A QUEST OF DEATH : Dawning Darkness

03 | The Rose(edited)

When she had fled from the Crepusculem seven winters back, with nothing but a tattered dress, a broken heart, and painful memories, Ada had little hope for the future. She was hurt, humiliated, and the pain she held inside felt as potent as the malevolent power she possessed. She yearned to vanish, to dissolve into the void, to escape it all.

Ada walked along the lone alley, the cool, damp breeze sending shivers down her spine. It had been seven years since she had arrived in Serenel yet nothing had changed. She still walked along the same old paths alone, the damp evenings as unforgiving as ever.

It took her quite some time to realise that running away wasn't the solution; sometimes you just had to accept it, bare it and move forward. She was just as exceptional as her brother, if not more so. They dreamt of protecting their family's legacy and the world together. Just one bad decision had wrecked it all for her. There was no turning back now, no matter how hard she tried. It had turned into her harsh reality. Still, it wasn't easy for her to make up her mind to live with it.

A familiar tingling sensation blossomed at the base of her palms. It slowly travelled down each finger, passing every crease with a remark until it threatened to shoot out from her very fingertips. Curling her slender fingers she hid them in fists. It had been an exhausting few days, negotiating the terms of her existence, hoping that someday she would find her way back to the place she called home.

The morning's baby pink blush had faded, revealing the subtle imperfections beneath. Her once sleek black skirt had become slightly wrinkled, and her flowing pink silk top clung less gracefully to her form. Her rose-blond locks cascaded freely down her shoulders in a more relaxed manner.

Those elegant high-heels, which had earlier added a touch of grace to her appearance, now felt like a burden with each step she took on her way back home. She halted for a bit, slipped them off, and stepped onto the bare ground, slinging her slippers over her shoulder. The rough cement ground was nothing new against her bare feet as she staggered forward in the cold, lonely alley.

She was nearly at her doorsteps when a presence made itself known behind her. It manifested as the sound of a tin foil hitting the ground and an abrupt burst of chilly breeze.

While an ordinary person might dismiss it as a stray cat rummaging through bins on a cold autumn night, she was anything but ordinary. She paused the music playing through her earphones, and spun on her heels in a slow, steady circle, scanning her surroundings.

She was faced with the damp alley walls. No one, as her instinct had told her, was to be seen there. The alley stood empty, with an old brick wall rising from either side and a row of smelly garbage cans as silent witnesses.

She suspected it was one of those mischievous creatures from the Dark Side attempting to provoke her. It had always been this way, even after leaving the City of Sins: Salvathre, even after setting the boundary clear, settling in a distant town like Serenel where magic wasn't as frequent as in Crepusculem. The usual buzz of the city could be heard beyond the walls.

Her doubts were confirmed when, suddenly, another sharp, icy gust of wind rushed past her, brushing against her shoulder. While it was indeed a cold, damp evening, this particular gust felt as if it had blown straight from the Arctic itself.

Her own elongated shadow stretched along the alley, cast by the flickering orange neon of a nearby billboard. For a change the shadow stretched on the cobbled appeared distorted, far from normal. Where it should have been a solid, uninterrupted darkness, there were instead absurd patterns of tiny dots of light.

It was as though her body had been riddled with punctures, allowing slivers of light to seep through. Ada knew for fact that she hadn't had such holes all over her body; it sure had to be one of those lowly Night Walkers attempting to feed on her energy.

Ada froze, her body electrified by a sudden surge of cold sweat and fear. Her muscles tensed, rendering her immobile. The air around her turned frigid, as though the alley air was forming to build an iceberg. She felt lightheaded and shivers coursed down her spine, causing goosebumps to rise on her skin.

It had already started feeding on her.

The same tingling sensation from before returned, beginning at the base of her palms and swiftly trailing down her fingers like wool catching fire. The untamed energy within her threatened to set off like a ticking bomb. Oh, the glory of having a fraction of a foreign soul reside within her. Of course, the cursed darkling's debris would recognise its enemies, and the body it was being hosted in, or the soul that body originally belonged to, wouldn't have the power to command otherwise. For the second time that evening, Ada clenched her fists into tight balls. Her sole objective was to escape, not to self-detonate and annihilate a whole town.

Struggling, she harnessed her adrenaline to propel her forward, overriding the paralysis that had held her captive. With a sudden burst of body chemicals, she sprinted down the dimly lit alley, her feet pounding against the pavement. And she collided with another person in her heedless rush.

"Oh, sorry I–" she muttered, lifting her gaze to meet the person she had wronged.

Her words trailed off as her eyes caught an unexpectedly ethereal sight looming before her. It was a man, his visage shrouded by an ebony veil, rendering his features a mystery except for his eyes. Those irises sported a soft amber hue, like a dying flame in a hearth. They bore into her through the interplay of shadows and light under a dark hood. Despite the warm colour, the gaze was piercingly cold.

"I'm so-sorry. Didn't quite see–see ya th–there." She attempted to apologise, taking a hesitant step back. Her fingers nervously fidget with the hem of her silk sleeve and her head hung low.

He exuded an air of refinement, as if he belonged in the pages of a fantasy and he felt like he could offer salvation and destruction in equal measure. Strangely enough she felt safe, her tensed muscles visibly relaxed.

Silence followed, leaving her feeling unsettled and the stranger just continued to gaze down at her, his eyes remained fixated, unyielding. There was no trace of a blink or a flicker of emotion. It was as though his gaze possessed an eerie power, burning those who were unfortunate enough to meet it. And they literally did cause all of a sudden, Ada was no longer concerned about the alley turning into an iceberg.

Instead, it was getting intensely hot, as if someone had abruptly cranked up nature's heater to the maximum, without any warning. And she could almost feel her flesh beginning to melt all together with the frozen stillness that had been gripping her. To say she was terrified would be an understatement.

She dared herself to steal another glance at the stranger. Maybe she could ask for help. He definitely didn't look like a human. Her eyes slowly lifted, expecting to find him still there. But he was gone.

Panic rushed through her as she frantically searched for any trace of his presence, but all she found was an empty, colourless void. It felt as if she had been lured into a captivating dream, only to be abruptly awakened and left in bewildering reality.

He wasn't invisible, nor transparent. He possessed no Aura.

A/N: This story is being edited. If you read Luna Sanctum anywhere and then see Crepusculem instead just know it's the same place.