Disclaimer: Still don't own GW
Death's Prison
Whimpers could be heard in the old cemetery on the outskirts of the main part of the city. They were faint and nearly soundless, until one got closer to the mausoleum on the hill at the top of the graveyard. The door was slightly askew, guarded by stone angels on either side, an inscription at the top reading "Death is a Bridge to Heaven." Inside there was no light but the sliver from the doorway, cutting through and landing on a small frame in the back.
Azrin couldn't stop the sobbing as he shook and hugged his little knees, trying to hug himself since that was the only comfort he was getting. He tried to muffle his sobs, but they would not break, and the tears would not stop.
"Duo…" He mumbled, barely audible and definitely unable to reach his former caretaker. "I-I'm sorry…"
Azrin was startled when he heard a creek from the large door, and jumped behind the stone slab in the middle of the room holding a sculpture of the late Heero Yuy. The door opened, and a young man stepped through.
Azrin peeked out, frightened, seeing the older boy looking directly where he was, knowing he was there. His dull blue eyes were cold, and his face was contorted into a scowl. He walked closer, making it half way before calling out to the kid.
"What are you doing in here?"
The smaller boy stood, still trying to stifle his snivels, walking out only slightly and holding onto the crypt. "W-Who are you…?" He asked, taking in the sight.
From what he could see in the little light and silhouette, the young man was tall and probably close to Duo's age, maybe older. His blonde hair was short and messy towards the front, while buzzed in the back and around the sides. He wore a red shirt and tan hoodie, no type of art or graphics, just plain. His hands were shoved in his beige cargo pants.
For someone who didn't look all that dark, his aura was menacing.
They young man didn't answer, only studied the boy, looking him up and down, sizing him up. His scowl turned to a defensive glare. "What is a Reaper doing in the mortal plane? And in a human body?"
Azrin was able to subdue his cries as it dawned on him this person wasn't human either. His aura was familiar, but it wasn't like his. Was he an undead? "I got stuck here… Do you know how to get back?"
"Why would I know, I'm not a Reaper."
"But you know about Reapers. Can you help me find one?"
"I don't think so." He said, looming over the boy. Azrin started to cower, feeling the darkening aura become angry and foreboding. "You got the wrong idea about me kid. I don't like Reapers."
Duo couldn't pinpoint the sounds he heard that woke him up. They were ominous and eerie, like moaning wind whispering through a windowsill. He felt a chill, but there was no feeling of air around him. It came from within, like his body heat was starting to freeze him.
His sight was met with dark metal rust in the form of ceiling tile. There was no light, but there was a light source, thought he couldn't tell where from. His vision came into focus, and he finally sat up.
He was in some type of cell. The bars were old and worn, but they didn't look weak. He was lying on the metal ground, but he couldn't feel any sensation from the touch, only from what he could feel inside.
He was dizzy, like he wasn't really experiencing everything with his normal senses. He could see and hear, but his sense of touch was off, like he was "feeling" from the inside, instead of through his skin. He looked down at his hands, but they looked normal. He felt for any wounds, but he felt normal. He could feel his skin upon touch, but nothing else.
There was no smell either. In fact, there was no air, like he was in the void of outer space. He tried inhaling, but nothing came, yet he didn't feel like he was suffocating.
It was a weird, dizzying sensation as he tried to adjust. Two of his senses were gone, but he felt another sense in the pit of his stomach. It was a type of "feeling," like pressure all around him, though not by heavy air sense. It was hard to describe, and Duo couldn't quite understand it just sitting in a cell.
He righted himself, standing up and feeling a bit wobbly. He walked to the bars of his cell and tried grabbing them. He could feel them, but not through his hand. It was like he was wearing a glove; he could feel the solidness of the bars but the temperature and texture were lost on him.
He looked out, seeing a dark prison. There was light skewed around every corner, and sometimes in corners, but it seemed to be coming from nowhere. He was on the second floor of some type of cellblock. The floors seemed to reach high above and out of sight, and stretched to infinity in either direction, with a couple of hallways and corners here and there. None of the cells were lit, and he couldn't see any other prisoners. However, he got the feeling that just because he couldn't see them, didn't mean they weren't there.
He took a deep breath; he needed to figure out how to get out, before figuring out where he was. Sneaking in was his specialty, but that didn't mean he didn't know how to get out.
Unfortunately, he was still too disoriented to think clearly, as he stared down at his hand. He flexed his fingers, feeling the joints and muscle like normal, then disappearing. It was weird, like his nervous system was fritzing and flickering like a power source. He tried to focus on the feeling of the joints and muscle again, then pressed his hand to the bars to see if he could feel them like normal.
And passed his hand right through the bars.
Duo jumped back, holding his hand. That was new. He reached out and touched the bars, feeling the mass but not the texture, with that strange feeling like gloves were on his hands. He pulled back, then focused on the muscle in his hands, and tried touching it again.
His hand went right through. He pulled back, took what would normally be a deep breath, but was mostly just relief leaving his body, and tried focusing on all of the muscle and joints in his body, and walked right through the bars.
He found himself of the other side, completely in tact. He looked down at himself, still feeling weird, but at least he was out and he could try to concentrate on where he was. He looked around, not seeing any signs of an exit or direct path, and just figured he would explore till he found the exit.
The two figures met at the edge of the darkness that met with the black abyss in the semblance of an ocean. The taller, broader shouldered one stood as if waiting, as the shorter, slender figure approached; both of their faces still skewed by their hoods.
"Have you found him?" Asked the shorter figure, her voice sounding urgent. "We're running out of time. They're going to notice him missing soon."
"No, but I have a lead." Said the hooded man. "I captured the half Reaper who was with him."
"Half Reaper? I thought he wasn't a Reaper."
"His barrier came down for some reason. His aura is strange, but it's definitely Reaper."
"What is a Reaper doing in the mortal world?"
"I was going to interrogate him. He could be a rogue. He wasn't half human, but I can't tell what his other half is. It reeks of Death though."
"That's troublesome." She said, looking away.
"What did you find?"
"Nothing. You're having better luck than me."
"I have to." He said, his aura tensing. "They aren't watching you."
"True. Getting the boy back would be more beneficial to you than to me. I'll make sure you get all the credit." He didn't say anything. "When do you want us to interrogate the half Reaper?"
"I'll take care of him. You continue to search. We still don't know how Azrin ended up in the mortal world with a human body to begin with."
She nodded. "True." She turned and disappeared into the darkness.
The taller figure hesitated, then did the same.
Running was a weirder sensation than his loss of touch. He felt weightless, like he was gliding, but he could hear the clacking of his shoes on the metal. There was still a sense of gravity, because he wasn't floating off, so he wasn't in space. Hell, he didn't know where he was, and he knew it wasn't either the colonies or Earth. Though, he wasn't about to jump to conclusions about the supernatural, no matter how glaringly obvious it was or how everything he encountered since he woke up in the hospital didn't make logical sense.
What he needed to figure out was how to get out, and finding the exit was going to be hard enough.
For one, every hallway looked exactly like the other, and every corner seemed to lead to nowhere except more cells. He didn't know if it would be useful to go up or down, since he had yet to find any stairs.
He paused, looking down over the balcony of the second floor and wondering what would happen if he jumped.
Well, it wasn't like he could die. At it wasn't really that far down, maybe a hundred feet?
He shrugged and tossed himself over the railing anyway to find out.
It was strange; he glided down and landed gingerly, without much force. It wasn't the slow glide like when he was in space, and there was obvious gravity because he was pulled down, it was just less than Earth's standard. He pondered, looking up, then tried jumping back up to the second floor.
However, he only seemed to hop. That canceled that theory.
He went back to trying to figure out where in the world he was, and turned another corner.
Only this time, he found something.
Unfortunately, it wasn't an exit.
Duo didn't know what he was looking at, not because of the strange human figure that seemed to be molded into a solid plate of carbonite like from that old Star Wars movie. It wasn't the fact that it was displayed like a half constructed sculpture in the middle of the room, with light fixated on it and chains holding it to the ground. It wasn't the half naked form of the man in the sculpture with outstretched arms presented in the form of a crucifixion. It wasn't even the strangely familiar braid hanging down him shoulder.
It was his face. There was something about his face that struck something in Duo, freezing him with emotions he wasn't sure if he had felt before. He had experienced a lot in the war, but none of them were similar to the strange boiling in the pit of his stomach; the nausea and heat, something like lava sweltering inside him and rising to the surface.
It felt like… anger, but worse. He didn't even know why he was angry, he had never seen this person before, and he had no idea who he was or even if there was a person inside. There was also another feeling, something like fear but also worse. He wasn't used to these types of emotions, and he honestly didn't know how to control them.
Duo was a master at controlling emotions and burying them far below the surface. He knew how to façade around with a smile and a joking attitude. Though since that accident with Azrin, his emotions had been spiraling further out of control with all the shock of the discoveries. However, nothing felt like it was going to spill over and burst through every inch of his body than when he was looking at the face of that sculpture.
He left. He didn't want to be anywhere near it. He didn't like the emotions he was feeling, and he didn't like being near it. He hurried around a corner, stopping to take a "breather" and felt something wet slide down his cheeks.
He touched his cheek, finding tears spilling from his eyes. He wiped them away, looking down at his shaking hands, trying to clench them.
"What's happening to me?" Even his voice sounded shaken. Why was he so affected by something he had never even seen before?
Duo shook his head, smacking his cheeks to try to snap himself out of it. I've got to get out of here, then find Azrin, then have a nervous breakdown. He thought to himself. "I'll figure this out later." He took off down another corridor, turning around another random corner.
And seeing the hooded figure who had captured him before. "What the…" He could sense a glare, weirdly enough, and turned to go back the way he came, as the figure started chasing after him.
"Merrick!"
They both stopped. Duo hid behind the corner, peeking around, and saw the hooded figure was cornered by someone else.
At least this time, he could see a face. The man was tall and lanky, and pale like a ghost. He looked old, but not older than death, which was what he expected. He just looked old enough to have experience. His hair was slick black, and his eyes were black; not solid though, thank god. He was giving the hooded figure, who had been chasing him, a disapproving scowl.
"Commander Nergal…" Merrick got on one knee and bowed with respect. "I didn't know you were here in the prison."
"His Majesty is looking for you. This was the last place I checked. What are you doing here? This is forbidden territory if you don't have authorization." Said the man coldly.
Merrick stood, removing his hood out of respect. His short messy hair was coal black, like everything that seemed to surround him. However, his eyes were a strange yellow, almost an ominous gold. Duo couldn't see him from his vantage point, but he slightly reminded him of a certain cold pilot he knew.
"What does his majesty want?" He asked, completely ignoring the question.
Nergal eyed him, becoming tense with suspicion. "Azrin has gone missing. We're on lock down till he is found. You're to report to his Majesty for instruction."
Merrick nodded blankly. "I will, sir."
Nergal started to leave, then turned to him. "Everyone has their eye on you, Merrick. If you keep acting suspicious, no one is going to trust you. And you especially don't want to get on his Majesty's bad side." He turned and left.
Duo figured he had heard something important. He didn't know if Merrick was exactly a good guy, and he didn't want to stay to find out, but it seems more people are searching for Azrin. They might be the Grim Reapers he was talking about. If he could get to that Nergal guy, he might be able to help him find him, and get him home safely.
"You."
Duo looked up, seeing the raging yellow eyes of the figure who had been hunting him staring down at him, and he gulped. "You are going to give me answers."
Why did he have to deal with this shit?
To be continued
Yay! Another Chapter. If you guys want to give me any critique, that's fine :) I want to know if my description is ok, are you guys getting the visual? Is there any confusion? Let me know! :)
