The devil at my door

Grey opened his eyes to find himself laying stretched out in a completely white space, a void of a seemingly infinite colorless space. 

Next to him was an old man sitting on a small table with a teapot and a small mug, his back against him.

"So...it happened again, huh?" the old casually spoke as he poured himself a cup.

"Yup."

Grey replied just as casually, like he was used to him.

"Are you going back?" the old man asked.

"Yup." Grey said with a deep sigh.

"Too bad. Think she left you for dead somewhere?"

The old man continued as he took a sip of his tea.

"Highly unlikely. If she saw what happened, then I'm probably in a jail cell right now. How long has it been?" Grey asked in a sluggish tone.

"A few hours after dark. So, are you prepared for the worst?" the old man asked.

"From the day I was born".

Everything went black and once again Grey opened his eyes, only to find himself lying in the same position but this time in a cell basement beneath the castle, "Freaking knew it". He then took a breath as a white electric aura suddenly yet slowly engulfed his body.

"Ah, great. I hate this part."

The aura grew so fast and fierce that it ended up filling the whole cell, slightly shaking the castle and cracking the walls with Grey screaming in agony.

As Emberle slept soundly in her room, she felt the quake and was rudely awakened. When she opened her eyes, she found a duplicate of herself sitting on her stomach on top of the blankets.

"What did you feed me?" the image asked, her voice cracking as though she was choking.

Slightly frightened, Emberle asked, "What are you talking about? You're the one who took over. You technically fed yourself."

"You should've stopped me...this is ....*ugh* this is bad, Emberle" the image added.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know you came with an off switch...and what do you mean by "bad"? bad for whom?".

"You and I are one, and 'we' are addicted. That thing we drank wasn't human blood. You have to fix this!" the image said.

The image then Emberle turned to smoke and disappeared. Emberle took a minute to breathe with her face buried in her hands then sluggishly left her blankets with a deep sigh. She grabbed and lit the lantern on her nightstand, then walked out into the dark silent castle halls.

Having made her way to the cellar, she walked past the multiple cells and stood in front of the last door, where she found Grey sleeping in complete darkness with his back against the wall.

His white shirt was covered in mysterious cuts and blood, but his body seemed intact. The walls around him were cracked from the floor to the ceiling. The cell door also looked like it had burst open but the chains binding him remained intact.

After taking a deep breath, she hung her lantern inside and then splashed him with a bucket of cold water she found near the bars.

Grey jumped awake, coughing and clearing the water off his face as he struggled to catch his breath. He then noticed Emberle standing in front of him with the empty bucket.

" ...you couldn't warm it up a little at least?" he said cheekily.

Emberle turned the bucket upside down and sat on it, "That's not how criminals are treated" she said.

"I'm not a criminal" Grey defended.

"You stole my coins" she countered.

"You got them back." he quickly pointed out.

"But you still deserve to be punished" Emberle shot him down.

"Isn't jailing me enough? and who's gonna punish you for blowing me halfway across the street? That's gotta be illegal somehow, right?" he said.

"Excuse me, I was simply trying to stop a thief. I acted as any normal person would."

"I'm pretty sure normal people don't go around blowing up other people with Vudu purple fire from their hands. Speaking of, what exactly are you?"

" Ah, that's my line. See, that ' Vudu fire ' wasn't just normal fire." Emberle explained.

" Yeah, no shit" he scoffed.

"That was the [ hell spawn blaze ]. Magic. The forbidden kind. It burns away the human soul without dealing any damage to the physical body no matter how little of it touches your skin," She sparked the flame in the palm of her hand and began playing with it.

"You were hit by an explosion, mind explaining why you're still alive?"

Grey rolled his eyes to avoid eye contact.

"uhm ...luck?"

"Uh huh, your heart stopped beating when I sucked your blood dry, yet by some crazy miracle, you're still here. Oh and while we're at it, also explain to me what happened to this cell?"

she leaned closer to him as she spoke.

" Luck works in miraculous ways, princess. Besides, it's not unheard of for someone to mistake a weak heart for a dead one, and as for this cell..." paused for a moment and searched for an excuse, "I swear it was like this when I got here"

"I'm the one who put you in here." she smiled mockingly, having finally cornered him. "You're really bad at lying huh? Either that or you're just really dumb."

"Okay, I deserved that, but why are you really here though, princess?" Grey said back as he tried to distract the princess and keep from answering the questions that may follow, "Interrogation isn't your job, and I doubt you just felt like ruining my night for no reason. Unless you're really that vein." He leaned closer and shortened the distance between their faces.

"Well, maybe I am." she sat back up straight to leave some space between them again, "Look, I understand you're not a normal person and all but I'm not here to call you on it. Your blood did something to my...uhm...'friend'... and when she suffers, I suffer, so I'll make you a deal. Help me undo whatever it is you did to her and I'll let you go. That's a promise".

***

At this time, a swarm of red glowing firefly-like bugs rose over the city wall. They spread all over the capital, illuminating it in a red magical light as the people rushed out of their houses to admire the wonder.

It was almost as though an umbrella of pure light had been opened over the capital that completely hid away the starry night sky.

"haha, oops, forgot to see this one coming"

Merlin laughed as he sat on the castle wall watching the magical light.

A woman at the square raised her hand towards the swarm and one of the flies gracefully landed on her finger. Excited, she brought her hand closer to her eyes to admire the magical creature, but as soon as it got close the bug buzzed and shot straight through her forehead faster than a bullet. She didn't even get the chance to be surprised or scream.

The woman then fell slowly on her back with a hole in her skull.

All the other bugs started shooting the same way in the streets and the masses started to panic. The lower city's agonizing screams reached the castle and the black knights rushed to the scene.

As the flies start shooting into houses and breaking through windows, the royal family is rushed into the throne room. All but one of the royals were accounted for. The princess was nowhere to be found.

"FIND MY DAUGHTER!" Marcos's voice thundered through the castle walls.

Those whom the bugs had inhabited rose from the dead and started feasting on the survivors like an army raised straight from hell. They had cloudy eyes without lenses, pale skin, and an urge to devour. Their growl could be heard echoing in the dark. Chaos had befallen the city of Marcos. However, in the basement cell, something else had come to play.

"shhh! Do you hear that?" Grey said to Emberle as they both held their breaths and listened.

As he said this, a dark smoke of cinder and ash appeared near the cell and formed a solid shadow-like being with double eye lenses, a black wavy body, and a trace of red glowing stripes around his arms, chest, and face like tattoos.

For the first time in the ten years they'd been together, Emberle felt Eve shake inside her, and she knew it was run or die. The figure entered the cell and looked around as though it had never seen the inside of a jail cell before. It then slowly pointed at Emberle and said,

"Tiyanak...wants...heart" while scanned the cracks in the cell.

"Hey, princess...what the hell is that?" Grey reluctantly asked.

Emberle cliqued her tongue and entered a battle stance with the purple flame blooming from her hands to cover the forearms. She then heared Eve's voice echo inside her head.

"*Emberle. Run.*" she said.