Soul of Darkness (32 page)

It makes no difference that he suspects, 
Darkness said, crushing my hope,
It’s too late…it has been since the moment of your birth…

A
aron carefully backed away from the book and Persephone. Seeing the blank page before him, he suddenly felt chills run up and down his spine. He could feel it in his gut…

That there should have been…something.

That this blank page spelled disaster.

It was worse than any writing the book could have shown them. Aidan and Malcolm seemed to be equally shaken, throwing him and each other meaningful glances.

“Well,” Malcolm finally interrupted the heavy silence after clearing his throat, “I believe we must put the book aside for the moment and deal with a more pressing matter.” He quickly returned the Book of Light to his backpack.

“A more pressing matter? How can there be anything more pressing than what just happened?” Aaron couldn’t help but blurt out.

“Aah…well, it is always a question of perspective, I should say,” Malcolm replied, “I am extremely hungry at the moment…starving, to be precise…so I find that rather pressing.”

Aaron glared at his father, though he was actually just barely managing not to smile. While he found his father rather amusing at times, Malcolm didn’t need to know that…his ego might just grow even bigger.

“Aaron, my lad…you and your brother should head to the nearest store and get some supplies. We might have to hide out here for a while,” Malcolm instructed him.

‘You and your brother’
…Despite himself, Aaron liked the sound of this.

“Are you sure it’s okay for the two of us to be seen together? We’re far too noticeable…as twins,” Aidan interjected.

“I should keep Persephone company, do you not agree?” Malcolm said simply, though Aaron didn’t fail to understand his full meaning. They could not leave her alone under any circumstances…and Malcolm was the only one who could safely stay with her.

Aidan just nodded and remained silent at his father’s explanation.

“I will escort the two of you out and fill you in on the best place to go. One of you should pull the hood of your coat over your head and lower it enough to partially hide your face so that no one will notice that you are twins,” Malcolm said, putting on his backpack before pulling out money from inside his coat pocket and handing it to Aidan.

Aaron watched his father and Aidan head in the direction of the cave’s exit for a moment, deciding to sneak one quick glance at Persephone before following them.

She had made herself comfortable on the quilt and was stretched out on her back. With her arms bent behind her head and used as a pillow, she was resting with her eyes closed.

Satisfied with her peaceful appearance and that she didn’t seem as though she were about to give them any trouble, Aaron turned around and followed his father and brother, who had already managed to get a head start.

Aaron hadn’t walked more than a few strides when he distinctly felt the stale cave air behind him stir. Feeling as though some kind of creature were swiftly closing in on him, he fought a war against his own body, trying to calm down his frantically beating heart and convince himself that the sudden, overwhelming feeling of being followed and watched could be nothing but the result of an overflowing imagination.

While he stood motionless, contemplating whether to turn around or just keep going, he felt another draft of air at his back a second before he spun around…

…to see Persephone lying just as she had a few moments before.

Even though she didn’t seem to have moved, and although his father and brother might have thought him crazy if he told them, Aaron could have sworn she’d been right behind him…watching his every move…closing in on her prey.

Ignoring the chills that ran up and down his spine, Aaron turned back toward the direction of the cave mouth and started to pick up his pace. Malcolm and Aidan were far ahead of him by now and already nearing the way out.

When Aaron reached the part where the spacious cave transitioned into the narrow tunnel leading to the exit, he saw his father and brother further up ahead inside the passageway slowly disappearing into the dark. Feeling apprehensive all of a sudden now that they were no longer in sight, he started to run.

A minute later, Aaron reached the last spot from where he could still see the makeshift camp inside the cave. Deciding to turn around one last time to reassure himself that he’d managed to put a safe distance between himself and Persephone, Aaron swiftly spun his head around in mid-sprint…

…to see an empty spot where Persephone had been only moments before.

Shocked by her unexpected absence, Aaron stumbled and nearly fell before regaining his footing. Having been stopped in his tracks, he lingered for a moment, searching for any sign of her.

There was none.

Yet, she couldn’t have gone anywhere.

Deciding she must be hiding from sight behind a large rock, Aaron turned back around to follow the others out…and dropped to the ground in shock.

Persephone stood before him, arms stretched out to either side, her now completely raven-black curls blowing wildly in the air behind her. Her eyes were deep pools of darkness…no light shone within them.

She opened her mouth wide as though to scream…but no sound escaped. Her mout
h―
as black as her eyes…as black as her sou
l―
started to move as if spitting out some kind of spell.

As Aaron watched in horror, the walls of the cave behind her started to shake violently. Black, smoke-like tendrils slithered from Persephone’s eyes and mouth, solidifying to powerfully strike the walls until gigantic cracks formed and the ceiling of the tunnel collapsed, cutting Aaron and Persephone off from the outside world.

Sharp shards of broken rocks rained down behind her and from above her head, missing her body as well as Aaron’s as they bounced off an invisible barrier that had formed around them to protect him and the integrity of Darkness’s most powerful and important vessel.

After the last rocks had fallen and silence had settled over the wreckage along with the dust from the debris, Aaron gazed at Persephone through the churning air, his eyes tearing up and his lungs burning from the aftermath of the cave-in.

Kneeling on the ground and coughing violently, he struggled to follow Persephone’s movements. Completely unaffected by the dusty air, her black eyes zeroed in on Aaron as she purposefully strode toward him, advancing more with every second that Aaron hesitated in his momentary state of shock.

His mind had turned completely blank at the sight of those black eyes, which were continuously staring him down as she slowly progressed toward him.

All Aaron could do was back away from her on all fours once his body obeyed him again, his hands and knees scraping along the sharp cave floor, leaving a trail of blood…though he never noticed any pain.

From the other side of the barrier of fallen rocks, Aaron could hear Malcolm’s and Aidan’s voices shouting out to him. But he couldn’t make out what they were saying, their voices growing weaker and weaker as he continued to back away further in his attempt to get away from Darkness’s bitch.

Trying to gain some time to think, Aaron scrambled to his feet and ran toward the furthest corner of the cave as fast as his battered legs would carry him. When he reached the saltwater pond, he spun around trying to assess how many precious seconds he had gained…and found himself face to face with Persephone whose footsteps he hadn’t even heard.

She seemed to have appeared behind him out of thin air.

Aaron backed away from her, at long last reaching the edge of the saltwater pond. Its poison-green brilliance flickered across the cave walls in tune with Persephone’s revolting laugh as she mocked him for having maneuvered himself into a dead end.

“Just where I wanted you,” Darkness’s malicious tongue spat from within Persephone’s body, her usually gentle voice distorted by her occupant’s true tone.

“You may want me, but you’ll never have me,” Aaron responded, outwardly calm, though privately reciting a mantra over and over in his mind:

My will is my own.

My will is my own.

My will is my own…

…Until she took it…

I
watched my own pale hands reach out and forcefully push Aaron into the shimmering green depths of the mysterious pond. Instead of splashing when his body hit the surface, the water formed thick ripples around his body…almost as though embracing him.

Noooo! 
I screamed inside my head, fearful of what this unnatural water might do to him,
Aaron, get out of the water!

No amount of screaming can help him now,
Darkness whispered in my mind,
Even if he could hear you, it’s already too late.

Why? 
I asked, needing to understand what was happening even if all I could do was helplessly watch events unfold.

The curse and its power over yo
u
―
which you seem to have underestimated as time passed
―
is most potent at this spot. This is one of the very few places on this planet where magic is at its highest concentration. The moment I walk your body into the water, the curse will hit both of you with all its power. You will not be able to resist.

Darkness’s derisive laugh filled my mind as I watched my body slowly descend into the saltwater pond. Since it was no longer ‘my’ body, I felt neither cold nor wet.

I wasn’t a participant…I was merely a witness.

And though, with every fiber of my being, I felt an overwhelming dread of what was undoubtedly to come, I also felt a smidgen of relief at the thought that it wouldn’t technically be me…my essence…that would betray mankind but merely the vessel holding my soul…nothing but flesh, blood, and bones.

My soul…at least the part of it that had not been tainted by Darkness…would be without reproach.

Though I could do nothing to stop what was coming, I knew it was wrong and would have done anything to keep it from happening. So, it wasn’t my fault.

Or so I thought…

Just as Darkness’s last steps led me straight to Aaron and I was about to mentally close myself off from the atrociousness of what was to come, the dark sphere that had surrounded and imprisoned me withdrew from my soul and fled my body.

I could feel it leaving me, could see the brilliance of my soul’s light returning…and once again feel every inch of my own body.

Heading toward the light, I left the realm of my soul and returned to the outside world, to reality, so that I could reclaim control over my own body and lead it out of the water.

And for a moment, I felt relief.

For a moment, I felt a glimmer of hope, believing I could turn things around.

For, Darkness could no longer make me act against my own free will.

Yet, before I could come to realize that there was no turning back…before I could come to fully understand the imminent danger we were in, the ancient curse, connected to our very souls and fueled by earth’s most potent magic, seeped into our very cores, flooding our bodies and minds…and erasing every last ounce of free will.

D
arkness hovered high above the magical pond, gazing out through another creature’s eyes to watch the long awaited fulfillment of its centuries-old dream…the conclusion to all its malicious scheming.

The moment had finally arrived, and excitement flooded Darkness’s essence.