Obsidian Chapter 8 MC and Nate Sewell Dark fantasy/Adventure/ Romance Fanfic
“Wake up” a voice echoed into her mind that dragged her out of unconsciousness. She felt a painful bolt of agony like knives were being stabbed into her spine then she still felt stuck, like a whole weight was being pressed on her willpower and senses. She couldn’t move.
She found her body being dragged against cold dirt and then lifted from the ground.
The small clearing was lit by a circular border of candles that illuminated the statutes arranged around the clearing. Looking at them was like looking at a garden of crude, hellish monsters. She glanced up at them and saw that all of them were monsters with wings and claws and sharp fangs. In the dim light, Amalia could see the statue’s faces. A wave of repulsion hit her that made her want to vomit.
Looking around she could see that all the statutes had human faces, all of them depicting various stages of demented glee and insanity. Some of them looked like they were crying tears of madness. Others had sinister grins contorted across their faces. It chilled and disturbed her, seeing these human faces plastered on the bodies of hellish monsters like stitched-up ragdolls all of them made up of mismatched parts.
She found herself hoisted to a stone stature of a tall humanoid figure that was faceless except for the twisted grin on its face that showed very real looking and very sharp, silver teeth that shone in contrast against dark, dull stone. It’s outstretched arms looked like it was reaching out for her as she found the man pulling her up and placing her in the statues ‘stone arms.
The statues’ arms began to move and twist around her, locking her in place and above the ground.
The man leaned forward and tapped her forward again. “Debloca”
She felt a rush of pain wash over her and all her nerves seem to ignite all at once. Despite this, she found herself immobile and paralyzed. The stone arms around her tightened.
“What the hell do you want? What the hell are you?” she yelled out.
“You’re special. You’re exactly what I need.” He leaned in closer, his face only a breath away from hers. His empty, shining eyes looked into hers. “You’ve got magic. You’re more than those feeble humans here. They never make it and it never works”. He turned around and began walking away towards the center of the clearing. He stopped as if to consider something and turned his head around to face her. He laughed. “But it’ll be different. I can feel it.”
At the center of the clearing, he plunged his arms into the hard dirt. A cavernous hole filled with darkness opened in the ground. Reaching into it, he pulled out a silver necklace that was adorned with spikes and a dark stone at its center. It dripped with thick, dark blood.
He got up and walked back towards her, the bloody necklace dangling from his now bloody hands. In his other hand, a sharp dagger glinted in the firelight. He approached her with a face full of gleeful madness.
He placed the necklace on her, and she felt an intense pain course through her veins, like her blood was suddenly made of fire. She cried out in pain, her screams echoing into the empty forest air.
He began murmuring as if talking to someone else. His mouth contorted in a twisted smile and filled with a blinding light and his eyes were blank, white voids of lights. Then he broke out in a chorus of chants in a tongue she didn’t know. He stretched out his right arm and sliced his forearm. The deep gash on his arm bled profusely. Placing the dagger underneath his arm, the blood flowed profusely from his arm and fell onto the knife. The knife darkened into a deep obsidian with each falling drop of blood.
He lifted the dagger, poised to slash it across her skin. A loud alarm bell went off in her head. An intruder is here. The man’s head turned around to face the clearing’s entrance, although the rest of his body was still facing her.
Nate raced out of the forest and into the clearing with a loud crash.
“GET OUT” the man yelled. His voice wasn’t the honeyed voice from before. This voice sounded like a chorus of dissonant voices layered on top of each other. He began to speak again in a garbled tongue.
The fire around them flared with sudden intensity and there was the sound of scraping stone. Like sleeping giants, the statues that lined the clearing slowly came to life, the stone become flesh and blood. The humanoid monsters awoke with shrieks of laughter. They stepped down from their pedestals and rose up to their full height to look down at Nate with demented excitement. Their bodies were made up dark, leathery flesh, and their claws sharp and ready. The skin around their face pulled tautly across as their permanent smiles seemed to grow and stretch to reveal rows of long, pointed teeth.
“Amalia, I’m coming to get you! I’m not going to leave you!” Nate shouted. He bared his own sharp fangs and brandished the long knife that he usually kept hidden. He launched himself into the clearing.
The monsters pounced and tried to tear at him. Nate whirled around them, thanks only due to his vampiric speed. He slashed at the monster’s head and chest.
A monster with four arms charged at him and he buried his knife deep its eye socket. He twisted and turned and narrowly avoided being sliced in half by another monster’s sharp claws. Blood poured out from the monsters and their bright light filled eyes faded into empty black eye sockets.
He felt a slash at his shoulder and ducked to avoid another oncoming blow only to find himself pulled away and his arm pulled towards another monster ready to clamp its sharp teeth down on his arm. He swung backwards and fell backwards to the ground and quickly flipped over to bury his knife in the demon’s skull. He found himself hurled back onto the ground with a monster snapping its jaw inches from his face. He pushed the monster off and thrusted his knife into its chest. He could fight these monsters, but he had to get to Amalia as soon as possible before that demon got to her and it was too late.
The demon took the knife and stabbed it deep into her heart. She cried out in pain. He let go and the knife protruded out from her heart. Blood poured from her the gash in her chest. The dark obsidian color from the knife began to bleed away into its original sliver shine. She felt waves of electrocuting pain throughout her body as all of the dark magic from the dagger bled into her body.
Nate whipped around at the sound of Amalia’s scream. A garish monster, its jaw opened wide, charged, and leapt towards Nate. He turned back and grabbed the monster’s arm and tore it off with a loud, bloody rip. He threw the monster to the ground and impaled it in its chest with his knife. In one swift move he tore a long, sharp claw from the arm.
Nate’s acute sense of smell heightened his energy. He felt even more awake, alert, and ready to fight. He breathed deeply and inhaled the smell of rotting flesh, ash, and blood. Bodies of black monsters and splatters of dark blood were strewn across the clearing.
Amalia’s scream pieced the air again. The demonic man had just let go of the dagger and he took a step back.
Nate raced to Amalia, who was hung up above the ground by the tall, hooded statue. The demon man twisted his face around and raised his palm to Nate. He unhinged his jaw and let out a piercing shriek. Nate found himself pushed backwards, only barely managing to maintain his balance. In the blink of an eye, the demon was only inches in front of him. He tried to grab Nate’s arms and Nate felt a sense of cold dullness began to numb his arm. He pulled back before the demon could grab him, but its hand briefly brushed Nate’s arm and he felt a brief pinprick of dullness in his arm.
He couldn’t let that monster get too close.
With swift leaps around the demon, Nate stabbed the demon in its neck. He stabbed the monster in the neck with the torn claw. It screamed with the voice of thousand cries strewn together. It stumbled back and laughed manically as black blood oozed from the gashes.
In one swift motion, Nate managed to slice one of its’ hands off. Blood dripped from the wound yet the demon still grinned. He kicked the demon backwards into the trees and hurled the bodies of the dead monsters at it. He rushed towards Amalia.
Amalia was crying tears of pain. The roaring pain coursing through her veins was unbearable.
From the knife protruding from her heart, lines of white light began to extend from the hole. The necklace burned around her neck. Sharp lines of bright light began to branch all across her body. With each line she seemed to feel a part of her mind slipping away. She laughed and giggled. She felt so close to slipping over the edge. Yet it almost felt like a relief.
The lines branched and extended along her body. It fractured and cracked her body into jagged puzzle pieces outlined in bright, white light.
Her laughter became hysterical and uncontrollable. She cried in pain because of the growing feeling of what must be pure madness and insanity. Her mind was being torn to pieces.
Nate smashed the stone statue holding her and she vaguely felt her body fall to the ground.
Nate shook her. “C’mon Amalia! We’re going to make it out of here, you hear me?!” Nate yelled.
He took the shining necklace around her neck and threw it to the ground. He smashed and steeped on the necklace, shattering the stones to bits.
The demon shrieked in agony. It staggered towards them and fell to the ground. The shining bright eyes and mouth began to fade, and branches of sharp lines began to branch along his skin.
Nate took a deep breath. “I hope this works.” Carefully, he pulled out the knife buried in Amalia’s chest and took her amulet from his pocket. As soon as he placed it around her neck the lines left in Amalia’s skin began to shrink and fade as at retraced its way back to the knife wound in her heart.
The amulet and tattoos on her arms began to glow weakly in sync with the beat of her heart.
Getting back onto his feet and with the knife clutched tightly in his hands he approached the demon. In one quick move, he took the demon dagger and stabbed it into the demon’s heart. He twisted it and the lines along the demon’s skin began to brighten. He took his own knife and thrust it deep into the demon’s skull.
There was a final loud crack and a blinding flash of light. Then the demons skin began to peel and stretch as if being pulled into the ground.
In the place where the demon was a dark shadow in the shape of a man as if shrouded in a veil of shadows. The shadowy man looked at them with tired face and smiled as he began to shimmer and fade. Laying on the ground now was a dark stone filled with a glittering substance that shifted and moved within it.
Nate felt repelled by the stone. His skin crawled, yet he felt a slight pull that urged him to pick up the stone.
Amalia slowly staggered to her feet and made her way to Nate. She took a step forward and felt her knees shake weakly and then began to fall. In an instant, Nate was next to her, his arm around her shoulders to prop her up. “You okay?” she heaved.
Nate held up his arms with many of the cuts already starting to heal. “I’ll be fine. Being a vampire has its perks after all.”
She looked down at the dark stone. “We can’t touch this.” She frowned and furrowed her brows.
“Why?”
“I’ll tell you later, but I need you to grab that candle over there” Amalia told Nate. “We’ve got to get rid of this thing.”
Nate walked over and picked up one of the remaining lit candles and handed it to Amalia.
She kneeled down on her knees, her body cracking with pain. “Damn, this hurts.”
She took a deep breath and slowly channeled some of the energy inside of her. The tattoos along her hands and arms illuminated with a steady white glow. She gently placed both her fingertips at the tip of the candle’s flame. It turned a pure white color.
Carefully she lowered the candles’ flame to the rock laying on the ground. The fire surrounded the rock in a ring of white fire. “Purifica flacari inima”. A small white bonfire covered the rock. Slowly, the fire grew into a tall column of bright light.
A chorus of high-pitched screams of agony pierced the air.
Nate winced and covered his ears.
After a few seconds the light dissipated into the air and the screams stopped. Laying on the ground was a clear, glittering stone.
Amalia picked it up and slowly got to her feet. “Here’s a gift, hope you like it.” She handed Nate the clear gem and gave him a reassuring smile. “Enjoy.”
Nate hesitantly took the stone and slipped it into his pocket. “Uh. Thanks…I guess. But what the fuck just happened?”
Amalia laughed weakly. “I’ll explain all of it later once we get out of here. But short story first, you just defeated a man possessed by a demon and I just purified the demons out of that cursed stone.”
She took a few weary steps forward, but the world began to sway.
“I don’t think you’re in any condition to walk. You mind if I just carry you?” Nate asked.
“Go ahead, Prince Charming. But I think you’ve got some competition.” She pointed to the slowly healing knife wound in her chest. “You’re not the only one who’s been after my heart tonight.”
Nate chuckled. “Let’s go, heartbreaker.” He gently picked her up and stepped onto the path back to town.