Hey folks! This idea came to me the other night as I lay in bed, and seeing that I'm currently ill and can't go to school, I thought I might as well write it up now. Oh, and this takes place not long after "Lord Loss", about two weeks after Dervish returns from the Demonata universe. So, read on and tell me what ya think :) Hope you enjoy it!
PROLOGUE
Grubbs Grady was very accustomed to having nightmares.
Almost every night, a horde of sticky, viscous shadows would crawl out from the dark recesses of his mind, weaving webs of fear as he reluctantly slipped into a restless state of unconsciousness. He could feel their clammy fingers caressing his skin awash with sweat; hear their murmured threats and manic giggles as he was dragged into a confusion of memories and made-up horrors. Each turn of the dream was worse than the last.
It was fortunate that although Grubbs would be considered rather cowardly, in his dreams he rode them out with gritted teeth, waiting for the dawn to peel his eyes open. Due to past experience, he knew that he was dreaming, and although the chaos before him seemed vivid, he knew they weren't real; although they were scary, they weren't nearly as terrifying as the real thing.
He also knew when a nightmare was more than it seemed. After being thrust unwillingly into a world were magic was genuine, he could identify when something supernatural was happening.
One such thing was happening now.
Grubbs moaned softly in his sleep and twisted under the duvet wrapped tightly around him. He was in that place between being awake and falling into unknowing obsidian slumber, so he still had a sense of what he was thinking and feeling. He was exhausted to his bones, and hungry too, like most teenage boys. This didn't help when sleep was evading him, and he had a brutal essay to start work on tomorrow. He sighed in frustration, and pounded his pillow into a more comfortable shape, before slamming back onto it. He squeezed his eyes shut again, and jerked in surprise as he was suddenly hit by a dream. And surprise surprise, it wasn't a good one.
His brow furrowed as he frowned his nightmares suddenly gained so much clarity that they were realer than reality. Everything seemed far brighter and the outlines were stark before him. What was more, he could feel everything around him.
Now this is just plain weird, he thought to himself, mouth agape.
He spun around in a full circle and drunk in his surroundings. A terrible sense of realisation crept up on him and made his shiver. The shadows pasted into every corner, the webs strung about and woven into bricks and furniture, the blood dripping from every surface. All pointed to one name: Lord Loss.
Oh, this is just perfect! Grubbs thought with nervous sarcasm. I'm in Lord Loss's realm. Or am I?
He really didn't know. This dream-vision-thing was getting more realistic by the minute, and yet he still knew he was asleep.
A clatter of claws on spidery tiles snapped him to attention. He spun around and with a quiver of dread came face to face with Vein. The demon was only a few feet away! Grubbs prepared himself for the jaws around his throat…
But he cocked his head to one side and raised a ginger eyebrow in confusion. Vein's yellow reptilian eyes were blank and glossed over him, as if she couldn't see him.
Grubbs paused, then a smirk crept over his lips. He fell into step with the gruesome hybrid of crocodile, dog and woman, striding with her as she trotted through her master's castle. He tentatively prodded her ridged snout, and laughed when she didn't react.
"Vein is an ugly bitch and she really needs a pedicure," said Grubbs loudly, his grin becoming broader when she was still oblivious to his existence.
Maybe this dream isn't so bad after all.
But he'd thought this too soon. Vein turned into a fairly small room that was lit by a vast chandelier of black webs and amber candles, livid blood-red light thrown upon the odd sight below. Grubbs staggered to a stop, the blood leached out of his skin.
In the centre of the room was a human – a woman by the looks of it - curled up on the floor, clutching her stomach in agony as a scream escaped her wide mouth. The scream made Grubbs wince: it was like metal nails raking a glass window. And hovering not too far away was that hateful figure, adorned in blood with four of his six arms folded across his slender chest: Lord Loss.
Grubbs snarled and strode forwards. He was obviously torturing this poor girl, trying to squeeze out as much pain and suffering as possible to feast on. He would attempt to stop this, even if he was invisible.
"Get away from her, you bastard!" Grubbs hissed, surprised as his sudden dose of bravery. But when he stared up at the demon master, he blinked in alarm and staggered back. The expression that had settled upon his scarred face was so out of place that it was … frightening.
He looked concerned.
There was real worry in his eyes; not the cruel fake sorrow he fabricated in torture. He seemed anxious to get closer to the woman on the floor, but yet uncertain of himself and drawing back. He ran a black tongue over his cracked lips, and sighed with heart-aching grief as he closed his crimson eyes.
What. The. Hell!? was the only thought racing through Grubbs's head.
"Evangeline, please let me help…" Lord Loss whispered, stretching out a clawed hand.
"Never!" shrieked the woman, flinching back. "Get away from me! After what you did to me … you tricked me! I thought you were…"
Another sigh fluttered from Lord Loss's mouth. "My dear, Evangeline. It is in the nature of a demon to be deceitful. But I assure you, I didn't mean you any harm. I do not like humans, yet I do not despise them. But you, Evangeline, are different."
The woman, Evangeline, snorted and cackled somewhat insanely through her torment. "Don't give me all that shit! You're only using me. If I knew what you were, then I would have never…" Her last words became a whimper.
Grubbs tore his gaze away from Lord Loss and turned to Evangeline. He regretted doing this immediately as the bile rose up acidic and hot in his throat.
The woman was wet with blood and other bodily fluids that Grubbs didn't wanted to identify, and her hair was so matted with it he couldn't tell what colour it was originally. Her skin was ashen in the small patches not covered in blood, as pale as a ghost's flesh. Her face was contorted in what could only be described as the epitome of agony, deep lines carved into a young face that may have one been beautiful. Blue eyes sparked with tears and madness and she rolled and twisted and shrieked. Grubbs noticed that although she was slender, her stomach arched into a swollen hillock that bulged out underneath her dress.
"Evangeline, my dear! Let me help you! I – you mean so much to me."
Grubbs let out a sound that could only be written as "HUH!?" Lord Loss's sickly sweet manner was almost as disgusting as the liquid that covered the woman. Not because it was a bad thing, but because it was so uncharacteristic.
"Lord Loss!" Evangeline spat out after gasping raggedly. "I loved you. When you were disguised as a human, I thought you loved me too. I can't believe how stupid I was, how naive." She laughed harshly. "I hope the only good that comes out of this remains good."
Grubbs was about to say something when he suddenly felt a stab in his navel, before he was viciously yanked back with a cry of surprise. Lord Loss's domain faded into darkness, the woman's final scream the last thing Grubbs heard before he wrenched his eyes open.
Eeek! What do you think? What do you think?:D All will be explained in the next few chapters ;)
