The Night Child 3 - Destroyer

Prologue

Dark lashes are caked in crimson blood, with the classic cold brown eyes under matted black hair. He strode through the darkness, slipping past each person silently, slaying his victims without another thought. It’s easier that way.

No weapon is needed in his position, he isn't human like the rest of us, and he holds only a limited amount of emotions. Pain is often in his mind as the children were slain, for he knew that it was the last thing they felt. Many pitied him, others feared him. They were fools though; to ever think that he could change. He has no soul from what he had learnt, and within him stirs a deeper evil then what he currently let out in this situation.

The figure kills without mercy, and his expression often stays the same, never changing from its cold expression. Fear crept through each person’s body when they saw him, screaming for him to spare them, but he couldn't do that. It just wasn't part of him, and it wasn't what he was here for.

You may never notice, but when he did, that same little girl sat in a corner, crying. Her amber eyes would stare hard at that green book, willing the noise to stop. That same, sobbing voice, begging him not to was always there. Hers.
And she would always be asking him, 'Why?', yet at the same time her mouth never moving. They were linked, and he could see her through the mirrors that went where he went, and opened into her world.
Each life he took, she saw. The dark warrior though, could never bring himself to snatch her from her world, and slay her also though.
No. They were too alike. He couldn't even bring himself to touch her. Something about this was very, very wrong.

--

[b]Chapter One[/b]

A young female girl sat in a corner, a small green book covered with white paper, and a 3D pentagram stuck on, placed on her knees. These were pulled up to her chest, and her breathing was heavy, uneven. She had the book open, and scribbled in it, without even looking up. Short wind blown brown hair covers her face and keeps her from a lot of the world, because it is her shield here as nobody and nothing else is going to protect her.
What she is doing, she doesn't know. But as long as she doesn't look up, she knows that he won't touch her. The girl, Essence, holds so much fear inside her. Everything is dark, and she is so alone in this pitch black darkness. They torture her like this every night, because it is [i]her[/i] fault that he comes. Her curse, that she can see him and that she has survived each attack from him.
Tears rolled down her cheeks silently as she head his thoughts, afraid for her life and her friends, because she is only of ten years, and Essence knows deep inside, that she can’t do anything to stop him from his mission.

[i]‘I could never hurt her. She is too much like me. Empty. Hollow.’[/i] His thoughts that she heard though, meant nothing. It had no impact onto her, because it sounds too fake. Like something she had read in a story. Essence watched him now even though she knew she shouldn’t, and as she saw another demon, fear swelled up in her. Is it the same one, yet with another face? He was gone from her view, and she didn’t know if it is some trick or if it is him, because sometimes there is that other shadow hiding behind the corner.
She feels him but she has never seen him, the extra. Essence doesn’t know if it is that demon she has learnt to call a vampyre, or another that might now seal her fate and let death take her sweetly from this dangerous lie and dimension, a world without a history.

The demon Essence recognised as a male, mouth expanded; he gripped a child’s neck from the next room. He ripped it out, crunching on the bones loudly so that she could hear him. Essence said nothing, just closed her eyes and wished it to go away. She heard the male’s thoughts again, though. The vampyre from earlier. Or is it his words?

"You must never touch this girl. The others, I do not mind. But never this one." His voice is rough unlike the one in his head, and this one holds a threat behind the words. Essence closed her amber eyes; she could see that girl from this morning, with her fair hair and blue eyes smiling and without knowing that she would die just later this evening, because she couldn’t protect her from what was to come. For some reason though, Essence knew that once again she would survive this and again she would be screamed at and attacked by her own village. They’ll demand again that she should try harder to stop him from killing their children.

The girl, Essence, the un-slain, is sent to each child’s house every night, to be the guardian of the ones who are to be murdered. But she was too young, too innocent, to save any.

He left.
She waited.
         
**

The night after, she sat in that same corner. A child, just a little older, lay in bed with heavy breathing, knowing her fate. She was asleep though. How Essence wished she could do the same as her, although she doesn’t know if dieing would still be one of those wishes, if she had the life of a normal villager and human. He didn’t come, and Essence wondered why. Instead, she saw a shadow outside the open door.

Is it that same man, or is it the demon? Once again, Essence found herself asking that question because it was the only thing she knew to ask. There wasn’t much more with the life she had, alone.
Her mouth opened, and in fear, she called him, beckoned him towards her.
"Hello?" No reply, but she watched him move, as if to leave. "Hello?"

Approaching and opening the door, she relaxed. Essence got up, and he smiled. That dark, deadly beauty about him made her shudder, but she said nothing. They talked, about something that she couldn’t place after the event; it was like her memories were erased from the conversation because of some unknown reason. Essence did remember though, that he told her clearly to run. Vague memories lingered in Essence’s mind but she couldn’t quite catch them because of it. She didn’t know what it was though, and Essence knew that she should be afraid but she couldn’t.
She had to know the reason to running away, his reasons, what the point was of it. The first person to ever give her answers didn’t let her keep them, and it was desperation that caused her to make that terrible mistake.

"Why?" She followed him as he ran from her down the eternal corridor, black as a pit, and chased him until her lungs felt like breaking because of the lack of air. Essence wanted to scream as she saw him change, his eyes turn to empty black pits, the colour of tar; his once rich red hair change to the colour of rotten meat; his breath smelling like it. He chased her calmly, but his cries were of a hunters, angry and hungry for flesh that he had seen so close in-front of him. Two children had also joined Essence by now, and she knew not of where they came from but this didn’t matter to her because all that she knew now was that she had to escape.
She was so afraid, her life that she had wanted to end so much before was now something she cherished and her soul wanted her to survive, her silent tears were falling because she was so afraid to die. Essence didn’t even know if death was better, or what was after it, or if she would ever escape. It scared her so much, more then she had been afraid the the vampyre that tormented her every night with his cruel smile and sadistic looks towards her; his teeth as they plunged into the clear, cream coloured skin of the innocent children.

One child ran to an empty bedroom, and climbed out a modern looking window, finding her way to escape. Essence had known for a while that the world she was in didn’t seem real, but now more then ever she told herself she must be dreaming, because it wasn’t right. A part of her recognised the window but another did not, because it belonged to the older side of the world.
The other child, and herself, run to the other room now because the window had been slammed shut and bolted from the outside, something that wasn’t modern at all. She leant against the wooden oak door, screaming at the girl to open the cool metal window with its water stained glass. It was their only way to escape and it seemed that the girl didn’t even care about her own life. Essence was shaking, and all the girl was doing was stalling, everything was moving so slowly.
It seemed to take a century for the other female to get it open, and Essence moved a heavy mahogany desk to block the door so they could both climb out safely,
She heard her vampyre again now, but he sounded so angry. Pain tore at her as she heard the fighting, and felt him become hurt. They were connected, and she could hear him shouting that he wasn’t suppose to touch her. That she was special, that she wasn’t like the other humans. Essence cried so hard as she heard her saviour, the same one she had been so afraid of, stick up for her. She felt such pain as he was hit, her own wounds appearing at what she thought he must have had but worse. Essence’s eyes were red, the amber colour dimming as she felt herself slip away.

There was so much blood… As she collapsed onto the safe soft moss of the earth, Essence send one single thought to the vampyre that she had always been afraid of. ‘Thank you…’
She fainted, but did she wake up?

--

‘Why do you follow me?’ His thoughts floated out to her, and once his slaying was done, the mirrors closed. He, the warrior, vampyre even, whose name was Dagger, sighed softly to himself. He had barely even had time to check if she was alive, but it was enough to hear her soft breathing if softer then ever. She had lost so much blood, and he had disobeyed every rule he had known and every thing he was taught by blending his own with hers to heal her.
The blood had not done only this though, but strengthened their forbidden bond to the second stage. If only Essence had tried, she might have been able to leave that coma that she lay in and find her way back to her own world that she truly belonged to. Dagger knew where she truly belonged because he had been the one to cause her accident, and send her into that dream world of a continuous nightmare, where she was never safe. It was a mixture between her real world, the modern one with the cars and other instruments he did not understand, and his own. If she died here, then in the reality of her own, she would also die.

Before Essence had originally come to Dagger’s worlds, she had lived in what was the year 2004AD, a place that he hadn’t understood but had seen her and wanted her. She had been so pure and lonely that Dagger had longed to have her join him, but had made a mistake.
By the time Dagger had been able to realise this, it had been too late. He had the choice of letting her die or taking her to his world, and he had chosen the latter. It had been two years since that accident, and each year Essence’s own body had been growing weaker. Dagger felt the remorse now but his older self pushed it down and buried it before he had time to think about it again and upset himself.

His pale, peach coloured lips were stained with that same crimson blood that often caked over his lashes, maroon staining his cheeks from the cuts, the blood that had dried quicker then the same on his lips. His once pale face was now flushed too, his high cheekbones standing out in the light of the pearl white moon that was constantly watching over the demons of this true world. Dagger had, out of the kindness of his heart, sent Essence to a safer place even though she was rejected there. At least he knew she wouldn’t die instantly, unlike if she were here.
Those dark, soft straight locks of midnight black hair shone in the little light that was left as the silver clouds covered the sky; his eyes stayed locked on where the amber eyed girl had been, his own oak brown empty.

Dagger hated taking lives, but that was the way it was and had always been; the way he was taught after his own suffering and the way it would always be in this realm. Demons outnumbered humans, as did all the other species of the supernatural that walked the planet Khrimson.
Swiftly through the darkness once again, he ran. The grass was blue, and would cut and shred any human skin or human alike, any who had the blood of the holy God that existed on Earth. He was never welcome here, for the Devil had made his world for his own children to play in while they had no work. The sky was painted bloody red, to signify that demons ruled here. The colour of the thing they craved most, both blood and flesh, and the colour of the half-blooded demon from the story books they had read as a child. The demon realm wasn’t too different from the human when it came to lifestyle, although it was not yet as developed.
Half an hour later, the clouds had decided to move as the sharp icy wind blew from the east, showing the lime stars with their black outline and that same crystal moon who laughed at Dagger as he looked for his home that he was often away from.
His face raised up to the moon and his lips curved into a smile of mockery, staring at the moon as he walked. The moon here, although it had its own mind, was purer then the one of the humans that was tinted yellow, with faults on it and holes. This one was pure round, not one dent or crack, smooth and white and like a natural shaped gem that would never be destroyed and shone with the light of the sun when it chose to, and other times only as much as a candle.

Dagger searched for a stable where horses would be kept, one including his own, and he hastily found himself a magnificent mare, all coloured in black with the same stars as the humans had. But they were dull, so perhaps she was sad.
"Sky." He named her, and she nodded. "Child, we must leave. Now, quick." He commanded, and shook her reigns. They rode out, faster then the wind, into the hills and empty woodlands, where all those who knew Dagger, feared him. The horse was the daughter of his own deceased one Sea, who had been as blue as the summer skies of Earth, and flowed indeed like the sea with her own high and low tides- her moods.

Dagger eventually arrived outside a broken down house, built of twigs and sticks, and fixed together with mud. Demounting from Sky, he took off her reigns, and let her out free. She nodded, and ran far into the open country.
Whether or not he saw her again, was her choice. Not his. She had an open home now with him if in trouble, and was welcome anytime. It wasn’t just because she had helped him though, in his condition, but because she was the daughter of his favoured one and closest companion until now, as these times were rough.
Her mother had been killed in battle and although Dagger had tried to save her it was to no avail as his blood had only helped quicken her death when she had told him to do it. He had not known until her last dieing breath when she had explained to him, because he had not known how to help her. She had, finally, told him that his own blood to her was the strongest poison of all, which was why horses and demons never mixed. Both were poison to one another, by blood or another form depending on the type.

"Dagger!" Maeve Carmichael opened the door, exclaiming his name until she moved aside. He entered their home, no emotions showing on his face or a hint of weakness although his cloths were now stained with that same red coloured stuff that ran so freely in humans. Looking carefully around for inspection, Maeve waved her hands and closed the door. It vanished into nothingness, the house along with it. She had only left it vulnerable before because they had been all awaiting the return of their friend and companion Dagger, who had been gone for months on what he had called business.

"What are you doing here? Why did you not call? How did you get here? Did you not think of the danger you bring to our home?" Maeve’s voice was now harsh, no longer welcoming. Dagger merely shrugged her off, and sat down by the fire.
A human chair, made of mahogany, he sat on. The fire was a raging pink and grey. It flickered, and moved towards him, moaning softly in its sirens song, trying its best to warm his blood. It was common for this realm to be obsessed with the sticky substance, so often there were many bags of it inside each persons home. It wasn’t just human blood though but others of all types of demons and creatures of darkness and light, because each had its own abilities. Maeve specialised in these things, so by the time she had started yelling at Dagger, only minutes later she had run off to get a jar of phoenix tears and some lavender to calm his nerves.

[i]"Dagger.... Come to us, Dagger..."[/i]

Dagger brought out a cigarette, one he had stolen from the humans along with many more things that lay in this house; he glared at it calmly. The fire calmed itself, burning bright pink now and no longer talked. Nodding, he looked to the staircase that was upside down. Instead of a carpet, there were snakes. They were silvers, gold’s, browns, yellows, oranges and reds. So many, and some had escaped to the human world. Well, one actually, named Lucifer. The humans so called Devil, who had edited their world and made it bigger, sending the lesser demons to the human world and the stronger to this. He liked to watch humans suffer, so if he had any higher demons that wouldn’t be helpful seeing God all angry as his precious humans dropped off like flies.

"Ah, Carnie; Raven. It’s so nice to see you." He said two names, and down came two beings. Firstly came Carnie, with her yellow eyes, tiger ears that were white with yellow stripes; her glamorous golden tail, which flicked back and fourth and her well known sword Tora. She had named the entity that because she herself was a tiger, and that was what the name meant. Tora had greatly appreciated a name, and both were good friends, the sword often helping Carnie more then she had realised, by directing itself and sending the thoughts into her head before anything could happen to her. Without Tora, Carnie would have probably been already dead. Rarely though, Carnie ever fought the battle close by, for her specialities included a bow and arrow, made of the finest woods.

"Dagger!" Carnie ran to hug her friend Dagger, the male she had come to know as a father, he didn't hug her back now though because even as Maeve used her medicine on him he was still tired mentally and his body wouldn’t entirely heal until he had slept. Just kissed her forehead, and smiled a little at her. Carnie though wanted more this time, but she knew she couldn’t push Dagger for it as he was too stubborn. A hug back for once would be good, but it was too much to ask as she had learnt by making the mistake once before.

Raven on the other hand, was a raven, her name making it obvious but many mistaking the curvy female as no threat at all. She was more of a threat then Carnie had ever been, and specialised in martial arts and sword fighting, including guns. Out of the family, she was probably the most modern, but her aggression often got them all into trouble. Ebony hairs swept around her as she walked down the stairs of snakes; it was flowing down to her ankles, and she clicked her fingers and it was in a plat, coming up to her hips now and getting out of the way. Her skin was the same colour of the kind of person you would find on Earth and categorise as English. It was pale and smooth, and if they had known what foundation was she would have been a good model to advertise it, as her face had no imperfections and her smoke grey eyes would have been able to catch your attention from a mile away.

"Dagger... I see you are back finally. We were starting to get worried, with you being gone so long and all. For all Carnie knew, you could have been dead. Too bad though. I would have had fun looking for you, and killing everyone else who got in my way, in the process." Raven snickered, and Dagger nodded to her ignoring the remark because really, what she meant was that she missed him.