Within - A Nul Story

     No person could live in the place where shadows are created.  Inside the darkest abyss, there moved something that would never be seen by human eyes.  But the darkness could see everything and all that could be created.  In the middle of this abyss laid a form the had more human qualities than any shadow ever had.
     It had stuff that could have looked like skin and hair, but only the forms could be seen in the darkness.  The thing huddled inside itself, with chains leading away from it and connecting to things that no creature knew.  Other than that, there seemed to be nothing else that was going on.
     But Nul could hear the darkness around him, watching and whispering.
     Nul's mind couldn't help but go to dark places when he felt surrounded.  His fingers dug into his arms and if they were made of flesh, he would have gone all the way to bone and rip them apart.
     The shadows whispered a lot of things, and all of it lead to very dark places.  No human can listen to them for so long before they became insane.
     Some told of horrible actions done by man, cutting and tearing into Nul's flesh that made him shiver in both terror and pain.  I once held down this woman who was struggling and crying as I was raping her.  She kept trying to scream and curse me, but after I cut off her tongue, she just screamed to keep the blood from drowning her...
     Some told of traumatic events done to people, screaming and stabbing into Nul's mind that made him constantly want to cry out.  The kick and the stabbing form different knives felt like flames piercing my skin and the pain...the pain...
     But the worst was the voice that could be heard loudly over the whispers.  The voice that made him so very afraid.   
     You are worthless.  
     All will become mine.  
     Everything is going to disappear.
     Nul could only say over and over in a voice that sounded dulled and small, "Shut up.  Shut up."  But he only spoke through sobs of pain and horror.
     The darkness fed on that and the loud voice grew more and more powerful as each second passed.  We will never go away, we are always close by, waiting for you to make one mistake, for us to take you and your friends.
     "Shut up, leave me alone."
     We will take everything.  And we will start with you, taking you apart piece by piece, bit by bit, and then we will devour your essence.
     "You aren't real, leave me alone."
     And then we will start on your friends.
     "Stop it, stop it."
     We will work on the fire breather first, tearing whatever insides he has left and using his flesh as a puppet for our young monsters.
     "I won't listen to you, shut up!"
     Then that abomination to the natural order of life we will use to torture as we bring him back every time we kill him again, over and over and over...
     "Stop it, no..."  Tears kept flowing down into the darkness as Nul held back his sobs of horror.
     And then the girl...
     The sobbing and shivering stopped.
     The darkness shivered back as Nul started to growl.  The little voices that were speaking disappeared, but the main voice continued to say things.
     We will let her run at first, to tease and let her think she has a chance, then when she gets close to freedom, we will pin her down and start to do terrible things to her.  
      The growling grew louder as Nul started to uncurl himself off the floor and place his hands down in order to lift himself up.  "Don't you touch her." he said in a rough voice than before.
      And then we will slowly taste her before...
     "ENOUGH!"  Nul barked out so loud that the darkness hesitated.  He lifted his body up and stood on his leg as he looked into the darkness, his voice slowly growing louder and returning to its original form.  "You have hunted me down all my life, and for once, I feel at ease with creatures I can call friends.  But if you think you can take them away, then I will make you wish that I caused you great pain.  I will show you what true horror is as I will make you into nothing."
     The darkness hesitated as Nul stood up, as he had never been able to do that, always hiding and crawling around, never standing up.  It had to be a lie.  And what can one who has bonded himself to something do?  What can a slave do?  Only the Shadow King has ever given us orders, and you are no king.
     Nul hesitated as the darkness grew stronger around him, but the one line that he was told once kept playing in his head over and over again.
     "What makes a king out of a slave?"   And he opened his eye, the shining right eye, and the darkness started to flee.
     And then he roared.

     "Nul, wake up!  Your screaming!"  A soft hand pushed hard on Nul's body.
     Nul woke up and flipped back onto all fours as he looked around at his surroundings.  Slowly he remembered that he wasn't in his cave anymore, and that he was now with three people walking on the long cursed road.  He stared at Sophie as she look a little frightened.
     "What's wrong?  What happened?  Are we under attack?"
      "No, it's time to continue walking, DM and Scare are awake and ready to go.  Are you ok?  You're crying again."  She moved her hand towards Nul's face and wiped the shining tears that came from his glowing eye.  He could feel the warmth and care that came from the hand.
      Nul grabbed her hand as it was pulling away and held on to it longer.  Sophie pulled hard and Nul flew up into the air.  If there was a description of how he moved in the air, it would be that he was swimming in a dream, able to move anywhere and be any size while he was away from the ground.  He landed behind her and wrapped his arms around her in a big hug, like a child trying to hide himself by hugging his mother.
     "Nul!  Stop that!  What did I tell you about personal space?  Get off, please!"   But Nul just sobbed as he held onto her tighter.  Sophie sighed and patted his arms in a calming fashion.  She walked over to her stuff and pulled the large horned mask with teeth that she saw Nul in the first time they met in that cave a few days ago.  "Come on, be a good boy and put this on."

     Nul quickly grabbed the mask and he went through Sophie's body, causing her to shiver.  The tight grip loosened, dropping to the ground to stand still in a hunched over fashion.  Sophie still wasn't used to the sudden change that was created when he put on the mask and had to ask him again.  "You ok?"
     There was darkness in the mask, but it was nothing compared to the darkness outside the mask.  He straightened up as much as he could and said, "I'm fine, are you ready to go?"
     "Yeah, I just need to pack up my backpack."  And she turned back to her stuff.
     Nul watched her for a while before deciding not to tell her that the darkness is also hunting her down.  He had to keep a watch for her.  The one who gives him peace and quiet.  The only one who makes the bad dreams go away.
     The one who can defeat the Wild Witch.
     "Hey, Nilly!  Are you just going to stand there or are you going to join us big boys in an adult conversation?"
     Nul turned to see Scare trying to wave him over and DM switching bottles in his stomach.  He tilted his head in curiosity at the two strange fellows and turned back to see Sophie once more before he slunk to the ground and moved towards what the darkness called the 'firebreather' and the 'abomination'.



Another story I wrote awhile ago, just putting it on here and editing it.
I'll add more posts soon, but also preparing for a trip.