Chapter 7: The Thing in the Dark
The wind howled through the ruins, a mournful dirge that carried something far more sinister within its breath.
Seraphina's pulse quickened. The shadows at the edge of the broken temple weren't just tricks of the moonlight. They were moving.
And they were alive.
The whispers in her head turned to shrieks.
She is here.She should not be here.The Abyss calls her back.
Seraphina staggered back, her mind splitting between fear and something more primal—a raw, coiled power waiting beneath her skin.
Then, it stepped forward.
A figure, hunched and wrong, emerged from the shifting dark. It was tall, taller than any man, its limbs unnaturally stretched, its fingers ending in jagged, blackened claws. Its face—or what should have been its face—was a gaping void of writhing mist, shifting and swirling like a living abyss.
Seraphina felt her breath catch.
It was watching her.
Though it had no eyes, she felt its gaze, a pressure heavier than stone, suffocating in its intensity.
She had faced death before. But this?
This was something older than death.
"Do not run," Ravian murmured beside her. His voice was calm, almost indifferent. "It will only make it hunt faster."
Seraphina forced her feet to stay planted, even as her body screamed to flee.
The thing in the dark took another step, the very ground beneath it wilting as though life itself recoiled from its presence. The whispers became a deafening chorus in her mind, clawing at her thoughts.
Bend. Submit. Give yourself to the dark.
For a moment, something deep within her shuddered, as if recognizing the call.
But then—rage.
The memories of her past life burned through her mind:The faces of the nobles who had betrayed her.The cold steel of the dagger that had pierced her heart.The mocking laughter as they left her to die alone.
No.
She had been powerless before. But not now.
The dark was hers.
Seraphina raised a hand, and the shadows answered.
The air shuddered, and for the first time, the creature hesitated.
A smirk curled at Ravian's lips. "Oh," he whispered, amusement flickering in his crimson eyes. "Now this is interesting."
Seraphina didn't care.
She lifted her fingers, and the darkness obeyed.
Like a storm called from the depths, tendrils of black mist surged from the ground, wrapping around the creature's limbs, tightening like chains forged from the void itself.
The thing in the dark let out a sound—not a scream, but something deeper. Something raw and ancient. It thrashed, but the shadows only tightened.
It was hers to command.
Ravian exhaled slowly, watching as Seraphina's once pale, trembling hands now pulsed with darkness, her very presence warping the air around her.
"You really don't know what you are, do you?" he murmured.
Seraphina's eyes remained locked on the writhing abyss before her.
A slow, knowing smile crossed her lips.
"I think I'm starting to."