No Rest for the WICKED! (Jericho)

[>Flighty<]

”I see into it’s eyes. Down into the stillness of a dying intellect. I feel it in the cracks of my soul. It makes me complete.“
”Gleaming visions of death; razor's touching my face; trails of hate and desire, liquid fire in my veins!"

A tremor raked over her frame; false flesh turning strangely grey as the shadows beneath writhed. Tears slipped from her closed eyes and a low moan slipped past her lips. She curled in on herself; her back pressing against Ash, though she was unaware of him. She whimpered and more tears rolled from her eyes as her face twisted in horror.

Ash stirred and his frame coiled around hers instinctively; his arm pulling her against his chest. “Damask?” he spoke her name groggily, still half asleep himself. The tiny Darkling did not respond and instead shivered against him and a tortured sound escaped her lips. Ash’s eyes opened immediately and he sat up and looked down at his beloved. “Damask?” He said her name more firmly and laid his hand along her cheek.

Damask was trapped though; lost within her own dream. Some part of her knew well it was a dream, but another part of her refused to release her from it’s torture.

In her mind she was back in the dark alley with her brothers. They were surrounded by strange energy that clashed with their own. Damask was terrified; her weakness was vast; keeping her pinned in place; her eyes wide. Obelisk stood very close; his hand wrapped protective around her wrist; his shoulders blocking much of her view. Abyss stood at her back, almost touching her, but not quite. She felt Obelisk’s hand tighten on her and the shadows around them deepened. It happened very fast then; shadows closed in around her and suddenly she felt herself thrown to the side. She smacked into the brick wall of the alley, but bit her lip to stifle her cries.

She understood immediately what was happening; her brothers had hidden her; they would fight to protect her. She struggled against the shadows bound around her; pressing with her own power at them, but it only served to deepen the darkness. For the first time in her life that darkness scared her. She couldn’t see her brothers, couldn’t hear them, couldn’t feel them. She was trapped in a void. As the minutes ticked by into what seemed an eternity she continued to struggle against the darkness that held her. She cried and screamed; begging to be set free but no one seemed to hear her cries. She called out to her brothers but received no answer.

Suddenly though, the darkness parted and she fell forward; smacking her knees against cold pavement. She looked up into the empty alley and saw tendrils of shadow smoke coiling up into the air and fading into nothing. Terror slapped against her and loss stabbed through her heart.

“Damask?!” she heard a voice cry out, but it was not her brothers.

Damask’s eyes opened suddenly and Ash grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. Tears fell from her eyes and she shook against him. “It’s alright,” he assured her. “You’re safe.” he promised and she wept harder and pulled him tighter against her.

“Ash!” she wept and pulled him even tighter into her arms. She couldn’t stop shaking; she could feel the terror of that night echoing through her and holding onto something deep inside of her. She was spiraling toward it; being sucked in to the pain and horror and weakness of it. She couldn’t even hold herself together; pale grey skin faded and the darkness of her true form coiled around Ash desperately.

He responded immediately and his shadows coiled with hers; holding her with nothing at all between them. “I’ve got you, Damask.” he assured her in the powerful tones of his true form. The haunting whispers that normally floated all about her true form were horridly silent and the eels that writhed within her shadows were utterly still; a thousand blood red eyes glistened with terror and pain. As their shadows coiled together it was impossible to tell where one of them ended and the other began; still he found her mouth and his shadowy fingers brushed over her lips before he kissed her.

He reached inside of himself and took hold of a portion of his own soul and brought it to the surface. He continued to kiss her and poured that part of his soul down into her where it coiled itself around the fear inside of her and caged it. He felt her relax in his arms and her desperate tears turned to relief. She reached up and took his face in her powerful hands. “Thank you.” she whispered before her eyes slipped closed and she went limp in his arms.

His chest ached with worry but he knew she was falling deep into a dreamless sleep. By his will alone he kept control of the fear inside of her; caged in a portion of his soul. It was not a solution, just a stop gap. The memories of her brothers were tormenting her. Though she was free of the weakness she’d held then, a part of her would always blame herself for what had happened to them.