The Veil of Darkness

Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels,
it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

Black. Darkness. Everywhere around him. He does not dare to move an inch. If the others see he is awake, everything is lost. Everything will start again.

They will come and rescue him. Hopefully.

No, he tells himself, he has to believe.

Suddenly a sharp pain is blooming in his chest. His body feels like tearing apart. He can't breathe, can't move now that he wants to. Can't scream. The others know he regained consciousness.

The pain increases even more and he feels like fainting again, but this time he can't flee into the blissful darkness. The others promised there would be no pause. The others keep him awake. Make him stay.

Then the pain is gone, vanished into nothingness. There's only this coldness left and it's even more unbearable. He was never cold before. I am freezing, goes through his mind. It should be impossible but it certainly doesn't feel like that. He'll die right now. And they will never see him again.

'You're not dying.' A cold voice is hissing in his ear. He should have known the others wouldn't let go of him that easily. Insecure what to do, he tries to open his eyes to see who this unfamiliar voice belongs to. His body feels like no part of him. It is not one of the guards' voices but somewhere in the back of his overworked mind, he thinks this is who gives them their orders. The one who put him in here, wherever 'here' is. It is not the endless falling or the torturous emptiness he felt for so long, it is agonizing and slow like moving under water with his lungs screaming for air. Just this time his mind screams for sanity. He doesn't know if that first pain ever ended or if it just faded into this new one. He doesn't know if it matters.

'Let it go.' The same voice speaks again, this time the hiss is almost imperceptible, it is almost comforting. The cold is spreading in his body.

But he can't. Something inside him wants to live, wants to continue fighting. Even under this conditions. There once has been something worth all of this. If he could just remember. It was there but while he fell, it fell from his mind.

Maybe he said that out loud, maybe the other can read his mind. Whatever it is, a dark grim laugh echoes through the dark room as if it is a reaction to his defiance.

Then the pain returns, filling his brain to the rim until nothing else exists. White stains blur his vision. His heart flatters in his chest as if it's trying to escape and just for one moment, he wants it to. As sudden as it begun, it is over.

For the first time in an eternity, clarity fills his mind. The darkness comes again, chasing away the light, but it is not threatening this time. He welcomes it happily. It seems to be the right choice. They wouldn't have found him anyway. They don't want to. They never really liked him. He had been the alien who came into their lives unbidden. The monster in their midst. They will have moved on long ago, grateful he is no longer there, not even wasting a thought about him anymore. He remembers naught but a shadow they kept him in, afraid of his powers and of what he could do.

Why would he like them at all? He would crush them all, show them what a good companion they had equipped him with. Darkness would never leave him. The light, the very sun, had always been and will always be his mortal enemy, just there to be wiped out by him. It deserves nothing better.

Nothing but pure hatred courses through his veins, showing him how each moment of his life had been nothing but oppression, how everything good had been robbed from him.

He always feared that dark part inside of him, had hidden it away in order to belong to people who always just hated him. He doesn't even know why he bothered, why he wanted to be part of people who don't deserve him. Everything is suddenly perfectly clear. He was meant to rule. He is born to be a king. And he sees exactly who stood all this time in his way.

'Stand up, my faithless one.'

There is the dark ragged voice again. How could he ever think it threatening or menacing? It sounds like victory. Slowly he begins to feel his body again and stands up, every inch the proud prince he is. The cold is part of him once again.

'I have a mission for you, faithless one.'

'Yes, I know.', he whispers, eyes gleaming in the dark.

A wicked smirk spreads on the once handsome face. First Midgard will fall, the other realms will follow.

xXxXxXx

Hello and a very happy new year :)

Dear guest, thank you for the review, it is much appreciated.

Thank you all also for the favorites and the follows, I am beyond happy every time I see that one of you decided to join the journey along with me. If you just read this, I also thank you for that.

*Sigh* So, this chapter was really short but I didn't want to mix it with anything else. I hope it still satisfies and you'll stay with me even though I took this direction with the story. There is a lot coming up soon, a lot of (what are hopefully) surprises. It will include the Avengers movie as you have guessed but I won't retell everything, so trust me, it will still be my own story (kinda) and not a boring rewrite. Plus I try to fix whatever bothers me which is really a lot in that movie.

See you next Saturday!