Lost Chapter 2
Halo of Eros
What you see is not always something that you can trust. Not always something to be taken at face value. Jack had learned this from the start of the dawn, ever since he had seen that smile on Hanabi's face change into a growling snarl at the face of their enemies. There were things that some peopel didn't show to those that they felt that they loved. There were many faces to the one person. A fac that you saw wasn't always going to be the face that another saw. Justice and revenge.Two sides of the same coin. Just two different ways of looking at the very same thing. He was here now for no other reason that his own justice had willed it.The core. This place had been something that was deep to him. For it had been th place that he had awakened and apparantly the place where he had missed some major activity from everywhere else. It had set some on knife edge. To Jack it had been nothing more than mild curiousity, but he wouldn't let that just be left as it was. He had the idea that this had something to do with dark magic. One man or half man had risen up creatures forom the powers of the dark and yet here this man had ruled not in hell. Was it because this man was human? And if he was a human just what kind of human was he that could do such things. Obviously a very powerful one. One to be feared. One to be respected.
Jack had to know the answer. He hadn't seen this himself he had been to indepth into his own qust to even bother thinking about the movments of some human until the rumours had reached him too late. Here he now sat atop a building looking down onto the streets. There was a corpse that lay there, rotting and yet not smelling. In fact in this place there was only one scent that he could think of. It was dark. But a dark that didn't smell like Barathrum Regnum. It was a dark that smelled of death. Not death like rotting but. Death like- . There was a scream beyond the horizon. Likely it was human. But he had no real care to see if it was or not, or if it was to help. For one, with the stories Jack had heard he wasn't sure he would even survive. And if he did what would be the concequences of doing such a thing? Would he have to just look down on his own self as the man with yellow eyes took over again? He hated that, now the man with yellow eyes was growing stronger. Like he had sen him before on the inside. No longer covered by darkness but wearing a face, a face that was all too similar to Jacks for comfort he didn't like it not one bit. It inicated to the demon of pride that the man with yellow eyes was in fact getting stronger with each defeat of his.
Could he allow himself to be defeated again by Iskra? What would be the concequences of his defeat? Was it going to come down to the fact that the door opening again was inevitable? He remembered the words of the man behind the door. The words that he had spoken to Iskra. Those words hadn't been there to him. He hadn't been there for it. Trapped by the overwealming possession of madness that had came from behind the door. That the man with yellow eyes hadn't gotten his chance. Hadn't gotten a body. Jack doubted that this was true. In fact it was more than likley that he had gotten a body in the past. But it was likely before the dawn. Before time and meory. And that was what made the man feel cheated. Yet he was growing stronger. And there was nothing that Jack could do to impede it. Madness wasn't stronger than pride. But the man behind the door was different. His madness was different from Ceila's. With enough time spent in the library around that presence. Enough time sharing his head with that demon he had come to realise this. That the man behind the door was no ordinary demon of madness. But something entirely different;. Something that was almost primoridal.
The scream ended, then started again, same pitch sound and texture. And yet Jack couldn't help but find it intriguing. The scream had went on now for some time. He wondered just what kind of human could continue thusly without having their vocal chords torn under the strain of all that. Or perhaps it was the wrong question that he was asking himself. Maybe the right question had more to do with just what was ccausing the victim to scream in the first instance. Was it something so horrible that it was causing her to continue regardless of the pain? Was it a pain so intense that it easily over ridden the ones that would have told her to stop with the screaming? Interesting. pain overriding pain. As a being of infinte curiousities Jack decided that he was going to go ahead and risk the danger if only to see just what horrible torture method was going on just so that he could see it for himself and discern whether or not it was going to be useful to himself.
He mvoed from roof of ruin to roof of ruin with surprising agility. Changing from his human form into his dread wolf form to increase his speed power and dexterity. His enhance dhearing brought him closer and clsoer tot he dscreams, and yet Jack felt nothing showing up on his tainted senses. It was...odd. When he looked down his eyes witnessed something strange indeed. There were a few humans below. By the looks of them they were scavangers. They had little clothing on and obviously by the looks of them from here they had even less brains as to just what they were doing. If the rumours held true about this place then causing noise was going to be bringing something horrible down upon them. Something that might even exceed the horrors that Jack could inflict upon them. As much as it pained the demon of pride to admit it. Their activity today seemed to be the rape and torture of a young woman. At the moment one of the men was already pinned atop her. The others were tossing rocks at her. Speaking in some obsenties that at this distance Jack even with his enhanced hearing couldn't quite pick up.
So he snuck in. Moving down from the roof of the ruin and heading closer to them. His sleek form gave him enough movement and speed to keep himself hidden from their eyes. Not that he reallyt required stealth. However if he interupted them then the girl might stop screaming. And if she stopped screaming then the horrors might not come down upon them. And Jack wouldn't get to see what he wanted. Now he heard what they were yelling at her though. It consisted of several curses and most importantly the word " half breed whore". Instantly there was a flash of recognistion in that term. The recognition that he got when his memories drawled back to that place fjust after the dawn. just how the pure humans had treated Hanabi. Well. How they had treated her in his company. His eyes focused in. The hair. The figure. It could not have beenn. Years had been too long and father time was not as kind as Jack would have wished upon some humans. He did not care for human kind of the work of half breeds. But he knew that they in some small cases held osme beauty. Like art work. Like Sera. Like Iskra in all her beastial glory.
And yet. There was that thought. From within there was a compulsion. Go. Attack them. Destroy them. Find out. But he didn't want to. He wanted to ignore that compulsion. It couldn't have been her after all. The age. Then that compulsion coming up again. Half breeds don't age like normal humans. It was like an itch that he couldn't help but scratch. But he held himself back. Then. Everything went blue. It was a strange moment in time as if someone had put a negative tint on everything. Color reversing itself. Then he saw an image of the door. The yellow eyes behind it. And then. There was nothing.
------
Forn onee to understand just what was happening one had to first understand the nature of both Jack and the man behind the door and what they were ebfore the dawn. In fact. Before hven then. There was once that there was a human who hadbeen known as " Jack". This human had at one point delved into a horrible magic. One so horrible that upon his death he had been sealed. FOrced to live his life in madness and without memroy. And thus the demon known as Pennywise had been born. In his actions, which were many. P. Wiseman had started out as a mere shadow of Jack's personality. A dark shadow driven on by only the drums. The eternal beating of his true self upon the door. And yet. There had been a point when he had learned to harness this madness and turn it in on itself. To harness someething that was even greater than the madness hodl on his mind. Acceptance. Devotion. Love. This allowed him to conquer. To silence that which had been hidden and for good reason. The demon Pennywise became less a shadow of the original. And more a reflection in on itself. He had become something different. Jack. Behind mirrored eyes.
Whent he dawn had come. The flames of ressurection had burend through the seal and all that had been Jack was unleashed upon the world. And P.Wiseman was forced behind the seal. To know not who he was. What he was. To only know the darkness.
But even in this darkness he could sometimes see glimpeses. Shards of the life that was going on beyond his cage within Jack's mind. He could see things, feel them. And like before. That feeling of devotion. That feeling of longing spread out from him. He did not understand it. But it was there. And for some reason. This seemed to effect Jack. One must understand that Jack is essentially. Pure chaos. He is heartless. Incapable of love. Incapble of mercy. And yet he had shown these traits. But it is not him who shows it. But rather. The man behidn the door. The demon of madness is therefore. Jack's heart. A heart of madness. Truely. A dangerous. And suitable thing. So, when the man behidn the door had seen what Jack had seen. The possibility that the woman being raped and essentially put to death in front of them might have been Hanabi. For all the creatures in this world. Hybrids were rare. Those feelings once again emerged. And he forced his compulsion upon the demon of pride. But Jack, didn't want to move. Jack would not be moved. And so, the man beehind the door needed to use his trump card.
The closer Jack had gotten to Sera, the more he had " felt" for her. The more he had embraced that feeling. He had actually been strengthening the hold of the man with yellow eyes. And that had ultimatley made it far easier for him to slip through the door. Even if it was naught but a temporary release. So the prisoner forced himself against his cage, weakened as it was before the dawn. It did not take long before he could slip through the bars. And with his power. Overlap Jack's mind in the abyss. Those eyes turning from red to yellow. That wolf sporting a grin that did not belong upon its face. It hanged once more. Becoming a man, albiet with a phantasmal wolf head on his shoulder. Tht wolves head warping changing to eyes, teeth. But unlike in Jacks form those eyes wern't red. But a deep yellow. The explosion of power that eminated from this form distacted those humans. And he moved in quickly. The man behind the door was not like Jack. He did not resort to using the blade to be deadly. His hands were his weapons. His body. With that shit eating grin scarred onto his face, before the humans had time to react, the man behind the door. was upon the first one. Gathering dark power around his right fist and then ploughing it through the mans chest, and gruesomely ripping it out.
The other two had a look of sheer horror on their faces, One with his cock still within the woman had stopped his thrusting movments if only to see just wht had stopped the others form continuing their barrange of abuse at his victim. The man behind the door was coated in the sahde of the building. In the suns reflection, his shadow seemed huge. All emcompassing. Two black wings sprouted out from the shadow as those eyes glew yellow. Wiping out the small traces of red that still existed within them. And the laughter began. The pressure of his form bore down upon the men, forcing them to their knees. They grapse dtheir heads as he approached. THee lord of madness, once again reborn on this earth. With each step he bore the fruits of that bitter mercy. He touched the chin of one who was already shaking with fear. And looked up to the other two. " I free you from your chains".Six words spoken. But more done. They cracked a grin. And began to laugh. The one he had touched began to claw at his own face. The other two got up, dived at each other and like animals began to chew at the flesh of the other whilst laughing their heads off. Walking through the madness and the blood. The demon who knew not his name approached the girl shaking below. Her face confirmed what Jack had thought.
It was not Hanabi.
Nor was she even a half demon. He could sense that much through Jack's blood. If she had been then it would be going off like alarm bells right now. So then, why was she raped? Why go through all this? " Why?". He spoke a single word. The girl, tears in her eyes scooted up her legs, terrified. He thought that he understood this emotion. Part of him wished that he could impart madness upon her too. In madness there was little to fear. But then he would never have gotten any answers. So he dropped his transformation. And once again, other than his eyes. Looked like a mere man. " My mother, she was in the harem of the dark king". All at once the man behind the door seemed to understand. Her mother was some kind of concubine. And they had assumed that she was the dmeonic spawn of this overlord. But this was not the case. There wasn't even a hint of demonic blood within her. " You are not a halfbreed. You are human as far as I can tell which I must admit is sorely diappointing. And here I was looking forward to encountering an old friend". He raised a finger to his lips and then looked down at the girl. " I tell you what, you cant find it pleasant living in a place like this, I tell you I've got to live somewhere similar. And I've got to share it with some dark overlording fuck nugget as well. And I tell you its not a nice experience. Not to mention the rent is ri-fucking-diculous". A mild grin, he reached out his hand, the girl was still afraid to take it. " Just what did you do to those men?". The smile on his face faltered.
" I made them see inside themselves".
-----------
Pennywise wasn't much of a planner. That was Jack. SO he kind of made shit up on the fly. The girl had managed to get over her shitting herself in front of him and had began to enact in him a sort of trust that was easily put into a rrecuer. It seemed that she was willing to risk death at the hands of a demonic madman than continue the rape that was going on around and inside her. So before the forcees of darkness turned up, he was taking the quickest and most obvious route to getting the fuck out of the core. Jack would have probably taken the more stealthy approach but Penny wasn't much of a planner as was previously mentioned. That and he didn't think that stealth was going to do much good with this girl in toe. So with her slung onto his back he broke into a run trying to think of precisely where he was going to take her after this whole thing. He summoned up Jacks memories and the first one that came to mind was the city of Mare Maris. The place had enough good will for it to be a deceent home but then from what Jack had seen those who were there with nothing had little more than poverty awaiting them when they arrived and that wasn't going to do much good.
The next place that he thought of bringing her was to the village that Sera had bene in for some time, after all they'd taken her in no questions asked and she seemed to have done rather well the- oh yes Jack was planning on burning that place to the ground with his army of darkness. Probably not the best place in the world to put her then. So there was only one other place that he knew of that would be of any good. Iskra's little city. The demon was a bitch, and he didn't like her much. Just as she didn't like him. Although he felt that was mostly because he had inhabited Jack's body forcefully many times before. Andd he felt that she probably had some kind of crush on the pride dmeon. Well that wouldn't be the case if she had to share a fucking head with him. Still as much as things went that place was relatively safe. And the humans that lvied there wern't really raped as such, they were made to work. " You got any good skills?". He asked apprehensively as he ran. " I can make clothes". She said. Good so she ha a skill that would help her whilst there. That would probably avoid her being stuck into the harem. Probably.
Really the only other alternative was going to Jack's temple of Obstinacy and well when Jack woke up and saw a human in front of him eviceration or experimentation was going to be unavvoidable. And Penny didn't much want that for this girl. COMing to think of it though this was actually the longest that he had eeveer managed to remain in control of Jack against his will. it was something that the demon of madenss took some pride in, yet he imagined that this was only going to further warrent Jack's wrath and will to get rid of him which was considerable. Honestly though he didn't even know if it was possible to get rid of him from within Jack's mind. Like he didn't know if it was going to be possible to seperate him from the demon of pride. No matter how much he wanted to do so.
EXP: 3516
