The Dark Years

Enter the Sylph

Texan was lying on the floor of the living room having his third panic attack in a row. At this point he thought they were torturing him. They would last over an hour, disappear for around thirty minutes, and then come back. However, when the panic attacks retreated it wasn't much of a reprieve. He spent that time banging his head against the wall mourning Nerd. 

Nerd, or not Nerd, was sitting against the wall next to him hugging her legs to her chest.

"You aren't doing so good. You should call someone," Nerd softly prodded. Texan only shook his head and continued to stare up at the ceiling, trying to ignore his constricting lungs. After ten minutes of silence, Nerd perked up.

"Somebody's here," she said eagerly. Texan scoffed.

"You aren't even real. How would you know if someone is here or not?"

"I'm real in your head, and you just heard something." Texan groaned and closed his eyes in an attempt to ignore his cruel reality. A knock was heard at the door. For some reason, that set Texan off. He screamed and punched the wall next to him, effectively smashing a massive hole in it. The front door slammed open and hurried footsteps were heard.

"Texan?" A familiar deep, silky voice laced with worry said.

"Hey Demi," Texan said. Demi could hear the defeat in his voice and that concerned him. The hole in the wall did nothing to ease those concerns. Demi hurriedly walked over to Texan and knelt next to him.

"What are you doing on the floor? Come on, onto the couch with you," Demi said trying to sound lighthearted as he did his best to drag Texan to his feet and over to the couch. After plopping Texan down and sitting next to him, Demi quietly asked, "Want to talk about it?"

Texan just sat and stared at Demi. Demi was a sylph, an elemental air spirit that many believed to be a myth. Sylphs were mortal, but had longer life spans than humans and curiously had no souls. This was a helpful trait for him since Llisona ate souls occasionally. Demi was tall and lithe, had white silver hair, and rather elfish features, all of which were pretty clear indicators of his heritage.

"Texan," Demi prodded, "answer me." Texan bit out,

"You want an answer?! Fine then! I am not ok! My wife is dead along with my unborn child and my living children have been taken away from me! I tried to kill my sister and now I have a babysitter! I want to rip Lust and Ilonna to shreds and as soon as I'm not plagued by these panic attacks any more I swear I will do just that! So tell me Demi, is that what you wanted to hear?" 

Demi, the ever level headed person he was, just told Texan to take a deep breath, that he was there for him, and that everything was going to be fine. Demi ended up making some tea for the both of them and tried to get Texan to open up about his feelings, something none of the immortals ever did. Bottling it up and releasing it in other ways, normally rage and violence, was how they dealt with the unwanted emotions.

During their conversation, Demi realized that a bottomless bit of anger and a thirst for vengeance had developed inside Texan, and he didn't know if there was anything he, or anyone else, could do to stop it.