Dead In The Water (Anadwen)

[Brisinger987]

The shadows remained silent, simply staring at Aldanith as if he were some sort of strange object. Their deathly stares coincided with Halford's own unnatural silence.

Then Halford spoke. "We do not recognise you." Halford leaned back, and the shadows seemed to merge, sitting where he sat, and disappearing. "And for that, we lack trust in you."

Narya stood up, knocking a chair over. "Come on whore! Fight me! Or are you too cowardly?!"

[Anadwen]

"We know you. We have met you... You remember naught, but our memory is fresh." Aldanith spoke, his voice unnaturally monotone. All of a sudden, he breathed in the air, and all of the shadows seemed to be drawn back in. He twisted his head aside and stared back at Halford in a moment of confusion.

Da'aylen turned away in disgust. Aldanith wouldn't like her picking fights... "Get your drunk ass back on the chair and wait for your sweetie to return and screw you to be happy again, would you?" she hissed.

[Brisinger987]

Narya grunted, and threw a drunken punch as Da'aylen. She was tired of the way Da'aylen was talking to her. A few of the men in the inn spotted the drunken attempt, and began shouting.

Upstairs, Halford was about to reply, bur instead, he heard the shouting, and stood up.

"Dammit Narya..."

[Anadwen]

Da'aylen avoided the badly aimed punch almost with ease, instead standing up from the table to search for Aldanith, who could set some order into this.

He stood up with a growl upon hearing the sounds, and followed Halford out, rushing into the tavern. Da'aylen ran straight into him on the staircase, but instead of welcoming her embrace, he just pushed her away like before, and ran down. She shot a confused glance in his direction, and turned around to follow.

[Brisinger987]

"Come on! Fight me!" Narya shouted, the challenge being met by cheers from the crowd, while Da'aylen's dodge earned some notification.

Halford walked onto the scene, seeing Narya fighting, and sighed.

"Enough Narya!"

[Anadwen]

Da'aylen smirked at Narya from behind Aldanith's cape, but his gaze was cold. He let out a disillusioned sigh, and ruthlessly grabbed Da'aylen by the shoulder. "I don't want to see you in her company again... If this is how it ends, don't speak to her, and avoid her. Please." he growled. She bowed her head down in shame and nodded.

"It wasn't my fault. She got drunk." she replied.

[Brisinger987]

Narya went to punch Aldanith in drunken stupor, but Halford caught the slow, sluggish punch, and picked her up, hanging her over his shoulder.

"LET ME FIGHT HER!" Narya screamed, hitting Halford in a flailing, pathetic manner.

"Why do I bother keeping you around?" Halford carried her off, and she continued kicking and screaming.

[Anadwen]

Aldanith snarled at her when she tried to punch him, enraged that she even dared to attempt something that outrageous. He could hardly hold the urge to twist her neck and rip her head off back, but he was well aware that this was his brother's possession.

Da'aylen slipped around and stood up at her tiptoes to kiss him, but he pushed her away once more. "Will you stop? I'm tired of your constant smooching! Leave me alone!" he hissed.

[Brisinger987]

Halford took the room that him and Aldanith had been sat in, and decided her time was best served here. He put her on the bed, before receiving a hard, long kiss, before recoiling, grabbing her by the face, and planting her on the wall.

"You dare do that again, and I will tear your spine out through your throat." Halford let her drop, snarling. He then took a seat in front of the fire, and stared into it, watching it dance.

[Anadwen]

Aldanith took his place in the first empty room he found. It was time for his monthly routine...

Da'aylen lingered in the doorway, watching as he took his armour off, but was soon chased away by a heartless, hard look. "Go away. Go down to the tavern." he snarled, and she obeyed. His sudden mood changes were a mystery to her, but she obeyed.

He pushed the bed away, making a clear space in the middle of the room. All his armour was soon resting away, and his chest was bare, revealing the dark, crooked ornaments that adorned his skin. The pendant hung on his muscles, now very striking on his paled skin.

He knelt in the dark robes that hid him from his waist down, and took the pendant off, placing it before him. His lips were moving, but he didn't make a sound. His left arm arose to his neck and slowly sled down, leaving long, thin cuts in his skin. They were shallow, but blood begun streaming out of them nonetheless.

A dark, shadowy shape begun appearing before him, slowly taking shape.

[Brisinger987]

Halford waited until Narya fell asleep, then took to finding Aldanith. He wandered the hallway until he felt a dark presence. And the demons accompanying him went crazy. He stopped, waiting for a few moments, before entering.

"What are you doing, brother?" Halford stood, resisting the demons screaming to join the ceremony. He wanted to let them, but right now, he had control.

[Anadwen]

Aldanith almost fell over. His bloodied hand reached out, and the shadow disappeared. He hissed at  Halford like a wild cat, pulling his ears, pierced by a large number of iron rings and chains, back, and barring his teeth.

"G-get o-out!" he snarled, covering on the ground. The presence of another person, even if it was his brother, has interrupted the ceremony, but he had to continue.

[Brisinger987]

Halford didn't leave, he simply shut his eyes, and spoke one word.

"Why?" The black shadows from earlier reformed, and Halford grinned an unimaginably demonic smile, and the black shadows seemed to become violent.

They began throwing things around the room, suddenly able to pick things up and interact with the world. They snarled and laughed in eerie chaos, wrecking the room.

"You can't stop them."

[Anadwen]

Aldanith quickly returned the pendant to its place, covering it with his own blood. "L-leave me! I-I have to do this... Alone." he replied. His eyes turned upside down, revealing the whites, fluttered, and slowly closed. His body collapsed onto the ground.

Shadows begun streaming from him, as if they came straight from the crooked black shapes, and the wounds, tracing down his chest. He laid there like a lifeless doll, while the shadows formed five large, winged shapes, creating a circle around him.

[Brisinger987]

"If you had any relation to us, we'd have agreed to leave. But you are naught but flesh and bone to us. We are death incarnate, we make the very air stagnant and putrid. Now. Join us, demons. We think it's time you came out of such a physically frail vessel. Try a different type of bond..." Halford pointed at Aldanith, and five of the shadows approached the winged beasts. The sixth approached Aldanith. The five next to the winged shapes grabbed them, while the sixth reached into Aldanith, and the room filled with the sound of death.

"Come to this host... Come... We will welcome you..."

[Anadwen]

Aldanith's body arose from the ground, his eyes glowing white, and he moved as if he was controlled by something different than his own will. His mouth opened, revealing his unnaturally sharp teeth in a devilish grin.

"This host is more than sufficient. His physical fragility is outmatched by the possibilities he offers..." he spoke, using the same emotionless, monotone voice as before. His feet broke off the ground, and he was suddenly floating in the air, his limbs dangling like if he was just a puppet on strings.

The winged shadows approached their counterparts, each one embracing it with its wide wings, except for the largest one of them. That one reached for Aldanith, its shadowy substance eerily passing through the dark elf's flesh. "We are darkness. We are the shadows. We are eternal. What is beyond the stars and under the oceans is us... We are the dark."

Aldanith's eyes flashed with their normal icy blue for a while, and he shot a look of distress at his brother. "Leave me... It hurts!" he whispered. His eyes flickered, and turned white again. "We are the eternal darkness. Join us. We are shadows. We are death."

"Please... Go away!" Aldanith shouted, for a short moment himself again, but the demons took control over him again. The largest one of them gestured towards the wingless shadows. "Join us."

[Brisinger987]

Halford frowned, and a seventh demon formed, leaving Halford's body immobile. This demon had a serpentine appearance, with huge bat wings, and a clearly skeletal head.

"You are a fool..." The demon hissed, preparing to bite Aldanith.

Then Narya entered the room, and all the demons turned to her."

[Anadwen]

The five demons, surrounding Aldanith, turned their attention to the newcomer. She was fresh, and tempting... The shadows took a more distinct appearance, taking the forms of black horned skeletons, with almost beastly skulls and large wings.

The largest one of them, till then standing by their vessel, faced Narya, and one claw-like hand reached out after her. "Come closer..." The voice, resonating in the room, came both from its and Aldanith's mouth at the exact same time in an eerie harmony.

Aldanith blinked, returning to conscience for a short while. "Leave... Leave while you have time..." he begged her. One of the demons turned to him, and its claws grabbed the dark elf's side, burning black marks into them. A scream escaped his mouth, and his eyes turned white again.

Crimson fires burned in the empty eye sockets of the demons' skulls, and all of them were staring straight at Narya. A couple of clawed hands reached out, grabbing her shoulders, and pulling her closer.

[Brisinger987]

Narya recoiled, afraid of the deathly beings clawing after her. She began to back up, hitting a wall.

Suddenly, Halford's seven disappeared, and he walked forward, grabbing Narya by the neck, and pinning her to the wall.

"You wanted a kiss earlier. Now you can have one." Halford forced a French kiss on her, and across their contact, the demons travelled, infesting her mind, and suddenly, she walked towards Aldanith, Halford's limp body collapsing to the floor.

She looked at him, before proceeding to wrap her hands around his neck, and begin to strangle him, this renewed violence unnatural and unholy.

[Anadwen]

Aldanith's hands gripped around hers. The winged five was stepping closer, seemed to be drawn back into his body like black mist in the air. He screamed, for a moment his eyes bickering with their real color, and he seemed to hesitate.

In the next moment, his hand reached after the knife in his hair, and pulled it out, stabbing it into his chest and right after into her neck. The black mist was leaving the wound like blood, streaming through the air, and entering Narya, its strings entwining around the blade. Aldanith forcefully ripped her hands away from his throat. The flow of the black mist intensified.

He suddenly dropped onto the ground, still clutching her, and pulled her down. Almost all of the shadows have passed into her. His eyes have regained their natural color, only clouded by white on several small places. He screamed and screamed until he was out of breath and his throat was sore, the leaving demons causing him excruciating pain.

He scrambled to his feet with the remains of strength he had, and reached after Narya. His left hand clutched around her neck, and pushed her down onto the floor. The other one ripped the pendant of, clutching its sharp edges which skewed deep into his real flesh, and broke it into two.

It seemed to burn, suddenly streaming into flames, dark and menacing. It blazed in his hand, eating away his flesh and skin. With a look of utter madness and desperation, he skewed its burning remains into Narya's chest.

The shadows suddenly broke, emerging from her like a gust of strong wind. She shook frantically, and the flames around the pendant were soon blazing all over her. Aldanith pushed the broken pendant deeper, even though he was being burned by the flames. She screamed, and so did the leaving demons, creating a symphony of terror and fear.

And all of a sudden, there was only a burned skeleton under his hands. His burned body, covered in blood, collapsed to the floor, tears rolling down his face.

The door croaked as someone opened it. A woman stood in the doorway, and upon sighting the bloody horrors inside, she covered her mouth and ran out screaming.