Darkness is Ever Present
Author's Note: The characters in the tome of the eternal darkness belong to the game, in addition so the ghosts. This is an explanation of my alteration to the storyline.
Chapter 13:4 – Reality hits
'Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.' –William Shakespeare
Seamus' mind had been tormented with nightmares ever since he had met Alex. 'Maybe the two things are linked.' He mused, staring at the ceiling of his bedroom. 'No! That's ridiculous!' He rolled onto his side. Although he was trying to sleep, he was not that desperate because he knew he would only wake in a cold sweat yet again –not particularly the nicest of experiences.
'Seamus…' The echoic voice of a woman called to him.
He sat upright. The hair on the back of his neck was on end and his breath misted up in front of him.
'Lindsey…' Another voice, male this time, called to him.
The ghostly figures appeared in front of him. The two stood before him; from their clothes he could tell that they were Arabic. The veiled woman was holding a book for him.
'Take it!' Ordered the man. 'It will aid you in fighting this darkness! Good luck!'
The ghosts vanished. Seamus blinked a few times and would have thought it a dream if it was not for the heavy tome lying on his lap. It was covered with a wrinkled leathery material and bound with what appeared to be human bones. There was a glowing purple rune on the front which was surrounded by shrunken human skulls with eyes that were, if he was seeing clearly, blinking.
He opened it up and random images flashed through his mind. First of a centurion becoming the herald of an insidious ancient; a dancing girl taking one of Mantarok's heart's into her body and is subsequently murdered by the centurion; then of a messenger boy becoming zombie-like and then dying at Charlemagne's feet; the man whose ghost he had just seen was formally a protector of a ancients essence and the woman had forced him to be so; then Maximillion Roivas a colonist whose brush with the ancients had left him an invalid in a mental asylum; the next chapter was of his father – Edwin Lindsey an archeologist who had uncovered a Cambodian temple and found a heart of Mantarok.
Seamus was outraged. His father had never mentioned this artifact or even his brush with ancients. For a while he was so annoyed that he could not read. However he anger subsided and curiosity got the better of him.
He opened the tome again and the images started where they had left off. The next chapter was about a monk who was on pilgrimage to see the hand of Jude during the time of the Inquisition, who happened to stumble upon a guardian protecting a Ancient's essence and resulted in his demise; then it was an architect during the mid-15th century who was sacrificed by being cemented in a pillar of flesh along with countless others; Next was a journalist in the first world war staying in a cathedral near the Somme, he came across the guardian protecting the essence, slay the beast then took the artifact.
The next story was about Edward Roivas – Alex's grandfather. Cogs were churning in Seamus' mind, things were starting to connect yet he could not make any assumption since he did not know the entire story. Edward Roivas had inherited his father's mansion in the year 1952 A.D and had uncovered steps to a hidden city under the mansion. The city was En'gha, a place where many had perished thousands of years ago. The place was devoid of life, save that of the shambling corpses, guardians and horrors which roamed the area. Edward had activated a Magickal spell which had wiped out all the undead creatures. In response to this – a slow one at that – Pious Augustus the Liche ordered a guardian to murder Edward 48 years after the event took place. Roivas was beheaded by the beast and no clues were left as to whom the killer might be. Seamus did the math and worked out that he was killed roughly around late April 2000 – eight months earlier.
'My God!' He thought, raising his head. 'I wonder if she knows of this!'
Once more he looked back at the tome and the images resumed; this time it was an American Firefighter who uncovered the temple of the Ancients under the sand when a freak wave of magickal energy enhanced the affect of the bomb, opening a chasm. After miraculously surviving the fall, he explored the temple. The ghost of the architect gave him an ancient's essence and told him to destroy the accursed place. The firefighter came across a strange Magickal abyss that glowed with a purple light. He exploded this with a bomb and hastily fled as it counted down. A few months later in New York, he arranged to see Dr. Roivas and gave him the essence before fleeing from the guardian sent to destroy him.
The next image was of Alex – in his surprise he dropped the book shut, so the visions stopped. Seamus quickly snatched up the book feverish to read more. Two weeks after inheriting the Mansion from her grandfather Alex had stumbled upon the tome in a secret room. She had read the stories of the chosen few destined to fight the darkness and had found she was the 'Guardian of Light,' the final hope for humanity. She had uncovered two of the relics herself - Mantarok's heart and along with Xel'lotath's essence. The last one, the claw of Chat'turgha was delivered by a vampire.
With the three essences both Alex and the vampire – Gemma set off down into the hidden city and opened a portal to where Pious was finishing the summoning spell for the Ancient Ulyoath. Alex and Pious fought, while Gemma watched on, occasionally helping Alex whenever she fell by attacking Pious, giving Alex enough time to heal herself. At other times she would curse at the slow spirits (Bianchi!) helping Alex to get a move on with their "vengeance".
Eventually Pious fell and started to give a speech. Alex held his staff above his chest waiting for the opportune moment to thrust it in.
'…no, my death is just the beginning…' Pious warned.
'What do you mean?' Alex demanded.
The vampire was growing impatient with both of them. 'Just give it to me!' She said snatching the staff from her hands.
'No! I want to kill him! Just wait 'till he's finished his bit!' Alex grabbed at the staff.
Gemma moved the staff out of Alex's reach, but accidentally plunged it into Pious' chest in the process.
'Aggghh!' Pious cried. A beam of light came out of his chest and his body became lifeless.
'You idiot! I was waiting to hear what he said!' Alex yelled.
'It was only empty threats! I know him well enough!'
'It might have been important! Now that information is lost to us forever and it's your entire fault!' Alex prodded Gemma in the stomach with her enchanted gladius.
The spirit of Edward Roivas appeared; partly to warn Alex that the ancient she had summoned was still loose, and partly from stopping their argument from becoming a brawl. However it was apparent that Alex could not pull the ancient back, so Edward vanished and decided to do it himself – by casting a spell on one of the magick enhancing towers in En'gha.
Meanwhile, Alex left the gate way via the portal and left Gemma to dispose of her maker as she saw fit. Gemma decided to bury Pious in her private cemetery in England and so flew back with the body. As she was just about to throw Pious unceremoniously in a whole she had dug earlier, her brother turned up with another male corpse. The two thought it funny to place the bodies in sexual positions, an amusement which lasted for hours until Pious' arm fell off. In their final act of desecration they dressed them as transvestites before placing them in the single grave one on top of the other.
Alex had returned to her studies at her university as if saving the world was nothing exceptional. Admittedly her dreams were full of distorted and terrifying images.
'That's it!' Seamus was outraged. 'It can't end like that! What a damn anti-climax!'
He flicked over to the next page. The only writing on it was the title of the next chapter – 'The Darkness is Ever Present,' along with the year –'2000 A.D' and the location 'Seattle.' Below was an old, black and white picture of himself with the tome in his hands. It appeared that the author was waiting to write his chapter until his story was ended.
He placed the book underneath his bed to stop any of his friends discovering it. He lay back in his bed and pondered upon its contents until sleep took hold of his fatigued body.