Breaking The Balance

Breaking The Balance - In The Demon's Lair

READ AUTHORS NOTE AT END OF CHAPTER FOR CHANCE TO INFLUENCE THE STORY:

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"Rise and shine my little chickens."

Jordan awoke to the sound of evil laughter. His eyes were blurry. His ears rang. The world swam around him as if he was the centre of a crumbling universe. Screams echoed through his mind, accompanied with the stench of blood – a rusty smell that filled Jordan's nose no matter where he turned. He forced himself to his feet to only be instantly pulled down again by the cold, iron manacles that were locked onto his limbs. The chains were a mixture of pure iron, intermixed with the eerie shadow creatures that Jordan had become so accustomed to.

Stuck in an incredibly uncomfortable position on the floor, with all his joints being pulled in different directions – Jordan could only hope that others were okay. His cell was tiny, with the main section of it dedicated to keeping him attached to the wall. Out of the corner of his eye, Jordan could see the large metal door that blocked him from his freedom – but clearly, there was no way he was getting out of there by himself. Taking a glance across the parts of his body that he could see, there were no visible wounds or marks so clearly they were waiting for him to wake up before commencing with whatever twisted schemes they had in place.

The sound of footsteps startled Jordan from his theorising, straining his body in an attempt to see the creature that walked in. The door slammed open violently, causing Jordan to flinch backwards instinctually. Fear struck into Jordan's heart, leaving him terrified to look the creature in the eye – terrified of what he would see if he looked too closely. Clenching his fists, Jordan forced his head upwards and stared at his kidnappers. Gaines and The Shadows stood across from him, each of them wearing a sinister expression that sent chills down Jordan's spine. The Shadows looked exactly like they did back when Jordan escaped from his own mind, grotesque and nightmare inducing. Gaines merely looked... empty – as if he was void of all that had once made him human. He was drastically different from how he had looked back under the graveyard as if that person had never been there at all.

"What do you want from me?"

Jordan spat out those words, fear and fury combining into a false bravado that was fooling nobody. The Shadows and Gaines laughed together, eerily in unison. When they spoke, they also spoke as one:

"I want to end this Jordan."

"End what?"

"This hero campaign that you and your little group seem to have going for yourselves. You even managed to get the gods to get involved, how impressive. It took me months to even catch hold of one of them forcefully but you managed to get all four of them on the same side in the space of one. What a waste of talent."

"Where are my friends? Where is Ianita? I swear to god if you have hurt her, I will slice you to ribbons the moment I get free from these chains."

Jordan's question was instantly followed by a blood-curdling scream from the other room, so spine-chilling that Jordan's hands flew to cover his ears – only to be instantly punished by the chains that almost dislocated his shoulder. He couldn't recognise who the scream belonged to, merely recognising that the scream was familiar to him. It was at least a sign that he wasn't alone, though the sheer pain in that scream seemed to indicate that he may be alone again soon.

"I wonder which one of your friends was that. Maybe the little girl, the broken wizard or even your best friend! How exciting, I've been waiting for you to wake up."

Gaines stood still throughout the conversation; the only sign of movement in his eerily still body was his arm, slowly twirling the syringe that he used to dose Caitlin with menacingly. Jordan peeled his gaze away from him to look back at The Shadows, who was pacing back and forth in front of him, seemingly waiting for Jordan to speak again.