Alone in the Dark

Precious Moments

"It's time." 

Kannein kept hearing the echo of that whisper around him. It had been going on for what seemed like hours.

His captors were milling around and repeating that in harsh whispers, sometimes to one another and other times breathed duskily into his ears. Claws scratched harmlessly over his skin and cold, heavy bodied brushed and pushed against him as they moved. He could also hear them talking in another language and though he thought that they were trying to play with his mind, he found his mind reaching out and trying to understand them, or the purpose of what was going on.

Kannein forced himself not to respond, unsure as to his limits or how much of a chance he had. What little control he had snuck back into himself through the covert stretching and moving, he had to save, to use the element of surprise when he needed it.

There was a shift in the air around him and he felt a sharp tug on his chains, pulling him up to stand, causing him to yell in pain. The metal dug into his wrists and his muscled screamed at the sudden change, his joints aching fiercely as they were forced to unfold and move.

He was hit nearly as soon as he made the noise, a sharp voice growling mercilessly. "Quiet!"

Kannein stood in place with his legs shaking from the strain of being on his feet and his ears ringing from the blow. The only thing that kept him standing was whoever was holding his chains as he was leaning hard into the rings around his wrists, his entire body shaking as his heart began to run rampant in his chest.

Fear was as much to blame as the increased activity. This had never happened to him before. And as if summoned by that thought in Kannein's mind, the creature spoke.

"We've been ordered by our father. You are no longer needed." The voice was no longer a sensuous snarl, nor was it a command. The disinterest in his jailer's voice was more chilling than any dark growl he had heard. Kannein did not have time to respond before he was lifted off his feet by the chains and carried, though hanging by the cuffs, his body swung in the air, feet barely brushing the ground. And whoever it was, was taller than any man he knew, which settled the realization that his captors were, in fact, monsters, Whatever was holding him, took no care with him, letting his body hit hard into walls and doorways as they moved.

"We know where she is, we are going to retrieve her tonight, we've tasted her blood, she is close, she is ours. She will help us burn down the world." The words were whispered into his ears and then repeated by other voices around him as he was carried up out of wherever he was. Kannein felt stairs under his scrabbling feet and a sudden breeze brush over his skin, feeling the air cool down as they moved onward.

Then felt a full blast of cold winter air on his skin, causing him to gasp for breath and shiver violently. He was outside, his eyes were still blind, but he was outside, and he could smell the trees and snow and dirt around him. Kannein had not realized how stale the air had been around him until he breathed in the sharp bite of winter, though he smelled oncoming spring as well. He recognized the scent of the air; he had grown up in it; he was not that far from home, possibly still in Lansend. The feeling of the open air brought half a smile to his face, and he felt peace settling in his soul even as he knew what the words and movement were leading to.

If he was no longer needed, they weren't going to just let him go. Though he scrambled in his mind to grasp on to what else they had said. He was jerked suddenly, his body thrown through the air without warning.

Kannein hit the ground, his hands sliding through the snow as he ducked his head, pressing his face into the cool ground. He told himself to take comfort, that he would not die in some forgotten hole, that he was outside once more, and he would die in the open air. And he would die trying to survive.

"Your sister is injured. One of us was killed, but we tasted her blood, and we know who she is. We know she is related to you. For we have tasted your blood. Once you are gone, we will find her and the world will burn." The voice loomed above him, its words causing his mind to go blank in terror.

Kannein hitched in a breath and lifted his head, turning his face towards that voice he recognized. It was the one that usually oversaw his torture. "Take me to her... she'll... she'll surrender to you without a fight if she sees me. You don't have to kill me now, that's not going to help you at all."

Laughter surrounded him, and something grabbed his hair and lifted him into the air once more. A sickly sweet stench of death followed the laughter over his face as he felt his toes barely brushing the ground. "We need no help. Your head will do."

Then the world seemed to explode in a riot of light and colour, causing white blinding pain in his unused eyes. In that moment, the world returned to him, causing his eyes to water at the riot of sensations he had been deprived of for so long. He couldn't stand it, could barely process what he was seeing, until he focused on the shadowy mass that he was facing. It was holding him off the ground by his hair, the red eyes narrowed on him and the sharp teeth shifting within that shadow bared, dripping with dark drool.

Any thought of his sister's capability of fighting the creatures disappeared then. It destroyed any thought of him surviving long enough to find a way to warn her of their approach. He had barely allowed himself to come to the realization that through him, his captors had laid a trap for his sister. Nerini was nearby, injured, after fighting one of them. Because of him.

Kannein realized that he had no hope. Nerini had no hope.

These things were darkness themselves.

"Rip his head off. Slowly." The creature laughed in cruel amusement, tossing him easily to another mass of shadow, which caught him by the shoulders and lifted him higher in the air for a moment.

Kannein yelled and forced himself to look around him. His gut dropped in further despair as he saw four more of the creatures surrounding him in the afternoon light. Even as his brain told him that he was doomed, he stubbornly held onto the small part of him that told him he was a warrior.

He squinted through the brightness, feeling it burn his eyes and start a throbbing pain in his brain. He let them laugh and forced himself to fight through the pain of the sunlight, desperately looking around at the stone ruins he was in, looking for anything, or anyone, who might be useful to help.

It was hopeless. He knew that, logically, these creatures would have let nothing that may have helped him come so close to the castle. They controlled everything here, including him, he was lost. No one was coming for him, and even if he saw the sunshine once more, he would die alone here, and these monsters would then go after Nerini, and then everyone else he cared for.

He felt a hand grip his head tightly as the breath of his executioner flowed over his skin. Then Kannein felt the pain of claws begin to press into his skin. He screamed, bringing his chained hands up to hit at the mass of darkness, clawing for any semblance of a throat, knowing he had no choice but to fight back, now.

All he had was fight, the only way he could find any peace in the next life would be to find a small, brave part of himself and use it to try to survive a hopeless situation. His fingers clawed at the shadow as he thrashed weakly in the monster's hands, even as he felt the pressure of that clawed hand beginning to pull upward.

Kannein expected death at any moment. What he didn't expect was the sudden jerk of the creature's body as the thing let out an anger filled cry of pain. The shadow flickered, exposing a grotesque monster, and Kannein's hands found purchase in the thing's throat. The monster fell backwards and Kannein fell with it, crushing its windpipe with his hands as he screamed. Both of them hit the ground, Kannein still yelling in fury and the monster unmoving.

Around him, the world erupted in chaos, but Kannein couldn't look away from the monster gripped in his fists.