Darkness. Nothing but darkness all around me.
"Well? Are you happy now?" The Shadowman whispers in my ear.
"I... where is..." I stutter when suddenly I'm interrupted by the ear-splitting scream of the undead.
"Oh dear," sighs the Shadowman. He seems genuine.
I lift my MR6 and fire at the rough direction of the scream.
I hear the shot hit the target, and hear it slump to the floor. I fire again to make sure it's dead, and then I see the horde surrounding me in the flash.
"Nice call, coming to the Aether," the Shadowman smirks at me. He starts firing dark orbs from hands, and the undead collapse around him. I slowly back up and start firing into the group of zombies.
I hear a roar from behind me, and a zombie tackles me to the ground. It's face inches from mine, it's breath smells like rancid meat. With it's spittle dripping onto me, it opens its mouth wide as it leans into me. I feel around for my pistol on the ground and jam it into the demon's mouth. I fire, and it goes limp.
I push the corpse off me and stand up, brushing myself off.
I look up and see the Shadowman, surrounded by an unearthly glow in all his apothican glory, grinning maniacally. There are no undead around him. In his hand, is the summoning key.
"No!" I cry out, and lift my gun, firing wildly at him. He staggers, but stands upright and with a gesture of the summoning key, pushes me back, hard. I fly back about 20 feet, and land with a sickening crunch. I groan, and try to push myself up but I can't. Pain racks my body, and all of a sudden the Shadowman is there, his foot on top of my head.
"I should kill you right now, Edward. Really, I should. But I'll give you a chance. Join me. Bring down the tyrannical Doctor Maxis, and return the universe to it's former apothican glory."
I laugh. "Yeah, as if you'd let me live in a universe solely of apothicons."
He frowns at me. "I'd make you an apothicon. Like me. Do you think that Maxis would let you live on when he's finished with you? You would ruin his 'perfect little world', because you consumed the blood vials."
I pause. "Go to hell," I spit at him.
"As you may have it," he says smarmily. "Farewell, Richtofen. I suppose you could say you were a worthy opponent." Then, he snaps his fingers and disappears. And with that, I hear the roar of the undead again.
I slowly climb to my feet, and start running.
