Demonic Skies *On Hold*

Chapter 2: It's Alive

Aidan walked out the vault an hour with a relaxed and serene expression on his face. If his father could see him now, he would no doubt beat the boy black and blue in utter rage. After four years, the young man had not changed one bit. Closing the door, he waved his hand and the iron door glowed with red lines and the hard knocks of the lock reinserting into place could be heard. Aidan turned towards the stairs and walked past them towards another iron door he opened up.

Inside was a room with several books and various tables with instruments on the top. In short, this was his personal workshop where he pursued the pinnacle of magic. Closing the iron door behind him, he walked towards a wooden door further inside the workshop. Opening it let in muffled sobs and painful wails to echo out from inside. Aidan continued to walk forward and passed a cell full of men with dead eyes of resignation. Another batch off to slaughter. What a waste, he sighed inwardly.

Aidan passed another cell as a man charged the iron bars reaching out for him desperately. However, like a cruel joke, the man's fingers were barely stretched out enough for him to make out the texture of Aidan's cloak. He screamed and yelled obscenities as Aidan looked at him in indifference as a mocking smile cruelly formed on his lips. The man seeing this fell to his knees in resignation and painfully sobbed as he banged the cold floor beneath him.

Aidan passed another cell of four men and smelled a foul odor. A quick look revealed the dead form of a man, blood formed on the corners of his mouth. The other men were huddled in another corner the light they had three days prior now lost. Aidan understood the man had probably bitten his tongue off. A futile gesture in the end he mused. Waving his hand, a coagulation of darkness surrounded the body as the two melted into the ground leaving nothing.

Aidan continued on and entered a room passed the cells, where a man was strapped to a table. The smell of urine and feces spoke to the state the man was in. The door closed heavily behind Aidan waking the man from his slumber. The shadow of Aidan was cast onto the wall in front of the man who made out Aidan's form. Thinking back to the last month he was filled with sorrow and utter wrath. He wanted nothing more than to take his time carving up the little boy piece by piece savoring each moment.

"You fucking cunt! Let me go! You cannot do this to me. I work for Sir Leiland. When he hears of what you have done..." bellowed the man with anger as he shook on the table in his restraints.

"Leiland?" Aidan asked with a scoff. "He could care less of someone of your ilk. You are merely a disposable pawn meant to feel out my true nature. No one will know of anything and Leiland will not be sending any rescue," Aidan spoke in a mocking tone as he circled the table to find his tray of instruments on a cart in another corner.

Hearing the metallic clang of the cart filled the man's heart with utter dread. It was not enough that Aidan had captured him, demeaned him and made him witness the deaths of his partners day after day for four days. Aidan had experimented on his body. To what ends, he did not understand. However, the cruel thing was that Aidan had brought him to the edge of death and left him there for as long as possible before healing him. The man had tried to bite his tongue off and end his suffering but something Aidan had gave him made him regenerate his tongue. He couldn't even choke on it even though he had tried.

Aidan slowly pulled the cart as he hummed a childhood tune known to all residents of the Eight Empires. He looked childishly happy in contrast to the dark atmosphere of the experimenting room and his intended actions. The man grew increasingly furious as his rage overruled his instinctual fear of the perplexing youth. He struggled fiercely under the iron restraints causing some of his bones to fracture and heal under the mysterious methods of the young man.