King of Darkness

The Beast

I was in pure agony and Amelia knew it. Every person in the cave was affected by it, but it seemed to be worse for me. Either that or everyone else was just better at hiding it.

My mouth and eyes hurt most, they were constantly dry and tingling but my hands and feet were starting to do that too. Amelia was restless, she started to behave like I had done when I first woke up. Much to our dismay, they hadn't brought in any new kids to distract ourselves with. In fact, the boulder hadn't even been moved since I had spoken to the two men.

And then it did. Amelia and I were on our regular spots, leaning against the wall but with a visual on the door. I heard the movements first, but I thought my mind must be playing tricks on me. There was no reason for it to move now, there was no cause. Nothing had changed in here, which meant something had changed out there.

Before I even turned my head, three men were walking down the hallway. I wanted to tap Amelia awake, but in my excitement, I ended up punching her. I couldn't even imagine what I would do if they were here for something insignificant. My anger flared up just considering it.

One of the men briefly glanced at me, but quickly redirected his gaze at who was clearly the leader of this small group. They all wore navy blue, military uniforms but I could not find their corresponding medals or stripes to indicate their title. The youngest man stood in front of the two others, he spoke generally into the room, not really to anyone in particular.

"We will be stepping out shortly." He said. He spoke like he was much older than he looked to be and carried a certain weight over the other two, who just looked at him expectantly. "You're all hungry and agitated, if you complete your objective successfully, you'll be given what you most desire."

Given what I most desire, even if he kept it under vague terms my mouth watered just hearing it. It already took a lot out of me not to attack them, but I knew better than to attack people in military uniforms. The man looked around the room, judging the people who were in it. Everyone seemed interested, but not enough to stand up and actually do what he wanted us to do. That was until his eyes landed on me.

He held out his hand for me to take. It was as simple as that. His eyes were locked on mine and with one outstretched hand he pulled me up to my feet. I felt angry, like I had been feeling for seemingly years now. He held onto my hand, though it didn't feel very comforting.

I could vaguely hear the other two talking as the man led me outside. I was looking forward to feeling the sun hit my face, but it didn't. The sky was only just turning into day, the sun was barely peeking over the horizon. There were mountains behind us, but the land in front of us was almost only calm meadows with slight hills. It was like nothing I had ever seen, not in England at least.

The man kept quiet as we walked by more people outside. They were all like him, beautiful. Like the ones in the cave but with better hygiene. It was almost enough to make me forget my anger, almost. I wanted to speak to him, to ask why we had been in there and why we were going out now. That was the main question, why now? What had changed?

I couldn't ask him anything. We halted a little bit away from the rest of the people. "Hold onto me." Was all he said before the darkness consumed us.

It felt like we were running through a thick cloud or through fog. Everything around us was dark, but I could feel the wind and cold hitting my face. It felt unnatural, but at the same time, it made that anger in me die down just a little bit. It felt like that new part of me was finally being opened up to whatever this was. Lehiam, demons, we had brainstormed a few ideas for it.

We emerged on the other side. It felt like we stepped through a rainstorm, yet I wasn't soaked to the bone when I looked down. My dress was still black, blue and dirty. His uniform was still impeccable.

"Stay here and wait for further instructions." He told me and before I knew it he was gone. He had walked through a black cloud, one that vanished so fast I couldn't get a better look at it. I was trying to find out where here was when the next person arrived.

Amelia had taken the arm of the man who I had briefly made eye contact with. He didn't tell her to stay or to wait, but rather just left. For a brief moment, it was just the two of us, wondering where the hell we were.

We were surrounded by thick, old trees. The ground beneath us was covered with brown leaves, it was autumn and the world around us was a painting made with orange hues. More and more people started coming out of the black mist, people I recognised from the cave. Then for a brief moment no one came through and I thought we were done, until new people started joining in.

Slowly but surely, more and more people started filling up our little space between the trees. The people who could conjure the black clouds, the same three every time, looked more and more tired with each round they made. All except for the one who had brought me, he looked bored if anything else.

I spotted something a little ahead, and though he told us to stay my curiosity wouldn't allow me to listen. With Amelia trailing behind me we went to check it out, though I rather wished we hadn't.

We were on the west side of a large meadow that sloped upwards. At the top of that hill were more people. They weren't like us. Their clothes weren't dirty, they weren't confused about why they were here. Some even sat on horses. Goddamn horses.

"We're here to fight." Amelia whispered next to me, confirming what I had been thinking. 

I knew nothing about fighting, yet I couldn't ignore that triumphant voice inside my head that was egging me on. I wanted a good fight, I wanted to jump in there and rip someone's arm off. To finally unleash all that anger that had been building inside me, maybe I could finally rest afterwards.

When we turned back around, there were so many people here it seemed like an entire city had come out to fight. One of the people who brought us back and forth sat exhausted against a tree, his chest heaving and his body covered in sweat. The one who had transported me was climbing on top of a fallen tree, like nothing ever happened.

He had black messy hair and thick, bushy eyebrows. I thought he was somewhere in his late twenties, though he acted and moved like he was much older already. When he stood on top of the tree, people immediately hushed, all eyes were naturally drawn to him.

"The people out there are here to kill you." He said, pointing in the direction of the meadow. "They think you don't have the right to live, the right to exist as they exist." My hands started shaking in anger. I felt like a dog, like they were waiting to unleash me and I could finally run free. More angry voices arose from the large crowd.

"Bring us victory, or bring us death." He concluded, noticing how he didn't need to say much more. The people were ready to kill for him and all it took was to lock them up and starve them out. With a smile on his face, he jumped off the tree and marched towards the meadow, where his enemy was waiting for him.

An uphill battle wasn't ideal, but with this vicious of a group, it hardly seemed to matter. Amelia and I were near the front of the troops, we were the first to reach the treeline and step out into the open. I expected them to charge at us immediately, I knew I wanted to charge at them. I wanted to rip into one of the horses, I wanted to hear fill the sky with their screams

It took some time for his entire army to fill into the open. We had the bigger numbers, anyone with a good set of eyes could see that, yet the men on top of the hill didn't seem too nervous as of yet. In fact they were either talking to each other or simply staring up at the sky. We were the least of their problems.

Finally, our leader walked out in front of us. The sky behind the hill was already turning pink, yet the fighting hadn't started yet. He stood in front of the centre of our group and lifted his arms above his head.

"Gracen Voboneh!" He shouted, to which we started chanting along. I doubt anyone but him knew what it meant, but it didn't matter to us. We moved as a unity, we were one. One large beast, set free at last.