"The brightest flame casts the darkest shadow."
-George R.R. Martin
It was dark. It was always dark. Every time Zell opened his eyes, darkness was there greeting him like an old friend.
He longed to see the sun again, to see the Stars even though they were the ones that damned him in the first place—without them, he wouldn't exist. He was just a shadow, a child of the Foulings, and what he desired most was the taste of blood again.
His dreams were memories of a past life, of violence, lust, and an everlasting craving. He remembered the remnants of battlefields, the fallen Children of the Stars. He remembered the smell of their tattered, torn apart bodies. He remembered the taste of their blood as he licked it from his fingers.
Their darkness surrounded everything, eating up everything in their path. They showed no mercy as they reaped destruction.
But that was all before the Children trapped them in the earth. They had waited in their tomb of black for far too long, but the time was coming. He had heard the humans digging, the noise growing louder each day.
A door creaked open, a small sliver of light entering the room. Pathetic. Why did the light even try to fill the darkness? Its struggle was futile.
Someone entered the black room, an oil lantern in their fingers. The light cast a shadow upon their face, but Zell knew who it was. It was his father, his master, one of the first Shadows cast upon the world. He was the darkest of them all.
"Rise," he commanded, his voice crawling over Zell's skin.
Zell stood, using the wall against his back for support. How much time had passed since he stood? Tens, hundreds, or thousands of years didn't make a difference to his immortality, but damn the time had taken its toll. Long ago, his name was feared. Just the thought of him would make humans run screaming and Children of the Stars quiver with fear. He was darkness, he was death.
But now he was a weak thing.
"Can you not even stand?" his father asked, mocking him. "Have you dwelled too long in the darkness?"
"You're the one that left me in here to rot," Zell replied. Even his voice was weak as it scratched its way out of his throat.
"You deserved more. You deserved to die."
Zell hung his head, his hair sweeping across his bare chest. His father was right. It was because of him that they were buried in this forsaken tomb. He had thought with his heart instead of pretending it didn't exist. He was supposed to be nothing but a shadow in the night, the cause of nightmares, the reason to fear the dark.
"I have nothing to say," Zell finally said, cringing as he waited for his father's reply.
"Nothing to say?" He was suddenly in front of Zell, his foul breath hot on his face. "It's because of you the Foulings lost the war. It's because of you we have been trapped down here for centuries. And you have nothing to say?"
Spit flew on Zell's face, reminding him that his father was much more creature than he was man. The saliva burned his skin as the sizzle from its impact echoed in the room. The smell was terrible, retched, almost making Zell gag.
"Tell me," his father growled, holding the lantern in front of his face, illuminating his ghastly features. "How did a son of mine lose sight of the Shadows? How did he let the light taint his soul?"
"I didn't let—"
"Ah, ah, ah," he scolded, wagging his clawed finger in front of him. "When you let her in, she infected you. She poisoned your mind. Did you think that you could really keep it a secret from me? I knew about your affair from the beginning. My son...with a Child of the Stars."
Zell couldn't look away from him—the black holes of his eyes, the leathery texture of his face, the two ebony horns that curled out from his forehead. His teeth were jagged and pointed sharp, laced with venom.
"I had such high hopes for you," his father said. He dragged a claw down Zell's cheek, piercing his skin. Zell didn't dare blink. "At first I thought you were gathering information, being a good son, a good Child of the Shadows. Whispers from my scouts came to me. They told me of the way you looked at her, how your gaze lingered on her even when she wasn't looking. You loved her, didn't you?"
Zell curled his fingers into a fist, struggling to keep them pinned down at his sides. The monster inside of him had been caged up for so long—so very long—that just the thought of her brought him to the brink of explosion.
He did love her, if that's what it was. He remembered her golden hair draped over her shoulder, and the feel of the silken strands through his fingers. To say her eyes were blue was like saying the sun was yellow—it was an insult to its burning intensity.
Zell shook his head, clearing his mind. He would not let her invade his thoughts again. She wandered in his memory too often as it was.
"Has it been eating at you?" his father asked, seeing right through him. "Has it been tearing you apart all these centuries?"
Zell clenched his jaw, refusing to speak a word. He wanted to scream at him, to tell him he was still breaking at the seams.
"Do you still see her blood on your hands?" his father taunted. "Do you still hear her scream in your head? 'Zell, no, don't do this', 'Please, no'." He threw his head back and cackled.
"Enough!" Zell yelled, slamming his fists behind him, into the wall. "Why are you here?" He breathed through his teeth. "Did you just come here to taunt me?"
"No, you know why I'm here. I know you can hear them digging. The question is, do they know what they're digging up?"
Zell didn't answer as he lifted his chin towards the ceiling. Were they really so stupid? Had that much time passed that the world had forgotten of the plague they once were?
"The Fathers and I have conversed. When the time comes, you will have a chance to redeem yourself. Lead the rest of the Children of the Shadows. Become the Shadow you once were. Taste blood again. Then the world shall be ours."
A/N: Short chapter here, AND new POV. His chapters will be few and in between, but his viewpoints are going to become pretty important in order to fully understand the story and its history. I hope no one got confused!
Playlist ~ Ghost Song by Max Ablitzer
Graphic - Zell
What do you think of Zell and the small bit of his history that was revealed? What do you think went down all those years ago? Is Zell going to take him up on the offer?
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