It's Me

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         Brother? Brother is that you?” said the soft voice of a young, blonde 17 year old girl named Delvcaem. “You’ve been away. Are you here to wake me up? Please, please save me. Sing our song brother. Save me. Save me from drowning. It feels like you’re finally getting close. Can you hear it brother? Can you hear me crying? The void is so quiet, I’ve just got to break the silence somehow.”

         “I know they’re out there.” Yder told his friend as he stood on the outskirts of the forest. “They’re hiding deep in there, watching, waiting. Forward is the only way to go. I love her, and I can‘t leave her to them.” Yder was tall, probably about 6’2”, and he was very muscular.  He had short brown hair, a light beard, gray eyes, and he wore the common clothes. The common clothes consisted of a long sleeve shirt and long pants made of common cloth, along with black boots. On his back he wore his family’s sword, Darelorn. It was a long sword, with a regular metal handle, nothing ornate about it, but its sharpness and power were legendary among the villages.

         “No one ever returns,” said Dinaden as he looked up at his friend, who clearly was not going to back down. Dinaden was much smaller than his friend, standing about 5’6”, but he was as muscular as Yder. He had blond shoulder length hair, he was clean shaven, he had bright blue eyes, and he wore slightly better shirt, which was a leather jerkin. However, the rest was the same, excluding the weapon. Dinaden carried an dagger with an ornate handle on his belt, with which he was very skilled. Then came the words he knew Yder would say. He was just too stubborn.

         “I don’t care,” said Yder as Dinaden mouthed the words in perfect unison. He knew Yder too well. Slightly frustrated at the innocent mocking, Yder spoke harshly towards his friend. “I understand if it’s too difficult for you to go. This is something I need to do, and I am perfectly willing to do it alone.”

         Dinaden sighed, and put a hand on his friend. “Yeah, but then you’d die, and what would I tell your parents.” A grin snuck onto his face as he added, “After all you’re all rot without me.” They both shared a small smile, as they looked into the woods, without much hope of ever returning. The forest ahead was tall and looming. The trees were so thick overhead that almost no sunlight made it to the forest floor. There appeared to be a wall of darkness separating the forest from the rest of the world.  Ahead, inside that very darkness, was a path that cut straight through the forest, but they avoided it. They were told, and it was said by lore, that anyone who took the path was driven insane and found worse horrors than any can imagine. Instead, they traveled through the thick forest.

         Rushing through bushes, dodging trees and anything else in its path, ran a figure, which shall be called Seraph, with two glowing eyes. Seraph moved so fast, all that could be seen of it was the eyes. It had watched the small commotion outside of the forest with a slight amount of interest, and said in the voice of an old man, a little boy, and in a gutteral growl, all at the same time, more to itself then anyone else, “When you walk down here you may not find relief from your pain. Will they go down anyway? Hmm, I wonder. I wonder why?”

         There was a soft echoing through the trees as the two friends entered the forest. If someone listened very carefully, they could hear singing. “Here on this road of no release, with its pale reign of misery. Not even time can erase it. On through all sorrows, life will go on.” The foreboding melody remained hidden to them, for they didn’t listen carefully enough to hear it, and carried itself as one with the wind.

         Meanwhile, back in the town, an old drunk in a bar sat at his own table. A plethora of empty bottles and glasses littered the table. “I can’t heal their fear or doubts,” he managed to utter to himself, before a small hiccup forced its way out knocking a small amount of his constant flow of tears off of his face. “The void, it waits for us all. The ghosts are howling; they feast soon. You can’t run, and you can’t hide. The void it’s still waiting for us. After all we have done, all we try. There is no choice.” Then he fell face first onto his table. This was his epitaph. These were his last words. As the last tear dropped from his eye he was gone. Filled with regret and sorrow he was taken. A victim of his need to forget. This man was the one who had warned them that their journey was pointless, and exhorted them not to go into the forest. No matter what they thought they could accomplish. He gave them most of the information they went on, including to avoid the path no matter what, and all the rest was old lore that had been around for as long as anyone human could remember.

         “Words and dreams unite, I hear an ancient voice. I think it is calling, it’s calling to me. Whenever death and life collide, I hear their ancient song.” The words came again from Delvcaem’s soft voice, but were quickly enveloped by the forest, and silenced. Suddenly, a fierce wind flowed through the forest, disrupting everything. With it came an eerie chill, and words long forgotten to this world. Something was different about her, she had changed somehow. Again she spoke. “Deep inside, I can’t find myself. I, I can’t remember at all. The past, it’s so hazy, so strange. Who am I? Why am I? This strange feeling, it guides me now. There’s something there, no, it’s someone. It’s not over yet. Who could it be? The void, there’s more to it. It’s real, and it’s alive. It’ll come searching.”

         A skinny old man was deep in the forest and it was he whose words were the cause of the harsh wind flowing. He wore a ratty, threadbare gray cloak, and no socks or shoes. What was probably once a hood was now just tattered pieces of cloth moving in the wind. He looked extremely malnourished, and the few strands of hair he had left were gray, and dangling off his head. As he opened his eyes, he knew it had worked. “I will find you,” he said to himself in a gruff voice that sounded like he hadn’t spoken out loud in quite a while. “You’re slipping away, but I will bind you. This world will fall to me. It is inevitable. Come to me now, your master beckons.”

         Seraph sensed what had happened, and it’s eyes grew intense and red. It moved with even greater speed now, barely dodging trees, skimming against the bark of some. “My last steps are coming quicker now,” it said with rage clearly boiling up within the words. “I can’t leave her, not like this. I’m the old fox, and I will take revenge. The old man’s evil cannot escape me.”

         The two friends kept walking. The sudden cold wind had chilled them to the bone and they couldn’t shake the feeling of foreboding it gave them. Dinaden gave Yder a single worried look, for he knew what was coming. Yder didn’t care. He stayed stern, and bold. But he acknowledged his friends worry with a nod as he pulled out Darelorn. They both knew he would need it soon.  Dinaden followed suit and pulled out his dagger.

         “You know we’re trapped now, right?” Dinaden told his friend. “We’re stuck in their game. They are here and we are right where they want us to be.”

         “Would you rather be on their path?” Yder shot back, even though he already knew the answer. It did not matter what happened in the woods, it was still safer than being on the path.

         Soon they came upon a strange bog. It had an unnatural tint of green to it. In the murk, bubbles would pop up, and then go away after a little bit. Dinaden took a big gulp, and said “Avoid the bubbles; they’re death waiting for us.” They both knew the stories about the bubbles in the bog. It was said they were once people that had gotten trapped in this forests sick game. All humanity they once had was torn away from them, and now they were nothing more than monsters, which will devour anything they can reach.

         Yder didn’t care; he took no heed of his friend’s advice, and charged forward without discretion. He headed for a small rise in the bog that looked like it might have been a tree at one point, but was too twisted and deformed now to tell. As he slowly pulled through the thickness of the bog, bubbles started to form up around him. “Yder! Watch out! Don’t let them grab you!” Dianden screamed out to his friend, but it was too late. It was all up to chance now.

         Just as Yder reached the grotesque fallen tree, he heard soft unintelligible whispering, and green fingers reached out of the bog for him. They were a similar unnatural green to the rest of the place, but a couple shades lighter. They tried to grab hold of any part of him that they could get their hands on. A couple grabbed his shirt, others grabbed his ankles, one got his arm, and one grabbed his pant leg. Instantly more and more flew out of the murk to grab him. He struggled with all his might and pulled off as many as he could, but they grabbed on faster than he could pull them off. He was losing the fight. But then something happened; he wasn’t the only one pulling them off. Dinaden had jumped in, and was tearing them off as quickly as he could. “You’re useless to her dead. If you die, coming in here was a complete waste,” he said as more of the hands switched from Yder to the easier target, Dinaden.

         “No!” Yder yelled as he realized what was happening just a little too late. The hands had all switched to his friend, and had already succeeded in pulling him under, since he had nothing to hold onto to keep him afloat. Unthinking as always, Yder dove under searching for his friend. It was a lot deeper than he thought. Under the bog, there was a cave system. There must have been some sort of old magic keeping the bog from falling into the caves, and when he burst through the bog ceiling he fell. Opening his eyes, he saw a myriad of unnatural green creatures huddling and whispering around his friend. A few turned to him, and he saw it. Their eyes, they weren’t soulless and empty. They were full, and sad. Their pupils were bright purple, and dilated as if hypnotized. Some of their flesh was rotting off, and several had exposed bone in varying places. Yder knew what he had to do. He put both hands on Darelorn, and charged in screaming and swinging. He chopped through the monsters. He couldn’t leave his friend. They had been through everything together, and if he was willing to risk himself getting entangled in what Yder thought was his own destiny, then they would survive it together. It felt like he was making no progress, when suddenly he saw something odd, and immediately he knew Dinaden was ok. It was his dagger flying up from under the pile, and tearing away at his attackers, just like Yder was. Great minds think alike. Finally, they managed to tear apart the last one that was attacking Dinaden, and the whispering stopped. Yder’s breath was heavy as he held a hand out to help Dinaden up.

         “Crazy party, huh?” Dinaden mocked, putting a light spin on the horrifying events, and small bits of flesh that had just been torn off of him.

         Yder abruptly said with no emotion in his voice, “We need to move on. If the stories were right about these things, there will be more of them, and their carcasses might bring…” before he could finish, they heard a soft whispering. The bodies they had stabbed, slashed, ripped, and decapitated started to twitch, and slowly move. There was no more talking, as they sped away as fast as they could. They decided it would be safer traveling inside those forsaken caves, rather then up in the bog where the creatures could catch them by surprise.

         Luckily, the cave was pretty straightforward. There were not many ways for them to go, but that was alright with them. A few more groups of the green monsters showed up along the way, but they killed them fairly easily and moved on. It seemed that they were nearly helpless in open combat, and in the caves, the whispers traveled a decent distance, so they always knew when they were coming. After almost an hour, they found the mouth of the cave, and a way out. But they hesitated, before they stepped out. There was one clear dirt path and the rest was just wilderness. They knew they should avoid the path, but there was something in the distance that caught their eyes. There was a slim figure far down the path. A familiar figure. Yder took a step forward, but met Dinaden’s hand hard on his chest stopping him. “No Yder, I want to find her too, but it’s a trick.” he said harshly. Then he turned his face towards him, and nearly yelled, “Never take the path. No matter what.” Yder didn’t seem phased in the slightest. That is until Dinaden added, “Or this is where we part ways my friend. You on the path, and me into the forest.”

         Angrily, Yder accepted the ultimatum. “Fine.” He turned towards the endless forest away from the path, and started walking. Dinaden quickly fell into step behind him. They both saw the pair of eyes rush past them at inhuman speed. Seraph was low to the ground and the only reason Yder and Dinaden noticed, was the pure rage emanating from them. Slightly more hesitantly, they moved on deeper and deeper into the cursed place. Soon, it became colder, and they felt another rush of wind that chilled them deep into their soul. They seemed very close to the source of that wind, for the strange words were louder now. There was a clearing up ahead, and they saw the old man kneeling on the ground, holding his hands out and his head arching back towards the sky. He was the source of the wind and the ancient words. They also saw, circling around the clearing, those hate filled eyes coming from Seraph.

         They walked towards the old man, accepting the risk. He seemed human, just malnourished, so Yder asked the question. “Where is she?” It was the whole reason he was here, the entire purpose of this fool’s errand. He repeated it louder. “Where is she!”

         This time the old man took notice, and looked at him with a smile, that seemed to scream psychopathic murderer. “Oh, so you’re the one,” he said in his gruff voice with a light chuckle that soon turned into as maniacal a cackle as you’ve ever heard. Then all at once, he stopped and said, “You’re welcome.”

         Yder was becoming frustrated, and gripped Darelorn even tighter, with fury and rage building in his heart. Dinaden noticed this, so he interjected, “Sir, please. If you know who he is, and why he is here, then please tell us where she is. She is the entire reason we are in here.”

         The old man seemed to ignore Dinaden completely, and said, “I’m the one who saved her.” At these words, Yder’s grip on Darelorn loosened slightly. “Yes, I saved her from the void. But, that means she is mine now. Only mine. I am going to find her, and she is going to give me everything I could ever dream of.”

         Before the old man could say more, a soft wind brushed through, but it was enough to stop him from continuing. Quietly, he pondered to himself, “Here is a load of more puh lease? No. No, that can’t be right. What does that have to do with a pale reign of misery?” He looked up at both of their confused faces, and said, “The wind here sings a song, a powerful, and ancient one. So, I sing my own song, and it is made very powerful here.”

         Finally realizing all the old man had said, Yder was beyond any words, or any other actions. He jumped towards the man, and meant to strike him where he knelt. More ancient words sprang from the man’s mouth, and his hand gained an eerie purple glow. As Yder charged, the man thrust his hand out, and the aura surrounding his hand shot into Yder. He let out a groan as the aura burst through him. When it did, Darelorn, Yder’s father’s sword, crumbled into dust. Dinaden was ready, and to the surprise of their new enemy, he jumped from behind Yder, and off of his back towards the man. Dinaden barely slit the man’s throat with his knife. It was a shallow cut, and then the color seemed to change for an instant, as Seraph jumped out from the brush in a streak of red, passing through the old man tearing away what little color was left inside him. Even his blood turned to a dull gray. His body fell limp, and Yder dropped to a knee as he tried to call forth the strength to stand. Then his eyes went wide, as he looked up and saw a shadow. It was only a shadow, but for some reason it chilled him more than the man’s words, and scared him more than he had ever been scared before. Dinaden rushed to the help of his friend, and had him lean on him as they continued on.

         “You ok?” he asked. But there was no answer. “Don’t worry, we will find her. We’ve made it this far, so why can’t we go a little bit farther? Why shouldn‘t we be able to finish our quest?” Still no answer, but Dinaden had thrown his lot in with Yder’s, and would never, ever leave him behind. They traveled silently for nearly an hour, until it happened. The road was right next to them, and off to the side, there Delvcaem was. Fate must have been smiling on them, because she was on the same side as them. A huge grin came upon Dinaden’s face, and he slapped his friend on the back, and chuckled a little before saying, “We actually made it. We made it through. We found her! Hahahaha, we found her!” He was ecstatic. Yder looked up, and saw her. Delvcaem was right in front of them, her slender figure and long blonde hair, but his smile lasted for only a second. There was that same shadow, that same exact shadow around her, and as she turned towards them, they both became pale. Her skin was rotting and falling off, her eyes were bright yellow dots, and she stared past them, as if they weren’t even there. She stared and stared, but no words came. She just stared. The shadow Yder saw, it was slowly overcoming her, and it became harder and harder to distinguish between them.

         Dinaden had tears gushing down his face. Their journey had ended, they had made it to their goal, but nothing was the way it was supposed to be. Yder had found his love, and Dinaden had found his sister, but she was a monster, and it tore Dinaden apart. “Why did she have to wander into here,” he wondered. “Why on earth would she go into this cursed place?”

         Yder stayed motionless, and tears didn’t come, nothing did. He pushed Dinaden down and ran away. He abandoned his friend, and ran down the path. He kept running and running faster than he ever thought he could. He ran away from there along the path, all that mattered was that it was away from there. Away from the shadow. He was afraid. He was just so afraid, he couldn’t help it. Wind rushed around him, and at times seemed to be pulling him back, and other times, pushing him farther away. He ran for what seemed like ages, and then he saw, at the edge of the darkness of this cursed land, he saw a small light. It was the way out, it had to be. He ran faster and faster, hyperventilating as his muscles ached and throbbed with each frightened movement. Everything else left his mind except for leaving. And he did it, he made it out. He kept running, until he collapsed just inside town. He had gotten away, the darkness couldn’t find him here, and he was finally safe.

         Back near where he had run out of the forest, Delvcaem had caught a glimpse of Yder, the one man who had truly captured her heart, in the cursed woods. Unthinking, she rushed in to embrace him, but he had disappeared, and before she knew it, she was sinking into black waters in the heart of the forest. She cried out, “Find me, please. I’m drowning.” Then as she accepted the inevitable, with tears streaming down her face, these words escaped her lips, “There’s nothing left to fear, there’s nothing more to say, and no more games to play. No more games to play.” Then the void took her, and if someone could see through it‘s utter black, they would see a smile that would make the old man’s smile look like the innocent smile of a baby.

         A little after she rushed in, Yder burst his way out. When he woke up inside the town, he was much older. He had aged in there, more then he had realized. Then the next thing he saw shocked him; he saw himself, as he was, a couple weeks ago. His younger self was running around asking anyone and everyone about whether or not they had seen Delvcaem. “It, it can’t be,” he said to himself.

         His past self ran up to him, and said, with clear worry on his face, “Sir, have you seen a young girl with long blonde hair? She is everything to me.” then tears began to flow down both of their faces as he continued. “I, I don’t know what I’ll do if I don’t find her.” the worried Yder, still with his father’s sword Darelorn on his back, shuffled around in his pockets to get something. It was a small box. He pulled it out, and explained how that day, he had just gotten permission from Delvcaem’s father to have her hand. He was going to give this to her, and ask her to be his.

         Yder didn’t wait for his other self to finish, he muttered something about needing a drink, and he rushed into the bar. Then he ran into the bathroom. The shock nearly killed him there. “No, no it can‘t be,” he whispered. It was him. He was the old man who told them about the cursed woods. The one who warned them not to enter. The one who tried to stop them. His spirit broke when he saw this. Everything he had done, everything he was going to do. It was all meaningless, and yet inevitable. He felt a pain in his chest and looked down. The shadow was slowly pouring out of his chest, and spreading over him. He left the room, sat down at the nearest table, and with a vacant stare, ordered a drink. He paid for it with the contents of a small box he had pulled out of his pocket. “Maybe if I have enough,” he muttered to himself as tears fell down his face, “I could forget everything.”

         “Brother? Brother is that you?”

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