Ivan had mustered as much psyenergy as he could - he sensed that Isaac was strong, far stronger than the others. He had naturally assumed Isaac's mind would be warded; after all, Isaac would surely use that strength to protect himself.
Ivan was wrong, dead wrong.
He'd pushed too hard, though at first it seemed like it was going as was expected. Then Isaac did what, Ivan didn't know, Isaac did something, and pulled Ivan into his mind.
Isaac was complete darkness. Ivan couldn't hear, couldn't sense, couldn't even see his hands right in front of him. He didn't even know if he was on ground, he seemed to be floating.
An endless expanse of darkness. It was a labyrinth with no walls, and Ivan didn't know how to get out.
Tentatively he took a step forward; he didn't fall. No more reassured but a little more confident, he started walking. Where, he didn't know. For all that he knew, he could be walking in a circle.
And as he walked, he started to forget. Who was he? What was he supposed to be doing? It didn't matter; it was an endless journey of darkness.
Until he stumbled across a little boy, no more than six, he'd say. There was something in this darkness, and so he struggled to remember.
I... I am Ivan. I live under... Master Hammet's roof.
Why am I here?
He could see the little boy, giving off a faint glow, but not his own hands. A thought surged up in him. The rod!
The boy looked up, and his eyes were withdrawn, lost. A flickering of life came into the boy's eyes as he looked up in wonder at Ivan. Trembling fingers reached out, then drew back as if stung.
"Who... are you? No one's come to visit me in a very long time..."
Ivan blinked. "I'm Ivan," he said.
"Hello Ivan." The shrouded look in his eyes receded a little bit more. "Are you here to see me?"
"Sure," was Ivan's reply.
A small smile touched the boy's face. "No one ever wants to see me. I'm glad you do." He tugged on Ivan's shirt -How can he see my shirt?. "Do you want to see my favorite place?"
Completely confused by now, but unwilling to let go of this something that he'd finally found, Ivan said, "Ok."
A bright flash of light enveloped them, and the darkness melted away, into an almost blinding light. It was ice, Ivan realized, ice with the sunlight shining strong on it so that it seared people's eyes.
And yet... the people were simply strolling around, seemingly oblivious to both the chilling temperature and the harsh reflection of sunlight. And they were all paler than anything Ivan had seen, almost colorless, with blue hair.
Ivan felt a weight drop on his feet. A contented sigh rose from the boy.
"My favorite place in the world... Somewhere no one can hurt me... no one... can hurt me..."
As if on cue, a blue-haired woman walked over. Ivan was unsure of whether she was an apparition or not, but she didn't seem to be, wrapping her arms around the resting boy at his feet. He reached out a tentative hand.
And passed through bone-chilling air. Yelping, he jerked his hand back and stared aghast as the image flickered and vanished. The boy was startled out of his dreamy sleep and started bawling as he saw "Angel! Angel!" disappear.
Flames began to envelope Ivan, searing him with pain as he had never felt before. The child turned around, eyes blood red, and started walking towards him with slow steady steps; he seemed to grow bigger as he walked, and eventually stood towering over Ivan, with the flames encircling them, creating an arena of sorts.
"You took her away," he hissed. "You made her leave." The flames burned higher. "What did you do?!"
A jet of flame nearly jabbed Ivan in the eye, and he had to scramble out of the way as lightning and jagged spikes met each other. Panicking, he backed towards the flames. The boy advanced menacingly towards him.
"I-I don't know! All I did was try to touch her, and she-she disappear-"
Wrong answer. The child was screaming incoherently at him now, and throwing so many iced and flaming javelins at him Ivan barely even had time to think.
Eventually Ivan saw that he would have no choice, and started to run for his life, into the flames; he could very well be burned, but he would most definitely die if he stayed.
He felt pain as the flames shot up around him. Then anger, as they seemed to taunt him. Finally, despair - nothing could save him in this abode of hell.
As suddenly as they started raging, they disappeared. There was the blond child curled up in a ball, murmuring and crying.
"I want Mia back, I want Mia back..."
Shaken, Ivan decided the best course would be to leave. Of course, it should've been impossible, but something - the barriers of the boy's mind - had weakened enough for Ivan to break out with a pure burst of energy. The boy could come later. Survival was now the first-hand task.
Ivan awoke to the sound of the horses clopping by him, as well as a dizzy world. His eyes couldn't seem to focus, and started to swirl.
Finally, after determining that he was well enough to not throw up, he struggled to stand up. An icy hand on his arm pulled him up instead, to face the same blond boy he'd seen earlier, only taller. Much taller. Taller than Ivan by at least a head, which caused him great annoyance.
And fear from the penetrating blue eyes which bored into him. Eyes which were dull but shining, as if almost dead until a spark had revived them.
And astonishment, from the message that Isaac sent him with his mind - Why can't he just say it? - only it wasn't exactly a message. A picture, more like. All the same, Ivan understood what it meant.
"You'll really help me?"
Mm, to clarify, yes, poor Isaac. I can't do anything except for overdramatize, blah. And will it get better? Well, originally planned, this story wasn't going to, it was gonna be bad. Horrifically bad. Depends, though. I'm not good at happy endings. :/