Enjoy.

Chapter 1

Darkness. It reigned here, absolute and total. It coated the very air he breathed. Daniel shuffled forward, his arms outstreched. He could almost feel it upon his fingertips. So cold, the air surrounding him. So cold. It was thick with the scent of Damascus rose, yet Daniel found his memory to be very clear despite this. The Shadow had found it's prey. He had been devoured at last.

An odd death, to be sure. It had surrounded him, that pulsing red tissue, and he had been struck, twice. He had fully expected to be torn apart. But, the pain that had submersed him was... different from what he could expect. Like teeth had burrowed into me. Even now, he could feel sharp pains within his back and shoulders. Earlier, he had lifted his hands to his face, when he had pulled them back they had been warm and wet. Though he could not see it, Daniel was familar to blood and knew that had to be it.

The ground seemed to shift under him occasionally. Daniel, no matter how cautious, always fell when it did. It was solid, yet soft when dug his heels in. The stomach of the beast, perhaps? The very notion terrified him, until he realized that there was nothing here to Gatherers lurked her. No spirits from his past were here to scream and shatter his senses. There was nothing here. Nothing but the knowledge that he was trapped within the Shadow. Forever.

After hours of tottering about, Daniel sat down within the darkness. There was nothing else to do. How long had he spent here already? All he knew was that he could walk no more for now. The strength failed him.

Alexander of Brennenburg was dead. Daniel could take no small, grim comfort from that. No longer would the town of Aldstaadt suffer from the old Baron. Or from himself, for that matter. He felt sure that those beings, those monsters within the castle would die without the Baron's presence. He possessed no proof to back up this supposed theory. Yet somehow... he knew within that the evil of Brennenburg had vanished. He simply knew.

The dying old man, Agrippa. Had he been saved? At any rate, he had escaped from his frail husk, which must be a relief to him.

What of Hazel? How would she fare without him? This thought plagued him most of all.

As for the rest, he didn't know. The finality of his own sentence hit Daniel then. Wet, scalding drops of what he was sure wasn't blood rained down his face. He deserved no better than this. Perhaps he had ended the evil that surrounded that accursed castle. Yet what had that done? It simply ensured that he would not live to murder again. Deaths that should never have occured in the first place. His guilt was undeniable. He murdered innocent people. Innocents! It was horrid enough that he had murdered those people, in thinking that they were guilty. But that little girl...

Daniel rested his forehead within his blood slathered hands. He and Alexander had both died in Brennenburg Castle. And now... now they both lay inside there own seperate hells.

For this was hell. A place that no light could enter.

A dull moan rose in the air. Daniel eventually recognized it to be as his own. "No way out... No way out." He felt himself fall as he hunched over and hit the ground.

The surface he lay upon chose to shift again at this time, and Daniel felt something scrape across his face.

Teeth.

He immediately rushed to his feet and ran his fingers along the newly gained wound. A long gash, from the very corner of his left eye to the middle of his cheek... A slow throbbing began to rise from the wound into what Daniel knew would become acute pain. He could not lie down. There would be no sleep for him, at the risk of him being torn apart. Why?

For no apparent reason Daniel began to laugh. It was a joyless, despairing sound. He again began to stumble forward, quietly giggling as he did so. What in hell could he do otherwise? Was he blind in one eye now? He couldn't tell! Why even wonder?

"There's nothng to see!" Daniel exclaimed hopelessly. He continued to walk, though with no sense of what direction. His legs continued to ache. But, he would not heed them. For the life of him, he could not rid himself of the sensation he had felt when the... ground had scraped his face.

They were teeth.

Daniel shook his head. Keep walking. As time continued to pass, he found himself growing more and more confused. He tripped continuosly, whether the ground shook or by his imagination that it had. At many points, he found himself humming. Right now his song of choice was La Rose Et L'abeille.

Soon, he fancied that he saw lights ahead. Slowly, he made his way towards them. Multicolored and beautiful, they hurt to stare at too long. They briefly reminded him of the Orb's shards. They did not seem to keep the same shape for very long...

Daniel knew these lights at least to be from the realm of his imagination. But, they were pleasent to look at while in such a world. He did not want to shatter this vision. He reached his hands out toward the fluttering lights. As one passed through his hand, he heard a voice. It was very distinct and... familiar.

"There he is, Weyer!"

Daniel froze where he stood. His gaze wandered to his hands, crusted with blood long dried.

"Do you see him?"

The lights seemed to glow brighter.

"He deserves so much more."

Much brighter now.

"Don't worry now, Daniel. Everything is going to be alright."

Daniel once again fell forward, and light took his vision. He dimly felt warmth engulf him, and had to consider how grand that was before the light took his thoughts as well.

Thank you to Rin of the Beniya, my first reviewer on my first story. This will continue, review as you will.