Categories > Original > Horror > The Quiet Ones
-Jason looked down at Raven’s body. He didn’t notice that Jeffery had cleared his eyes, but Jeffery wasn’t paying Jason any mind either. He starred down at his queen with an expression of shocked disbelief. He dropped his sword and knelt beside her, picking her up in his arms as he whispered, “Raven?” his voice was small and frightened. Jason thought he saw a tear roll down Jeffery’s cheek as the dark lord buried his face against Raven’s.
-Jason didn’t understand. Wasn’t Raven just another one of Jeffery’s demons, a figment of his imagination which he could resurrect just as he had Oakram? Why was Jeffery so upset at her loss?
-Then Jason remembered his conversation with her nearly a year ago. She had said that Jason was one of them. She had described the blackness which he himself had been in before awakening in this world. He realized with horror that she wasn’t a figment of Jeffery’s mind, she was real. She had been a real person, and Jason had killed her. She had died defending Jeffery, the man she loved.
-Jason didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t bring himself to attack Jeffery in such a state. For the second time that day, Jason felt overwhelmed with guilt. He had caused Jeffery pain during his life, and had put him in his comma, and now he had killed the woman he loved. Jason thought that he had been the hero of humanity, so why was it that he kept feeling like the villain?
-Jeffery lowered Raven down to the ground. He was no longer crying. All was quiet; the world seemed frozen in time. Then Jeffery turned towards Jason with an expression of such insane rage that it made Jason’s heart stop. “I’ll kill you!” Jeffery screamed as he rushed at Jason, closing the distance between them before Jason could react. Jeffery grabbed Jason by the front of his shirt , lifted him off the ground, and drove him through the far wall.
-The two of them came through into a hallway. Jeffery continued forward with Jason and slammed him into the wall opposite the hole they had come through. The stone cracked and left a crater, but they didn’t go through. Undeterred, Jeffery swung Jason into the opposite wall and continued down the hall’s length, swing Jason back and worth, whipping him around like a rag doll into the walls and leaving crumbling stone from the impacts.
-When they came close to the end of the hall, Jeffery roared and flung Jason down the rest of the way. Jason hit the stone wall upside-down and burst through it to find himself in midair outside of the castle. He was too rattled by the ferocity of Jeffery’s attacks to right himself. He landed on the roof of a tower below him. He lay on his back, grimacing from all the pain he felt. He hardly had time to take a breath before something landed on his chest and put him the rest of the way through the roof.
-He opened his eyes in shock when he was hit to see Jeffery’s feet on his chest; he had followed Jason out of the hole in the hallway and landed on him. The force of the impact drove the two of them through three more floors until their momentum was stopped on the forth.
-Jason had just enough time to cough up blood before Jeffery jumped up screaming. He raised his hands over his head with his hands together, and brought them down to Jason. Jeffery’s legs landed on either side of Jason‘s body, but his fists struck Jason in the chest, and put him through the floor.
-Jason found himself outside again, falling fast. Then there was pain. Jason screamed as a spike pierced through his right shoulder from the back. Jason saw it come out his front and rise up. He realized he had been impaled on a spire. Acting on pure panic, he grabbed a hold of the bloody spike to slow his momentum before twisting his body to break it off.
-Jason righted himself and landed on a steep sloping tower. He ran down it, pulling the spike out of his shoulder, until he reached the edge. He jumped towards another tower across from him. He ducked into a ball and crashed through a window, rolled on the ground, and jumped through the opposite wall.
-Jason didn’t know where he was going, he just knew that he had to get away from Jeffery. He found himself outside and freefalling again, but now he was in control of his direction. He grabbed hold of a stone gargoyle outcropping and swung himself into the shadowed supports of one of the towers.
-Jason’s heart was racing, he was breathing fast, and he was scarred out of his mind. He could hear Jeffery screaming with rage. Jason peeked out of his hiding place to see Jeffery standing on the edge of one of the towers. His face was contorted with animalistic fury, and he was looking around for Jason. When he couldn’t find his quarry, he gave another cry of rage which seemed to come from everywhere.
-“Jason, you fucking coward,” Jeffery roared. His attention turned towards the battle still raging far below. With another yell, Jeffery made a sweeping motion with his right hand, as if clearing the distraction away. A massive streak of fire erupted across the lines of both the demons and humans, following the motion of Jeffery’s hand.
-This outburst seemed to calm Jeffery for a moment. He took several deep breaths, and then said calmly, “You can’t hide from me, Jason. This is my world. I am part of everything. My daughters, the demons, the very world, and yes…” He turned and looked directly at Jason. “I am a part of the castle as well.”
-The darkness in which Jason had been hiding suddenly opened dozens of eyes. Jason felt a chill go up his spine as they all looked at him. Spikes protruded out of the pupils of those eyes, and Jason knew he was in trouble. He tried to get out, but the shadows closed on him like a bear trap, and the spikes of the eyes perforated his body.
-Jason couldn’t see a thing. All he could do was feel the spikes sticking through his limbs, chest, throat, and even his face. One of them had pierced through his left eye and out the back of his head. Another had gone through his cheek and lower jaw. Jason tried to scream, but the spike puncturing his throat prevented it. He was in too much pain to summon up his power, but he was still alive, still aware.
-Through no action of Jason’s, the darkness dispersed, and the spikes along with it. Jason felt his feet on solid ground again, though he hadn’t been aware of when he had been moved. He was totally drained of energy and unable to stand. He collapsed, falling forward. Before he hit the dirt, Jeffery’s fingers wrapped around his throat and slammed the back of his head into a wall. Jason’s feet were no longer on the ground.
-Jason threw a feeble punch which landed across Jeffery’s cheek. The dark lord did not approve of Jason’s defiance. He let go of Jason’s throat and grabbed his face. He pulled Jason forward and slammed his head into the wall three time, indenting the stone. He screamed in a voice neither human nor animal, and two spikes shot from his palm into Jason’s eyes and out the back of his head. Tendrils sprang from Jeffery’s wrists and burrowed themselves into Jason’s face, tearing him apart from the inside.
-Jason could feel himself fading away. He couldn’t see anything; he couldn’t feel anything. Everything was slipping away. Even his self awareness was leaving him. He was dying, and he felt afraid.
*
Jeffery squeezed with all of his possessed might, and Jason’s skull exploded from the pressure. Jeffery released his grip, bits of brain and bone dripping from his finger tips. Jason’s body dropped to the ground, but rather than land with a thud, it disappeared without a trace.
-Jeffery starred at the empty space where Jason’s body should have been. Was this some kind of trick? No, he thought, this must be what happens to real people when they died. They no longer existed in his world. Jeffery’s eyes went wide as a thought occurred to him. With a moments concentration, a pair of shadowy wings sprouted from his back and carried him back up to the terrace of his throne room.
-He burst through the doors to find Raven still laying unconscious on the floor with the spear in her chest. She hadn’t disappeared. Maybe there was a chance.
-Jeffery rushed to her side, and pulled the weapon out. When she still didn’t stir, he placed a hand over the wound, trying to will it to heal, but his powers had never been able to effect Raven. Helplessness overwhelmed him, and a tear dropped from his eyes to Raven’s cheek. “Raven, don’t leave me here alone.”
-He bowed his head and cried until a he felt fingers stroking his hair. He opened his eyes to see Raven looking up at him. “You saved me again,” she said. Her voice was weak and tired, but she was alive.
-Jeffery was felt so relieved that he couldn‘t control himself. He pulled her to him and embraced her, never wanting to let go.
-“I was in the darkness again,” she said as she wrapped her arms around Jeffery and returned his embrace. “But I heard your voice and found my way back to you.” When Jeffery finally released her, Raven looked around the room. “Where is Jason?”
-“Dead,” Jeffery answered. He didn’t want their happy reunion to be spoiled by unpleasant thoughts of the one who had nearly separated them forever.
-“Too bad,” Raven said. “He made things interesting…for awhile.”
“Don’t worry,” Jeffery said as he stood and helped Raven to her feet. “I have a feeling that he won’t be the last.”
*
-Jason opened his dreary eyes to the sight of doctors and nurses standing over him speaking in panicked voices. When one of the nurses saw that he was awake, she gasped and dropped the defibrillator paddles she was holding. All eyes turned towards him, and silence fell over the room.
-Jason sat up slowly. His body felt like it weighed a ton. “What’s going on,” he asked. This throat was sore, and his voice sounded hoarse.
-“Son, you were in a car accident,” the doctor said. His voice seemed cautious, which made Jason suspicious.
-“How long was I unconscious?”
-“Son…I don’t know how to tell you this, but you’ve been in a coma for nearly two years.”
-Jason starred at the man, waiting for someone to say “surprise.” There was no way that could be right. He looked at everyone’s faces, but they were all serious.
-“What‘s the last thing you remember?” the doctor asked.
-Jason tried to think. His mind felt groggy and jumbled up. Strange and unpleasant images kept coming to the surface, only to be clouded over again by a haze. “I was driving to a party,” he answered slowly. His remembered what the doctor had said about his being in a car accident. But if he had been in a coma…
-“How did you wake me up,” Jason asked. Maybe if he played along they would tell him it was all a joke.
-“We didn’t,” the doctor said. “About an hour ago, your vitals went haywire. We thought you were dying. We came in here to try and stabilize you. That’s when you woke up. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
-“Doctor,” a nurse called from the other end of the room. “The girl’s vitals have stabilized.”
-“Any chance she woke up?” the doctor asked hopefully.
-“No sir.”
-Jason looked past the doctor to see a young girl resting in another bed next to an unconscious boy. Jason didn’t recognize either of them. “Who are they?” he asked.
-The doctor looked to Jason, then to the two unconscious patients and back to Jason again before answering: “Two other coma patients. They have been here for quite some time I’m afraid.”
-Jason felt a great sense of pity. “That’s very sad.”
-Jason didn’t understand. Wasn’t Raven just another one of Jeffery’s demons, a figment of his imagination which he could resurrect just as he had Oakram? Why was Jeffery so upset at her loss?
-Then Jason remembered his conversation with her nearly a year ago. She had said that Jason was one of them. She had described the blackness which he himself had been in before awakening in this world. He realized with horror that she wasn’t a figment of Jeffery’s mind, she was real. She had been a real person, and Jason had killed her. She had died defending Jeffery, the man she loved.
-Jason didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t bring himself to attack Jeffery in such a state. For the second time that day, Jason felt overwhelmed with guilt. He had caused Jeffery pain during his life, and had put him in his comma, and now he had killed the woman he loved. Jason thought that he had been the hero of humanity, so why was it that he kept feeling like the villain?
-Jeffery lowered Raven down to the ground. He was no longer crying. All was quiet; the world seemed frozen in time. Then Jeffery turned towards Jason with an expression of such insane rage that it made Jason’s heart stop. “I’ll kill you!” Jeffery screamed as he rushed at Jason, closing the distance between them before Jason could react. Jeffery grabbed Jason by the front of his shirt , lifted him off the ground, and drove him through the far wall.
-The two of them came through into a hallway. Jeffery continued forward with Jason and slammed him into the wall opposite the hole they had come through. The stone cracked and left a crater, but they didn’t go through. Undeterred, Jeffery swung Jason into the opposite wall and continued down the hall’s length, swing Jason back and worth, whipping him around like a rag doll into the walls and leaving crumbling stone from the impacts.
-When they came close to the end of the hall, Jeffery roared and flung Jason down the rest of the way. Jason hit the stone wall upside-down and burst through it to find himself in midair outside of the castle. He was too rattled by the ferocity of Jeffery’s attacks to right himself. He landed on the roof of a tower below him. He lay on his back, grimacing from all the pain he felt. He hardly had time to take a breath before something landed on his chest and put him the rest of the way through the roof.
-He opened his eyes in shock when he was hit to see Jeffery’s feet on his chest; he had followed Jason out of the hole in the hallway and landed on him. The force of the impact drove the two of them through three more floors until their momentum was stopped on the forth.
-Jason had just enough time to cough up blood before Jeffery jumped up screaming. He raised his hands over his head with his hands together, and brought them down to Jason. Jeffery’s legs landed on either side of Jason‘s body, but his fists struck Jason in the chest, and put him through the floor.
-Jason found himself outside again, falling fast. Then there was pain. Jason screamed as a spike pierced through his right shoulder from the back. Jason saw it come out his front and rise up. He realized he had been impaled on a spire. Acting on pure panic, he grabbed a hold of the bloody spike to slow his momentum before twisting his body to break it off.
-Jason righted himself and landed on a steep sloping tower. He ran down it, pulling the spike out of his shoulder, until he reached the edge. He jumped towards another tower across from him. He ducked into a ball and crashed through a window, rolled on the ground, and jumped through the opposite wall.
-Jason didn’t know where he was going, he just knew that he had to get away from Jeffery. He found himself outside and freefalling again, but now he was in control of his direction. He grabbed hold of a stone gargoyle outcropping and swung himself into the shadowed supports of one of the towers.
-Jason’s heart was racing, he was breathing fast, and he was scarred out of his mind. He could hear Jeffery screaming with rage. Jason peeked out of his hiding place to see Jeffery standing on the edge of one of the towers. His face was contorted with animalistic fury, and he was looking around for Jason. When he couldn’t find his quarry, he gave another cry of rage which seemed to come from everywhere.
-“Jason, you fucking coward,” Jeffery roared. His attention turned towards the battle still raging far below. With another yell, Jeffery made a sweeping motion with his right hand, as if clearing the distraction away. A massive streak of fire erupted across the lines of both the demons and humans, following the motion of Jeffery’s hand.
-This outburst seemed to calm Jeffery for a moment. He took several deep breaths, and then said calmly, “You can’t hide from me, Jason. This is my world. I am part of everything. My daughters, the demons, the very world, and yes…” He turned and looked directly at Jason. “I am a part of the castle as well.”
-The darkness in which Jason had been hiding suddenly opened dozens of eyes. Jason felt a chill go up his spine as they all looked at him. Spikes protruded out of the pupils of those eyes, and Jason knew he was in trouble. He tried to get out, but the shadows closed on him like a bear trap, and the spikes of the eyes perforated his body.
-Jason couldn’t see a thing. All he could do was feel the spikes sticking through his limbs, chest, throat, and even his face. One of them had pierced through his left eye and out the back of his head. Another had gone through his cheek and lower jaw. Jason tried to scream, but the spike puncturing his throat prevented it. He was in too much pain to summon up his power, but he was still alive, still aware.
-Through no action of Jason’s, the darkness dispersed, and the spikes along with it. Jason felt his feet on solid ground again, though he hadn’t been aware of when he had been moved. He was totally drained of energy and unable to stand. He collapsed, falling forward. Before he hit the dirt, Jeffery’s fingers wrapped around his throat and slammed the back of his head into a wall. Jason’s feet were no longer on the ground.
-Jason threw a feeble punch which landed across Jeffery’s cheek. The dark lord did not approve of Jason’s defiance. He let go of Jason’s throat and grabbed his face. He pulled Jason forward and slammed his head into the wall three time, indenting the stone. He screamed in a voice neither human nor animal, and two spikes shot from his palm into Jason’s eyes and out the back of his head. Tendrils sprang from Jeffery’s wrists and burrowed themselves into Jason’s face, tearing him apart from the inside.
-Jason could feel himself fading away. He couldn’t see anything; he couldn’t feel anything. Everything was slipping away. Even his self awareness was leaving him. He was dying, and he felt afraid.
*
Jeffery squeezed with all of his possessed might, and Jason’s skull exploded from the pressure. Jeffery released his grip, bits of brain and bone dripping from his finger tips. Jason’s body dropped to the ground, but rather than land with a thud, it disappeared without a trace.
-Jeffery starred at the empty space where Jason’s body should have been. Was this some kind of trick? No, he thought, this must be what happens to real people when they died. They no longer existed in his world. Jeffery’s eyes went wide as a thought occurred to him. With a moments concentration, a pair of shadowy wings sprouted from his back and carried him back up to the terrace of his throne room.
-He burst through the doors to find Raven still laying unconscious on the floor with the spear in her chest. She hadn’t disappeared. Maybe there was a chance.
-Jeffery rushed to her side, and pulled the weapon out. When she still didn’t stir, he placed a hand over the wound, trying to will it to heal, but his powers had never been able to effect Raven. Helplessness overwhelmed him, and a tear dropped from his eyes to Raven’s cheek. “Raven, don’t leave me here alone.”
-He bowed his head and cried until a he felt fingers stroking his hair. He opened his eyes to see Raven looking up at him. “You saved me again,” she said. Her voice was weak and tired, but she was alive.
-Jeffery was felt so relieved that he couldn‘t control himself. He pulled her to him and embraced her, never wanting to let go.
-“I was in the darkness again,” she said as she wrapped her arms around Jeffery and returned his embrace. “But I heard your voice and found my way back to you.” When Jeffery finally released her, Raven looked around the room. “Where is Jason?”
-“Dead,” Jeffery answered. He didn’t want their happy reunion to be spoiled by unpleasant thoughts of the one who had nearly separated them forever.
-“Too bad,” Raven said. “He made things interesting…for awhile.”
“Don’t worry,” Jeffery said as he stood and helped Raven to her feet. “I have a feeling that he won’t be the last.”
*
-Jason opened his dreary eyes to the sight of doctors and nurses standing over him speaking in panicked voices. When one of the nurses saw that he was awake, she gasped and dropped the defibrillator paddles she was holding. All eyes turned towards him, and silence fell over the room.
-Jason sat up slowly. His body felt like it weighed a ton. “What’s going on,” he asked. This throat was sore, and his voice sounded hoarse.
-“Son, you were in a car accident,” the doctor said. His voice seemed cautious, which made Jason suspicious.
-“How long was I unconscious?”
-“Son…I don’t know how to tell you this, but you’ve been in a coma for nearly two years.”
-Jason starred at the man, waiting for someone to say “surprise.” There was no way that could be right. He looked at everyone’s faces, but they were all serious.
-“What‘s the last thing you remember?” the doctor asked.
-Jason tried to think. His mind felt groggy and jumbled up. Strange and unpleasant images kept coming to the surface, only to be clouded over again by a haze. “I was driving to a party,” he answered slowly. His remembered what the doctor had said about his being in a car accident. But if he had been in a coma…
-“How did you wake me up,” Jason asked. Maybe if he played along they would tell him it was all a joke.
-“We didn’t,” the doctor said. “About an hour ago, your vitals went haywire. We thought you were dying. We came in here to try and stabilize you. That’s when you woke up. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
-“Doctor,” a nurse called from the other end of the room. “The girl’s vitals have stabilized.”
-“Any chance she woke up?” the doctor asked hopefully.
-“No sir.”
-Jason looked past the doctor to see a young girl resting in another bed next to an unconscious boy. Jason didn’t recognize either of them. “Who are they?” he asked.
-The doctor looked to Jason, then to the two unconscious patients and back to Jason again before answering: “Two other coma patients. They have been here for quite some time I’m afraid.”
-Jason felt a great sense of pity. “That’s very sad.”
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