You realize you cannot allow these two women to be hurt by the sun. You have some kind of bond with them now, and you feel as if you should protect them. You concentrate on the shutters and they shake a little. You concentrate harder and they suddenly slam shut.
The sound echoes within the building.
Behind you, a presence.
"You have chosen wrongly, spirit," a man's voice says. You turn your focus towards the voice and look into same ice blue eyes that haunted you earlier. The eyes belong to a tall angry man with wavy brown hair. He is wearing a long, dark brown robe with a hood that conceals most of his features, but you can tell that he is very tall. He brandishes a crooked dagger with a powerful obsidian stone set in the handle. The power that emanates from that dagger repulses you, but at the same time prevents you from escaping the man. "She is a creature of the night now, as is her foul captor. They both deserve only the harshest death."
The bitterness in the man's words rakes through your being, causing you to feel his anger as he feels it. Memories of a mother and father crushed by a nameless nighttime death, of a sister being stolen away, of a miserable life on the streets pervade you. Then there was the dark monk with the amulet, Lorcan. He had offered power and protection from the forces of darkness. He had offered bloodshed for bloodshed, but he also had offered love. And once again, the man trusted in love, and gave in to its whims. Then on terrible stormy night the dark forces returned, horridly killing Lorcan, his rabbi, his one true friend, his only love. Now trust is forbidden. Love is unreachable. The only recourse is bitterness and revenge. You feel the man's hatred and it becomes your own. The undead menace should be defeated. Open the windows. Slit the tender throats. All life is suffering, thus it is that all who live must suffer.
No! You were being sucked into the obsidian talisman on the man's dagger. He had almost defeated you! You resist with all your might. You had decided to be a good spirit! This means love and honor and respect! Not hatred and revenge. With all your will, you force yourself away from the man and his dagger.
"You will not escape me!" the man shouts, raising his dagger. Your perception of the world becomes dimmer as he begins to chant in another tongue. You feel yourself weaken. If only you could get back into that building, you feel you would be safe. But the obsidian stone is mesmerizing you and your will is fading again. Obsidian and ice. The ice of the man's eyes reflect his heart. His heart, beating within him you can see it, taste it. Inside his mind, locked off to the rest of reality, a small piece of forgotten hope. There was a time he strove to fight the good fight. And here is your power.
Surge of power! You can resist him! You can love him. And you can die, like the rest. But love is not death! It brings new life, even when lost. No! The only truth is found through suffering. You will suffer with me. I will suffer with you. We will become part of one another, rebalancing each other, becoming one again as Lorcan intended. Lorcan? Are you there? We loved you once.
By: Porphyra 13