The Darkness...

[zarathrustra_ink]

Click. Click. Click.

Back and forth across the metal bars he slides the tiny, metal cup. Click. Click. Cl- He paused the cup over the last bar. This was strange. Each morning some greasy faced guard would come down the stairs and stop in front of his cell. Not today though. No one wanted to swing by to pour salt into his wounds. Apparently, he was on his own. Click. Click. Click. It's not as if he needed the company. Who would take joy in visiting someone who hadn't seen a clean trickle of water in... What day was it again? He lowered the cup to count on his fingers. There weren't enough fingers. Of course there weren't. There never were. He glanced over his shoulder and frowned at the single lightbulb dangling from the ceiling. It flickered as if to warn him it could go out at any second. He turned back to the bars. He thought about restarting his assault on them, but again, his eyes stopped on the stairs. There were voices at the top. Unfamiliar, terrified voices. Screams pulsated down the steps, seemily growing louder by the second. Shakily, curious, he pressed the cup against the bars once more. Click. The door at the top of the stairs groaned in protest. It did not care to be opened and he did not care to see who was coming down the stairs. A dark, thick mist of smoke curled the length of the entryway. It gathered at the base of the very last stair. Slowly it poured, devouring the room. First left. Then right.

"What the-" He gasped, releasing his grip. The cup clattered through the bars.

A single brown boot pushed forward from the smoke. The cup shattered beneath the imposing weight. Another boot followed. The prisoner clambered backwards to the other side of his cell, hugging the wall with his back. The smoke dissipated, leaving a duster coat with a face. Green eyes glared through the bars, searching for him.

"Well, well, well..." Only the words had not come from his lips. It was almost as if they were sounding directly from inside his head. "You look interesting."

"What... are..." The prisoner clapped his hands over his mouth.

"What am I? Is that what you were about to ask?" The darkness crept closer. "I am here to set you free. Is that not enough?"

The prisoner's eyes darted from one side of the room to the next. No windows. One door. Three walls. It's not as if he had a readily available exit. Interest prickled the nape of his neck. He willed himself to appear uninterested but he could tell the darkness had already noticed.

"I have slaughtered every last single person in this dump." The darkness hissed, moving closer to the cell. He grasped the bars and pressed his face against them. "Do you know why?" His lips were still unmoving.

The prisoner stared at the piercing emerald glaring back at him. "Are you mute?" Snapped through his thoughts.

He slid closer to the toilet almost as if he could flush himself. Wishful thinking of course; that also wasn't a solution.

The darkness' blood, red lips folded upward into a sadistic grin. "You seem nervous... Are you..." He reached through the bars. "Nervous?"

"What are you?" Was all the prisoner could muster over the sound of his heart attempting to beat out of his chest.

"I am your ticket."

"My ticket to where?"

The darkness waved his hand dramatically. "To freedom, my dear. To freedom." His smile quivered slightly. " Do you not wish to be free? I mean... After all, you are the last one. It's just you and..." He pressed his face harder. "It's just me."

"What-"

A right hand flew up. "Please... I don't think I could bare it if you ask what I am once more. You are seeing this," The words in his mind paused and sighed dramatically. "Me... You're seeing with your silly little human eyes." He stepped back and clapped his hands. "With me, you will see with better eyes."

He opened his hands. More thick clouds of smoke, the same as before wafting from his palms, enveloping the room. It crawled across the floor and climbed the length of the prisoner. He tried to fight it, but to no avail. How could someone fight smoke?

"You can't." The darkness' words slithered through his mind though he had not voiced his thoughts. "You can't fight me... And why? Why would you want to? Everyone else is dead. Only you are left... Such a bore. So boring." More sentences saturated his thoughts until they were no longer his own. "Why would you want to rot in a cell... No one to let you out? No one to bring you food? Do you even remember the clear, unrealistic taste that water puts in your mouth?" He sniffed the air. "Or how it feels to shower? Or how soap smells?" More smoke, thicker now, spun over the stone walls. The prisoner felt his legs snap together as his feet left the floor.

"We'll start with the fancy soaps. The ones with perfume baked right into the crusts. What do you, say?"

The prisoner's eyes bugged as the smoke continued to wrap around him. A string wiggled its way up his torso reaching higher and faster until it gripped his neck and snapped tight. The prisoner caught his breath.

"Oh, you're gonna love this part." The foundation of the prison shook. Rubble rattled free from the ceiling, prattling across the floor.

The single lightbulb exploded. Fragments tore everywhere.

No clicking. No words. No breathing.

A set of angry, green eyes flared in the cell. The darkness flexed the fingers on his new body. He inhaled a large gulp of air and gagged at his new stench. "Of all the bodies..." He marveled at the sound of his new voice. So gravely and very unlike the last body he'd inhabited.

The darkness crossed the room in four brisk strides. He grasped the bars. Red lightening sparked from his hands. The metal melted beneath the touch. Brown boots lifted over what was left of the frame.

"Why stay in there when you could be..." He waved his hand around as if batting at invisible wasps. "Out here?" He waited as if someone was about to reply. "Still so quiet... Oh, that'll change..."

He threw back his head. A shrill, poisonous cackle spilled from his throat, touching every corner of the room. "A lot is about to change." Smoke furled from beneath raggedy prison clothes. "You'll see..." His eyes flashed brighter. "They all see..."