Chapter 1: Sonata of Solitude
Edelgyre, a planet in the Eastern quadrant of the universe. It is smaller than the Earth, with far less water and much more plantations. Magic fills the air, breathing life into whatever or whoever feels weak. The humans of this world live in harmony with the native elves to keep the magic, their livelihood, maintained.
Society has lived like this for thousands of years. There's been no discoveries of technology, or even electricity. Their lives are relatively normal, by their standards. But what will it be like for their unexpected new guest? Lets find out, shall we?
Faster than he could blink, Joe Dark went from seeing white and black to seeing many more luscious colors. Rampant greens bordered the top of his eyesight, while streets of brown houses made of stone and straw surrounded the rest of him.
He had wound up teleported into the middle of a crowd of villagers, all of whom were shorter than him. Even the tallest of them barely reached his chin, while the shorter ones with pointed ears barely reached his chest.
The humans were dressed in old clothes taken straight out of the Medieval days. The pointy-eared midgets were a little fancier in their garb, probably to compensate for their pasty white skin and abnormally glowing bodies.
Immediately all eyes were on him and Joe Dark had to grumble, "I HAD to say anywhere..."
He flung one arm out to the crowd and exclaimed, "What are you staring at?! BEAT IT!"
After a prolonged period of his growling while the crowd gossiped, they resumed their routines. Joe Dark calmly put his hands in his pockets and slouched forward, taking a look around the village.
"Phh...What is this place anyways?" Its not like he cared, but after all this time he couldn't just shut off his survival instincts. And the first thing that tells him to do is get a lay of the land.
Humans were towing wheelbarrows full of giant fruits and vegetables. Apples the size of their head, corn ears as tall as they were. Even the smallest grapes were as big as their fists.
Elves pounded away at hot metal atop iron anvils not to make weapons, but farm tools. Children of both races gathered around a brick well and took turns splashing each other with buckets of water.
The sky was bright blue, with a hint of green to it. The sun was a light shade of yellow, and smaller than the one from his galaxy. And hundreds upon hundreds of oak trees surrounded most of the village.
Joe Dark sniffed the air and grimaced immediately. He wasn't used to such clean air. It was almost too sickeningly perfect, just like everything else he was seeing.
But there was no technology, which meant no humans would be stuffing their faces in phones and filling the air with their noise pollution.
So they could have their damn fairy tale life. As long as they keep him out of it.
For the first time in a while, Joe Dark felt he could sigh and relax. A few people still stared at him, so first things first he needed a place to be alone.
He headed forward and glanced around stiffly. He was the only person here with red eyes. They probably thought of him as a demon. Maybe it'd fun to give them a quick scare?
"...Forget it."He muttered, turning his head forward and slumping even further.
After a bit more walking he found himself glancing to the left almost on instinct. There was a gap between houses reminiscent of an alleyway. The dirt there was dank and there were traces of moss on the walls. He could smell a foul odor from within. Probably someone's trash.
His eyes slanted out of a sad longing towards the "alleyway". He closed his eyes briefly and saw himself, much, much younger, sitting with his back against a brick wall with only a newspaper to keep him warm. He shivered as the cruel rain dripped down onto him with a touch as painful as bitterfrost.
And in the present, the skin of his arms became riddled with goosebumps. The feel of rain was just as fresh and just as cold now as it was then.
Joe Dark looked at the "alleyway" a little longer and then walked towards it. His almost bony body easily fit inside, even when he went to sit down with his back hunched against the wall. He had to bent his legs up against the other wall, but it felt...comfortable.
No one batted an eye at this boy sitting alone in the damp, desolate, darkness as he stared at the opposing wall without moving, not even to blink.
After an undetermined amount of time had passed, Joe Dark looked to the left and saw a half-eaten apple on the ground. It had a few small holes burrowed through it. The worms had enjoyed a good feast. Now he reached out towards it, to partake in what was left.
The moment he picked it up a flashback of him eating something slimy jolted his brain like a million volts of electricity and flushed the color out of his face. His cheeks puffed up, and he tossed the apple to the ground to cover his mouth completely.
After a long, revolting swallow Joe Dark rammed the back of his skull against the wall and let out a moaning wail. He bit his teeth down hard enough to make him tremble, and then let his eyes slowly close. With a fading whimper, he forced himself to rest...
Three hours later...
A pair of new facers meshed in with the usual crowd of villagers. They were a tall, sturdy man with an impeccably sharp beard, and a somewhat short, ebony-dressed girl carrying a lace violet parasol.
That the humans and elves didn't say a word suggested they were common visitors to this village, while keeping their distance told another story.
It was hard to blame them for any caution held towards the man. He was built like a basketball player with muscles chiseled from stone and pupils that looked borrowed from a wolves'. And they were constantly wide, unable to blink, and thus unable to miss a thing. He wore a dark green military vest with a row of five knife filled pockets on each side. His pants were made of black-gray fur and extended down to his sharp-toed boots. He was balding near the forehead but the remainder of his messy black hair spread over the sides of his head.
But the girl seemed harmless. She had pale, but fair skin, which contrasted lovingly with her ebony dress. Violet-red frills extended from her small shoulders down to her waist both front and back, with little dark red buttons arranged down the center of her chest. Her thin, delicate hands were protected by dark-violet bridal gloves with backs shaped like the tips of rose petals. An inverse cross brooch dangled from her neck with a dim golden sheen that reflected in her red eyes, while her dark-violet hair reached down to her waist like a curtain of silk.
The bottom of her dress bloomed out like a tulip. A portion of it in the front was see-through, revealing her spindly legs covered in thigh-high stockings, while her feet were guarded by black stillettos. A series of dim, violet rose prints completed the ensemble.
They walked in a straight line from the south of the village to the north and never turned a degree of course. The man was a constant presence a couple feet behind the girl, his foot and a half difference in height over her casting an oppressive gloomy shadow.
After a bit of time strolling through the village the girl's pace slowed and her parasol brushed up the chest of her guardian. She made a stiff turn to the right and fully faced a certain gap between the houses.
"Princess," The man growled through clenched teeth, "Stay. On. Track."
Yet he fell for the same curiosity that enticed her not a moment after. There was a boy between the houses with clothes unlike anything worn in this world. And he reeked. Of garbage, obviously, but also of darkness.
And that scent alone flipped the man's scowl upside-down and made him remark, "On second thought...This one warrants investigation."
Not that the girl needed prompting. She had already walked over to the boy, and the man slid up behind her a second later.
She quietly gazed upon his sleeping form and nudged his legs with a couple light kicks.
Joe Dark's eyes opened halfway and glanced at the two uninvited guests. He mumbled to himself in irritation and then closed them back up.
The girl stood there for a moment and then kicked him a few more times. Joe Dark's face scrunched up the more she kicked him until ultimately unraveling into a wide-eyed glare towards her.
"What." He said with great impatience as he stared into the still eyes of this strange girl. She merely stood there and stared back. It didn't even look like she was breathing.
"Psss...!" Joe Dark bit his teeth down and turned his head away, "Creepy mannequin."
"You...!" The man's voice became unshackled by his sheer disbelief at what he had heard, "You ignorant whelp! How dare you address the princess like that!"
Joe Dark peered at the man through the narrow slits of his eyes and told him bluntly, "Buzz off razor beard. I'm not in the mood."
"GRRR...!" The man bore his teeth and nudged forth, stopped by the gentle raise of the girl's hand. She then fully gripped her parasol and looked the boy one more time in the eyes.
"What is your name?" She said in a slow, dreary tone of voice.
Joe Dark curtly responded, "Piss off."
"I see," The girl then said in a sincere tone, "Piss Off, I would like to formally invite you to my castle for dinner."
"W-What?" Joe Dark stuttered, which continued to throw him off for a bit after, "M-Maybe I'm not being clear enough."
He opened his eyes just a little more so that their glow would be as clear as could be, "Take your furry man toy, turn around, and get the HELL out of my sight."
But like the mannequin she was, the girl did not budge an inch. The man behind her, however, did quite the opposite. After gently pushing her aside the man effortlessly ripped Joe Dark off the ground by his shirt and grinded him against the wall, his long, lanky body stretching out between the houses as the would-be Dark King found himself suspended just an inch below the roof.
"Listen here you grimy, human filth! You should be honored that the princess even gave you the time of day. Now apologize to her before I rip your skeleton from your body and feast on your meat!"
Joe Dark clamped a hand against the back of the wall and his fingertips cracked into it. He tightly scowled at the feral man and a black haze began to surround his body.
"You have no idea who you're fucking with, do you? You'd better reconsider your place if you value that head on your shoulders, razor beard."
"Try me...!" The man spat back, his pupils widening like rounded diamonds while his fingernails began to length and sharpen.
"Fine." Joe Dark began to curl his fist to draw his dagger when a strange gurgling sound came from within.
Its sudden emergence broke down the tension between the two feral fighters and made the man inquire with a guttural growl, "What was THAT?"
"You've got to be shitting me...Now?! Even my innards betray me..." It was a rarity nowadays but Joe Dark was hungry. And to be human is to be hungry...Or something like that.
"Ghhh...!" And now his stomach was being a better hostage taker than this man ever could be. He COULD easily kill this man and be done with it, but then the villagers probably wouldn't take too kindly to him being around.
So as much as it pissed him off. Like, really, REALLY pissed him off, he'd have no choice but to accept the mannequin's invitation if he wanted to shut his stomach up.
"I'm depressed, not suicidal!" After a louder, angrier growl Joe Dark spat in the man's face, "Ok FINE I'll accept her stupid invitation. Now let me go!"
The man cracked a wide, satisfied grin and muttered "That's more like it, mutt" before throwing Joe Dark against the wall and letting him slide back down to the ground.
Joe Dark stood up, brushed his shirt off, and watched the man turn around and glare at him over shoulder, "Now, follow us. If you're even a foot behind-"
"Yeah yeah, you'll kill me. Whatever." Joe Dark's abrupt dismissal and downward handwave made the man growl some more before promptly carrying on ahead.
The mannequin lagged behind for a moment and pulled back her parasol to look Joe Dark in the eyes. He had to lower his head a bit to do the same. Without the footwear she'd be a foot shorter than him, maybe an inch or two more.
That vacant stare of hers was starting to get under his skin, prompting him to remark, "Will you cut it out already and just go?"
Thinking it'd speed things up, he decided to follow after the man. The girl kept pace after a momentary pause, and remained at his side throughout the remainder of their time in the village.
After going to the northern end they turned around and headed back south towards a barren dirt partway that leads out onto a hilltop filled plain.
Joe Dark tucked his hands deep into his pockets and his shoulders and chin were in a slump. The best thing he could say about right now was "Its what I asked for..." in the deepest, growliest voice he could muster.
He suddenly felt a gentle tug on his right arm and a bite of cold pinching the skin. He glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw the mannequin girl examining his arm in great detail.
He ripped his arm away and left the girl's hand floating and longing. She looked up at him and pondered quietly, "Are you a human?"
Joe Dark turned his head away and his eyes sagged. He could feel the man staring icy daggers at him. So with a spotty scowl he muttered "I guess" and rolled his shoulders.
"You are...odd for a human, Piss Off." She replied with a straight face.
"Ok first of all," Joe Dark abruptly turned to face the girl and the two of them stopped right there, "My name's not Piss Off. Its Joe Dark."
The girl leaned her head to the right and said, "That's not what you told me before."
Joe Dark's eyelids felt like anvils and his eyes nearly rolled all the way back into his skull while he growled at her, "I was telling you to leave me alone."
"Oh," The girl murmured, "Then why didn't you just say that, Joe Dark?"
A vein popped out of Joe Dark's forehead and he promptly turned forward and kept getting a move on while mumbling aloud, "Bite me."
The girl closed her eyes and proudly remarked, "You don't look very tasty, so I won't."
Joe Dark grimaced, pulled his head back and proclaimed, "Will you cut that out?!"
"Cut...what out?" The girl gave a genuine look of confusion towards him.
It was at that moment Joe Dark was starting to feel a hint of pity towards the mannequin, and withdrew her from his sight before he started caring anymore than that.
"Forget it," Joe Dark lazily waved his hand around by his side and muttered, "If you're going to demand my name then you can at least tell me yours."
She paused for a short yet unsettling long time before responding with, "My name is...Alura."
"Alura" rolled cleanly off the tongue for Joe Dark. He then figured if he got that far, might as well learn about the other guy, "And what about bad hair day over there?"
Alura stared at him a blank expression and then slowly bobbed her head right. Joe Dark pulled his head back and sighed, "Your furry bodyguard?"
She tilted her head in the other direction and Joe Dark mumbled "Good god..." before pinching the space between his eyes in frustration.
He would have to do something he'd never done before in his life. He'd actually have to think before he spoke. He pointed his other free hand at the man's back and said in a defeated haste, "That guy. What is his name?"
"Oh," Alura spoke, "He is my father's trusted lieutenant, Grimmley."
"Lieutenant?" Joe Dark said while rubbing his hand down his face and mustering up the urge to give a rat's ass, "Fur face was calling this mannequin a princess. Then that would make him a member of the royal guard?"
A princess and a kingdom would fit in perfectly with this world's fairy tale atmosphere. And boy, would her royal upbringing go miles to explain her sheltered behavior, Joe Dark thought.
But then again...Grimmley's choice of clothes were even more out of place than his were! Like he had been invited for a Furcon, but forgot to take part of his suit off before going to work at an army base.
Then there was also his harsh tongue and bloodthirsty attitude but really, who was he to judge?
"Bah, I just need to get my free meal and it'll all be over anyways..." Joe Dark thought as he continued to walk all hunched over like a gargoyle.
It took a mile before Joe Dark saw anything other than grass or dirt. Once over the largest hill he looked straight ahead at a huge stone castle worn down by a slugfest with father time. It was dark, gray, and surrounded by a moat. That was it. Nothing else stuck out.
"What an ugly place..." Joe Dark commentated with a scoff.
"Yes," Grimmley uttered full of pride, "Our home is perfect."
Him and Alura strolled down the hill ahead of Joe Dark, who took a moment to register what had been said. He slanted his eyes and slowly muttered aloud, "O...kay?"
He kept up with them down to the moat and the raised bridge, which was about as functional looking as half a car. Grimmley reared his head back and bellowed with a feral growl in his voice, "OPEN."
Two stone gargoyles perched on the sides of the bridge loosened their grip on it and gave it a "gentle" shove. The bridge then slammed down before the three and gave them a way to cross over to the other side.
"Come..." Grimmley then said to Joe Dark as he made his way onto the bridge.
Joe Dark had his eye on the moat as he followed. There wasn't a single drop of water to be found, but plenty of bones instead. Joe Dark quickly turned away and picked up the pace into the castle's courtyard. Beside the stiff wind there was no activity in this place besides them.
He looked around some more and saw armor both melted and shredded along the ground, with a few skeletons attached to them.
Joe Dark raised a brow and then swiftly stared ahead when it felt like he was being watched. A small shiver crept up his spine and made him think, "I should've figured this is what this was leading up to. I'm walking straight into a den of monsters."
But that too fit all this fairy tale bullcrap. And if Joe Dark was being honest, he didn't give a shit what dangers awaited him up ahead.
"If they try anything I'll kill them all...And take their food."
The stony courtyard eventually led into a dark entryway for the main part of the castle. The sunlight vanished behind them, devoured by the dank darkness. And in its place the faint glow of a hundred candles appeared in the air.
Joe Dark leaned his head back and shook it. Dark foyer, dim lighting, the smell of musk and decay in the air? He'd seen AND smelt worse than this already. This was like a kindergartner's attempt at creating a spooky environment for Halloween.
Alura closed her parasol, brought it down to her waist, and then turned to Joe Dark to say, "Wait here, Joe Dark, father will wish to meet you."
"Yeah yeah..." He responded with his arms crossed at his chest and his eyes looking up elsewhere.
Alura wandered off down the "creepy" corridor straight ahead and that left Joe Dark with Grimmley. The man growled as he looked at him, but Joe Dark didn't have to play his game. He was hardly worth his time.
"You don't need to hide anymore..." The furry man said in a grizzly tone of voice, standing within breath's reach of him. He placed one hand on his shoulder and slowly scraped down his back, garnering less than a shiver from Joe Dark's spine.
"You're at home here. Shed your bonds of sickening human flesh and show us the monster buried underneath."
Joe Dark did a full 180 and smacked the man's wrist, taking a couple steps back while giving him a nasty glare. A few puffs of air visibly exited his mouth and his eyes cast an orange gleam through the shadows of his hair.
"Hahaha...What's the matter? Scared?" He huffed.
"Of your bad haircut? Please," Joe Dark firmly held his arms together and closed his eyes, "You have the wrong idea about me."
"Do I now...? I am no stranger to darkness and you...You are filled with darkness, second only to my master," Grimmley's teeth flashed with a silver hue and a fanged point to them, "There are few mortals who would willingly dare to stuff themselves full of darkness, and none of whom I would call human. So quit playing dumb...Its not like you can escape now."
Joe Dark tensed his right fist up and scoffed in a deepened tone of voice, "Want to bet?"
Grimmley's fingernails began to sharpen again and his grin turned into a half-crescent moon. The inevitability of their battle would have to wait a little while longer, for as soon as Joe Dark thought of drawing his weapon he felt a gentle prick on the back of his neck.
He swung back and saw nothing was there. Another prick on his neck and he turned back around. One more time, and this time he widened his eyes and forced some of his dark power loose to paralyze his fleeing assailant.
He stood face-to-face with an eight foot-tall brown trenchcoat tightly wrapped around a lithe figured body, which was hunched over with an unnatural curve to its back and staring at him with a face completely consumed in shadow. A small top hat was propped on their head, and their sleeves wiggled like a cloth in the breeze. At their cuffs were black, plastic gloves with a slime crusted needle attached to every fingertip. They had no show of feet, and smelled like they'd been shit out of a skunk's ass.
Joe Dark rubbed the back of his neck and felt tiny wounds and some blood trickling out. He grit his teeth and scowled at the wiggling shadow man as they squealed in a gurgling tone of delight.
"What a faaaascinating test subject our dear princess has brought back this time...Your blood is human. AB positive. Perfect immune system. Host to much, much darkness..."
Joe Dark threw a punch at the man and they wobbled ten feet back in a second, the wind from his blow ruffling his coat.
"Ah ah ah don't be so angry."
"If you infected me you will soon be wishing you hadn't. I'm not in the mood for mercy." Joe Dark warned with a dark gleam in his eyes.
"Of course not," The squirmy thing wiggled their needles around by their face and muttered, "Not YET anyways."
Then they clamped the needles together in perfect unison and a bit of slime could be seen salivating down the neck of their coat, "Oh the tests we will run. I am ea-germ to see how a body such as yours degrades in the face of an inscrutable horde of viruses."
Grimmley towered over Joe Dark and clamped his hands down on his shoulders in order to say, "Back off Plagueis. He belongs to the princess."
The wormy man slid their pointer needle under their chin and remarked, "She has claimed a toy for her own? Or...perhaps this is merely her long dormant libido finally exploding into being like the spread of the Black Plague. Her and this curious boy do share similar blood..."
They slid on over and lurched their head down within inches of Joe Dark's face, spewing slime across it as they purred, "And I can see the cause for attraction..."
"I'll kill them all right now all of them, every last one of them. Dead, slaughtered, like animals." The veins thickened in Joe Dark's forehead to the point it was giving him a headache.
"Why is there all this...commotion, in my castle?" A deep, haunting voice shook the walls of the castle and forced the monster men off Joe Dark and towards the passage Alura had gone down. They dropped to their knees in a second and clutched an arm under their chests.
Joe Dark felt a bead of sweat trickle down the left side of his face and his head trembled as it creaked and turned to face the source of this commanding voice.
And it was here that he found that he had grossly misinterpreted the presence of monsters in this world. The castle had its master, but it was no beast or sorcerer, but a king of a domain all of its own. The nastiest lord of the foulest demons and monsters and the subject of folklore across a thousand world, stood directly in Joe Dark's presence without having ever set off his senses.
Joe Dark took a couple steps in retreat and cricked his neck back to stare at all 7'3" of the night lord's body. His mealy skin was almost dead, grayer than the darkest thundercloud. His yellow eyes hungered, glazed by a thin shade of fog. The blackest night had been ripped from the sky and knitted into a coat for his behemoth body, while the light of the full moon had been torn down and made into his undershirt. His cravat reeked of blood, and was as red as the liquid in his goblet. His thick cuffs were lined with upside-down crosses, and his hazelnut hair was an untidy mess that stretched down to his shoulder blades.
This man, this monster, chomped his blood-filled goblet and gnashed the glass shards down with merriment and then bellowed out a gargling sound after it all went down his throat.
"So...you're the one who grabbed Alura's attention..." They said, a gleam peering down from the shadows surrounding their eyes, "Joe Dark, was it? Or, should I call you by your real title?"
The forever king of twilight. The bane of God. The eternally stirring nightmare. A craven monster, born to feed his blood-starved gullet with spoils of the devout he hunts under moon's light.
"This is no longer funny..." Joe Dark bemoaned with hardly the energy to care what fate befell him. For lo, did he stand in the dominion of Dracula, the greatest monster spawned by mankind's sinful hand...
Next Time: A Banquet in Blood
