Author's Note: And now begins the decent into hell, to meet an old acquaintance, and get some answers, and if you can't guess then it means I'm bringing Jackie back, so stay tuned, Darklings.
Chapter 5: Not In Kansas Anymore
When I open my eyes I'm falling, falling into an abyss of pure darkness, so I do the only natural thing, I scream, and scream, right up until the ground rushes up to meet me and I slam so hard into it, I get the breath knocked out of me, making a hilarious squeaking noise as I do so, incredulously though, I'm not injured, after lying there for a while making sure that I can't feel any pain I slowly get up, as I'm standing I notice that the floor has a kitchen pattern on it, you know the type, the one with the black and white squares, kinda like a chessboard, I can't help but laugh as I imagine myself as a pawn, or a bishop with the funny hat, as I'm laughing though, I notice more and more things, number one is that there ain't no light here, but I can see clearly, number two is that this don't look like any place I ever been to and number three is that I can't hear the Darkness anymore.
"Yo, you out there?" I call to the shadows, praying for an answer, "If you're out there, let me know, I could use some help here."
There's no reply, and my stomachs in knots, remembering what happened in the cemetery I look down at my body, I guess the fact that I can see would have been clue number one that something's wrong here. Because a few minutes ago, I was toast, literally. Then I fall on my ass as I remember something else, I DIED. Covering my eyes with my hands I try to think of the apartment and hope that I'm going to wake up from this nightmare but I don't, now I'm getting a little scared, and what's more, I can hear things scurrying around out there. Just out of sight, just far enough away to make my imagination run wild.
"This isn't funny, what the fuck's going on here?" I shout, at nothing in particular, before getting to my feet again and starting to walk forwards, into the dark, into the cold, into Hell. Shapes flash in front of my eyes, blurs, incalculably fast, I keep walking and soon I reach a crossroads, literally, because instead of a signpost, there's a fucking cross planted in the ground. I try to go left but get thrown backwards. Then I hear the Darkness, its back, and it sounds pissed.
"YOU WILL NOT GO THIS WAY!"
"Well, why the fuck not?" I ask trying once again to get past the barrier, but only succeeding in getting thrown on my ass again.
"YOU HAVE FAILED ME, PUPPET, NOW YOU WILL SUFFER!"
"What do you mean "Failed you?" I didn't know some crazy woman was gonna attack us, and you could have given me a crash course on how to control those tentacle things." I say, once again standing up. Before noticing that the barrier is now a mirror, and my reflections standing there, beckoning me over, walking to the mirror I'm grabbed by the tentacles before being pulled into the mirror, it's solid unfortunately, and I get smashed against it more times than I'd like to mention, Before being thrown backwards once more.
"YOU WISH TO CONTROL ME!?"it says, and the reflection of me steps out from the cracked mirror.
"Well, I wouldn't mind being in control once in a while, what's the point of having the power if you can't use it?" I say, once again standing up and brushing myself off before walking over to stand once more in front of my reflection.
"I WILL NOT BE CONTROLLED!"
"I don't want to control you, just all the powers you can give me, I want those tentacles, and the weird armor and the teleport thing, I want it all!" I shout, feeling myself grow giddy with excitement.
Silence.
"VERY WELL, BUT YOU WILL DO MY BIDDING!"
"So I can have the powers then?" I ask, hoping that I haven't made a big mistake.
More Silence.
"Well, do we have a deal or what?" I ask one final time.
"YES, WE HAVE A DEAL, HOST!"
"Oh yeah, if we're going to be together for a while then you probably know my name, its Gabriel, not Host."
"I ALREADY KNOW YOUR NAME, GABRIEL, BUT YOU ARE MY HOST!"
"And I'm fine with that, just so long as you don't interfere with my life in too many ways." I say, sticking out my hand and waiting.
"FINE" The Darkness says, before the reflection of me grasps my hand and we shake"BUT FOR EVERY LIFE YOU TAKE, YOUR SOUL WILL BECOME MORE CORRUPTED. AND THEN, YOU WILL BE MINE!". It starts to get tighter and tighter, before pulling me close and stepping inside of me as if I were made of water, feeling the weirdly reassuring Darkness spreading through my limbs I can't help but smile, and at the same time wonder what the hell he means. Then, shaking it off I try to teleport out of this place, I can't, wondering how the hell I'm supposed to get out of here I start walking again, this time though I head right, and keep on walking.
I'm in a fucking maze, I'm sure of it, a maze of goddamn walls and doors, and every one of them has some weird shit behind it, it seems like every time I open one I'm sucked into some memory of mine. Only a perverted version, in some I'm naked, others I'm not even human but a mix of flesh and metal, in another I'm getting killed by various people, in very nasty ways, after doing this for a good while, whilst searching for the exit I give up and, exasperated, slump against a wall and cradle my head in my hands, wishing for the exit to appear, but it never does.
"TO FIND THE WAY, YOU MUST BE TRULY LOST!"The Darkness says, bringing with it the serpentine heads.
"But I AM lost, can't you see that?" I reply, shaking my head and getting to my feet, as I'm doing so I hear Lilith's voice, she's calling to me, from the darkness, hearing her voice I start to regain hope, before setting off into the shadows in search of her, hoping she can guide me home.
"BUT YOU ARE NOT YET LOST, GABRIEL!"Chimes the Darkness, "THERE STILL EXISTS A LIGHT WITHIN YOU!"It finishes, and out of nowhere a gun drops onto the floor, stopping me in my tracks. Picking it up I see that it's the same gun from all those years ago, sliding the magazine out I see that there is only one bullet in it, putting the magazine in my pocket I pull back the barrel to see if there are any bullets in that, there isn't, sliding the magazine back into the grip I pull back the barrel again to load the final bullet before carefully placing the gun through my belt and continuing onwards.
After hearing Lil's voice a few more times I finally emerge from the annoying maze, looking around I can see that I've come out on a ledge, overlooking a plain, a desert more like it, in the distance is a huge black castle, massive even from all the way over here, creeping to the edge of the ledge I'm stopped in my tracks by what I see below me. There are hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of hideous, grotesque, misshapen creatures between me and my goal, milling around, not paying each other attention, just as I'm debating whether or not to go down I hear the Darkness again.
"YOU Will NOT DIE, YOU ARE MY VESSEL!"
"Good to hear that, you think we can handle all these things then?" I ask, feeling pretty unsure myself. The only response I get is the thick black armor seeping across my skin, and the Serpent-like heads emerging from the cloak of Darkness at my back.
"Alright then, it's go time." I say, taking a running leap off the ledge.
"This might not have been such a good idea" I think to myself as the Darkness finishes gutting another of the creatures using a serpent head, it's blood, splashing across my face, luckily the Armor comes with a face piece as well. As one of the things rushes me, it's hand clenching a huge axe made of bone, I barely dodge the swinging weapon before it hits, then I concentrate and materialize a sword of Darkness, I've never used a sword before but somehow I'm a natural, with a flick of my wrist I send the creature's arm flying away, then I ram my jagged blade through its stomach before tearing it apart with the Serpent Heads, throwing it's half's at two other creatures.
Wanting to put some distance between me and the screaming horde of creatures I turn around and start to run, legs pounding on the dusty ground faster than my eyes can follow, within moments I'm a good few miles away, turning around and spying the castle getting ever closer I decide to have some target practice, making the sword disappear I conjure two massive handguns in the palms of my hands, they're the same as the sword, made of pure Darkness, "I hope they have bullets" Is all I can think before raising them and pulling the triggers, it turns out that they do indeed have bullets, and boy are they awesome, as they fly through the air and embed themselves into multiple creatures before causing miniature explosions and leaving nothing but smoldering bits behind.
"I'm pretty fucking awesome!" I think as another creature comes at me, swinging a piece of its friend, I dodge the swinging piece of meat and pull back my fist before letting it loose into the gut of the two headed creature, it flies backwards, weapon swinging, and hits some of its pals, then they're surrounding me, I feel myself go under the tide of flesh, being trodden on, being crushed beneath huge feet. Wishing I had wings I'm suddenly pulled upwards and out of the throng of bodies, looking up, it appears that there's not much I can't do. as there, above me, beating furiously, are the most awesome pair of inky black, purple veined, massive wings you've ever seen, the wingspan is huge!, like a double decker bus, only BIGGER!, I start to laugh as I pull off aerial maneuvers that would put the best fighter pilots to shame, before making for the castle, to find some answers, to find the way out, and, hopefully, to find Lilith.
Author's Note: Kind of a short chapter here but hopefully you guys will have gorged yourself on my fine wordage enough so as to let this one slide. This and the next chapter are part of a two-parter, so that means that Jackie boy's gonna show up real soon, I can't wait to see him again, how about you?
