Death

Two or Three Separate Kidnappings in Less Than 600 Words

With a pop and an odd belching sound that I hadn't heard before, I was standing in front of a large, grassy hill. There were a few people in black cloaks standing around it and staring at a man on one side. He appeared to be trying to pull a rock up the steep incline, and I briefly remembered the story of Sisyphus.

"Hello," I said, barely loud enough for even me to hear, and all of the cloaked people whipped around to stare at me. They didn't respond, or do anything other than watch, so I began to walk towards them. Maybe that wasn't the wisest thing to do, but from my demi-human mind girl's account of things, I was among friends.

You idiot, those aren't the-

I continued on my way, and as soon as I reached the man closest to me, he turned his head downward smoothly in order to continue to stare. It was one of the creepiest things I had ever seen, and as I jumped up in surprise, his hand shot out and wrapped itself around my arm.

As a reflex, suddenly feeling danger all around me, I summoned the shadows and sent them cascading into him like a wave. All that served to do was knock his cloak off, revealing a skeleton with oddly pure white bones.

"You're the one who's supposed to win the war? What a load of grave dirt. With that kind of attack, you couldn't knock my pinky bone out of place, much less send me flying. It's all about placement," he chattered, his hand still squeezing my arm. The skeleton was surprisingly strong for someone with no muscles.

"Looky, looky, here we have a demi-human, who wandered into our midst," the other cloaked people giggled. From the strange, clattering quality of their laughs, I guessed that they were skeletons too.

Of course they're skeletons, the demi-humans are just normal people! Look, you walked right into- wait, no. Leave me alone. I'm just a voice in someone's head. A spirit. I have rights! I'm a Democratist! Somebody call the King of Hell! There's ghouls in the-

I tried to pull away from the one who was holding me, but he only hissed strangely and started to walk away, dragging me along with him. I struggled, I dug my heels into the ground, and I even screamed a little, but there was nothing that I could do. All my power was nothing, suddenly, and I hated it.

"Where are we going?" I called to the skeleton, who was now holding me up away from the ground as he bounded over flaming pits and pits full of chains and pits with bones scattered around. He didn't answer, only chattered a little, and I suddenly remembered something.

My inner voice, the dead demi-human, had said something about lies. She had said that she and I were the only two who could use shadows. What did that mean? Could it help me here? Maybe, just maybe, I was a little special after all.

I closed my eyes and summoned the darkness inside of me, imagining that mirrored place in my thoughts. She would be there. She could help me.

Except, well, she wasn't there. Only a wide-open space that seemed to represent my mind, because I had been an idiot. And now I knew what I had to do.