Darksiders: Light In Darkness (Fourth Book)

Chapter 1: Death of A Family

Waking up with a start, Misery grabbed her chest and shuddered. Dreams of blood, carnage, and broken skulls plagued her mind the entire night.
'Life was so much easier before...' She thought, wondering why her figuring out who she was was so...terrible.
Most of the things she dreamed of made no sense; Misery didn't remember doing any of that in her dreams. Before she died, the Nephilim only went to battle a few times, and that was just when the small group was being threatened by a larger more menacing clan of unknown origin.
"So where did those images come from...? The people in my dream weren't from my generation."
Women and children were all slaughtered and hung like cattle in her dream. Many of unknown faces forced the women to do unspeakable acts on them whilst their children and husbands watched. Their screams, oh god their screams, pierced Misery's heart and made her double over in emotional pain as the true horror struck her.
"That was the Nephilim...that was my people who did those acts...they did it..." She muttered to herself, pulling her knees to her chest.
"Who could...do something like that to someone? To an entire race..?" She said to herself, blaming and hating herself for dying and allowing the Nephilim to stray from the right path.
It was all Absolam's fault, she thought. Sure he wanted what was best for their entire clan, but he wanted to do things violently, take with force, destroy all who opposed him.
But that wasn't the way to Misery...
Secretly, she resented Absolam, even though he was her eldest brother. She hated him for always thinking low of her just because she was a female, she hated him for always speaking over her when addressing the small clan of first born Nephilim.. But most of all, Misery hated Absolam for changing her younger twin, Death. Before, Death always listened to her, always abided by her rules, but when he began spending more time with Absolam, he didn't pay her any mind.
It wasn't jealousy, that's for sure, she couldn't care less if Death liked Absolam more than she, she just wanted him to listen.
"Speaking of listening...he wasn't listening when I was about to die, I remember that much...but how did I die?" She sighed, looking up at the red sky.
Sighing again, the young Nephilim stood up and began walking towards the edge of the realm she resided in.
"Maybe Death will know." She chuckled, reaching out to touch the invisible barrier.
The last time she did this, a mixture of burning and bolts of electricity coursed through her body, incinerating her veins...
If she had any...
To her surprise, Misery easily passed through the barrier surface without any pain, save for a small tingling sensation.
"Okay...time to look for Death, I guess." She said uneasily, starting a brisk walk towards no where in particular.
However, a strong magnetic tug steered the young Nephilim, a sense that was subconsciously pulling her to her younger twin.
**************
War paced the outside of Damiana's room, brow furrowed in obvious anger. His sister sat in the chair beside the door, face buried into her lap and hands as she made short yet shrill sobs. Every so couple of moments, the last female horseman would sputter a weak 'Oh God' and would slowly rock herself back and forth.
"Shut UP with your Oh Gods! That won't do anything!" War snapped.
"Shut the fuck up, you monster!" Fury sobbed, looking up to cast a glare at the aggravated War.
Wanting to spit foul words at his sister he could never say to Death, War opened his mouth, tongue itching to let the venom in his soul to escape his lips. Fury took a deep breath and awaited for her brother to insult her more, allowing more tears to escape her sad, yet lovely yellow eyes.
War stopped and shook his head angrily. Fury bit her bottom lip and buried her head back into her lap.
"What the hell is he doing in there with her? He doesn't deserve to-"
"War, enough, what's done is done, none of this will bring our sister back..." Fury interrupted.
"Besides...when Strife returns...he'll give Death hell and then some...so we need to conserve our energy to break up this fight." She said slowly.
•••••••••••••
Death sighed and laid the back of his head against the wall, closing his tired eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose. For the first time in years, if not eons, Death had taken off his iconic bone mask.
"God dammit to hell and back..." He said after hours of silence.
    The limp corpse of the late 5th horseman, Damiana "Aloxsunamoon" Ivory, laid bundled in her cloth sheets. She looked as if she were sleeping, which Death made himself believe for the past day.
    The horsemen didn't dispose of her body yet, it was...too soon. Plus, they didn't even know what to do with her; burning her body to ashes made Fury faint, burying her body made War turn his nose up in disgust...
"Damn...I forgot about Strife..." Death said outloud, opening his eyes as the image of their lone wolf brother crossed his mind.
     Shaking his head, Death turned and hesitantly put his hand on Damiana's shoulder.
"I...have no idea what to say, other than I am sorry." Death shuddered at Damiana's ice cold skin.
"Who am I kidding..." Death laughed darkly, hating himself even more for having such a pathetic mindset.
"I knew you were going to die...one day...you looked too much like Misery....too much like my loved twin for you to live long." He muttered, shakily caressing Damiana's chilled smooth cheeks.
"That's why we-why I forced you to stay  where I can see you, monitor you. I knew you hated it, but my selfish personality didn't want you to live, I wanted you to be alive so I can see you breathe, see you as my lost sister instead of Damiana." Death said softly, moving a few strands of raven black hair as his mind drifted to the dark parts of his mind.
     For a few moments, Death had total clarity; he hated himself. He loved punishing himself because he hated who he turned out to be. He didn't follow Damiana around on the day they met because of the Council at first; at first he followed her because of the striking resemblance Damiana had to Misery.
"I...followed you for days, Damiana...I wanted to tell you before...but I thought you would hate me...but I followed you throughout that decimated city," Death admitted, feeling the intense feeling of hate radiate from his soul for himself.
"I was looking for the anti-Christ, not a ghost...but when I saw you and saw how much you looked like Misery, I just had to drop my mission...I just had to make sure you weren't a nightmare coming into reality. I wish you actually could hear this...I wish I was able to for once not feel guilty for anything." He muttered, holding Damiana to his chest.
"You have no idea how much I wanted to just lock you in here and when you immobilized yourself by falling from your horse, I was overjoyed that you weren't able to walk." He said into her hair.
"I'm sorry I made you my prisoner for my own selfish gain, my sister, I'm probably the most disgusting parasite you've ever met." He hissed at himself, wishing that Damiana could glare at him, spit in his direct, or scream the vilest insults in her mind at him...
Anything but this silence...
"Where the fuck is he?!?"  A loud, angry voice sounded, making the very walls shake in fear.
But Death knew no fear, especially for his brother...
     Slipping away from Damiana, Death quickly put his mask back on and brought up Harvester, blocking Damiana from the incoming horseman.
"Strife please-" he head Fury beg.
"Get the HELL out of my way!"
"You need to calm down." War started.
"Is he in her room?! Is that it?!?"
"No-"
"If you're up there, Death, you better be damn near bulletproof!"
Death sighed and put his weapon down. He could hear it in Strife's voice; he didn't truly want to fight him, he was hurting as well.
"Yes, I am up here." Death said quietly, knowing full and well Strife would come barreling in here pistols raised.
      Breathing in, Death sat on the edge of Damiana's bed and put his head in his hands. A part of him wished Strife had the galls to kill him....
But Strife never did mercy killings...
   When a loud bang of a steel armored boot smashed into the wooden door's surface, Death looked up sharply from his hands at his younger brother who stood at the doorway.
"That's rud-"
"Shut the FUCK up, you bastard son of a whore! Who the hell do you think you are?!" Strife stomped across the room to Death, raising Redemption up at Death's head.
   Before he pulled the trigger and unleash the hailstorm of lead that was itching to be free from the barrel, Death swiftly got up from the bed and twisted Strife's arm. Making a pained groan, Strife tried to make his brother lose his balance by thrashing the eldest horseman, all while trying to grab Mercy from its holster. Squinting his eyes, Death twisted the arm even farther in an awkward angle, making the third horseman fall to his knees as his bone threatened to break.
"You keep threatening to kill me," Death hissed, making Strife go farther down to the floor in pain.
"But you keep failing to do so."
"You killed her, you made us all swear to protect her, and you killed her." Strife huffed angrily, struggling to get up from the floor.
"I didn't-"
"She was the only one who didn't mock me or degrade me, and she's DEAD because of you!" Strife growled.
                  ************
    The soul drifted endlessly through the dark depths of nothingness, a bright entity illuminating through the inky blackness called oblivion. Despite its bright aura, the soul felt overwhelming waves of cold and despair. One word drifted through its mind just as its spiritual body drifted through the empty space.
Revenge
   The word itself boiled its insides as it thundered through its head. Clenching it's fist in anguish, the soul made a loud hollow screech. It opened its eyes and a bright, blood red light casting a violent ray of light. A loud ripping noise broke the silence once more as gigantic wings erupted from the soul's back.
This was the beginning of the end...