Page 88 of Monsters of Desire and Nightmares of Passion

“What happened to your eyes?”

Khal smiles. His fangs and sharp teeth look scary in the moonlight.

“Time runs different where I am. More than twenty years have passed for me, Ivy, and I’ve missed you every day. There hasn’t been a moment I didn’t hope to see you and hold you again. But my time with the Lost Shadows was not wasted. I’ve brought an army with me. The eyes are the price I had to pay. Half of me now belongs to them.”

Khal’s words make no sense to me, not all of them. I understand that inside the cloud of lost Shadows time slowed, but twenty years? That’s so long. And what has he done in that time?

A dark cloud appears behind us. The cloud of lost Shadows that followed us in the valley is here. They feel powerful. I’m not afraid of them anymore. They feel strangely familiar. My soul buzzes in the same rhythm with them.

“How?”

“It seems that waiting for the Nothingness to claim them, the Shadows needed a purpose. Them they sampled you. Remember when we met in your dream, Ivy? As they tried to rip me apart and devour me? A part of my love and devotion for you touched them. Think of it like an infection. They’re all devoted to you now, ready to fulfill your wishes.”

I swallow. This is all too much. Was the stingray creature in the subway right when it called me the Chosen One? But chosen to do what?

“Fuck. How can we save the guys?”

“Hold on.”

Khal closes his eyes and wraps me in his arms. I close my eyes, too.

I’m too scared to look when the cloud of lost Shadows surrounds us. Faces with silver eyes watch us, half shrouded in darkness, only this time it doesn’t feel as if they want to rip me to shreds. Quite the contrary. The presence of the lost Shadows makes me feel loved and protected, wrapped in my own darkness like a protective cocoon. My fears and doubts melt away and are swiftly replaced with this incredible feeling of raw power. I could shift the planet’s orbit if I wanted to.

“Khal, do you know where to go?”

“Trust me, Ivy, and trust them. They can sense our connection to Draw and Mrez and will take us there.”

“It’s not as if I have a choice, being wrapped in this tornado.”

Draw

My blood drips from the cut she made. However, the wound keeps closing.

The red headed witch chants louder, uttering words I’m not sure even she understands, words older than humanity and the world. I do understand them. They resonate with me on a higher level, making me want to hold my breath, pushing me into a corner of loneliness I’m sure I’d never experience again.

The Dark Lord shows his face from behind the curtain that has been holding him captive in this realm. It’s his loneliness I feel deep inside me. I am him and he is me. Do they intend to use my body as a host for The Dark Lord? Maybe I should have read the fine print on this. This human thought made me chuckle. I only hope Ivy doesn’t wind up being killed by the Dark Lord using my shape. That would fuck her up big time.

I feel The Dark Lord again. He’s so alone in a world filled with madness and chaos. A part of me is sad for him. I can feel him still tucked away in his prison dimension, fuming with anger over the millennia he spent locked away. They’ve only managed to wake him up, but he isn’t free yet. Invisible chains that bind his tremendous power still hang from his wrists, his ankles, and his two heads. He wants to flap his large wings, but the weight of the restraints and the power of magic prevent him doing so. He was roars in pain. Now that he’s awake, he feels the prison feeding on his strength, picking him apart and leaving him weaker. I’d be pissed in his place. I admit that much at least.

Once the Dark Lord is released, The Church of Light will drain me and Mrez and pass our energy to The Dark Lord. The Dark Lord will then rise and erase The Shadows.

Maybe we deserve it. Anger flares inside me when I remember my people and the way they cowered in corners, happy with the scraps they could get with the least amount of effort. What had become of us? We had a role once, a purpose. Dreams are important and powerful. Even nightmares can shape souls, allow them to get a glimpse into the darkness without succumbing to it.

I take another long, deep breath. The night air is filled with Mrez’s blood, sweat, tears, and fear. An acrid stench rises rose from the chanting humans, a stench that reminds me of smoke and flames mixed with the cool night air of the forest. Some are possessed and some are not.

An image of Ivy appears in front of me. My dearest Ivy. My love. My heart. I’m ready to do whatever is necessary to keep her safe and will defend her from anyone or anything. Only soon this will be impossible because I’ll be gone.

Mrez opens his eyes and looks at me. He’s so weak, kneeling on the stone floor of the newly risen Dark Church. I exchange a few looks with Mrez in the hopes of calming him down, of giving him the strength to get through this experience.

Something happens. We both feel it, a strong tug at our inner substance. One moment the crowd of hooded people is chanting in front of us. The next, they’re swallowed up in a cloud of lost Shadows. The earth shakes and a riff opens. I’m confused. It’s too early for The Dark Lord to be released. I glance again toward the rip in the ground. It looks like a bleeding wound.

Then I see them. The malevolent mass of shadows that exist in The Valley are entering this realm. Something’s wrong. What are they doing here? It makes no sense. The lost Shadows are confined to The Valley. It’s their purgatory, the place where they wait for the eternal Nothingness. Have I started imagining things?

The humans look baffled. At first, they believe it’s the entrance of The Dark Lord into his new realm and push to get closer, the braver ones reaching out and touching the surface of the dark cloud. Hundreds of clawed arms and silver eyes stare out from the cloud, grabbing the arms so willingly stretched toward them. The humans’ sense of euphoria is quickly replaced by terror as the lost Shadows shatter limbs and necks and feed on the bounty offered to them—humans in a heightened drug state. Those closest to the riff are engulfed and absorbed into their cloud. Those farther away break and flee in panic.

“Draw!” Khal’s voice penetrates the screams, filling me with hope. I spot him at the other side of the chanting masses. Ivy stands next to him. The cloud of lost Shadows surrounds them. Ivy looks like the warrior badass she used to be, dressed in black leather with a long sword in her small hands.

Ivy and Khal rush into the mass of crazed humans, slicing at them without remorse. Khal follows. Her sword slashes through the human, severing limbs, tearing open abdomens, beheading people. Blood is everywhere, spurting from the wounds and forming slippery pools of crimson on the ground. Ivy continues cutting through the masses, hacking off pieces of bodies, pushing and slicing a path to reach the stairs of The Dark Church. She steps over scores of mangled corpses and, with each new swing of her sword, creates more bodies to walk over. Those not cut down by Ivy and Khal are set upon by the cloud of lost Shadows which rips and bites at the panicked through, cutting down many more, or occasionally pulling one into the mass to be devoured. By now, Ivy and Khal have crossed the clearing, slowly working their way toward Mrez and me. Nothing can stand in their way.

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