Another Time – Another World
AN: Please note this: I was very hesitant to post the chapter as it is. Please tell me if you sopot any errors. This might be a little disturbing to some people. I would like to thank everyone so much for the reviews, I very much enjoy reading what ya'll think. Enjoy.
Chapter Eight:
It was dark. Darker than the night sky longing for its absent moon. The air was heavy and muggy from moisture and mold. That musty old smell of a place rarely used permeated the surroundings and mixed with the smell of dirt, blood, vomit, human feces, and rot and decay to form a truly putrid odor. A single drop of some leak of some unseen crack of the rough stone ceiling and walls sounded in the eeriest of silences every few seconds.
Drip.
It was a filthy, disgusting, vile place. Unfit for human habitation for any length of time. It was a place infested-
Drip.
-with rats, spiders, and corpses.
However, there was a single, living soul in this rancid place. His company only the vermin and rotting human remains. And maggots, one couldn't forget the maggots that could be seen crawling over the rotting corpses. Oh, and of course his occasional friendly torturer. Those visits were always full of surprises.
Drip.
Hylas was chained to the wall. Strung up like a cruel imitation of a marionette cuffed up to the crumbling stone wall. His already slender form was skeletal, but not so thin enough that he could slip through the shackles. The metal restraints shrank as his bones became more prominent.
He had begun vomiting up the food after they forced it down his throat. Starving was better than ingesting the hodgepodge of potions and poisons they were feeding him. He had learned that the hard way.
Drip.
His once lovely vibrant red locks remained as long as ever, nearly touching the floor, a feat his feet couldn't accomplish. However, his hair was filthy, with chunks of his own vomit and blood twisted in the crimson strands. They had lost their luster because of the lack of nutrients received.
Drip.
Between the bouts of crucios and various other forms of torture, Hylas had been aware enough to realize that the sick monsters that had captured him had left scars, purposeful ones marring nearly every inch of his skin, except his face. Apparently, they wanted him to be recognizable even after they were finished with him.
Drip.
The duration of his imprisonment was unclear to him. Time had decreased in importance in his dulled senses. All that marked time was the single meal that was brought to him once a day – or what he perceived to be a day – that he rid from himself immediately. For all he knew, he might have been in this dungeon for a few days, or months, or possibly years; he was very much unsure.
Drip.
In the beginning, he had cried out from the pain and suffering (something he was ashamed of because he detested crying in front of people). Begging to be released (he missed Nigel's hugs and fashion advice and the way he cared. He missed the twins' jokes and how they messed with his hair and their study sessions. He cried for them and he cried for his parents.). This had only made his torturers more cruel and gleeful at the vocalization of his pain. He had learned to force himself not to cry.
Drip.
It had been such a happy day, for the monsters, when he had had his first coughing fit in their presence. As coughs violently racked his frame they had plugged his nose and covered his mouth. He had not been able to breathe and he had clawed and struggled futility as he feared he was going to drown in his own blood.
Drip.
At a point they had tried to interrogate him, which failed because he knew nothing. And his bracelet kept them from entering his mind as well as telling them anything really interesting that he did know. They had tried very…unpleasant ways of trying to remove the magic bracelet (though they didn't know exactly what it did) and he was, he supposed, lucky to still have his hand attached.
Drip.
He had been poisoned, tortured, scarred, and humiliated. He had been torn form those he cared about, for the second time in his life. He was constantly ill in this prison, and he believed that he had gone slightly mad. Though, how was one able to determine madness while they were surrounded by madmen?
Drip.
Not that it really mattered. Not anymore anyway. He had been informed on his last visit that his existence was about to expire.
Just lovely.
They came for him. All cloaked in their black robes and cowardly white masks. The least the bastards could do was show him the faces of his tormentors, and by god, he was sounding like the twins.
Anyway, two of them released him from his wall and gripped his arms tightly, forcing him to remain upward; he had almost collapsed on his weak legs upon being released. He was drug to an upper room and strapped to a stone slab table that was surrounded by cloaked figures and burning candles.
Fear began to knot in the pit of his stomach, coiling there and growing as each second passed.
Voldemort, who he had seen several times during his torture sessions, leaned his serpent visage over Hylas. "Harry Potter. The so called savior of the wizarding world. Such high expectations for such a pathetic weak child. No matter. You won't have to fulfill any such thing any longer." The mockery of a man spoke in a whispered, chilling hiss, his eyes glowing a most unnatural red. His words a deadly promise.
Hylas's fears grew into full desperate panic. He didn't want to die! Not like this! Not in this world, not on his own! Not alone in the cradle of enemies that weren't even supposed to be his!
Someone, anyone! Help me, save me! I'll do anything, just please God! Don't let me parish here!
It was most certainly not God who answered his plea.
Marthim had long grown weary. Souls of the corrupt just weren't as appealing to him now as they were in his younger days. Yes, he supposed he could track down the soul of a good and pure human (he was disgusted at the very thought), just for the change in his monotonous diet. But, he had done that before and it had left him no more satisfied than his normal fare. He wanted something new, something with some flavor, for a change.
When he was contemplating what he should do he was summoned.
Maybe this one would be different. He sincerely doubted it.
Marthim arrived in a swirl of darkness, and anyone who had been looking too closely would have seen the form of a serpent before he morphed into a human shape. Surveying the scene (really nothing he hadn't seen before in all his years) he found the little red haired female that was obviously the one who had called him forth. She was terribly thin and a right mess; not appearing to be at all appetizing, and for a moment he contemplated leaving, then he caught a whiff of the most delectable aroma that he had smelled in years.
Magic.
How delicious. Magic was another form of life energy that demons could acquire sustenance from, however, it was rare in the world that most demons stuck to frequenting (and that was because not all demons could travel to other dimension, and Marthim was one of the few who could. He could go anywhere he desired.) He had never personally tasted magic, but he had heard rumors from the absolute ancient demons of Hell that it was delicious. He had to have it. The only problem with eating magic, though is that you had to get the human's permission to do it, and while most magic enhanced humans had little reservations about selling their souls, just the mention of taking their magic, so he had heard, was enough to make them refuse to make a deal. So instead of trying to eat everyone in the room (because, damn it he just had to have been summoned into a room filled with magic humans and he only had a shot of maybe eating only one's and that was only if he got her to agree) he decided to get on the suddenly scrumptious sliver of a girl's good side.
He appeared by the girls side, ignoring the other humans in the room and deflecting the spells that they had begun casting at him. How terribly rude. Anyway he looked in the girl's fearful eyes and smiled as he proposed his deal. "Hello child. It seems you've summoned me." His mouth spread into wicked grin. "I'll do as you wish, as long as you allow me to drain your magic. Oh, not enough to kill you, just agree to a once a month meal, and I'll do as you desire for the rest of your mortal life."
Her reply came much faster than Marthim had anticipated. It was almost if the girl didn't even have to think about giving up her magic to feed a demon, because if he drain her practically dry it would take a month for the magic to replenish itself and return to normal levels.
"Deal. Now get me out of here." The child, that Marthim just realized was a male demanded.
"So...you don't want me to splatter their innards on the ground?" Marthim asked curiously.
"Let them live, though I truly detest saying so. Their existence will pose useful against an enemy of mine. I want to be rid of this accursed bracelet and I wish to go home." Said the child viciously.
Marthim liked how this human thought. He destroyed the bracelet and found that a new sent was floating around the child and at once it was obvious the little red head wasn't of this world. He recognized his origins of the world that most of his kind was confined to, after a few moments he was able to pinpoint the exact location of where the child had come from before he came to the current world he was in.
This was going to be simple, just one more thing to clear up.
"Where would you like the contract seal. Keep in mind child that the more visible it is the stronger the bond between you and I." Marthim said.
"My throat."
"Excellent." Marthim hissed. He gripped the child's throat in a tight hold, even as the body shook and quivered as the contract was put into place. "Now master, what is your command?"
"Take me home!" Said the boy in a rasping yell.
"As you wish." Marthim snapped his fingers and below his little master a ruin circle appeared, glowing purple and his master began to vanish. "I'll meet you later little master." He said as the form was completely gone. A few moments later so was the demon from that dimension.
Leaving a very confused gaggle of death eaters and one very angry Dark Lord.
AN: So...yeah. Anyway I'm looking for a beta reader for this story, A Different Shade of Green, and a couple of stories I've yet to post, if anyone is interested please pm me, thanks.
Please tell me what you think.