Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the things I create, obviously.
What I do create should be obvious. Anything you don't recognise. The quote
at the beginning is from "The Phantom of the Opera" - the musical. The song
at the end is by Heroic Trio and is called "Dead or Alive" I know some of
it may sound... weird, but most of it is appropriate at that point in the
story. You'll see what I mean.
Note: Good to be back writing again! I missed this fic. I hope this chapter goes down well. Angsty! Yay!
Resurrecting the Shadow of Memories
A Shadow of Destiny Fanfic
"Farewell my fallen idol and a false friend. One by one I've watched illusions shatter."
For a while at least I was happy, knowing that I was in a family who appreciated me, even if most of them didn't really know what I was. I was still wary of my emotions, but felt more able to express myself, and my fondness for each member of the family.
With Kamose, I became far more open with him than ever before. I allowed myself to reveal intimate details of my life before being summoned by him. Things I had not dared tell him before. He listened carefully, looking at me not with pity, which I despised, but a sympathy that I found comforting. At such an old age, the two of us had more in common than ever before. Kamose's body was weak and frail; the slightest physical effort was enough to bring on a fit of choking coughs that hurt my ears to hear. But his mind was as fresh at it had been the day I met him. Trapped inside a decaying body, he could understand to some degree why I so hated my own weak, fragile one.
But things were well enough for the time being. There was no problem when Ra's wife came to live with us. She was constantly reassured that I was safe and would not hurt her and finally she settled for, like Kamose's wide, staying out of my way as much as possible. I didn't mind too much. Some people were just like that I supposed, unable and unwilling to accept anything that threatened their secure little lives. I was happy to have the few people around me who appreciated my company.
It was a few months later that the worst thing imaginable happened.
The roman soldiers seemed to just suddenly appear in the quiet town. They were marching towards Alexandria, under the orders of the Emperor, pillaging everything they came across, and mercilessly slaughtering anyone who tried to prevent them taking what they wanted. Their mission became clear when, looking outside the window, I saw observed the demise of several humans who I did not know personally, but could identify.
"They have come to put down another rebellion by the Jews?" Isis asked, panicked.
"There is no rebellion," I said acidly. "This is revenge. You humans don't let matters rest do you? You'd think one bloody massacre would be enough." I growled in my throat. I did not like my peace, for the peace of those I cared for, being interrupted. "I would advise you not to look." So saying, I drew the crude curtains across. But I was not able to block out the screams from the wretched mortals outside. Isis did her best, covering her ears with her hands, but I could see that this wasn't enough.
We were both astonished to see Kamose and his wife suddenly enter the room, carrying large bundles of clothes and a few precious possessions. Ra followed them with his own wife, carrying a huge chest of the family treasure that had been hidden in a panel in one of the cellar walls.
"We are leaving?" Isis asked.
"I'm afraid we must," Kamose said, his voice hoarser than ever from worry and the sudden efforts he was putting on his frail body. But I was confused.
"Why must we leave?" I asked. "We pose no threat to these soldiers."
"They are Christians, Homunculus," he said hurriedly. "They consider the Egyptians heathens. And they despise people who practice alchemy. The say it is witchcraft."
I wanted to laugh at the irony of that comment. But the situation was too serious for that.
"You don't honestly expect them to just let you go, do you?" I said. "They will kill you as soon as you leave this house. You would do better to stay inside and hope they pass you by."
Kamose shook his head, and I frowned at the emotion in his eyes. Was that guilt I saw there?
"No. I have made arrangements. We are to be escorted out of the town to a safe place."
"Arrangements?" I asked warily. "What kind of arrangements?"
Before Kamose could draw a breath to answer me the door was thrown open and three of the Roman soldiers entered with swords and shields held in front of them. I rounded on them instantly. I didn't care if the whole family would be forced to watch me kill these men. I wasn't going to let anyone touch them. I readied a spell to send these foolish men flying back against the nearest wall, and released it.
I heard the women behind me scream in a painful unison, but I could only watch in disbelief as my spell dissolved before it even touched the men before me. My eyes widened in shock as I realised these men were all wearing amulets made to protect themselves from magic. A djinn's magic. /My/ magic.
But no one knew how to block my magic. No one in the world except myself and...
"Kamose," I whispered in horror, not daring to turn away from these men. "What... what have you done?"
"I am sorry, my friend," he said sadly. I whirled around now, and saw the pain in his eyes. "I had to be done. I had no other choice."
"What did you do!" I almost screamed at him, my body shaking with fear unlike anything I had ever felt before.
"Is this it?"
The voice of one of the soldiers interrupted us, and my trembling only worsened as I realised the 'it' he was referring to was me.
Kamose nodded, not meeting my eye anymore. "Yes." He waved Ra forward with the box of treasures. I stared at it, knowing what it contained as well as money.
"Where's this stone?"
"In the chest, with everything else we can afford to give you."
"No," I whispered. "No, Kamose what are you doing?" I took a step towards him. "You didn't. Please tell me you didn't."
"I'm sorry," was all he seemed able to say to me.
"You /sold/ me?" I cried. The overwhelming sense of betrayal welled up inside me and I felt sobs threaten to tear my body to pieces with their intensity. "You sold me like a piece of... like a trinket!" I began shouting through tears now. "YOU SOLD ME LIKE I WAS NOTHING!"
"Homunculus you are far from being nothing to any of us," Kamose said as firmly as he could manage. "But you were the price of my family's safety. That means everything to me."
"Am I not part of this family?" I screamed at him. "I've been here for ten years. I would have stayed for longer! Forever! You said you appreciated me! You said I was almost human! You made me..."
I couldn't finish my words. How could I speak that horrible contradiction? That he and his family had made me feel happy and loved, when now I felt like just a piece of their treasure chest, something to be used up and then discarded. How could they do this to me? I loved them. I thought they loved me! How could they?
"How could you?"
"Father!"
Isis was crying now too, and screaming in concert with me. She didn't want to leave me behind. It wasn't fair.
"Isis you don't understand-"
"Father, we can't do this to him!" she cried. "It's terrible. How could you? He's like your son. And he's an angel! How could you do that to an angel?"
I stared at the young woman I adored so much through bleary eyes. I was so glad that she was defending me, that she at least was innocent of this treachery. She had stayed true to me.
The sound of one of the soldiers laughing behind me tore me from my thoughts.
"That thing? An angel?" He and his companions laughed at Isis, and I wanted to kill them. I wanted so badly to kill them so that they wouldn't continue laughing, and wouldn't expose my secret to Isis and the others. I looked at Kamose, pleading silently for this one secret to be kept, so that their memories of me were not tainted.
//Tear me away from those I love,// I spoke to him in his mind. //But don't make them hate me. Not just so it's easier for them to say goodbye. If I ever needed a favour of you, it is this only. All is forgiven otherwise. Just don't let them tell...//
But it was too late.
"I think, girl, you've gotten a little mixed up there," the soldier continued harshly. "Your father practices witchcraft, and this is his little devil-servant."
"Oh God," I said aloud. Of all the ways they could have described me, it could not possibly have been worse than that. Far from calling me simple, mischievous djinn, I was now a servant of their religion's embodiment of evil. I was a devil. I was evil, and I could see the disbelief in Isis' face as she realised the truth of it, even despite her feelings for me.
"A devil?" She moaned. "Oh no. Father it's not true. Homunculus please." But I could say nothing to her. Rendered dumb by grief, I could only listen as Kamose did the precise opposite of what I had begged him to do.
"Yes, Isis," he said, sadly. "He is a devil."
I sank to my knees on the floor. I crouched there, pouring out my soul's horror in my sobs and my cries. "Please," I begged, humiliating myself and for once in my life not caring. "Please don't do this! Don't send me away. Take it back, please."
"I'm sorry, Homunculus," Kamose said. "I have to do this for my family."
"I'm family," I cried. "I'm family! I loved you. I loved all of you and now you do this to me. Isis please," I turned to beg the young girl in one final desperate effort. "Don't let them do this." I reached out towards her, and she did the worst thing imaginable.
She screamed.
"Isis-"
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" She screamed as loudly as she could, and before I could make another move she was at her father's side, standing close to him for protection. Protection from me. I lowered my head and sobbed uncontrollably. Ashamed and utterly alone again, but it was not like the wonderful contentedness I had felt when I had first been free from my creator. I was alone; having experienced betrayal at the hand of those I loved and trusted.
For the second time humans had taken my soul and shaped it to their will, spinning me in their web of deceit, making me so certain of what I knew and what I felt, only to shatter my hopes, my dreams and all that I believed in. I had trusted these humans and they and thrown it back in my face. And now they were throwing me into the shackles of slavery again. And somehow I couldn't hate them for it. I still loved them because I didn't know what else to feel anymore. I had been tricked into love and trust and now I was utterly defenceless when I should have been hurling a spell to send them all into oblivion. Why couldn't I hate them? Or why couldn't I just not feel anything at all? Wouldn't that be so much easier? I didn't even know if I had a soul. Do things without souls have real feelings? Was everything I had experienced with these humans just a lie?
I clenched my hands into fists. I tried to draw everything inside me, my pain, my sense of betrayal, everything I now felt into one single emotion. I wanted nothing but to hate the human race and everything about them. I was strong. My mind was strong. I could hate them. All I had to do was try.
Above me I heard human voices.
"What can it do?"
"You'll have to find out. We don't have the time to explain. We must leave now, before more soldiers arrive. Show us to safety now."
"What do we do with it then?"
"I don't know! It was made as a servant. Treat it as one!"
I felt something inside me snap suddenly at these words, hurriedly and foolishly spoken by the man who had only recently caused me his 'friend'. What an idiot I had been to believe him. But I would never make the same mistake again, and I was not going to let that bastard leave without some token of appreciation. Appreciation for reminding me that humans were the most dishonest species on the earth. Worse than my kind could ever be.
My kind. I was no longer interested in being human, or anything remotely like a human. I was a demon. A powerful djinn. And they would find out just how powerful.
"Kamose," I called out in a voice that would have chilled even the bravest. I heard the footsteps behind me stop, and knew he had turned to look back at me. I knew I had his attention completely. "Thank you."
"For what?" he asked, fear in ever syllable.
I turned, and smiled. "For making me cold again, as my creator once told me I should be." I felt my smile widen. "I suppose if I had a heart it would be stone now, thanks to you."
Kamose looked at me, uncertain of what to say. "Homunculus..."
"Allow me to return the favour," I said, and blinked once.
I don't know why I did it. It was wrong of me to do something to terrible to him. But all I felt at that moment was anger and contempt for those who stop before me, and all the rest of the world. I wanted to show them what fools they were. I wanted them to mourn the day they ever betrayed me. I wanted revenge.
I watched the man I had once though of as a father clutch at his chest. His heart, now slowly becoming stone, was no longer pumping blood to his body. He was dying very slowly. I wanted him to die very slowly. I wanted to show him things. I forced my way into his dying mind and found all the horrid memories he had hidden away; I forced them to the forefront of his brain. I drew the images out from him and played a disgusting montage before the eyes of his entire family. The children that his wife had given birth to, the ones who had died, all pale and sick, dying once again in front of his eyes as he himself passed on to heaven or hell. I hoped for the latter. The bastard deserved it as much as I did.
Finally his brain stopped functioning as his heart had done, he slumped to the ground, his lifeless body hitting the floor with a resounding, anticlimactic thud that made me chuckle in my malevolent hatred. I watched as a pool of blood that had been forced up from his broken lungs spilled out across the floor. I smiled, and then raised my head to the other lesser beings, staring at my wilful destruction in terror and disgust.
"Any volunteers to go next?" I asked casually.
"Take them!" One of the soldiers said, pushing the others behind him. "I'll handle this thing. I'm protected and it can't hurt me."
I waited a moment, until the others were well and truly gone from the place. I didn't care that they had left me behind anymore. They were not worth my time. When I was certain they were gone, I regarded the sturdy, tough looking soldier before me.
"Come on, demon," he said, tauntingly. "Give me your worst magic. I'll face anything you have coming."
I shook my head. "Tsk tsk tsk. You humans. Always so self-assured. So certain nothing can ever touch you. Where did you get the amulet from, hmm? Did Kamose show it to you?"
"Never you mind that," he snarled.
"But I don't mind really," I said with disdain. "I only asked. It doesn't matter anyway. You'll die whichever way things go."
"You bluff, demon."
"What makes you so certain?"
"My amulet protects me from you."
"Oh no!" I cried out. "Oh dear. What shall I do? Oh I'm at you mercy! Someone save me. Wah wah wah!" My sarcasm shook the soldier's faith in his protection. I smiled at his stupidity, and watched over his shoulder. "Does it protect you from him then?" I asked
The soldier's eyes widened and he spun around to see another soldier, not one of his former companions, standing in the doorway. There was something about his eyes that frightened the Roman. They looked... glazed, somehow.
Before the soldier could do or say anything, the newcomer had reached forward and torn the shining amulet from his neck. Now that he had the amulet, I could no longer control him, but I controlled the door, which slammed shut in his face, conveniently rendering him unconscious. The soldier turned back towards me, the eyes beneath his helmet wide with ear at what he knew was coming.
I saw into his thoughts and grinned. "Oh don't worry. Kamose was the one to hurt me. I gave him a painful, creative death." I regarded the body on the floor with cool contempt. "You on the other hand, presumed to make me a slave. It's so strange what men will force other being to do. Things they consider lesser beings suffer so much at their hands. Even other humans suffer. I watched slaves working in Alexandria one night. They have to work at night sometimes. I wonder... would you be so willing to make slaves of others... if you knew what being a slave was like?"
The Roman stared in horror. A soldiers sense of honour was as important to him as serving his country and Emperor. To be disgraced, treated as a slave, would be the worst thing possible. Slowly and deliberately, I raised my fingers and, when I was sure I had his full attention, I snapped them.
"Well look at you," I sneered. "Don't you just look charming in peasant clothes!"
He looked down and saw the rags he was now wearing. "What... you... no-" He shouted, or tried do as his voice faded away, until it was gone completely. I had taken his voice, the only way he might try and explain who and what he was and was not. In his fury he was about to run at me when two more soldiers broke down the door. Without waiting for any explanation, not that they would have received one, and not able to see me, they grabbed him by the arms, and hauled him away, kicking and screaming silently. I waved at him slyly.
Slowly, I went towards the body that lay, growing cold and stiff on the ground. I thought for a moment, letting my mind wander for a while, thinking quietly. Them, I smiled, and placed one foot on Kamose's back. I lifted my light body and stood on top of him, like he was some macabre pedestal.
"I've seen the future," I said to the world in general, or perhaps to the departed spirit of the man below me. "There's a song... will be a song anyway... I never sang before for anyone. But I think this song... it is appropriate in a way. Consider it my ode to you, my /friend/."
And I sang softly:
"He loved me only as a mad man could
Stronger than vodka and thicker than blood
Said he loved me, loved me, loved me, loved me, loved me
You don't love me, love me, love me, love me, love me"
"Cause it's hard to dance
With the Devil on you back
It's hard to dance
With the Devil on your back"
"He loved me only as a mad man could
Love like blood, sweet like vodka
When he came his life flashed before his eyes
I don't know if he wanted me
Dead or alive"
"Cause it's hard to dance With the Devil on you back
It's hard to dance
With the Devil on your back"
When the song was over, I dissolved my body and reappeared in my realm, the realm I had neglected for the past ten years. Once there, I allowed my cold exterior to crumble just a little, and allowed a silent tear to fall down my cheek.
That was the only sorrow I allowed myself to display, even just to myself, for centuries.
*******
***A bit of a twisted ending there, sorry. Flame if you want, I don't care. Make it constructive though. It might as well mean something right? Love all my reviewers! ^_^***
Note: Good to be back writing again! I missed this fic. I hope this chapter goes down well. Angsty! Yay!
Resurrecting the Shadow of Memories
A Shadow of Destiny Fanfic
"Farewell my fallen idol and a false friend. One by one I've watched illusions shatter."
For a while at least I was happy, knowing that I was in a family who appreciated me, even if most of them didn't really know what I was. I was still wary of my emotions, but felt more able to express myself, and my fondness for each member of the family.
With Kamose, I became far more open with him than ever before. I allowed myself to reveal intimate details of my life before being summoned by him. Things I had not dared tell him before. He listened carefully, looking at me not with pity, which I despised, but a sympathy that I found comforting. At such an old age, the two of us had more in common than ever before. Kamose's body was weak and frail; the slightest physical effort was enough to bring on a fit of choking coughs that hurt my ears to hear. But his mind was as fresh at it had been the day I met him. Trapped inside a decaying body, he could understand to some degree why I so hated my own weak, fragile one.
But things were well enough for the time being. There was no problem when Ra's wife came to live with us. She was constantly reassured that I was safe and would not hurt her and finally she settled for, like Kamose's wide, staying out of my way as much as possible. I didn't mind too much. Some people were just like that I supposed, unable and unwilling to accept anything that threatened their secure little lives. I was happy to have the few people around me who appreciated my company.
It was a few months later that the worst thing imaginable happened.
The roman soldiers seemed to just suddenly appear in the quiet town. They were marching towards Alexandria, under the orders of the Emperor, pillaging everything they came across, and mercilessly slaughtering anyone who tried to prevent them taking what they wanted. Their mission became clear when, looking outside the window, I saw observed the demise of several humans who I did not know personally, but could identify.
"They have come to put down another rebellion by the Jews?" Isis asked, panicked.
"There is no rebellion," I said acidly. "This is revenge. You humans don't let matters rest do you? You'd think one bloody massacre would be enough." I growled in my throat. I did not like my peace, for the peace of those I cared for, being interrupted. "I would advise you not to look." So saying, I drew the crude curtains across. But I was not able to block out the screams from the wretched mortals outside. Isis did her best, covering her ears with her hands, but I could see that this wasn't enough.
We were both astonished to see Kamose and his wife suddenly enter the room, carrying large bundles of clothes and a few precious possessions. Ra followed them with his own wife, carrying a huge chest of the family treasure that had been hidden in a panel in one of the cellar walls.
"We are leaving?" Isis asked.
"I'm afraid we must," Kamose said, his voice hoarser than ever from worry and the sudden efforts he was putting on his frail body. But I was confused.
"Why must we leave?" I asked. "We pose no threat to these soldiers."
"They are Christians, Homunculus," he said hurriedly. "They consider the Egyptians heathens. And they despise people who practice alchemy. The say it is witchcraft."
I wanted to laugh at the irony of that comment. But the situation was too serious for that.
"You don't honestly expect them to just let you go, do you?" I said. "They will kill you as soon as you leave this house. You would do better to stay inside and hope they pass you by."
Kamose shook his head, and I frowned at the emotion in his eyes. Was that guilt I saw there?
"No. I have made arrangements. We are to be escorted out of the town to a safe place."
"Arrangements?" I asked warily. "What kind of arrangements?"
Before Kamose could draw a breath to answer me the door was thrown open and three of the Roman soldiers entered with swords and shields held in front of them. I rounded on them instantly. I didn't care if the whole family would be forced to watch me kill these men. I wasn't going to let anyone touch them. I readied a spell to send these foolish men flying back against the nearest wall, and released it.
I heard the women behind me scream in a painful unison, but I could only watch in disbelief as my spell dissolved before it even touched the men before me. My eyes widened in shock as I realised these men were all wearing amulets made to protect themselves from magic. A djinn's magic. /My/ magic.
But no one knew how to block my magic. No one in the world except myself and...
"Kamose," I whispered in horror, not daring to turn away from these men. "What... what have you done?"
"I am sorry, my friend," he said sadly. I whirled around now, and saw the pain in his eyes. "I had to be done. I had no other choice."
"What did you do!" I almost screamed at him, my body shaking with fear unlike anything I had ever felt before.
"Is this it?"
The voice of one of the soldiers interrupted us, and my trembling only worsened as I realised the 'it' he was referring to was me.
Kamose nodded, not meeting my eye anymore. "Yes." He waved Ra forward with the box of treasures. I stared at it, knowing what it contained as well as money.
"Where's this stone?"
"In the chest, with everything else we can afford to give you."
"No," I whispered. "No, Kamose what are you doing?" I took a step towards him. "You didn't. Please tell me you didn't."
"I'm sorry," was all he seemed able to say to me.
"You /sold/ me?" I cried. The overwhelming sense of betrayal welled up inside me and I felt sobs threaten to tear my body to pieces with their intensity. "You sold me like a piece of... like a trinket!" I began shouting through tears now. "YOU SOLD ME LIKE I WAS NOTHING!"
"Homunculus you are far from being nothing to any of us," Kamose said as firmly as he could manage. "But you were the price of my family's safety. That means everything to me."
"Am I not part of this family?" I screamed at him. "I've been here for ten years. I would have stayed for longer! Forever! You said you appreciated me! You said I was almost human! You made me..."
I couldn't finish my words. How could I speak that horrible contradiction? That he and his family had made me feel happy and loved, when now I felt like just a piece of their treasure chest, something to be used up and then discarded. How could they do this to me? I loved them. I thought they loved me! How could they?
"How could you?"
"Father!"
Isis was crying now too, and screaming in concert with me. She didn't want to leave me behind. It wasn't fair.
"Isis you don't understand-"
"Father, we can't do this to him!" she cried. "It's terrible. How could you? He's like your son. And he's an angel! How could you do that to an angel?"
I stared at the young woman I adored so much through bleary eyes. I was so glad that she was defending me, that she at least was innocent of this treachery. She had stayed true to me.
The sound of one of the soldiers laughing behind me tore me from my thoughts.
"That thing? An angel?" He and his companions laughed at Isis, and I wanted to kill them. I wanted so badly to kill them so that they wouldn't continue laughing, and wouldn't expose my secret to Isis and the others. I looked at Kamose, pleading silently for this one secret to be kept, so that their memories of me were not tainted.
//Tear me away from those I love,// I spoke to him in his mind. //But don't make them hate me. Not just so it's easier for them to say goodbye. If I ever needed a favour of you, it is this only. All is forgiven otherwise. Just don't let them tell...//
But it was too late.
"I think, girl, you've gotten a little mixed up there," the soldier continued harshly. "Your father practices witchcraft, and this is his little devil-servant."
"Oh God," I said aloud. Of all the ways they could have described me, it could not possibly have been worse than that. Far from calling me simple, mischievous djinn, I was now a servant of their religion's embodiment of evil. I was a devil. I was evil, and I could see the disbelief in Isis' face as she realised the truth of it, even despite her feelings for me.
"A devil?" She moaned. "Oh no. Father it's not true. Homunculus please." But I could say nothing to her. Rendered dumb by grief, I could only listen as Kamose did the precise opposite of what I had begged him to do.
"Yes, Isis," he said, sadly. "He is a devil."
I sank to my knees on the floor. I crouched there, pouring out my soul's horror in my sobs and my cries. "Please," I begged, humiliating myself and for once in my life not caring. "Please don't do this! Don't send me away. Take it back, please."
"I'm sorry, Homunculus," Kamose said. "I have to do this for my family."
"I'm family," I cried. "I'm family! I loved you. I loved all of you and now you do this to me. Isis please," I turned to beg the young girl in one final desperate effort. "Don't let them do this." I reached out towards her, and she did the worst thing imaginable.
She screamed.
"Isis-"
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" She screamed as loudly as she could, and before I could make another move she was at her father's side, standing close to him for protection. Protection from me. I lowered my head and sobbed uncontrollably. Ashamed and utterly alone again, but it was not like the wonderful contentedness I had felt when I had first been free from my creator. I was alone; having experienced betrayal at the hand of those I loved and trusted.
For the second time humans had taken my soul and shaped it to their will, spinning me in their web of deceit, making me so certain of what I knew and what I felt, only to shatter my hopes, my dreams and all that I believed in. I had trusted these humans and they and thrown it back in my face. And now they were throwing me into the shackles of slavery again. And somehow I couldn't hate them for it. I still loved them because I didn't know what else to feel anymore. I had been tricked into love and trust and now I was utterly defenceless when I should have been hurling a spell to send them all into oblivion. Why couldn't I hate them? Or why couldn't I just not feel anything at all? Wouldn't that be so much easier? I didn't even know if I had a soul. Do things without souls have real feelings? Was everything I had experienced with these humans just a lie?
I clenched my hands into fists. I tried to draw everything inside me, my pain, my sense of betrayal, everything I now felt into one single emotion. I wanted nothing but to hate the human race and everything about them. I was strong. My mind was strong. I could hate them. All I had to do was try.
Above me I heard human voices.
"What can it do?"
"You'll have to find out. We don't have the time to explain. We must leave now, before more soldiers arrive. Show us to safety now."
"What do we do with it then?"
"I don't know! It was made as a servant. Treat it as one!"
I felt something inside me snap suddenly at these words, hurriedly and foolishly spoken by the man who had only recently caused me his 'friend'. What an idiot I had been to believe him. But I would never make the same mistake again, and I was not going to let that bastard leave without some token of appreciation. Appreciation for reminding me that humans were the most dishonest species on the earth. Worse than my kind could ever be.
My kind. I was no longer interested in being human, or anything remotely like a human. I was a demon. A powerful djinn. And they would find out just how powerful.
"Kamose," I called out in a voice that would have chilled even the bravest. I heard the footsteps behind me stop, and knew he had turned to look back at me. I knew I had his attention completely. "Thank you."
"For what?" he asked, fear in ever syllable.
I turned, and smiled. "For making me cold again, as my creator once told me I should be." I felt my smile widen. "I suppose if I had a heart it would be stone now, thanks to you."
Kamose looked at me, uncertain of what to say. "Homunculus..."
"Allow me to return the favour," I said, and blinked once.
I don't know why I did it. It was wrong of me to do something to terrible to him. But all I felt at that moment was anger and contempt for those who stop before me, and all the rest of the world. I wanted to show them what fools they were. I wanted them to mourn the day they ever betrayed me. I wanted revenge.
I watched the man I had once though of as a father clutch at his chest. His heart, now slowly becoming stone, was no longer pumping blood to his body. He was dying very slowly. I wanted him to die very slowly. I wanted to show him things. I forced my way into his dying mind and found all the horrid memories he had hidden away; I forced them to the forefront of his brain. I drew the images out from him and played a disgusting montage before the eyes of his entire family. The children that his wife had given birth to, the ones who had died, all pale and sick, dying once again in front of his eyes as he himself passed on to heaven or hell. I hoped for the latter. The bastard deserved it as much as I did.
Finally his brain stopped functioning as his heart had done, he slumped to the ground, his lifeless body hitting the floor with a resounding, anticlimactic thud that made me chuckle in my malevolent hatred. I watched as a pool of blood that had been forced up from his broken lungs spilled out across the floor. I smiled, and then raised my head to the other lesser beings, staring at my wilful destruction in terror and disgust.
"Any volunteers to go next?" I asked casually.
"Take them!" One of the soldiers said, pushing the others behind him. "I'll handle this thing. I'm protected and it can't hurt me."
I waited a moment, until the others were well and truly gone from the place. I didn't care that they had left me behind anymore. They were not worth my time. When I was certain they were gone, I regarded the sturdy, tough looking soldier before me.
"Come on, demon," he said, tauntingly. "Give me your worst magic. I'll face anything you have coming."
I shook my head. "Tsk tsk tsk. You humans. Always so self-assured. So certain nothing can ever touch you. Where did you get the amulet from, hmm? Did Kamose show it to you?"
"Never you mind that," he snarled.
"But I don't mind really," I said with disdain. "I only asked. It doesn't matter anyway. You'll die whichever way things go."
"You bluff, demon."
"What makes you so certain?"
"My amulet protects me from you."
"Oh no!" I cried out. "Oh dear. What shall I do? Oh I'm at you mercy! Someone save me. Wah wah wah!" My sarcasm shook the soldier's faith in his protection. I smiled at his stupidity, and watched over his shoulder. "Does it protect you from him then?" I asked
The soldier's eyes widened and he spun around to see another soldier, not one of his former companions, standing in the doorway. There was something about his eyes that frightened the Roman. They looked... glazed, somehow.
Before the soldier could do or say anything, the newcomer had reached forward and torn the shining amulet from his neck. Now that he had the amulet, I could no longer control him, but I controlled the door, which slammed shut in his face, conveniently rendering him unconscious. The soldier turned back towards me, the eyes beneath his helmet wide with ear at what he knew was coming.
I saw into his thoughts and grinned. "Oh don't worry. Kamose was the one to hurt me. I gave him a painful, creative death." I regarded the body on the floor with cool contempt. "You on the other hand, presumed to make me a slave. It's so strange what men will force other being to do. Things they consider lesser beings suffer so much at their hands. Even other humans suffer. I watched slaves working in Alexandria one night. They have to work at night sometimes. I wonder... would you be so willing to make slaves of others... if you knew what being a slave was like?"
The Roman stared in horror. A soldiers sense of honour was as important to him as serving his country and Emperor. To be disgraced, treated as a slave, would be the worst thing possible. Slowly and deliberately, I raised my fingers and, when I was sure I had his full attention, I snapped them.
"Well look at you," I sneered. "Don't you just look charming in peasant clothes!"
He looked down and saw the rags he was now wearing. "What... you... no-" He shouted, or tried do as his voice faded away, until it was gone completely. I had taken his voice, the only way he might try and explain who and what he was and was not. In his fury he was about to run at me when two more soldiers broke down the door. Without waiting for any explanation, not that they would have received one, and not able to see me, they grabbed him by the arms, and hauled him away, kicking and screaming silently. I waved at him slyly.
Slowly, I went towards the body that lay, growing cold and stiff on the ground. I thought for a moment, letting my mind wander for a while, thinking quietly. Them, I smiled, and placed one foot on Kamose's back. I lifted my light body and stood on top of him, like he was some macabre pedestal.
"I've seen the future," I said to the world in general, or perhaps to the departed spirit of the man below me. "There's a song... will be a song anyway... I never sang before for anyone. But I think this song... it is appropriate in a way. Consider it my ode to you, my /friend/."
And I sang softly:
"He loved me only as a mad man could
Stronger than vodka and thicker than blood
Said he loved me, loved me, loved me, loved me, loved me
You don't love me, love me, love me, love me, love me"
"Cause it's hard to dance
With the Devil on you back
It's hard to dance
With the Devil on your back"
"He loved me only as a mad man could
Love like blood, sweet like vodka
When he came his life flashed before his eyes
I don't know if he wanted me
Dead or alive"
"Cause it's hard to dance With the Devil on you back
It's hard to dance
With the Devil on your back"
When the song was over, I dissolved my body and reappeared in my realm, the realm I had neglected for the past ten years. Once there, I allowed my cold exterior to crumble just a little, and allowed a silent tear to fall down my cheek.
That was the only sorrow I allowed myself to display, even just to myself, for centuries.
*******
***A bit of a twisted ending there, sorry. Flame if you want, I don't care. Make it constructive though. It might as well mean something right? Love all my reviewers! ^_^***