Awakening

by Melainie Nilles

  All conscious thought vanished.

  Wake up! Run! A small voice called from a distance.

  Lilly slowly peered over the edge of her comforter. The outlines of familiar objects were barely distinguishable in the almost pitch black of a rare moonless time of the night. Sweat stuck her pajamas to her chest and back and chilled her.

  She scanned the room, reassured that she lay in her bedroom alone, and took a deep breath.

  Listen! Beware! Something inside her shouted a warning that rang through her like a siren and shook her into full alertness.

  A moment later, she felt it again, the same cold dread from after work. It blew through her like ice, darkening through her mind to crystallize into an immobilizing fear.

  Something or someone was near, but she had seen nothing.

  The warning sense inside her pushed her to move, but she didn't want to. She wanted to go back to sleep. Her mind was playing tricks. In no way could that man have found her there. She had lost him in the crowds.

  Ridiculous! He was not there. If he'd found a way in while she slept, she wouldn't be alive to wonder. He had no reason to watch her sleep, and she would have seen his outline or at least a shadow like a man, which she was glad was missing.

  Still, darkness enveloped her being, cold and empty, the worst feeling she had ever known. She held her hand out and noted the trembling, which matched the racing of her heart. "Must have been a bad—"

  A faint rumble came from above. She looked out the window, but saw stars. No clouds, so it couldn't have been thunder.

  The rumble again.

  She caught movement above her and lifted her eyes.

  Ice raced down her spine.

  A smoky cloud of black writhed and bubbled on the ceiling, hiding the center light globe. It spread over the entire ceiling.

  Smoke!

  Two red slits appeared like eyes opening. A face formed from the shadowy cloud, a nightmarish face. On it, a mouthful of sharp teeth opened.

  She put a hand up to protect herself from the nightmare that reached for her, and a light flashed. Her heart racing, she whipped off the covers and ran from the room, through the tiny apartment, and slipped through the door before it was fully open.

  In only a nightshirt with nothing on her feet, she ran down the hallway for the elevator. Holy terror of terrors!

  Consumed by fear, she sprinted to arrive at the elevator in seconds and finally stopped and caught her breath, and her thoughts, while waiting for the car.

  She dared to look back.

  The corridor stood empty and quiet. Too quiet. Not a sound disturbed the night on floor twelve, or thirteen or eleven. Nothing, not even a fire alarm.

  Then it couldn't have been smoke. The alarms would be blaring and fire doors would have slammed shut.

  But that couldn't have been smoke, not with that face.

  She shuddered to think what it could have been.

  Except a nightmare.

  That had to be it. No other explanation made sense.

  Now she had another problem.

  What if someone saw her like that? Some impression that would make. "What happened to you?" "Oh, just spooked out of my apartment by a bad dream." "Must've been some nightmare." "Yeah. Saw a daemon floating above my bed."

  Yeah, nice. Real nice. They'd commit her to a mental institution or say she had watched too many scary vids. She wasn't sure she believed it now that the dread had passed, chased out by the moment of reason after she had slowed down enough to look back. It had to be a dream. Too much sun and too many strange pictures in the temple still circulating through her mind.

  What if it was real?

  Lilly shook her head. "No." Her voice broke the stifling quiet and she checked her surroundings, hoping no one had awakened.

  It was nothing more than a bad dream. Ghost stories, nothing else. It had to be. She was stupid to be afraid of the dark. Only because she lived alone.

  Her mind had been playing tricks on her. The face had been some left over fears about being alone the rest of her life. That was it. Her unconscious fears manifesting in her dreams. The psychoanalysts would say something like that.

  Still, she hesitated. Part of her chilled at the idea of returning to the bedroom. She couldn't sleep there now, not after the fright she'd had in that empty bed.

  She had an option. Rather than the lonely bedroom, she'd stretch out on the sofa and watch something on the viewer to distract herself and help her fall asleep. After being out in the chilly hall in the middle of the night, she was wide awake. Falling back to sleep would take a while. She didn't need to lie awake worrying about something that probably hadn't happened anyway.

  Lilly returned to her apartment, found a blanket in the hall closet, and stretched out on the sofa with the viewer glowing on the wall. At least if something happened, she had a full apartment complex of people around. Not that they'd help, but at least she didn't feel quite so alone and scared.

  Chapter 4

  Now he understood why Tarisk had failed, if he had even had a chance. The woman was already strong for a fledgling. She turned on her powers from what he guessed was instinct, deflecting his attack and forcing him to breach the boundary in another location; she was one of a few who awoke with such power. He knew how to counter that power, but it would take time to prepare, a risk since the longer he took, the greater her power grew. She would quickly become too strong for him alone if he calculated correctly.

  The celemae had taken him by surprise this time, but he would be ready for their next encounter.

  Time. He didn't have time for distractions to keep him from fulfilling his plans for taking leadership in Velok. Torek must have sensed his duplicity when he sent him on this hunt, and their leader might have suspected this celemae's power. He knew Darrac couldn't risk failing, placing him in a precarious position to lose his integrity and, with that, his authority.

  Darrac snarled. Torek's legions obeyed him, Darrac. Being gone would give Torek time to regain their loyalty. He'd have to make this quick.

  The Gray Realm stole much of his power, including the ability to take on solid form. He suffered in the transition of stepping between realms.

  He needed strength. Unlike the celemae birthed into human bodies, he and his fellow daemons had nothing when they crossed the boundary. But there were ways.

  He needed what humans had. To build strength, Darrac needed the energy contained in humans, and he knew where to find them.

  The crowded city was a perfect place.

  Darrac shifted from shadow to shadow in the night, tracking the web of human presences around the bright spots of Pallora Fen to the darker energies. That darkness came from human hearts—greed, lust, anger, and so much more. It beckoned him like a gourmet meal. He would savor the feast.

  In an alley outside a building emitting a thumping beat, a group of young men harassed a pair of scantily clad women. The collective emotions whet his appetite. Too long had it been since he fed upon humans, one of the many pleasures of the Gray Realm.

  Where to start?

  Without a body, he could take them all at once. Delicious!

  The women cried, their fear and pain strong, but the men giving in to their desires for power over others were far richer morsels. So corrupt and young!

  Darrac descended on the group.

  "Hey! What's going on?" one of the men holding the women down looked around.

  "Rax!"

  "What is it?"

  "Kain!"

  Fear crested around Darrac in a delicious feast. A banquet fit for a daemon. He absorbed them completely. They choked and sputtered, but in seconds, it ended.

  Six sets of clothes fell to the pavement.

  Fear emanated like a fine wine from the women.

  Darrac finished them. Strength returned, and with it, he formed a new body, one acceptable in that realm and in which he could hide from the Pallora Fen. His power would be muted and his presence camouflaged. He stood and turned over huma
n hands and, in the light from a single working bulb at a door down the alley, looked down at a familiar body. Cold night air on bare skin amused him like the feel of hard pavement beneath his feet. Years had passed since he had worn a human skin, a mere blink in the lifetime of an immortal daemon.

  He reached up to the hair covering his head and pulled a black strand within his field of vision tinted red in the orange glow of the light—all the same that he remembered. He'd bet he wore the same face—it was always the same. Although as a daemon he had no gender, he had only ever been able to take one appearance every time he became human.

  But he didn't have time to think about it. He shook out the clothes left in the alley and dressed, trying on different pants and shirts until he found those that fit best. This world didn't accept nakedness. Clothes were practical in the cold, he supposed—one of the weaknesses tolerated by real humans. Although neither hot nor cold affected his comfort, he needed to blend in. These clothes were less than suitable in fitting and style, but they were a start. He would obtain others when he had the chance.

  The feeding had restored his strength but it was not yet enough. A little more and he could face the fledgling.

  But the Pallora Fen would be aware of his presence in that realm. In the same way that he felt the taint of the luriel within them emanating the aura of the Shadow Realm, they would feel his presence, especially the spurt of power he gained when he fed. The energy of beings from the Shadow Realm stood out like beacons against the encompassing energy of the Gray Realm, but by absorbing creatures of that realm, their energies became his camouflage.

  After checking the pockets of all the clothes in the alley, he pulled out three credit chits and shoved them in a pocket of the black pants he had pulled on. Money would be handy in that realm.

  Darrac grinned and adjusted the coat, which was snug over his broad shoulders. The humans were smaller than he would have liked. He would need some better-fitting clothes to blend in and peered cautiously from the alley to the street. Seeing no one, he stepped out.

  Although they couldn't blink there in an instant, the Fen wouldn't waste time investigating. One-on-one he could take them at his full strength, but the Fen often traveled in pairs for that reason, and he wasn't at the strength required to take on two at once. They could erase his existence. He was most vulnerable in the Gray Realm. Like the Luriel in Fal Oroneth, the celemae of the Gray Realm had the power to dissipate daemons forever.

  At ease once again in a human body, he returned his attention to the target. The woman wasn't in that area. She was miles away.

  He could blink and be there, but that meant using power and weakening himself to face her. And it meant alerting the Pallora Fen.

  No. He had to find another way, something more subtle. They would be watching her and ready for him.

  He knew what she felt like, a fledgling celemae, albeit brighter than most. He could use human transportation to return to her, sparing his power for when he needed it most, and strike when she least expected it.

  That was the best choice.

  Along the way, he would find food to prepare him for the encounter.

  Chapter 5

  What sleep came was restless, filled with dark corners and monsters. The daemons from myth couldn't have been real, but the vision had been enough to scare her out of her apartment and into her dreams. Luckily, none of her neighbors had awakened.

  Were daemons real? The diviner in the temple had believed, even to point out the secret tunnel with the wards against them. Most people didn't believe, but religions had gained disfavor over two centuries ago. Only a couple small temples remained; the temple near Jemini Tower being one of the few.

  The diviner's words haunted her. No one had ever seen these beings, but some believed. She had never believed, and she didn't want to start.

  Last night had been her imagination playing tricks. Nothing more.

  Lilly shivered and snuggled deeper under the blanket. The sofa had been an uncomfortable bed, but at least she didn't have to risk a return to last night's terror. It couldn't have been real.

  But if it wasn't, then she was going crazy.

  The sun glaring through the crevice between other high-rises outside her balcony door chased out the last of her ability to sleep. Morning had come. Sooner or later, she would have to face being crazy. If there had been a monster, she was sure it would have chased her down by now.

  Clean clothes awaited in the bedroom. Although she could avoid it, delaying would only make her more restless than the little sleep she had after the fright.

  She took a deep breath and stood. With the blanket around her, Lilly limped through the hall to the bedroom.

  Outside the door, she hesitated. Her blood ran cold at the vivid memory of the red eyes and the deathly face that had formed in that black cloud bubbling along the ceiling.

  No. It had been a dream, a bad dream. It wasn't real. It was gone. And she wasn't crazy.

  No matter how much she tried to excuse it, the image came back in vivid detail, along with the dread it inspired.

  Lilly swallowed and crept to the doorway. Nothing is there. It was only a dream.

  Holding her breath, she peered around the edge...

  The bed sheets and comforter were thrown back the way she had left them.

  The ceiling was normal.

  A sharp exhale rushed from her, sinking her shoulders and her body. She stepped inside and dropped onto her bed, the worry melting away.

  "Only a dream...a very bad one."

  Still, something nagged at her inside and she looked up with a shiver. It had seemed so real.

  Rian would have known what to say, how to comfort her.

  No more of him!

  Despite her attempts to forget the fresh grief of her heart torn asunder, all the feelings stabbed her with the betrayal.

  She stepped out from the bedroom to the sitting room and opened the balcony door. There, she paused and gazed out at the city. She wanted to call him, to be with him. They had been so perfect together, until he broke her heart.

  The city blurred in her vision. She leaned against the door frame and wiped her eyes. This was no time to cry, but she couldn't help herself. All the heartache and yesterday's scare caught up to her to pour out. She needed someone to talk to, especially after last night.

  She needed company, other people. The thought of another night alone terrified her. And if it happened again, either others would see it and the terror would be real or they would confirm that she was crazy. Neither option was acceptable. A full day off needed to be filled.

  Lilly sniffed back her grief and wiped her eyes. No more. It did no good to think of him. He was gone, and she was going to erase him with new memories.

  Chapter 6

  "Daemons!" The call rang out.

  Rows of glowing beings in white and gold robes stood upon the perimeter wall-walk. At the blare of a horn against the encroaching darkness, they spread their hands in unison and clasped one another's. In an instant, the boiling shadows bearing down upon them in an immense wave splashed against an invisible barrier, which flared at the contact. Shrieks of pain pierced the air. The sunlight gleamed over a wondrous land behind the barrier and a haunting darkness beyond.

  A black shape rose out of the others and bellowed an angry threat...

  Beware! The voice rang through her head with the fading of the scene.

  Lilly yawned and stretched. She rubbed her eyes and checked the digital clock on the nightstand next to her bed. Almost dinner time. She had slept all afternoon, making up for the rough night. Better dreams had come but still haunted her with strange imagery. Nevertheless, it had taken her from the loneliness for a while. The morning had dragged on in misery.

  At least she'd stay awake to have fun with her friends tonight, and she needed that.

  The chime of her doorbell broke the silence around Lilly. She wasn't expecting anyone. Her friends had agreed to meet her at the restaurant.

  She
sat up from her bed and stretched again. She had needed that sleep. Now she must have slept too much. Waking up would not be easy, and she hated the foggy feeling left in her head.

  The door chimed again.

  Yes. Yes. I'm coming. Whoever it was couldn't be that important. No one could get in except other residents or staff.

  Lilly's breath stuck on that thought—what if someone had seen her flee through the hall last night?

  No. Please, no.

  Cringing at the thought but needing to satisfy the nagging dread, she crossed the sitting room to the door and peered through the peep hole. A strange woman stood outside, not one of the neighbors she recognized. From the distortion, she appeared plain—no makeup or special style to her shoulder-length hair. Her clothes were nothing fancy, just a plain black top and exercise pants.

  It all left a bigger mystery of what she might want.

  "Who is it?" she called through the door.

  "A friend." The woman's voice had a gentle quality that made Lilly want to trust her, but she held back.

  "I don't know you."

  "I know you, Lilly. I need to speak with you."

  How did she know her name? How had this woman found her? Could she be a resident on one of the lower floors?

  "Please. I haven't much time," the woman said, her eyes looking at her like she could see through the tiny glass in the door. "A friend sent me."

  "Which friend?" And why would anyone she knew send a stranger to her door? Why would the door guard let her in?

  "Actually, you don't know him as a friend yet, but he is."

  That made no sense and confirmed that this had to be a trick. "I'm sorry. I don't open the door for strangers."

  "Good. Look, I know you're skeptical. I've been in your shoes. Please, Lilly. Please trust me; your life is in danger."

  "Danger?" She shuddered but shook off suspicions.

  "Yes. Grave danger."

  Overwhelmed by curiosity, Lilly opened the door. "What danger?"

  The woman glanced down the hall and back to her. "Can we talk inside?"