The whispers from the dark followed me here, even stronger now amongst the mortals with the celestials and their light so far away. King Ourahnus and Queen Gaia knew it was too late to save my corrupted soul, that there is no hope left for me. With darkness is where I belong. As it whispers my name and reaches its tendrils of numbness and icy emptiness toward my soul, I know they were right.
I am his already.
I have tried to fight this, to hide from the truth and bury it deep within until it could not reach me, but the harder I fought, the more it took from me.
It took everything from me.
Faint sounds, a soft gliding movement across wet dirt, and loud hissing from the back corner of the cave get closer and I jolt upright. I scoot away as quickly as I can, pressing my still throbbing, aching back firmly against the cold wall. Billowing plumes of darkness emerge, filling the space and closing in on me. The scent of death burns my nostrils as thick tendrils and clouds of shadows gets closer. Numbness and nothingness wrap around me like a vice, refusing to let me escape its clutches this time.
“Please. No,” I whimper, my lips trembling as I close my eyes to avoid facing the darkness.
A velvety, dark laugh cuts through the silence and I freeze, paralyzed by fear. I cannot face him. I will not.
“You cannot fight this any longer, Nyx. You will do as I command you to do.” The voice is like a comforting embrace, but the shadows creeping closer are more like a void that would enjoy swallowing me whole. “Open your eyes,” it commands, and my eyes flutter open, though not by choice. His power buries itself deep within my mind, taking full control over my body.
That power now owns me. There is no escaping this. The hissing grows louder as rough scales wrap around my legs and slither up my body until resting around my shoulders. Three black serpents with eyes like blood rubies, glowing within the shadows, stretch their heads out from behind my back. They taunt me, eyes burning into my soul as their tongues shoot in and out of their mouths, their sharp teeth glistening with a thick, black substance. The venom leaks from their mouths, and I sense that they are smiling, welcoming me home. They do not want to hurt me.
Your fate was sealed long ago. You felt it. You knew this day would come.
The darkness whispers the words within my mind, not speaking out loud, but a face does not yet appear.
Clouds of ancient, dark power pour into the cave from every direction and the air grows thick with the smothering presence of evil.
“Leave me be!” I yell into the void, my shaky voice echoing off the curved, rocky walls of the cave.
Shadows of darkness stretch toward me, raking its claws across my mind and swirling across my skin, healing every broken part of me that remains. The power mends the wounds from the mutilation of my wings, and a raging, gnawing emptiness takes over as new wings push out of my back, the feel of them leathery and slippery like the snakes perched around my neck. The dark power embeds itself in every part of me, flowing within the blood in my veins now, and I scream so loud the walls shake and rocks crumble and fall, the burn from the transformation much worse than that of holy fire. Claws bite at the sensitive skin along my fingers, forcing their way out, pointy and as sharp as daggers. A screech like nothing I have ever heard climbs from my throat, whatever hope I had left of light existing within fading away.
“W-what are you doing to me!? I do not want this! Just kill me, please!” I lash out at the darkness, my claws slicing through the air.
The darkness persists. It laughs and does not stop as it wraps my heart in a veil of blackness as hard and unbreakable as obsidian, and I no longer feel it beating at all. Pain tears through the skin on the top of my head, a scream bursting from my chest that is what mortal nightmares are made of. Reaching up, my hands shake as I run my fingers along the hard, thick curves of the horns on top of my head.
“No! No! Stop this!” I still fight though I feel the dark power letting me, allowing me a moment of horrified outrage before the tendrils of shadows take over once again, burying themselves in every fiber of my being and silencing my cries.
My soul is broken. I am corrupted. My heart is dead and gone. I feel it. My celestial form is gone entirely, and I am a monster on the inside and out. Darkness has ruined me. Is this the fate the celestials knew would one day come for me? The destiny no one should have to bear? How dare they cast me out and abandon me this way when they knew the truth. They should have ended me while they had the chance to.
Curled up on the floor, numb and shattered and unable to move, darkness whispers my new name, titles I have never been called before.
Goddess of the Night. Daughter of Gods. Heir to The Underworld. You have not fallen. Rise.
I do as it says. Like hearing the names reminded me who I truly am, that the past I have lived has been nothing but lies. I rise to my feet to face the darkness, and it faces me at last, golden eyes glowing and then fading as he turns toward the opening of the cave. He leads me out into the moonlight, the brightness of it breaking my heart, serving as a harsh, unavoidable reminder of all the light I once had that is now lost for good. I follow him knowing I have no choice, or maybe I am not in control. It is hard to decipher the difference now. His power lives and breathes within me. He smiles down at me, the beautiful curve of his lips capable of either stopping women’s hearts or devouring them whole, and I smile back, my sharp teeth brushing softly against my tongue. I taste the bitter venom on my lips as I breathe it out into the air, and my serpents, my only companions now, coil tighter around my shoulders and arms, brushing their faces softly against my cheeks. Their hissing grows louder as the rain ends, and the storm dissipates.
“My king,” I bow low before darkness, keeping my eyes on him as his crimson stare rakes over my body.
“Rise, dear daughter. I am no king to you. My blood is yours and yours is mine, and we bow to no one.” As the words leave his lips, my body instantly does what he says, but I do not fight it. It is easier not to fight. “Call me father.” He stands up straighter, hands clasped in front of him as shadows disappear. His horns rise higher and his leathery wings open fully behind him.
Some moments our minds are one, his thoughts are my own, and my actions are what he chooses them to be. For those moments I no longer exist, and I feel nothing. He is everything. Then his power releases my mind and body, and I am free. It’s like a twisted game as he demonstrates his power over me.
Taking advantage of the moment I hold the reigns, I slowly back away. “If you are my father, then I want nothing to do with you,” I spit, venom leaking into the air, his shadows instantly swirling and pushing it away. “You killed my mother. Murdered your own fated mate like she was nothing! You are dead to me!”
His dark hair falls into his eyes as he tilts his head to the side. “Everything you have been told is a lie, my sweet daughter,” he says, circling me like a predator about to devour its prey. “You see, I brought you here to help me in getting your mother back.” He stops in front of me, too close, too much vulnerability in his energy for his words to be anything but truth.
“My mother is dead,” I whisper, gazing up at him but no longer wanting to back away, because as much as I hate to admit it, I would do whatever it takes to meet her, especially after losing everyone else.
He gazes up at the moon, and as his shadows pour from him, the moon is swallowed whole for a moment. Then he reels his power in and allows the light to return.
“Your mother is not dead. Her soul is trapped in the pit of The Underworld, and we can bring her back.” Placing his hands on my shoulders, the hard lines of his face, the one shaped exactly like my own, soften. “The realms need a villain, dear daughter, and that is where you come in.” The softness fades, the crimson glow of his eyes swirling and stealing my attention.
“Why is she trapped in the pit? There has to be another way. I will not be your villain.” I curl my hands into fists at my sides, planting my feet firmly in the dirt, refusing to let him make me the monster he wants me to be.
