As dawn began to break on the Goldlands, all animals from the massive elephant to the tiny mouse sought shelter, hoping to take refuge from and forget about the events of this night and its unpleasantries. The stars themselves, even the great star that was the sun, were been hidden by the clouds. Only the light of the fading moon continued the darkness, yet it added to the dark gloomy atmosphere.
A young male lion, his muscles rippling with each step he took, walks back and forth looking for a place to rest his head and get a little bit of sleep. He absolutely did not want to sleep in the main den; that was now firmly controlled by his brother. No, he has chosen to sleep alone in a den near Ivory Tower. This den held fond, if bittersweet, memories for the red-maned lion.
"What's that's smell?" said Othello before he entered what their mother called their vacation home. The lion stood to the side of the opening to allow weakened moonlight to fill his home.
Resting in his mother's alcove, a natural divot in the cave floor was an aged lioness, she was covered in wounds and rotting flesh hung from her body, maggots were consuming her remains. Her body had already swelled and burst open sending fluids, liquid viscera and juices everywhere. And all of that bodily mess covered the ground where she had clearly died.
"Worse thing about this? It doesn't even faze me anymore." Said Othello as he was turning to leave.
"Won't you spare a few words for the departed?" said a voice.
Othello turned back to the lioness, to his horror she was the one who spoke.
All the fur on Othello's body became stiff and rigged as he witnesses the impossible.
"What are you, who are you", were the only things that could leave Othello's mouth?
"My dear Othello, I am just using this corps as a vessel. I am a great admirer of your father and brothers works. So much pain and suffering it's delicious laughed the lioness as one of her pale white eyes fell out of her eye socket. You see, darling, I feed on the pain and suffering of others. And such was the degree of horrors that it was a buffet here in the Goldlands." She said, chuckling in a seductive way. Now that got to Othello, and he might have let his gag reflex do its job if he wasn't so focused on intimidating this anomaly of nature by baring his teeth.
However, Othello backed up defensively as the corpse ambled towards him, maggots and rotting body fluids spilling to the ground from holes in her chest cavity. "What's wrong do I scare you, I believe you said that death makes you feel empty inside. Why would run from me my darling Othello, I only want to help you toss away the weakness in your heart," smiled the lioness.
"I warn you don't call me your darling, or I will send you right back to hell or whatever shithole you came from", growled Othello.
"I know your fears, what will happen when you want to have cubs, who would take you as a mate, do I even have a soul and what will my sister say when she finds out. I know you Othello. I know your fears, you cannot hide them from me. You like that lioness, but will she make a good mother, she is a mass murderer with a soul just as dark as your brothers," answered the dead lioness.
"Yes, I am afraid, but I don't need you to fucking tell me", roared Othello striking at her with his paw. It never made contact she was now to his left.
"Oh, what if I told Iago of your doubt in killing Icarus, you have fond memories of him. Pulling on his ears climbing on his back, going swimming in the lake. Learning how to fish, playfighting with him and Lana. You and Lana sleep on him, calling him your pillow. Your heart is not as black as I want it to be my dear Othello," said the decaying lioness.
Othello just stood face to face with the walking corpse. "Get away from me, you're just some bad dream! Yeah, it's something I ate!", yelled the male, backing away.
"You should kill Icarus and Lana. Free advice from a demon: drug them both and beat Icarus skull on a rock slowly until it crackles open like a coconut or you could pull his eyes out and remove his paws and leave him to die that's always my favorites. Tossing them into a geyser is also enjoyable, it will boil their fur right off," smiled the lioness. Othello looked sick which made her laugh.
"Or I could lead you to a place that a powerful poison grows in abundance, one that melts them from the inside out in two days, a very painful way to go. I done eviler and darker things then Blood and Iago could ever do. When I walked the world of the living, I had my own harem of males and when they no longer pleased me, I killed them and fed them to my other males. I am Kinyume; you might have heard of me in your nightmares." said the lioness.
"Sorry I don't know that name and I don't fucking care. Why don't you go talk to Iago? He is fucking crazy and just your style lady, get away from me! Go on; get the hell out my face before this turns ugly!" Answered Othello, his voice becoming a roar upon voicing his threat.
"What's going on?" cried the voice of a cub? Behind Kinyume was the white silhouette of a cub and a lioness. "You have to stay hidden it's not safe some bad lions have killed the king, you need to hide my darling." said the lioness. "Grandma, I'm scared. What's going on?" pleaded the cub. "You are safe here with me, I love you." The old lioness attempted to reassure. And almost as soon as she said this, another shadowed loomed over the both of them.
The grandmother never saw it coming; the new lioness in a single motion killed the cub's protector and then grabbed the cub and beat it into the rock wall of the cave, savoring the cub's whimpers of horror and pain until it died. "What the actual fuck?!"said Othello.
"I just showed you the emotional imprint that will forever reside in this den of yours, was it not beautiful? The same thing that happened to your loved ones (this case your mother) happened to that lioness her grandson got to watch her die." Giggled Kinyume, her seductive, alluring voice making him even angrier. "The best part? The one you pine for even now was the one did the killing." Kinyume cooed, savoring the lurching grimace on Othello's face.
"What are you?", asked Othello in a helpless rage, he wanted to strike out, but was it of any use.? "What do you want from me? Tell me right now, or go back to hell and leave me alone demon. I don't like games and if I can't harm you, I will just leave." Othello demanded.
"I won't tell you who I am, I will save that story for another time. However, I will tell you what I want. It is very simple really. I feed on the darkness inside a soul and on the pain and suffering they created around them. Blood always delivered on spreading darkness and pain and he had the best testing darkness inside his heart. You see when a heart has good in it and then falls into darkness forever it has an amazing taste", giggled Kinyume.
"Blood murdered a lioness by the simple act of being born, and from there he would only follow the dark path. Meanwhile, Iago only had a small piece of good in his heart and that was when he was born. Blood darkened that heart so fast that the taste does not please me. However, your heart? Yours is full of conflict and when you fall into the darkness you will be eviler then Iago or Blood could ever be, you will drown this world in a sea of atrocities and suffering. Your darkness will be the sweetest and most tender of all the hearts I have fed on. You only need a push in the right direction," said Kinyume she retreated back into the cave. As she moved her rear in the exact same way that Lana and Penda do, she turned back around to face Othello.
"Let me help you on your path. find Nyota and kill her and send her head back to Icarus. In his rage, the so-called 'philosopher king' will erroneously blame and then go after Iago. And because of his loss Icarus will walk right into your trap and be killed. Or just kill Nyota for the simple pleasure of it; it's why Icarus took your mother, so why not take his wife?" Kinyume drawled out sleepily.
"I have a gift for you." A strange red flower grew from the earth in front of them as she said this. "Force feed Nyota this flower and in four days she will die as her stomach explode, maggots will burst out of it killing her," said Kinyume, seeing the clouds move and the dawn firmly approaching. "Oh, the light of day, how I hate it." Snarled Kinyume sarcastically, but nonetheless her host body started to fall apart, the flesh rotting away at astronomical rates and even the bones dissolve into powder that is blown away by even the faint breeze.
Now it is just Othello, left standing in front of the black and red pelted poppy flower.