He awoke to excruciating pain. His eyes strained to find light but could find none. Darkness enveloped him. Darkness with fangs. He was suspended in the air vertically, his arms and legs outstretched. There were hooks protruding from his wrists and ankles and attached to these hooks were chains that were anchored to the blackness. Occasionally the darkness tug on the chains and his body tensed as he was pulled in all directions. The hooks seemed to sometimes tear from his skin but despite the pulling never did. He grind his teeth as he was pulled and clenched his jaw. He would not show weakness to whatever adversary bound him.
Before him, out of the darkness, a mouth appeared. Its lips slipped open and sharp fangs bore down in front of him. Drool dripped from these fangs and the mouth positioned into a grin as the blackness tugged on the chains. He winced.
"Who are you?" Chris asked.
The mouth seemed to move towards his left as the blackness remained stationary. It closed but its lips were visible. The mouth fell from his view when suddenly from his right the fangs reappeared.
"I have been called many names," the mouth said in a raspy, deep baritone voice, "What would you like to call me?"
"I don't care!" Chris cried.
He yearned to be free from these shackles, from this pain. He tried to call for help but none ever came. He was left here to defend himself and he didn't know what he was up against.
"You have such pain, such sorrow. It will be your undoing. I sense great hate in you, such great emanating hatred. Why do you hate him so? Eh?" The voice taunted.
"Why I hate Wyatt is my business and mine alone," Chris said.
"Not him," The voice said, "The Elder. Your soul is full of spite for the Elder. Was it his abandonment? Was it his lack of concern? Eh? Tell me!"
"I will not tell you anything!" Chris said.
The words emanating from this mouth stung him deeply. These were truths he had been unable to face, truths he had carried since he was a child. Leo was never there for him, never sought to help his youngest son. He was always in search of Wyatt, the eldest and better more powerful son. Chris couldn't bear to face the reality that was being thrown in his face.
"The brother, Wyatt is it?" The voice said, "Such envy I feel. You covet your brother yet at the same time abhor him. What was it like to kill Abel, Cain? Eh? What was it like to slaughter your brother? In the marshes of the delta you laid him to rest but he did not slumber long, did he? You want to follow him, to help him. What restrains your boy, eh? What conscious holds you back?"
"Stop it!" Chris cried.
This was far too much for him to handle. He had to be free of these restraints. He tugged on the chains and winced in pain as his wrists were pulled. If he had to tear his wrists apart he would in an attempt to escape.
"You cannot flee from me, boy!" the voice said, "You fear me not from a desire to survive but from a desire to shy away from your past. Your cowardice is pitiful. You cannot hide behind altruism; your thoughts are my thoughts. Stop fighting me."
As is a probe had been prompted in his mind Chris' memories spilt forth. Like a screen in the darkness he saw aspects of his life he had tried to forget.
When he was seven, immediately after Piper's and his aunts' apparent deaths, he sat in the funeral home next to Leo and Wyatt. He didn't know what to make of it all. His mother was dead. The person he relied on more than anyone in the world has passed on and he didn't know how he should feel. He sat to Leo's left on the pew and Wyatt sat to his right. Chris began to ask Leo where his mother went, what happened to her soul. He knew they were special beings but his young mind still could not grasp the certainty of death.
Leo sat motionless in the pew. His eyes were focused on his dead wife lying before him in her casket. Chris tugged on his coat, insistent on answers to his questions. Suddenly Leo grabbed him by the arm. He pulled Chris towards him and told him to beware magic in all shapes and forms or he would lie next to his mother under the earth. Chris pulled himself free from his father's grasp and watched as Leo returned to his motionless state.
When he was nine, right after Wyatt had runaway from Grandpa Victor's home, Leo came down to see him. Seldom would his father descend to check on him but he hoped he would stay for awhile; it was his birthday. Leo arrived haggardly; he had been searching for Wyatt for weeks without end. He had no idea it was his son's birthday and only arrived to check with Victor about any word from Wyatt.
Upon seeing Leo, Chris ran towards his father and hugged him. He began inundating Leo with thanks for coming but Leo's mind seemed elsewhere. Leo told him that he couldn't stay and had urgent business to attend to, namely searching for Wyatt. He made no mention of Chris' birthday and immediately orbed our of Victor's home when he realized no one had heard from Wyatt. Chris was despondent and fell into Victor's arms with tears streaming down his face. This was the moment Chris began to realize that his father had abandoned him.
When he was fourteen Chris had been caught stealing a car. His friends at Magic School had urged him to do it and not being one to back down he orbed into a red Ferrari. He had no idea how to drive but luckily he found the keys in the ignition. He knew enough to turn, gas it and go so off he sped onto the San Francisco streets. He pushed ninety when he was pulled over by the police, but not before he took out a few mailboxes in the attempt to stop. Fearful of being caught he orbed out of the car as the officers approached the vehicle.
When he orbed into his room at Victor's he found a very displeased father and grandfather waiting for him. Victor went and hugged him before shaking a finger at him. Leo asked Victor to grant them a few moments. When Victor closed the door Leo went into hysterics. He warned Chris about using his powers in public and that the Elders had bore down on him when they realized he almost showed the officers his orbing. He went on about the responsibility he had in ensuring he did not expose magic to the masses and how incredibly disappointed he was in this stunt. He described how Wyatt never had disappointed him so.
The words broke his heart. His brother, Leo's son who had fled away from the chaos, was cherished more than him. In Leo's mind Wyatt could do no wrong and Chris could only err in stupidity. Chris walked towards his father and struck him across the face. Chris glared at Leo insolently until Leo orbed out of the room. Since then relations had been weak and cordial at best.
The visions ceased and the darkness continued to pervade his sight. The links that bound him suddenly fell and he was suspended in the air of his own volition. He looked to his ankles and wrists and saw no signs of the hooks, no marks of any kind. The darkness seemed to flow in front of him, gathering into one large circular mass. Where the darkness once was an empty void seemed to exist. It had no color, was not light or dark; it just was. The dark mass condensed into the size of an apple and the mouth once again revealed itself, except much smaller than before.
"You've cast down the shackles of your past, boy," the voice said, "You must face the foes that you've created in your life, in your mind. Your kindred wait for you but they cannot wait much longer. An evil looms on the horizon which threatens existence itself. You cannot face it until you've faced your inner demons. Only then will you have the means to defeat it."
Chris looked at the mass. He didn't know whether he faced a friend or foe but this being had somehow helped him. He felt lighter, well at ease.
"Asuzu?" Chris asked.
"Yes," the voice answered, "I have been called many names but that is my most ancient. Come. A task awaits you and we shall not delay it much further. The path will be long and difficult but you must overcome the hurdles to succeed."
Asuzu turned and before them a trail of highly reflected stones appeared. There was no ground that these stones were adhered to but rather they seemed to suspend in the void. Asuzu floated along this path a few feet and turned back in anticipation of Chris. Chris put forth his feet onto the first stone. Suddenly the lightness that he felt seemed to cascade down into a terrible burden, as if boulders were carried on his back.
"Come," Asuzu said, "That's only the first step. The burden grows as you proceed. Stay on one step too long and you'll become overwhelmed. Keep going."
Chris moved his left foot onto the next stone. As his right foot centered his body onto the step the burden intensified. He wasn't sure he could travel this path but he would try.