Chapter 4: On the Eve of Blood

The wry twisting and cracking of brittle branches can be heard in a stormy night, as a young boy teetered on the edge of insanity, lost within a maze like forest of black and green.

He delved into the woods uncontrolled by his own actions, spurred by thoughts of fear and anxiety. And now he wanders forever, trapped by the ebony thrall of a thousand roots.

Every direction he runs leads to the same spot. The same tree trunks. The same grass. The same dirt. The same bloodied markings left by him scratching the bark...

He yells "HELP!". He yells "I'M LOST!". Whimpering and crying until either his eyes or throat are dried. The storm rages on as the sky has been consumed in an infinite canopy of black. The howls of wind threatening to the drag the boy away.

Yet he continues to run. What else is there for him to do? Stand and fight the raging storm? Who would ever demand a child to do such a thing? Yet the same could be said for the cruelty of trapping him in this nightmare to begin with.

And he runs, and runs. Soon his feet turn to concrete, and are dragged through the sinking dirt. The storm quiets only when the dirt digs into his ears and suffocates his head...

Before they could take their final blinking moment they found themselves letting out one painfully gasping breath of life, and assaulted by the foul stench of fresh blood.

They raised their right hand up and the blood stuck to them like strands of thick muck. In a panic they rose to their feet, only for the blood to effortlessly drag them back down. Skeletal bones burrowed their fingertips into his eyesockets and forced them open, as a black crystal mirror descended upon them.

All the boy could see of his reflection was the pale crimson glow of his eyes and a voice whispering to him "You have the same eyes as me..." like a alluring call of Death.

The boy whimpered and tried to turn away. The bath of blood and bone forced him to see him for what he was in all its nightmarish glory.

A decay-ridden, half-eaten corpse with barely functioning legs and a stretch of bone from neck to waist looked at him back and started laughing. Louder and louder its pale wail fissured the glass until it shattered completely.

And through the looking glass appeared the corpses of seven proud warriors enveloped in dark, rainbow-colored flames. Their embittered moans repeated he same word over and over: "Pay"

They shoved through the frame all at once and got the drop on the boy, and in seconds their flames began to make him look exactly like his reflection. He screamed, screamed, and SCREAMED some more...

"AAAAAA!" Until in a cold heartbeat, Joe Dark awoke from bed covered in sweat.

He grasped his fast beating chest and squeezed his fingers into a fist. He looked down and saw that he was unharmed. It was easy for his eyes to comprehend reality, but not his mind. Never the mind...

"Ha...ha...ha..." He couldn't stop nor slow down his breathing even after biting his teeth down to scowl.

"That's...that's the worst its ever gotten..." Joe Dark curled his lower lip under tooth and by then his breathing began to return to normal.

He got off the bed and walked over to the the door. Slowly creaking it open, he saw that night had fallen, and the full moon illuminated the dark-blue sky. There was a slight chill in the air but right now, it was perfect.

He laid his arms atop the breaking stone ledge and settled into a hunched over position. He tapped his left foot on the ground for a while. He was the only person up, it seemed.

"..." He closed his eyes and let out a long heaving sigh.

"I've been here for two days now, and nothing's changed..." He grabbed the side of his throbbing head and kept one eye open, "Same old crap, same old nightmares."

He rested his arm back down and shook his head, "What's the point of running away if you'll always be caught...? Damn it..."

If dread is inescapable then Joe Dark wasn't even going to bother fighting it anymore. Maybe someday it'll just up and decide to leave him the hell alone finally. It could take months, it could take the rest of his life. He was too tired of fighting for nothing of value anymore.

He looked up and stared at the full moon for a little while. He put on a mild smile and fiddled his fingertips along the top of his arms.

"I guess the moon looks...ok." Whenever he was lost as a child the moon would always tell him where to go.

He sunk his head a bit into his arms and mumbled, "Well you damn rock? What do I do now?"

He sunk some more and started to doze off. His body stiffened like the gargoyles that would perch perfectly where he leaned in.

"I hear your voice, calling me out...

From the shadows of the niiight."

Joe Dark felt goosebumps rise along his arms and lifted his head up to peek around, "What on Earth...?"

"I seek your love, yearn for its embrace...

In the waking hours of the liiight."

He squinted his eyes towards the right and swore his mind was fucking with him again. What was a melody this divine doing in these hallowed halls?

"Aaaaand I swear.

Our sin is my cross to bear."

Though faint, he could tell it came from the right side of the castle. Not too far either. He tucked his hands into his pockets and started walking towards it.

"Cause when I look into your eyes so bright

I can vow to God that my choice was right

And so may I, be judged

May I, burn aliiive."

The song was sung by a deep, elegant voice. A woman? A siren maybe? The lyrics were laced with a hint of sadness but he couldn't hear much emotion from them.

"I am true to my love.

It is mine, give or die."

As he slowly rounded the corner his eyes widened and remained that way as he froze there in place, eyeing the source of this mystifying melody.

Perched atop the edge of a long balcony was Alura, the moon reflected in her eyes and the soft wind fluttering her long, draping hair back over the start of where she stood. Her hands rested gently upon her chest, with that powerful voice emerging from her tiny mouth.

"I feel your cold embrace, wrapping my soul

And shackling me, in a bond so tiiight

I consume your presence...And its taste is bittersweet.

Oh so sinful, yet oooh so riiight."

"...Her?" Was the only thing Joe Dark could mutter to himself.

"And I swear.

Our sin is my cross to bear.

I thank you for this gift of life.

A beautiful daughter free of strife.

And may you protect her in her dreams

And save her from her nightmares

For she has your allure

Both delicate and demure."

Alura lurched her head back slightly and her soft face was illuminated beautifully by the moonlight's grace, giving her this brief sense of maturity far beyond her years.

And her voice slowed, softened, and deepened just a little bit more.

"I hear your voice, calling me out...

From the shadows of the niiight.

I seek your love, yearn for its embrace...

In the waking hours of the liiight.

I am yours.

As you are mine.

And I swear, under this moon so blue.

I will always...love you."

In her final passage she tucked her hands together and hung her head with her eyes closed, a microscopic frown visible all the way over where Joe Dark stood.

He felt something thin and wet fall down the sides of his face as he picked his jaw off the ground. And then his legs moved on their own to behind where the mannequin was perched. His skin was full of shivers.

He tried to speak but nothing came out but a gawking gasp. He clammed his mouth shut and found that him, of all people, was suddenly unable to speak.

But the shrill noise was more than enough to make Alura turn sideways and bob her head back to look at him with a wistful stare.

"Oh..." She muttered sheepishly before drooping her hands towards the frills of her dress, "I didn't know you were still awake, Joe Dark."

"Pffft, the same could be said of you," Joe Dark mustered up enough courage to partway look her in the eyes and say, "What the hell was that...that..."

"Beautiful song..." His cheeks turned a light shade of red and needless to say he found himself crippled by shyness. He growled at himself for that.

Alura tilted her head and Joe Dark turned his away to rub the back of his head and try to save face, "Ugh, n-nothing. That noise you made...It sounded like a lullaby."

"That's because it is." Alura admitted right away.

"R-Really?" Joe Dark reeled back in shock. He was just taking a shot in the dark cause he didn't want to admit he liked the song. But it was a lullaby? For CHILDREN?! That could've just as well been sung in a dramatic play, or an opera house.

Though perhaps the strength of Alura's voice gave the song more weight than it deserved. It was just so so...weird to think that SHE had sung it. The juxtaposition was so strong it was like getting his neck broke from the sheer whiplash.

He was spending time questioning this that would've been better used just saying "You have a nice singing voice, Alura" but that was just a typical Joe Dark-ism. It must run in the family.

While he looked visibly struggling with his mind Alura mildly tilted her head and walked along the balcony. She hopped off the edge and her dress helped her float to the ground. And once she landed directly in front of Joe Dark he paused and then recoiled a bit in surprise.

She stood there and looked up into his eyes. The moon gave their crimson irises an equivalent glow, but hers were devoid of any clear feelings.

Joe Dark gripped the side of his head and wondered aloud, "This mannequin I swear...She's a thorn in my side."

Alura bobbed her head around a bit until Joe Dark started directly in her face and growled, "What do you want now? Haven't you caused me enough headaches for one day?"

Alura closed her eyes and whispered, "If my illusions caused you any harm, I didn't mean it, Joe Dark."

"Illusions?" Joe Dark had to think a little about that which wasn't easy when his head felt like it was being assaulted with a jackhammer, "Oh right that stuff about your mother...That was your doing..."

"Yes," She said with a curt nod, "Father has said that my illusions are very strong, like they are almost real."

"No arguments there..." As his headache could attest to.

He closed his eyes to give his mind a little break but nevertheless continued the conversation with an observation a child could make, "Your mother...How much do you remember about her?"

"Not much," Alura was forthright with the answer, but distant in tone, "Just her lullaby, and that she loved me."

The price to pay for eternal life. If time cannot consume the body, then it will erode the mind in its place. Joe Dark had no sympathy for anyone who'd willingly choose immortality over the sanctity of their memories. But for this girl, who seemed to have had it forced onto her...

"Mmrrggh...!" He growled so loud as to not hear his thoughts go any further. Alura continued to eye him strangely.

"You're doing strange things again, Joe Dark." She said with the bluntness of an elephant's foot.

"N-No I'm not!" He exclaimed and thrust his pointer finger at her, "I'm the normal one here! Its all of you that are strange!"

Her eyes crossed at her nose and Joe Dark flicked his finger up her forehead before withdrawing it. She calmly rubbed the red spot and muttered, "Its not normal to appear out of nowhere, Joe Dark."

Joe Dark crossed his arms and turned to the side to ignore her as best he could.

"You still haven't told me why you're on this world..." She whispered with a lick of curiosity.

"You never asked." He grumbled.

"...Oh," She lowered her head for a moment, "Joe Dark, why are you on this world?"

"That's none of your damn business." Joe Dark instantly rebuked.

"Why not?"

"B-Because...!" Joe Dark briefly glanced over his shoulder and told her off, "I said so!"

"Oh, I see..." Alura closed her eyes and remarked, "You're scared to tell me."

Joe Dark's eyes widened all the way and he turned around. Slowly he growled, "What did you say?"

"I know when people are scared, Joe Dark. You've been shaking ever since this afternoon..."

Joe Dark ripped around and pinned his hands firmly onto Alura's shoulder and forced his face against hers. His eyes had this dark red glow to them and all his teeth were grinding together into an enamel destroying scowl.

"Listen here you...! I didn't run away to this backwater planet just to have my problems thrown in my face by some doll-eyed, UNFEELING LITTLE GIRL, WHO DOESN'T KNOW THE FIRST THING ABOUT ME, OR HER OWN DAMN SELF!"

And for all that rage spewed point-blank in her face, Alura's takeaway from all that was, "You ran away from home, Joe Dark?"

"I...! You...!" Joe Dark applied more pressure to her shoulders and could've broken them had he tried.

But what would even be the damn point?

"...You're hopeless, mannequin..." Joe Dark squeezed his eyes shut and slowly removed his hands from her to stand back up and say in an utterly defeated tone, "But it seems I'm stuck with you..."

"Yes. This is your home now, Joe Dark," Alura said in an eerily calm voice, "You'll never see your parents again."

Joe Dark's eyelids sagged and he turned his gaze away from her while attempting to mutter to himself, "I know..."

When Alura said "Huh?" Joe Dark's eyes widened up and he barked back with his head held high, "Forget you heard anything! Its none of your business!"

"Ok, Joe Dark..." She whispered.

"Ghhhh..." Joe Dark squeezed his fists into his pockets and tried to spin things in a positive manner, "I guess...its not so bad here though. At least I get to eat and sleep. Thank god this Lord of the Night seems to tolerate humans."

"You're mistaken, Joe Dark," Alura's quick response caught his attention, "The only human my father's ever loved was my mother."

Joe Dark stared blankly into Alura's eyes until a loud howls shattered the silence, and quickly grew into a multitude of howls across the vast night sky.

Alura turned around and whispered, "Oh, I see Mr. Grimmley has finally begun the hunt."

"Grimmley...?" Joe Dark felt an uneasy sensation in the pit of his gut.

Alura glanced over her shoulder and remarked, "Yes. Grimmley is a werewolf. He can turn at any time, but feels much stronger under the moonlight."

"Oh he's a werewolf. I had no clue," Joe Dark rolled his eyes and bit his lower lip, "But that didn't sound like one wolf..."

He crept past Alura and stood precariously on top of the balcony. There he saw a stampede of black and gray furred creatures charging away from the castle...And straight towards the capital.

"No..." Joe Dark gasped and slowly widened his eyes upon realizing the true meaning of "the hunt".

Meanwhile...

The capital had settled down for the evening. The villagers crawled into their beds hoping that their first day of merriment had been satisfying enough to earn them a bountiful harvest.

A few villagers stayed outside to clean up any stray trash and the like. They were the first to feel the rumblings in the ground.

What started small grew bigger and bigger at a rapid pace. Glass plates fell and shattered in the houses, waking many of the resting souls.

The tremors settled down as people started leaving their houses, and just as quickly as they had started...They stopped, leaving the citizens looking around in confusion.

"What was that?"

"Where'd it come from?" Were a couple questions from these villagers so wholly unaccustomed to experiencing a single earthquake.

They will wish God had been that merciful.

A rattling of stone drew many eyes towards the southern houses, where a hunched silhouette prowled over the dominion of man and elf with a silver smile. With a long fanged jaw and wide, beefy arms, this wolf stood tall on its hind legs and armed its claws to the teeth with sharp, blood-drench knives, fresh off its first kill.

The humans cowered back at the sight of this devilish beast while the elves armed their hands with runes and pale-blue glows. The wolf raised its right claw towards the high moon and dozens upon dozens of quadruped wolves crawled out of the shadows around him...The first of many, many more.

And with a scant trace of humanity in his feral voice, the hungering Grimmley raised his smile higher and let out a deep chuckle.

"Let us enjoy our hunt, brothers..." He let out a piercing howl and the other wolves reared their ugly heads back and joined with him.

He then thrust his claw at the cowering lot before him and exclaimed, "KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM. LET THEIR SCREAMING SOULS BLOODY THE NIGHT SKY!"

The wolves charged into the crowd and the carnage began in earnest. A dozen humans were carved vertically in half by the growing swarm of wolves that numbered in the hundreds in seconds.

Grimmley enthusiastically lunged off the house and blended in with his kind, drawing a knife from vest to jaw and effortlessly using it to cut through the knees of the fleeing, screaming souls.

The blood splashed upon his wide-eyed grinning face and fueled his frenzy. He spat his knife to the ground and leaped out of the crowd, diving down to plunge his frontal claws straight through the backs of a young mother and father. He pinned them to the ground and watched them bleed out until a whimpering, blubbering cry thrust his head upward.

A child stood there with soiled pants and a face drenched with the stench of fear and sadness. Grimmley's right eye bulged out and he growled, "What's the matter child? I can reunite you with your parents if you want..."

The child hadn't a chance as Grimmley ripped the two adults from the ground and, with them still on his claws, stabbed into the child with the tips so all three would lie on the ground in the same, bloody pile.

Grimmley then howled and hopped over them, charging through the crowd at blistering speeds. He barreled through a couple houses and eviscerated those who'd cower in their closets, and fled before his victims ever knew he was there.

He zipped around the fireballs and lightning strikes of the elves and rushed up close to their faces. He drew his claw back and stuffed the bloody tips inches away from their eyes.

He gave their sweating skin a light scratch and then heaved his panting, hungered breaths in their faces, "You're not my prey tonight, magickin..."

He disappeared faster than they could blink and through fear and doubt clouding their minds the elves rallied their forces and concentrated their magic on as many wolves as they could. Silver bolts and azure rays cut through most of the swarm, but their numbers seemed endless.

Not helping matters was the presence of a strange purple miasma crawling through the capital. It seemed to follow the wolves in earnest, and when the elves came in contact with it they felt themselves slowly getting weaker.

In the few seconds of respite granted by the piling mounds of wolf corpses around them, a couple elves looked at their shaking hands and saw the greatest affront to their kind. Wrinkles, a sign that time had betrayed their eternal souls at long lost, rapidly formed on their arms and legs.

And then that brittle skin decayed to a gray rot and peeled off their bones, barely lasting a second as shreds before fading away to dust. Their skeletons collapsed, but even they were not immune to the dusting.

The wolves were unaffected, and as elf after elf fell the blood that spilled turned into a flood throughout the streets.

Grimmley laughed and laughed with a blood-drenched face as he barreled into another house and found a portly merchant backing up against his bookshelf on his rear.

"P-Please...I-I-I'll give you everything I own! Just sp-spare me!" He pleaded with a squeaky voice.

Grimmley crawled over to the man with a scintillating glow in his eyes. Dry was his laughter as he towered over the man and put his middle claw on their chin to push it back.

"Now that's funny..." A deep, subhuman growl gurgled out of the werewolf's stomach as he easily pulled the man off the ground and kept him eye level with his slobbering mouth.

"Your bargain...is impossible to fulfill!" He opened his mouth as far as it'd go and chomped down on the man's head...

Back at the castle...

Joe Dark could feel the discord in the air. The screams of thousands filled his ears from all the way out there. And one by one they fell, until there were none.

His skin wrapped in cold, his body trembling from head-to-toe, he fell to his knees and forced himself to hear the howls of celebration in the vacant capital...Not as a way to herald the end, but as a prelude to the true carnage.

The wolves scattered in all directions, seeking to turn every single village into a graveyard of blood.

Joe Dark's vacant stare towards the horizon grew bright hot with rage, and he smashed the balcony apart with his bare fist. But not before turning and rushing back over to Alura and glaring at her with pure anger penetrating through his eyes.

"You...You let this happen! All those 'walks' were just so you could prepare your father's monsters to kill everyone! These people did nothing to you! Are you so blind with revenge towards your mothers' killers that you'd be willing to slaughter anyone who reminds you of them?!"

Alura stared straight ahead, not even at his face, and by that point he had enough. He grabbed her by the arms and threatened to do harm, "ANSWER ME DAMN IT!"

But his touch revealed something startling. It was subtle but...Alura was trembling. And the blank look in her eyes showed a disconnect from reality. It was a good five seconds before she was able to lean her head back and blubber out, "H-Huh...?"

Joe Dark's heart pounded louder, and louder, and louder. He could feel the blood leaving his face, and his stomach twisting in a knot.

"You have the same eyes I do..."

"I know when people are scared, Joe Dark."

Emotions spiraling out of control. Too much happening at once. His mind too weak to hold it all together. Restraint. Rage. Retribution. Revenge.

The last gentle act he performed under his control was pushing Alura aside. From there he was a machine of pure rampaging anger. He stampeded through the castle halls and smashed down through the stairs. A black aura exploded around his body and sent a shockwave throughout the castle.

He had been so ignorant of everything going on here. How could he have been so STUPID to think that monsters would ever leave humans alone? And now all those people out there were dead or dying. There was no way to save them. But he could be DAMN SURE this Hell doesn't happen again.

He rushed straight for the foyer and twisted to face the throne room. Plagueis and the hot-armored knight were standing in his way.

"I'm afraid I can't let you pa-"

Joe Dark was directly between them in a millisecond and turned his hazy crimson gaze upon the squirming man.

"BEGONE!"

The darkness erupted uncontrollably and slammed them both against the nearby walls. Joe Dark decked himself in the black, shoulder-skulled armor of the Dark King and obliterated the iron doors standing between him and his enemy with his sheer presence.

"DRACULAAAAAAAAA!" He screamed to the point of tearing his throat apart.

The bastard sat on his throne like a slob, with a wide, knowing grin.

"Such moist, succulent anger..." He whispered.

"RRRRGGHHHHH!" Joe Dark tore apart the ground charging at the Lord of the Night and the shockwave ripped asunder the walls around them. He drew his sword back and took one stab forward at his head, to which they responded only by slowly raising their right hand.

The blade ripped through the palm and impaled the monster through the eye. Black sludge oozed onto the blade and plopped onto the ground. Joe Dark furiously widened his eyes and shoved the blade out the back of Dracula's skull.

"Haa...haa...haa..."

"KRRRKK...!" One finger twitched, followed by the rest of the impaled hand sliding down the blade and forcing itself tightly around Joe Dark's fist.

Dracula continued to rise, ripping the blade free from his eye as he quickly had Joe Dark standing on the ground underneath him. Joe Dark shoved back, their two bodies fighting for domination over the other.

"Tonight will be a splendid banquet..." Dracula licked the black sludge trickling down his face. As his eye regenerated from flesh, the symbol of a black serpent and a cross of thorns appeared within it.

"But you..." Dracula opened his mouth and the flesh of his cheeks started to hollow out, allowing his jaw to drop lower.

"Shall be a feast...FIT FOR A KING!" He said with an inhumane gargle added to his voice. A powerful vacuum from his mouth sucked away at Joe Dark's body, dragging out the dark aura from his body and something else along with it.

He lost his armor and the strength to stand, quickly collapsing on his knees and gasping loudly in shock. He was a raging inferno just a moment ago, and now it was like all that anger had never been experienced at all.

Dracula collapsed his mouth shut and let out a raspy moan of satisfaction. He wiped his wrinkly claw under his chin to push aside some of the excess slobber and then whispered, "Wonderful. You were even more filling than I ever could have expected."

Joe Dark pulled his head back and Dracula gently flicked him on the forehead. A second later he found himself speeding through the air like a missile, his eyes bulging out of their sockets in disbelief.

He stopped upon slamming into the bridge, knocking it down. Before gravity caught him Dracula did the honors, grappling him by the neck and hoisting him high into the air.

Joe Dark grabbed the Lord of the Night by his wrist and squeezed as hard as he could, "Bas...tard!"

"Yes. Give me more...!" Dracula's eyes stretched with intrigue, "The rage, the anxiety, the loneliness...Tenderized in the darkness of the Dark King! What better meal can there be on this eve of twilight?!"

Dracula swung his arms out, slammed Joe Dark against the wall, and dragged him along as he stepped out onto the bridge.

"O'Dark Creator...I thank thee for this banquet of screams! To fill thy gullet until all is consumed, is an honor only I can fulfill!" Dracula stretched his monstrous mouth wide open and created an extremely powerful vacuum.

Joe Dark could only watch in horror as the souls of the dead were dragged to Dracula from all corners of the planet. Their terrifying screams silenced in his stomach. Their souls scraped against the sky and stained it in crimson, turning the moon a terrifying dark shade of red.

In the rush to consume all the negativity of the world Dracula released Joe Dark from his grasp. But the boy simply fell onto all fours and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bring himself to stand.

The feasting of the Lord of the Night ended in a couple minutes, upon which he swiped his chin again and bellowed a laugh heard far and wide by his minions.

Joe Dark curled his fists against the ground and growled, "Y-You bastard...You killed them all! You...you won't get away with this!"

"I will though..." Dracula crossed an arm before his chest and gleamed at Joe Dark below his shoulder, "For mine is the will of the world itself! And no king, let alone a child, can defy what nature intended."

Dracula bent down, even then towering over the furious Dark King, and clasped his hand onto his back, "You hate me now. And I wish for you to continue hating me...But I think with time you'll come to adapt to my way of living. After all..."

As he began to rise the Lord of the Monsters whispered, "You've already partaken in the consumption of your kin."

Joe Dark's eyes bulged and he saw flashes of his last few meals and the sensations he experienced eating it. He clasped a hand over his mouth for all the futility it'd bring.

He vomited a puddle of sickeningly yellow chunks on the ground and then did so again in a smaller dose.

Dracula breathed in the despair through his nose and let out a long, calm sigh.

"Welcome to my family, Joe Dark..." He whispered and with a swing of the cape, headed back into his castle.

Joe Dark remained on the bridge, paralyzed down to his soul...As the sheer weight of his failures truly came crashing down upon him.

And so in the span of a single day, the planet of Edelgyre ceased to be. Its people's blood spilled across the lands and the magic tainted by the disharmonious appetite of the Twilight Lord.

A cruel act of genocide to satiate the hunger of one monster. And to the wandering soul known as Joe Dark, he has simply traded one Hell for another. The nightmare continues, with no end in sight...

STORY 1: Alone and the Dark END

NEXT: STORY 2: Mr. Reality's Last Journey