his cool pacing back and forward trying to make sense out of the situation trying to figure out how to solve it.
"We better go after 'im, if we don't we he could get in big trouble," Cameron appeared worried about Jason as it had been about ten minutes after he had foolishly charged in.
"I know, I know. Hmph. Fine we'll go in after him but if anyone shows up I'm not taking the blame for trespassing! Got it?
"Got it. Anyway if somebody shows up im runnin'!" Cameron laughed and stepped first into the house, a cold chill momentarily took her breath away and her movements became slow and ridged. 'X' tried to maintain a cool attitude but it was quite clear he was terrified at the notion of getting caught and then abandoned by Cameron. The door and a wide hall with two floors and corridors leading of either side. The walls were white and decorated with chandeliers, which light was very dim leaving most of the room in darkness. The floor was a dark purple carpet in dire need a cleaning and various cabinets covered with dust and cobwebs were spewed across the room. The floor boards creaked loudly as they walked over them regardless of how light their footsteps were. The cabinets were furnished with flowers which had all died and the petals had begun to fall off covering the dirty carpets. All evidence pointed to the mansion being abandoned, this should have unnerved the two however it had the opposite effect and the found themselves trembling and eventually coming to a halt when 'X' notice something on the wall.
"Come to my room…" 'X' read the note he had found pinned to the wall. The note was clearly aged as the corners had curled upward and the note was gathering dust, from this both of them reached the conclusion that the note had been left for somebody other than them and that person had most likely left. However the very nature of the note was disturbing it was written entirely in capitals and the ink looked similar to blood.
"Why would you leave someone a message like that?" 'X' asked holding the note close to his face inspecting it closely. The note was clearly left for the intention of scaring someone but they were more concerned with what happened to the person they were trying to scare and if it had any connection to the abandoned mansion.
"I don't like this. I wanna leave; Jason can take care of himself!" Cameron begged, she really wasn't good with creepy things and had become anxious biting her finger-nails and taping her foot.
"I would love to leave. Believe me, but we gotta get Jason that idiot can't be left alone. Ha ha… ha," The two continued mustering up a little more confidence than before. They headed down the corridor on the right, on the first floor, beginning their search for their missing friend.