mAdNeSs

The Snake

           

James floated in a sea of black water as he laid on his back and stared up at a blank night sky. He felt no worries or fears, just calm bliss as he stared at the abyss. It soothed him to be surrounded by such quiet, it was as if nothing existed outside of this moment. As he closed his eyes he heard the faint sound of a voice. James looked around in the dark and felt a chill course down his spine as the voice grew louder. He strained to hear and whirled in the water trying to find the source of the voice. It rose louder and echoed desperately around him, the sound came from all directions and it pounded at him.

The calm water grew turbulent and wild as waves rose up like castle walls and slammed down at him angrily. The sea of blackness now turned on him and slammed and thrashed him like an angry toddler. Waves cascaded over him, dragging him below the surface where there was nothing but darkness. As the force of the sudden vengeful sea sucked him further and further down, he heard the crying voice continue to call to him through the dark. But now that he was underwater he could make sense of the words, it was his name.

A face floated on the surface of the dark water, it seemed to be illuminated in a soft enveloping light that battled against the growing dark. James swam to the surface and the closer he got, the better he could make out the image of the person. Pale hair, as pale as his own, with tears shimmering down her white cheeks as her slim hand was held out to him. James fought against the waves now and tried to reach the surface, his own hand trying to reach hers. His fingers brushed hers as she sobbed and with a final gasp of breath cried his name "James!" before the dark swallowed him and he disappeared down into it.

James awoke to the sound of people screaming and pounding feet. His mind was jumbled with images of thrashing waves and a woman with tears on her cheeks as she cried his name. He shook his head and scrubbed his hands over his face before glancing at the foot of his bed and noticed that sometime during the night the fire in his chimney had died down to small flickering ambers. On the other side of his bedroom door he could hear shouts and screams as people ran past his room in the hall. A sense of foreboding coursed through his body as he forced himself to push away the covers and climb out of bed. 

His head continued to pound with the beginnings of a migraine, and flashes of the dream kept trickling into his mind. James walked over and added logs to the ambers and babied them back to life and watched as they happily crackled warmly. The flames glinted off the steel of his sword that leaned against the chimney. He wrapped his hand around the hilt of the sword, his family ring flashed and shimmered on his finger with the flames.

A golden snake with rubies for eyes and a dark smile. The band was made to look as if the snake's body was wrapped tightly around the owner's finger. All the members of his family owned and wore it always. James straightened up, and tightening his hold on the sword yanked open his bedroom door. The hall was dark and dimly lit as the torches flickered eerily in the sudden silence. Feeling cautious, he leaned further out into the hall and scanned but could not see a single person.

He shook his head, "I'm losing my mind" he mumbled to himself before turning away from the door and closing it once more. Suddenly, the air was once more filled with screams and shouts but they sounded distant and far away. James glanced back and noticed moonlight flittered through the open window he had forgotten to close before bed and realized the sounds where coming through it.

His eyes glanced warily toward his closed door before easing away from it and making his way timidly toward the window with his sword pressed firmly to his chest. He glanced down and saw beneath his window that the sounds of distress were coming from the courtyard where guards and servants were running in a blind panic as dark hooded shadows slashed at them mercilessly.