Whispers in the Dark (Lady Knives)

The forest was silent, like always. The thick skinned birds kept in their nests, cuddled up with each other to keep warm and safe. Not many predators would choose a place like this as a hunting ground. That didn’t mean that nothing dangerous lived in the forest. Evil loved solitude, like the rather peeved Inferno demon. Leaning up against a nearby tree, his eyes closed, Malik felt the snow under his feet melt away, and the tree nearest ignite.

“Nothing like a little warmth to keep the body in good shape,” Malik mused. This place wasn’t the perfect spot the demon would’ve chosen to emerge from the fiery kingdom of hell, but it was a good start. Now all he needed was a little food to boost his morale. He looked to his left, hearing the echo of laughter from somewhere nearby. It looked like his meal would be soon, and from the sound of it, rather lively.

~

“Look at me papa, I’m flying!” the little girl squealed, her arms outstretched and flapping wildly as her mother held her above her head and swung her around. Across the room, her father laughed and clapped in fake awe as she was set down.

“Well then, looks like we have a little witch on our hands!” Running into her fathers open arms, the girl hugged her father tightly.

“I missed you, Papa.”

“I missed you too, Lillith. Did you have fun with your mother?” the man whispered into her ear. Giving her husband a mock frown, the woman chuckled and shook her head at him.

“She wouldn’t stop laughing, Marius. Especially when she was on the horse at the fair.” Finally breaking the hug by taking a step back, Marius grinned toothily at his daughter, before looking up to his wife again.

“Are we going to go inside, it’s freezing out here!” the woman chuckled, wrapping an arm around her husband. Lillith nodded vigorously, and start running for the small cottage that the three called home, nearly slipping as she bolted headfirst through the open doorway. Upon seeing their child’s progress into the house, Marius gave his wife a quizzical look.

“I don’t remember leaving the door open,” the logger muttered.

“It might have blown open when you came out,” his wife replied, gently tugging on his hand in an effort to make him go faster.

“It might. I’m just hoping that-”

“DADDY!” The girl screamed from within the cottage. Instantly realizing that something was wrong, the man darted forward in a mad dash, his fatherly instincts kicking in. Skidding to a halt as he entered the house, Marius looked wildly around. It only took him a few moments to find his girl.

Laid in a puddle of steadily growing blood, Lillith’s head was turned towards her father, her skin deathly pale. However, his eyes were drawn to the figure in the corner, one with blood smeared across its face. It looked humane, but Marius could feel something…evil about it. It had been cleaning its fingers with its tongue, but as soon as the logger stepped into the house, it looked up, a smile on its face.

“Well now, looks like I’m not completely finished feeding,” Malik spoke, every word sending a chill through the man’s spine. Taking a step back, the man unwittingly walked back into his wife, nearly causing her to fall over.

“What’s wrong, Marius, is she hurt-” the words from his wife faltered as soon as she had looked into the house, and seen the fallen from of her child. For a moment, she stared in disbelief. Then the tears came. Her legs failing her, the woman dropped onto her knees, tears flowing in rivers down her cheeks. She made a choking sound, as if she was going to say something, but the only thing that came up was vomit.

“Amanda, this isn’t the time. There’s something in the house-” He got no farther, as a long nailed hand exploded out of his chest, showering the woman with blood.

“I think you’ll find that I’m no longer in the house,” Malik laughed, wiggling his hand around inside the man’s intestines. The woman screamed, scrabbling backwards and away from the house. Marius, however, looked down at the hand protruding from his body, blood pouring out of his mouth.

“Bu…bu…bu…but…” the man stuttered, the amount of blood in his mouth slurring his words. Opening his mouth, he looked up at his wife, shaking his head madly, before going still. Malik withdrew his hand, stepping to the side as Marius’ dead body dropped to the floor, and brought up a crimson nail to his mouth, licking it clean of blood.

“My my, what a tasty fellow. Wonder if the rest of his family is just as nice?” the demon muttered ominously. He looked at the nearby woman, and grinned, as if what he had just done was nothing compared to what he was going to do to her. The woman managed to let out one last scream before she felt her neck sliced open.

Several hours later…

The girl lay in the exact same position as she had been when her father had come into the cottage. Albeit, now her entire skull had been flayed of its flesh, and her tongue and eyes were missing, as well as a rather large proportion of her brain. On the tiny body’s left, her father’s body lay, also skinless. Her mother was the same to her right. In one corner of the small dwelling, the demon was busy with his meal of internal organs, flesh and bodily fluids.

“These people needed to get some fat into them, they’re all skin and bone…well, now just bone,” Malik laughed madly, a piece of flesh hanging from the right of his mouth like a piece of bacon. This had turned out better than he had actually hoped, a banquet for his arrival, and easily attained at that. However, it still wasn’t enough. Something was nagging at him…something that reminded him of the Inferno. Like a nearby aura, but nowhere close at the same time. And something told him that it was drawing closer.

The night had come, and the frosted snow had turned ashen, as if it wasn’t snow at all. Though the moon did shine brilliantly above, there was still limited light. Every once in a while, a tree branch could be heard cracking and tumbling noisily to the ground; the snow had fallen heavily during the evening. The fauna of Nyx began to wander about. Nightfall’s breath was icy cold tonight, and the only way of escaping it was the warmth of a blazing fire. Dark eyes roamed lazily across the ashen scenery, the sleepy glow of the snow quite pleasant. It had been a long while since the young demoness had seen snow. Her first encounter with it was definately not as serene, for it had to do with plenty of crimson in the ice.

She was heading toward a nearby town seeking some much needed rest, as well as some minor tailoring and a new set of boots. It had been a while since she had come in contact with humans as it were. The last time she had it was a miserable encounter, and they all were killed. Of course, no remorse was felt by Knives, as she had killed many times before. She could hardly stand them anymore, mortals. "Feh." She hissed as the not-so-pleasant scent of those creatures began to waft in her direction. The village on which she was approaching was not even a mile away, and the scent of humans grew stronger with every step she took.

A small twig crunched beneath her boot, making her come to attention quite quickly. It was quiet around here, not even a single noise beside the soft ebb and flow of her breathing to be heard. The snow continued to fall, gray and bland underneath the strange light of the moon. Something about this night was unnerving. Her soul was strongly at unrest, and she couldn't figure out the source of the foreboding feeling that consumed her; both body and mind.

The musky scent of pinewood burning assaulted her nose, and the wisping clouds of dark smoke from rooftops caught her attention. She was very close, and could hear the humans roaming about in the menacing darkness of the night. The exotic scents of their food were mixing, nearly causing her to waver with nausea. She was quite determined now to find an inn as soon and possible and get herself a room where she could remain solitary, and recover from the long days travel to this place. Her eyes closed as she continued on her way into the town, soon seeing the open clearing of the dirt road. It was buried in about four inches of frost. No jackass-drawn carriages would be drawn in the morning, for the animals would surely slip and injure themselves. Of course, that is if the humans in this place had any sense at all.

With each step she became more anxious. The irritating feeling that something had caught knowledge of her was beginning to wretch at her mind, and she began to doubt that she would be getting any sleep tonight.

She soon came upon a small, quaint inn, the sign above the door written in western-shaped letters that read: "Willowblister Inn." Upon entering, an old man's wrinkled face with white whiskers in the form of a thick mustache and bushy beard came into view. "I'z quite late, misses! 'Wha can I do for yeh?" He piped, his voice grungey, yet holding a pleasant, upbeat tone. "I would like a room for a few nights. The best you have." Her sentances were cut short and simple, for that was all the old man needed to know. Taking a pouch from within her cloak, she drew a few pure gold coins from it and tossed them into his unready hands, seeing his eyes widen as he began to nod his head furiously. It seemed as though these humans didn't see gold all too often, for they always reacted this way. The humor in it had died out over the years, yet it was still amusing enough to earn a faint smile from beneath her silken scarf.

He immediately led her up to the room, it was nothing all too luxurious, but it would do. It was nicer than most of the rooms she had had before. There was a porcelain basin in the bathroom, and an assortment of basic bathing oils and soaps for her to clense with when she saw it fit. After the old man had left, she locked the door and almost immediately slid down onto the king sized bed. It was larger than any of the beds she had stayed in before, besides her old bed back at the Palace, that she would never see again. She fell into a trance-like state, her dark eyes gazing blankly up at the ceiling before they began to ease closed. She was lulled into the realm of sleep once more by the relentless silence, the warmth of her body increasing; a normal mechanism her body had adopted in cold atmospheres. This was the first time in a while she had let herself fall asleep, and all her thoughts, fears, and anxieties seemed to melt away into nothingness.


OoC: Nyx = Roman Goddess of the Night

Trees turned to ash with but a flick of his finger, leaving a cinder caked path along the snow. Malik moved with the swiftness of one who would run from their death. The aura was closer, and he was determined to discover the source.

Try and hide if you will, but none escape my grasp for long…

It wasn’t so much that he was puzzled, more that he was aggravated. To be disturbed in his mind by something for this long had riled him. The aura was too defiant to be left alone, and whatever creature the aura surrounded would soon wish they’d never crawled out of their mothers’ womb. He slapped a hand to another tree that blocked his hand, letting the ash slip through his fingers as it turned to nothing. The aura had this death coming.

~

“The ‘Willowblister Inn’. A hovel for humans to lay their fat heads,” the prince sneered. Although it was the middle of the night, people were still awake, probably drunk by the sound of their slurred shouts. That all disappeared as soon as Malik walked in the door. Almost utmost silence reigned, as everyone stared at the newcomer.

“I guess you’ll be wanting a room?” the innkeeper said through a grin. The question went unanswered, Malik focused on digging his nails into the palm of his right hand. Blood seeped from the wound within a few moments, quickly congealing on and around his fingers. Everyone watched the unnatural event, mouths agape in disgust. Soon enough, the prince simply crushed his hand into a fist, his eyes fixated on the ceiling.

“Who’s upstairs?”

“I don’t know, some lady who came in only just before yourself, thought I’d have to say she looked far more normal than you.” The man spoke with the courage that had come from his brew, knowing little of the creature that he had just provoked. Sighing, Malik let his gaze linger on the ceiling for only a minute longer, before dropping the crimson stone in his hand to the floor.

OOC: Yes, I know, not that good. >>

Arching her body gently as she slept, she went unbothered, eyes still closed and breathing still calm and steady. Even when the place went up in flames, and the huge explosion rocked the building and caused it to collapse, it still did not seem to faze her. The automatic barrier raised over her body in sleep kept any rubble from coming into contact with her, as well as the flames which wrought much havoc upon the building around her.

Minutes passed after the destruction had been done, and still no movement stirred within the debris of ths still smoldering pile of ash and large chunks of rafters and other objects that you'd find in an inn.

The young woman slowly began to wake, finding the barrier at full force due to the many objects, as well as large, searing chunks of metal that surrounded her from all directions. It seemed as though she was burried beneath this mess. 'What happ-...' She stopped in mid-thought, a violent, powerful aura only meters away from where she laid concealed from whoever it was. She figured that they were the one who had done this, and she was curious.

'Perhaps it was that feeling brought earlier..maybe it was triggered...' Her thought faded off and she stood within the barrier, causing debris and a cloud of dust to rise in the wake of the demonic man. She kicked off a few other pieces of rubble and allowed the barrier to lower as she appeared from within the cloud of dust, gazing solemnly at Malik. She spoke not a single word, her eyes tracing over the features of his face, as well as the armor that adourned his shoulders. 'How strange...' she mused. Her dark, ebony locks cascaded down over her shoulders, her head turned slightly to the side as she wearily observed him from an off angle.

Not an Infernal Demon…yet not human either…

Caution was the last thing that Malik would ever take with a being on this surface world. Even in the Inferno, he feared no one, so to even think of fearing one of these creatures was laughable. As the…thing, looked at him, he felt the innate desire to speak to her, yet not with words.

“You… what is your name?”

As the thought left his mind, the woman shivered, as if just disgusted in some way.

“Knives Eclipses.” This reply thought did not come freely from her. On the contrary, it seemed like an automatic response, and not one she had wanted to happen. Feigning a smile as to seem friendly, even though the ruins around him proved what his true intention was, the prince took a step forward.

“The aura I have been seeking, and I find that it is from a mere woman? Not human, but still, a woman. Why did you seem to want me to find you? Did you wish to summon me to this accursed dwelling, so that you might worship me? Or does this run deeper, to the Circles below?” Malik spoke harshly, like he would to a servant. And that is suddenly the aura he realised she had. That of a servant.

It was hauntingly evident that this man was not human, but something that would only be seen in a mortal's wildest dreams. A Demon from the depths, a place similar from where she had come. She dared not close her eyes, for weariness was present within her, and her eyes hardened; stone cold. The thought which was eased from her mind nearly caused her to lose her composure, but she held it, remaining silent and still.

"Worship you?" She murmured softly. "Why would I come to worship that which is irrelevant to my existance?"

Her tone was laced with malice and lingered with a soft hiss, every muscle across her body tensing in aggravation. He sure had the nerve, and that would not earn him good temperament from the young heiress who stood before him. Though she lacked a few inches in height, she did not lack in will power and strength. No one stood in her way, or made her do anything.

A cold wind whispered its way through the dusty, barren streets of the early-morning lit town, the smokestacks nearby hoarsely letting small, wispy curls of black smoke escape from their charred iron maws. The silence was eerie, and the mixture of this man's presence and the atmosphere of this place made her uneasy. Something about him didn't seem right, and she could not put her finger on what it could have possibly been. Her eyes remained trained upon his, countless questions and thoughts flowing through her mind continuously, plaguing her for minutes which drew on as slow as a river of molasses.

"And who might you be?"

Thoughtlessly her gaze was drawn away from the strange man, and to the horizon, where the blazing-orange sphere of flames rose slowly up into the sky. It threw tangerine rays of light through the gathering ashen clouds, as if some divine being was descending from the path of light.