Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Jonna was the most well known person in our entire village. The most experienced huntsman and most relied on by all the elders and leaders of the village. He was the hero.

As soon as his stern brown eyes focused on us. The snide remarks stopped behind me. His face turned frosty.

" What the hell are you kids doing here! "

His voice resonated through the forest as a warning for the group behind me but a respite for me. From my tormentors. From the voices.

" Nile, I told you to practice your shooting! What are you doing here?"

I stopped running. Panting as I leaned against the nearest tree for support. Jonna walked past me, without giving me a second glance, leaving behind a trail of blood that was dropping at continuous speed from the animal he had slung over his shoulder.

This was not good. His return meant that I had to go back to that room and back to that chamber. I cannot do any more purification today. If I absorb his dark energy my body will go into shock. And then I don't know when I will get a chance to go out again. If I collapse again the High Priest will never let me go out.

It's all their fault. I look with resentment at the group of troublemakers that have fallen silent as soon as they are in trouble.

As soon as he reached the group, Anna and Michael retreated behind Nile and Nola. Not wanting to get in the middle of a parent reprimanding his children. They continued to step back but were stopped abruptly. Jonna snapped his fingers and invisible hands grabbed them both by their shoulders and pushed them forward.

"Where do you think you are going?"

“ What has that got to do with you? And keep your stupid magic tricks to yourself, or else I’ll tell my father you harassed me!” Sneered Michael as he struggled to get out of Jonna's magical grip.

Not at all fazed by Michael's threat Jonna looked him dead in the eye and said “I don't think your father will have time to deal with me when he gets to know that his dear son was wandering near the border of enchanted forest.”

Throwing a sideways glance towards me “And you brought her along.”

His expression turned ugly. He stopped struggling and hung in the air like a puppet without its strings. It was only his eyes that showed flames. I shuddered involuntarily. I don't like that look. I don't like this at all! Michael has no idea who he is dealing with.

The hero who has shown time and again that he is worthy of his title. Many young boys look up to him and many teenagers wish to be his apprentice. But he scares me. From childhood to the age that I am now, he still scares me.

Part of the reason could be that he is the only person out of everyone in the village that does not have a dark mist around him. No it's not a mist but rather is a humanoid form of dark energy. It is a sentient being.

Jonna is a man with a big body structure with leith body muscles suited for a hunter. His brown murky eyes sharp as an eagle with a straight nose and a hard set mouth. And the way all the women regardless of age look at him. He seems to be a desirable man.

But they don't see what I can. He is half possessed by the creature. And he seems to be conscious of it and with its help Jonna has slowly taken over everyone in the village. The creature with the humanoid figure is almost a replica of Jonna in a shadow form but without any facial features.

The shadow Jonna was not alway like this. When he first manifested I was just four years old. It was very thin like a stick insect but in human form. By the time I was nine, it had already absorbed a lot of dark mist from all the women Jonna had slept with. It was able to move away from Jonna and absorb the dark energy from other people. Though it would feed from all the people from the village, I was the one it liked to torment the most.

Whenever Jonna would be summoned by the High Priest, the shadow Jonna would always come near me and my magic would automatically start the purification of dark energy. I could not flinch or make a move to show my unease, as no one was aware that other than purifying the dark energy I could also see its form.

But the shadow Jonna knew. It knew that I could see it. And it has alway caused me to collapse many times because of magic overuse. Then things started to change when I turned twelve. The shadow Jonna had halfway possessed Jonna and the harassment stopped. Only to start anew in another twisted way.