Welcome to Hell

'Our brother, our brother.'

Once again, Takuya had awoken, the same dream, the same voice calling out to him in the dark of the night, urging him, pulling him down into shadow. In the days before his father's death, he had heard it summoning him, at first a faint whisper, and then growing stronger and stronger in the days that followed.

He had thought it a symptom of delirium, the echo of his exhaustion, his desperation especially once fate had dealt its hand, the shape of the thing that had killed his father amidst the damp rocks of the cliff, the sound of water rushing downstream behind it.

It was not delirium.

'Our brother, our brother.'

He took a step forward, the sound of his shoes echoing in the hollow beneath the earth, his heart trembling, the recollection of his father dead on the rocks, cold metal grafted onto the reptile scales of his murderer catching the last of the dying sunlight.

'You need strength, our brother, you need power. Come to us, come.'

With his hands, he brushed against damp rock, easing his way deeper into shadow. Above, the roar of his father's killer resounded through the cold, clear blue sky.

The voice did not lie. Full of anger and resentment, Takuya understood more than anyone else his failings, knew that he had allowed his passion for his own interests to cause him to become selfish, to look away from his family, and now his father was gone, his weakness had been revealed in the face of a threat he could not comprehend.

'Our brother, our brother.'

Deeper and deeper into the cave he ventured, fingers trailing along the rock, the damp of rain water becoming something else in the dark, something viscous, something congealed.

At the far end of the cave, at the end of the path, he pulled back his hand and found that with it, so the shadow peeled back also.

There was no time to cry out, no time to protest. In moments, the darkness was upon him, engulfing him, consuming him, and in its heart, he found it warm.

'Our brother, our brother, now we are one.'

In that warmth, there was strength, there was focus; in that warmth, there was purpose.