Chapter 23 Looming Darkness

I waited this time till she was fast asleep. I wasn't sure how Iris had managed her way back to the forest.

'Could it have something to do with the shadow king?' I wondered. With Scarlet out of the picture, no one should be able to tell her what to do. I watched her snuggled up in a kid sized blanket that Meryl had picked out for her. She had her hair tied back into a loose ponytail. I dimmed the lights, letting only the side lamp dimly illuminate her face as she snored lightly in her sleep.

As I exited the room, silently closing the door behind, I pondered on whether to return to my duties. Looking up at the time, my shift was to end in about two hours anyway. I exhaled tiredly. There was one thing I'd been procrastinating ever since I'd gotten hurt. It had occurred to me that I needed to pay a long due visit to someone.

With my feet planted to the ground, I closed my eyes, feeling my body sink to the bottom of the floor. I melted into the shadows at my feet. A cold sensation hit me all over. I shuddered slightly, rubbing my arms as I took a step forward. My eyes opened to a dark, familiar, red hallway stretched out in front of me.

I noticed there were less shadows slithering past than the last few times I'd been here.

"So you finally choose to show your face," the king said in an unenthusiastic voice as I marched into the throne room.

My startled eyes glanced around, brows creasing at the sight of massive rocks penetrating the ground. The looming darkness of the skies had fallen closer, close enough to touch the gray clouds if I reached with my hands. The king sat sulking on a piece of rock with smaller rocks scattered around, which was what had become of his beloved chair.

"What the hell happened here…" I wondered to myself. "Where's Damon?" I demanded, walking over to him till I was directly in front of him, crossing my arms.

"She was right there. The light. I almost had it if it hadn't been for…"

He trailed off, lost in his own thoughts, ignoring me completely. A vein at the side of my forehead began to pound.

"What the hell did you do?" I spoke in a hard voice, feeling a pressure build up in my chest. A subtle wind gathered around me. The ground rumbled under my feet as the pressure increased. The king looked up at the clouds, inching their way towards me, swirling around like a tornado.

"Answer me," I demanded. "I know you were after her life."

"You fool!" All of a sudden, as if remembering he was still king, he rose to his feet. A second set of wind rumbled around him. The clouds danced above both our heads. "She came to me herself, offering her life to save yours."

"She what?" I almost gasped out the words.

"I'd almost succeeded in capturing the light when that treacherous shadow of yours barged in."

"Damon…" I muttered

"He dared to go against the king's orders!" the king balled his hands to fists in the air.

"What did you do to him?" I spoke through my teeth.

"I banished him into the Abyss."

My eyes went wide with shock.

"You what?!"

"Before I could recapture the light," the king continued as if oblivious to my tone of voice, "She appeared."

"Who did?" I was too frustrated at this point to even care.

"The one who murdered my previous son…"

I frowned at him, not wanting to believe another word.

"Wouldn't that person have passed away centuries ago?"

The king shook his head. "It seems remnants of her still exist within those powers. She is out for revenge and almost tried to kill me!"

"Bummer…" I muttered spitefully.

"The moment she realizes who you are, she will come for you," he warned. "Kill her before she kills you."

The clouds rumbled above me, twirling into a whirlwind of darkness, slowly descending towards the ground.

"You lay a finger on her…" I was saying, "Or any of my shadows, the next time we meet will be the last you see of your precious realm."

The king let out a scornful laugh.

"It will be centuries before you are able to kill me," he said.

"We'll see about that…" I simply told him before disappearing into the shadows.

.

I woke up to the sudden sound of my alarm going off in my head. I squinted, stretching out my arms and turned to the other side, ignoring it. That was when I felt a shadow looming over me. I half opened my eyes to see a partially blurry Iris sitting crouched on the floor next to my mattress. She stared at me with unblinking eyes.

I almost jumped up straight, feeling my heart jump with me. Very carefully, I managed the words, all the while holding my breath.

"Iris…?" Almost expecting it to be someone else.

"I'm hungry," she said, to which I exhaled in relief. I forgot I had to feed her breakfast. I turned off the alarm and rose to my feet, scratching my head as I made my way out into the kitchen. She followed me behind like a hungry kitten.

"How do you like your eggs? Scrambled?" I asked, picking out four large eggs from the refrigerator.

"Anything's fine," she replied, wrapping an arm around her growling tummy.

Within seconds I'd expertly whipped the eggs and poured it into the pan. While they cooked, I dribbled a couple of spices on top for flavor. A few minutes later, two plates full of scrambled eggs, topped with a hint of butter, were served onto the dining slab. Iris and I took our seats behind the counter, digging into a scrumptious looking breakfast.

"This tastes so good," Iris was saying with a mouthful of food, stuffing more while she chewed.

"Take it easy or you'll choke." I placed a glass of water next to her which she quickly took to gulp down the food. She seemed happy enough at that moment, making it the perfect time to ask.

"I heard that you've been visiting the shadow realm previously," I said, with eyes at my plate as I attempted to break the egg into smaller pieces with a spoon. She just stopped and looked at me.

"I have a request… and I'm really hoping you'll follow it," I began. "Don't go back there again."

A couple of seconds went by as she remained unresponsive. I looked up at her, meeting her eyes with a firm stare.

"That place isn't for you. It's dangerous and the king is basically a lunatic."

"I understand…" she replied simply and went back to her food. I had expected at least some form of resistance or an argument. It felt kind of empty having her just obliged to the request like that. I found myself just staring at my food without having much of an appetite. A minute later, Iris pushed an empty plate in front of her, having already finished her breakfast.

'This kid's appetite…' I was just thinking to myself when all of a sudden, the doorbell rang in my ears. My head craned to one side, seeing Iris already making her way towards the door. I almost jumped off my seat, rushing ahead of her, patting her head as I passed by.

"Stay behind," I told her. To my surprise, she actually listened.

"He's hurt," I heard her say. Her words made all the more sense when I opened the door to a limping Jon. Blood dripped down his forehead while his lips had been badly torn from one side.

"What the hell-?" The words escaped me as he stumbled inside, making his way towards the lounge. I quickly ran to get the first aid kit from my room while he sank down on one of the new couches, smearing blood all over it.

It took me a while, trying to wipe away all the blood from his face. He seemed out of it, barely even conscious when I bandaged his head.

"Hey, Jon… Hey." I gave his shoulders a little shake, trying to wake him up. He just blinked at me weakly before his eyes rolled up and his body flopped to the side.

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, my phone buzzed. I took it out to see an incoming call from Ricky. For some reason, I could feel a faint nausea hit me at the back of my stomach.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"Dixon…?" It was Cheryl. She sounded in between tears.

"Cheryl, what's wrong? What happened?" I stood up all of a sudden, with the phone glued to my ears.

"It's Ricky… he…"

"I'll be right there," I didn't even let her finish, but was taken aback when she screamed all of a sudden.

"No, don't go out! Do not leave your house!"

"Just tell me what's going on?" My fingers tightened around my phone as a sinking sensation overwhelmed me.

"The shadows…" Jonathan suddenly whispered as if answering my question, "They're everywhere. Look."

With a weak, trembling arm, he pointed towards the window. I pulled open the curtains, expecting rays of sunshine from outside, only to be mystified by a lurking darkness.

"I could've sworn it was morning…" I whispered, feeling a dry pinch in my throat.

"It happened a little after you dropped me home," Cheryl was saying from the other end, "Shadows crawled in from every corner. We tried to fend them off and escape but… there was nowhere to go. The buildings, the roads, they all just disappeared. There's nothing outside except-"

"Darkness…" I completed for her as I gazed out of the window. There wasn't a single thing in sight. It was like our building was floating away inside an abyss of nothingness.