The Two Kings (Afterlife Saga) by Stephanie Hudson
“Are you human?” I asked the figure that still sobbed quietly.
“Yes and I am very afraid, will you not help me?” Her voice floated over to me like a warm blanket of re-assurance. How could such a velvet voice be immoral?
“What can I do, I don’t know how to open the door?” She began to cry more and I knew the sound well. It was my cry. The same hopeless cry I had once been unable to stop. I pulled on the door with every ounce of strength but it was useless, I wasn’t even making the metal rattle.
I pulled my body upwards to the window again but now I saw something only the deepest, darkest corners of my mind knew about. The vision made me want to die from the pain it inflicted.
I looked through a watered vision at myself sat down on the floor by an inflated bed. I wore dirty clothes and my hair knotted from weeks of neglect fell in front of my face, which hid my misery. I began to pull up my sleeves and feel the smooth skin there on my inner arms. I rattled my own body against the door at the vision.
“Stop it! Don’t! Don’t do it!” I cried out as the girl produced a small wooden box from behind her and when opened, the music that filled my mind with hate and revulsion played out. It was my very own private death song and I cried louder being now the one full of pleas.
“Please don’t do this!”
“There is only but one way to save those that I love.” She spoke my words before continuing on with my hysterical actions. She smashed the box to the floor and the mirror shattered into a life changing weapon. She took the largest piece to her pale arm and drew the first red line across near to her elbow.
“STOP IT!” I screamed before looking away in my own disgust. It was like watching my own destruction being carried out in a dark, gothic play, by a girl I didn’t know. But I couldn’t look away for long and the darkness of my past compelled me to see it through as I did years ago.
I raised my head but now my scream was for a different reason. The black haired beauty was now inches from my face and her features were covered, only showing me the whites of her eyes through the black river that was her hair. Her hands weren’t holding onto the bars like mine were, so she was rather very tall or floating.
“You are my last hope, they come to kill me…stop them…stop them now!” As soon as she said it there were footsteps and voices that could be heard. I had to move if I was to help in anyway. I would have to see who it was that held her here and more importantly, who wanted to kill her.
“I will be back, I will do what I can.” Before I let my body fall down I saw her mouth, something that seemed far too familiar than I would have liked but at the same time my mind was coming up with a blank wall. I got the feeling that she was trying to warn me against something or was it someone?
My hands hurt and my knuckles cracked from holding most of my weight for so long. I could hear the footsteps getting closer and panic set in as I searched desperately for a place to hide. My head whipped round for some dark corner, when I saw a pillar thick enough to hide behind. Once there, I could still hear her plea for me to help and tears filled my eyes at how hopeless a saviour I was. If only I knew where Draven was, then he could help, he could stop all of this and one thing was for sure….people would surely get punished!
I tried to stay completely hidden but the need to look was far greater than the warnings that were ringing in my head. The pillar I was frozen behind was in the shadows, so when I peered round to see, I wasn’t noticed. There stood three figures covered from head to foot in long purple robes which had a strip of gold symbols running down the middle like a racing stripe.
It looked like ancient scriptures, like hieroglyphics or Mayan text, but without being close enough I couldn’t tell. The appearance of the men caused a reaction with the other inmates as shouts and bangs against their cells erupted. This was short lived as with one blood curdling command from the man in front, the room grew silent. He had spoken a language I had never heard and one that sounded as if it was very unlikely to have still been used today.
I watched as the taller one in the middle approached the door as the other two stood back to await the prisoner. I presumed the one in the middle to be the leader as he seemed to order the others to be ready. He then raised his wrist to his mouth and to my disgust he bit down hard on his own flesh. I swallowed hard at the sight of him taste his own blood before allowing it to drip onto the lock. I now knew what the little dishes were there for, as I heard the lock start to move and click open. I let my shoulders fall as I realised I would never have been able to open them as they required the blood of the supernatural.
I watched the leader lick his own wound like a dog, while he waited for the door to swing open. Once it did the young innocent girl came screaming out like a banshee showing her other side….a desperate one. However the two guards were ready for her and caught her body as she tried to kick and scratch her way to freedom. I so wanted to run to her but I knew I was next to useless up against these three. I felt the tears release down my cheeks as I watched them drag the screaming girl away down the corridor they had come from, the very corridor where I must now follow.
I tried to compose myself before I continued. I inhaled deeply and wiped my wet face with the back of my arm. Half of me wanted to run away and find a corner to curl up into, till I was found but I knew the half of me that willed me to do good in life would win. So with my overbearing need to help the girl I didn’t know, I stepped from behind my hiding place and followed the path to where, hopefully death would not greet me.
My feet struggled over the deep cobbled floor and I was glad when I reached the narrow corridor so that I could steady myself on the walls. I continued down and the air felt tight and muggy. The damp walls made my hands slide from them as I felt my way along for support. Then as I turned a corner the light that had come from the prison could no longer be seen and plunged the tunnel corridor into darkness.
I froze and leaned on the wall until my breathing calmed. I counted to ten before forcing my feet to move on. I had to use my other senses to find my way out of the darkness and I started to concentrate. My nose filled with the scent of wet stone and my touch only proved the reason. It was my ears that gave me hope as I started to hear the hum of chanting and then my eyes saw a gentle glow of candle light work its way across the walls. The bright end told me I was near to where I would no doubt find the girl and who held her. I gulped the frightened lump, forcing it down my tight throat and moved into the next room.
Here my eyes came into contact with my destination….
The Temple.
Chapter 20
Impossible Reasons
I walked closer inside where the brightly lit temple hall hurt my eyes which had become accustomed to the dark. I stood still, blinking franticly so as not to be taken by surprise, hoping that one of the pillars I hid behind was enough of a barrier from the droning voices that filled the room. My heart nearly stopped and my blood froze from being so scared.
The chanting wasn’t like anything I had ever heard. Not only was the language strange and very unnerving but it seemed to be passing between demonic lips. Its loud echoing felt as though it could crack the walls and destroy cities with only a few words. I couldn’t choke down the fear that kept rising back up my body like a growing illness. It kept getting louder and louder which proved to be too much for my fragile human ears.
I could feel the marble floor beneath me vibrate and this was the only reason I hadn’t yet crumbled to it like a frightened child. Nothing could compare to this moment. I had never experienced terror like it and I had never prayed so hard for it to be just another horrible dream. But as I felt the beads of sweat roll down my trembling face, I knew that no amount of hope in the world would make it so. My body shook so violently that I thought it would crumble into pieces.
Only when a great roar cut through the other voices did it all go quiet. This finally made my senses return to me, along with my resolution. I decided to move further round as now I knew I was still c
The painting was so skilled and accurate that I almost thought them real enough to touch. I shuddered at the idea that this could actually be based on a truth. An unknown war that humans were utterly oblivious too… thankfully! The shiny floor looked like liquid and the reflection of the painted heaven gave the marble a bluish tinge making it resemble a lagoon.
Finally, once I had finished looking around my magnificent surroundings, my eyes fell on the imposing figures that were stood around the room like a secret cult meeting. Each clothed in red robes that matched Hell’s representation they stood by. My mind counted seventeen red bodies draped from head to foot in blood velvet then followed on as the next set of six bodies wore purple with thick gold symbols at the bottom.
This reminded me of a strange display of the signs of the zodiac combined with ancient runes. These weren’t quite the same as the men who had taken the girl but I soon came across them as my gaze rested at the top of the large circle that all the bodies created. At the top was a huge stone slab that acted like an altar and it too was covered in carved symbols that matched the robes.
I could feel my sweaty hands slip from the smooth cold marble that I tried to keep hold of. I was far too close now and knew this was very wrong but my will to turn away, wasn’t half as strong as my will to stay. I bit down on my lip and rolled it back and to, through my teeth. If I hadn’t been here witnessing this cult based nightmare then I’m sure I would have felt the pain I was causing myself.
Instead I focused all my attention and energy onto the scene that was being played out in front of me like a sadistic opera. The group was clearly waiting for something or more like someone and I had a sick feeling it was the girl who I had made it my mission to save from her cruel fate.
I didn’t have long to wait for the crescendo as a huge tall cloaked figure walked out through what looked like a series of guards that bowed respectfully as their master passed through. He dominated the room and like a Mexican wave at a football game, all the robed cult followed suit and fell to their knees and started the mind numbing chanting again forcing me to place my shaky hands over my ears.
The deafening beat rattled my mind like thousands of war horses charging into battle and I could feel my courage getting beaten with every step. I looked on through a watery glaze and held on with shaky limbs. They all started to sway as the momentum increased into a powerful finish and as before a great roar projected off the domed roof and echoed about the room, creating a deadly silence that followed. I peered round again to see the leader of this demonic choir hold up his hands as he demanded the rest to stand once more.
His imposing figure wore an all black robe that draped long over his face. It was decorated by one large gold symbol, positioned over his chest. It was the same circled symbol that mirrored the stone altar he stood in front of. It reminded me of the different moon cycles all intertwined. Then it hit me where I had seen that symbol before. I looked down at my palm and saw the half moon with a V shape attached to it.
The skin had dried blood around the edges but the deep red shape could be seen easily. It was unmistakable. The same symbol was not only on my hand, thanks to that strange vine entrance, but it was also on the back of my neck under my hair line. Hiding there like a dark secret, waiting until this moment to make its reasons known. A birthmark that sealed my fate and brought me here to find my true path. That thought terrified me far more than the demons before me. I was in no way part of this sick and twisted cult! I wouldn’t allow myself to think it. Then it hit me….what if the man in black was Lucius?
What if this had been his plan all along, to get to me? First to control my dreams and then to play on my insecurities. Surely if he’d had access to my mind then he would know my past. Then all that was left to do was to make me hear the girl’s cries and I would come running. Just like he said “I will not have long to wait and you will soon come to me”. I started to shake yet again at the thought.
The man terrified me to my very core and to make it even worse, I was also a little bit fascinated with him. Lately I had been trying to reject the idea and banish it from my mind like some law I was breaking. It felt against nature thinking about him but in some sick twisted way, I was drawn to him like bees to pollen. This forced me to be more afraid of myself and my own irresponsible actions. I didn’t know what I would do when faced with the man that haunted and consumed my dreams but when I thought of him and his lips to mine it made me quiver with both revulsion and a burning hunger.
I tried to put it all down to his powerful mind control and wished more than anything that I was strong enough to push him out and once again gain control over myself.
I started to look at the black figure a little closer and the size of his frame matched that of Lucius. He was tall, with squared shoulders but I couldn’t see any of his features as most of his robe covered his body and face. My mind raced with thoughts and ways that he could have penetrated the fortress that was Draven’s home. Then my hands flew to my mouth and the panic hit me. What if he had overpowered Draven somehow? It was the man himself who told me that Lucius was the only one that was equal to his power and being able to control the mind of anyone, including Draven, was sure to have an advantage.
Before I knew it my face streamed with tears as the image of Draven been overpowered by Lucius got stronger in my mind. I was about to turn around and run away, forgetting or more like not even caring about the girl that I had come here to rescue. Now my main concern was the man I loved and the overwhelming feeling that I had walked straight into a trap.
I turned my back to the pillar and could feel the beads of sweat from my back roll down and turn to ice as it came into contact with the marble. I shuddered as I leaned my body’s weight against it for support while I thought a moment about what to do next. I needed to find Draven at all costs but would I have enough nerve to even move from this spot?
The seconds that ticked by felt like a lifetime and just when I had my mind set on getting out of this hell, the demonic voice of Lucius brought my attention to full alert and made my blood rush through my veins like a liquid inferno.
I turned to look back at the cloaked followers and realised they were all waiting for something to happen. Their heads all turned to one side of the hall to an opening that, at first was invisible but only when a snow white woman emerged could the entrance be seen. At first the bright light behind her just made her glow like a heavenly entity but when it faded back to where it came from, the features of an old woman could be made out.
She had flowing white hair that flowed around her as though each individual strand was controlled by an unseen force. The long dress she wore did the same as it wrapped in and out of her tired looking legs. The sleeves opened up into a V shape and the tips came down to the floor reminding me of Robin Hood’s Maid Marion. Her face looked kind, despite its numerous wrinkles and her soft light eyes could even be seen from the other end of the hall where I stood locked to the floor beneath me.
She reminded me of what mother earth would look like if she were in a human form. I felt connected to her through my love for all things pure and natural. This was how I knew this woman was most definitely an Angel. It was the same feeling I felt around Vincent when I first saw him in his Angelic form. They had a pull towards them and I could imagine that it was probably the same that evil people had towards Demons. Something in our genetic makeup was forged by the same hand. We were undoubtedly connected to these creatures and throughout history even though our beliefs had never been proven, they had never faltered. Now of course I knew why.
Then Lucius held one hand out t
Lucius let go of her hand and raised his other one before shouting out another dark command. I had never heard a demon use another voice until now and after this I never wanted to again! I could almost hear my own bones rattle thanks to the effect it had. It was the type of voice that great armies would have thrown down their arms and pledged a different allegiance too, just after one battle cry. It was so loud, rough and deep it could have come from the devil himself! It seemed to have different dimensions of evil to it and I had to bite down hard not to scream.
“Daiva!”(Means “Demon” in Ancient Persian) He shouted as he pointed one long velvet arm out at the guards who were bringing forth a screaming girl. She too was now dressed the same as the old woman and I noticed her old eyes flicker a brighter white before returning to their crystal blue colour. Whereas the screaming girl, who I had tried to save, had black tears rolling down her cheeks. It covered her beautiful face like deadly ink and it dripped down her pure white dress making the contrast ever more startling.
He stretched out all four fingers together and retracted all again to his palm to motion the guards to bring her closer. She lifted up her tired head and saw herself moving towards him, so she screamed louder and struggled even more against the two huge purple robed men who had her by both arms. Swiftly though, Lucius stepped forward and struck the girl with the back of his hand, across the face causing blood to spurt from her open mouth and hit the wall, which was at least fifteen feet away. This not only silenced her but made her body sway to an unconscious state.