It was a dark night, one that started out as warm but got colder and colder as the night drug on (almost as if something evil were lurking in the shadows). The young prince had awoken suddenly, for some strange reason, and he found it near impossible to go back to sleep. Normally when he couldn’t sleep he would head to the kitchen and make himself some of his mother’s “special” teas. They each had a different purpose, but the one he was looking for was for sleep. Just as he was boiling the water, he heard a noise come from down the hall: From his parents’ room. Something wasn’t right. Something was wrong: He could sense it. Something was there, in the palace… Ditching the idea of tea, the boy headed towards his parents’ bedroom. His pace was slow, at first, but gradually he broke out into a run. His tiny body slammed right into the door, hand reaching for the handle to force it open; but it wouldn’t budge. Something was keeping it shut, keeping him out and his parents in. “————Father! Mother! Answer me, please!” His fists began to bang on the door, tears stinging his eyes as he tried with all his might to pry that door open, but then it flung open on him, sending him flying back and across the floor. Before he could get to his feet (or even think about doing so, for that matter), everything went pitch black around him and he couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face. Whispers could be heard all around him, faint touches to his flesh, his hair, every part of him, sending shivers up and down his spine. The boy’s heart was pounding so hard in his chest he felt it would burst free; he was afraid, yes, but that wouldn’t paralyze him. He wouldn’t allow it. Hands reached around blindly in search of something, anything, that he could use as a weapon. One of his hands bumped some- thing, knocking it over to cause a shattering sound; a vase. He quickly grabbed one of the shards and swung it all around, un- knowing if it would actually make contact with anything, when there was suddenly a high-pitched screech as the shard made contact with something similar to flesh but slightly different. He panicked, accidentally cutting himself with the shard and ultimately dropping it. Light returned around him and he blinked his eyes to adjust, there was something wispy and deformed beside him, still screeching, and there was black goo dripping from a wound in what seemed to be an arm. What on Earth..? The figure lunged for him, screeching louder than ever into the boy’s ear. He tried to shove it off, cut hand grabbing the arm that was wounded: They both screamed. His hand was stuck, the tar- like goo keeping his hand in place, a searing pain burning in the palm of his hand before slowly spreading throughout his entire body. Blood mixed with blood until the figure grew smaller and smaller, disintegrating seemingly into nothing; in reality it had died, in a sense anyways. Its life was given up as its blood entered the boy’s bloodstream, becoming one with the child’s and becoming a part of him. Frantically, he wiped his hand on his clothes, wheezing heavily as he attempted to dry his eyes with his uninjured hand. For a brief moment his eyes changed, looking as if the pupil was leaking into the iris, but soon they returned to normal and he had nary a clue. It was the first sign of a change, one that would not show itself again for years to come. The young prince pushed himself to his feet and stumbled into his parents’ room, rushing to their beside only to find blood-stains upon the sheets of where they used to lay. It wouldn’t be until morning that he figured out they had been killed, after his advisers would rush in to find him laying on the bed, crying his eyes out, completely and utterly confused. It would take hours before the advisers could get a word out of the boy, get him to convey to them what had happened, and only then would they be able to realize what had attacked: The Demon Gölgeler. They devoured their victims, body and soul, leaving barely a trace that they were even there. It was a memory Azad tried so hard to forget, yet he knew he never would (and maybe that was for the best).
