Nathaniel Hozier
It's so quiet here. Whoever said that darkness was all that bad!
I hear a voice in the darkness, breaking the comfortable silence.
My head... it groans, leaving me to wonder what happened to its owner.
"Nate. Nate! Come on wake up you dumbass! Fight it! For cripes' sake wake up!"
There's another voice!
Wakey, wakey, Nathaniel, the first voice sounds menacing, mysterious, unknown. I think your friend wants you to come back. Do you want to go back?
I groan and manage to get out a slurred "Yes" before I'm brutally ripped from the darkness and my eyes fly open.
"Woah! Nate just stay down! You idiot! Lie down!" A boy is forcing my shoulders into the un-even ground, small stones digging into my back.
Benji.
The name comes to mind, accompanied by a feeling of...?
"Benji?"
"Yes it's me now, can you... wait a sec. What's wrong with your eyes? Nate, they're—?!"
Benji scrambles back, releasing his hold on me, worry and disbelief on his face as I sit up, raising a hand to my pounding head.
Huh... so that's why I can see... The voice whispers, and I look around wildly for the person who has spoken.
"Who's there?" I ask.
"'Who's there?' Nate, it's only me here, we're on the beach, alone, in the middle of the night!" Benji rises to his feet and takes a couple of steps in my direction, still wary of whatever he saw—sees—in my eyes.
"Can't you hear it? There's another voice, a male's voice, they were the one who woke me up!" I exclaim jumping quickly to my feet in my curiosity, and haste, to find out who'd spoken to me.
The world tips sideways as I fall back towards the ground.
Strong, familiar arms grab me before I can hit the gravel.
"The hell! What is wrong with you, you idiot! You just woke up and you want to go strutting all over town, did that fall rattle your brain or something?!"
I don't think he can hear me, Nathaniel, I feel talons of darkness sliding over my mind as the voice again speaks. Now be a good boy and let me free, open this gate and let me in
I see a gate in my mind and I slowly move towards it. It feels like I'm gliding through a dark mist, like I have no body or physical being, just an unconscious thought on a journey through time.
I grasp the gate and—
"Are you listening to me? What's up with you?" Another voice now. I remember this one but is it also just in my mind?
Almost there Nathaniel, just a little further now
"Nate?"
I pull open the gate.
Good boy, a cold laugh.
"Nate!" A boy yelling my name.
Then... darkness again.
Kraol Morningstar
That was too easy.
Honestly, some humans are just too easy to lure, too easy to possess.
