Hello! This chapter is a little bit short, but my last chapter was long...does that make up for it?
I'd like to once more thank everyone who has reviewed and alerted/favored. Thanks also go out to my beta KeshoBesho.
I hope you enjoy...
Disclaimer: Merlin is not mine.
The Pain-Chapter Six-The Pain
We stood there staring at each other for a while, neither of us feeling the need to speak. Words were so ineffective when we knew each others facial expressions like the corridors of this castle in which we reside. Neither of us were lost to the expression of pure shock on the other's face. Yet our eyes were inchoately filling with a different emotion; a stronger one. That emotion was understanding, perhaps even love.
As all things did, eventually our nonverbal form of communication was ceased. This time by something very different than the usual. This time the silence which we had been pleasantly basking in was unpleasantly broken by a sound. That sound was my scream.
I honestly don't know how it happened; one moment I was peaceful and content and the next I was in agony. My head felt as though it was going to explode. My skin tingled unpleasantly, as if thousands of needles were stabbing into my flesh. My eyes burned, my tears having the feel of acid as they ran down my face. My ears rang and had an uncomfortable plugged sensation to them.
Somehow I had managed to fall on my knees to the ground. My forehead was resting on the cool wooden floor, seeking relief from the pain. I continued to scream, but it became softer and transformed into a type of silent shriek as my throat became raw.
In some other sense I could feel Gaius' hands on my shoulders, his voice attempting to coax me out of the strange world I was entangled in. His voice was soft and smooth, but I didn't really register this on anything more than a subconscious level. My mind was far too ensnared by other images and feelings.
There was rage: an all consuming rage that seemed to be directed straight at me. The emotion caused a bitter taste to form in the back of my throat. Tears welled in my eyes. The emotion was cruel. Its intention was not lost to me; it was meant to harm me. To disable me. Although, most likely not as directly as it was. There was no way that the person with this emotion knew that I was feeling it so powerfully. That was not the real intention. The emotion was a means to an end. A way for my assailant to discover the courage to harm. Whoever this was, he or she was not anything short of corrupted.
The black murky emotion seemed to seep through my whole body, attacking me. It felt as though it was trying to tear me from inside out, dispose of me by just making me feel its malevolence. It was working. The pain it caused was near unbearable. Yet the emotion wasn't even the most painful aspect of the rage. The images were what really pushed me over the edge.
There was so much blood. It spilled lethargically out of bundles of meat. On closer inspection I realized that the meat was actually pieces of human. Severed limbs, decapitated heads, and tangled intestines all oozed the thick red liquid. In the midst of this hell stood a figure. Man or woman I could not discern. A darkness flowed around this mysterious figure like it was a being of its own. Yet in the same way it appeared as if the darkness and the other being were one and the same. My eyes burned just from looking at the unnatural occurrence.
I attempted to turn away from the sight but I found that I couldn't. I didn't seem to have control over my movements. I was forced to follow the figure that was seemingly drenched in evil. He/she slowly dragged his/her feet across the field; and even though his/her face was covered by a hood it was obvious that he/she was looking at the carnage. A sense of demented glee washed over me. This time I could definitely attribute the feeling to my newfound empathic ability. I don't exactly know how but I just knew that it was my power telling me this. Perhaps because it was a part of me I instinctively knew; it was simply another mystery that piled on top of the many others concerning my magic.
The glee was disgusting, it radiated through my mind; projected by the only other living creature in the vicinity, the enigmatic figure. Apparently just seeing the darkness and evil coming off of the being wasn't enough; I was forced to feel its twisted ways as well.
The figure's steps were becoming bolder, bigger. They stepped around the severed limbs as if they put them there; which for all I knew they could have. My body, or at least my consciousness, was pulled along with the steps. It was a strange sensation, being pulled seemingly sideways to follow an absolute evil. It went against my very nature, yet I was helpless to stop.
The figure began to shake. At first I believed that it was from shock at the sight that it was being subjected to. I was wrong; he was laughing. The noise was carried with the wind towards me, the deep baritone of the noise informing me of the earlier unknown gender of the figure. If it weren't for the noise, I'm sure I would have blamed his shaking on tears.
The laughter sent a shiver down my currently incorporeal spine. As if the thick black mist that obviously showed his evil wasn't enough; I was forced to hear his laugh. It was the laugh of nightmares. A laugh which one would associate with a killer, with a madman. It was low and dark, yet mirth seeped into the tone of each breath. It was laugh of someone truly gleeful and in the place we were, it was horrifying. I couldn't understand how someone could laugh so happily at all of the death and blood that surrounded him. That surrounded us.
I once again tried to tear my eyes away from the man; the action was to no avail. I should've known that the attempt was hopeless, yet I still had to try, the maliciousness was becoming too much for me. The man was the very definition of wicked, the complete opposite of what I was. My whole body rebelled against being near him. I was beginning to feel sick being near him and I hoped that this encounter would soon end. I didn't know if I could take much more of his sinister presence.
Just as bile began to rise in my throat because of his presence, the man bent down, reaching a hand out towards one of the decapitated heads. My eyebrows furrowed, was he going to caress the head? Was he going to show love? The thoughts felt so off, so wrong that I honestly almost laughed at them. I don't know why but I felt as though I knew this man and the idea of him showing love was most definitely laughable.
My instincts proved correct. The man instead curled his fingers roughly into the long, matted, blood stained hair of a woman recently killed, if the blood still flowing from her almost surgically severed neck was anything to go by. He then proceeded to stand up so slowly it seemed as if time had begun to gradually lag.
The decapitated head's hair was still firmly wrapped up in his fingers. It was raised higher until the dead face was only about five inches away from the man's. There was a definite shine under the hood of the man that I took for his eyes; the eyes held so much happiness as they looked at the mass in his hand.
The decapitated head was then brought underneath the hood of the man, so close that I couldn't even see the head behind the darkness which surrounded the man. Just as my curiosity almost overtook me and I was about to step forward a squelching crunch vibrated through the air. The noise stopped me in my tracks. It was followed by the snap of teeth chewing and then a loud swallow. To my horror the man brought the head out from beneath his hood. The woman's head now had an oozing hole, the size of a mouth, on her left temple.
My vision shifted dramatically, as did my awareness. I could once again hear Gaius' voice, now frantic, right beside my ear; his breath warming the side of my face. I could also feel the cool floor that my palms and forehead were resting upon. My breathing was erratic, my body and mind still in turmoil from the whole experience.
As Gaius' voice grew louder I let out a shaky breath, trying to prepare myself for the explanation that I would be asked for. Turns out that I needn't worry about such matters at that moment, for when I opened my eyes my vision twirled. The wooden ground beneath me became a haze as black and white spots all flashed in my eyes. My consciousness immediately eluded me.
Thank you for reading. Sorry if it was a bit gruesome.
Please Review...maybe? Yes? Good.
Next On Destiny and Love:
I could not find myself within it all. I was everyone. I was lost and it felt as though I would never return.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
I had to summon the strength. The strength that I had gained from living the life I had.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Random Thought:
Oh, how I wish this wasn't just a façade, yet I know it is. I was so naïve to believe otherwise.