Realm Lord
Chapter 101: In the Dark (2)

Chapter 101: In the Dark (2)

Aziel gripped tightly on the cold metal handle, his fingers white with pressure as he twisted it with desperate haste. The knob was icy against his sweaty palm, sending an unwelcome chill up his arm. It gave way and twisted with no resistance—a small mercy in this nightmare—and a quick, shaky breath of relief escaped Aziel’s parched lips as he hurried to open the door.

The hinges creaked, a sound that seemed unnaturally loud in the suffocating silence of the void. The door swung open with a force born of pure adrenaline, and Aziel charged inside. His heart hammered against his ribcage like a terrified animal seeking escape, each thunderous beat echoing in his ears as he passed the threshold into the next room. The presence of the monster loomed behind him—he could almost feel its breath on his neck still, cold and rancid.

With a strangled cry caught in his throat, Aziel panickily slammed the door shut. The resulting bang reverberated through this new sanctuary, the sound waves bouncing off walls and returning to his ringing ears. His trembling body sagged with exhaustion as he let his forehead rest against the door he’d just closed, the wood cool against his feverish skin.

He panted heavily, each breath burning his lungs as he struggled to replenish his oxygen-starved body. His chest heaved with the effort, and he closed his eyes, focusing solely on the rhythm of his breathing—in, out, in, out—trying desperately to lower his exploding heart rate and quiet the rushing blood in his veins.

Minutes passed, or perhaps only seconds. Finally, when his breathing had steadied enough that he no longer felt like he might collapse, Aziel felt calm enough to take stock of his surroundings. He peeled his sweat-dampened forehead from the door and turned around to examine the new room he found himself in.

To his surprise it was a bathroom. The floor was made of polished marble tiles, white with delicate gray veining that reminded him of frost on winter windows. A toilet sat in the far corner, porcelain under the dim candle light, and a counter with a sink stood to his right, its surface spotless and reflective.

Aziel turned toward the counter and rested his weight against it for a moment, his legs still quivering from exertion. His knuckles blanched as he gripped the edge of the cold stone, still trying to focus his breathing and collect his scattered thoughts.

’T-that was fucking insane,’ he thought, the mental words staggering just as his physical form had moments before.

Slowly, Aziel raised his head to look at the mirror in front of him, mounted above the sink in a simple chrome frame. He grimaced at his less-than-ideal appearance reflected back at him. His blue hair, had grown out longer than he’d like, now reaching his mid-neck. It was disheveled and matted, covered in dirt and knots that would take hours to untangle. The rest of him looked no better— dark circles beneath bloodshot eyes, skin pale and clammy.

’God, I need a shower...’ The thought was almost comical given his situation. A hysterical giggle threatened to bubble up from his chest, but he suppressed it, afraid that once he started laughing, he might never stop.

He stared at himself a bit longer, cataloging the changes that fear and exhaustion had wrought on his once-familiar features. But then something else caught his eye in the mirror—something that didn’t belong. A black smudge, small as a penny, marred the otherwise pristine reflective surface. It was positioned just over the reflection of his left shoulder, as if something dark hovered behind him.

For some reason, it was like the spot demanded Aziel’s attention, pulling his gaze toward it with an almost magnetic force. Aziel squinted hard, focusing on it with growing unease creeping up his spine.

’What the—’ The thought remained unfinished as curiosity overrode caution. He slowly leaned forward, drawn to the anomaly despite the warning bells clanging in his mind. He reached his hand up, one finger pointed outward as he closed in to touch it, moving with the tentative care of someone approaching a sleeping predator.

His movements were slow and cautious, something about the inky blot raising alarms in his head that he couldn’t quite articulate. It was just a spot on a mirror, after all—perhaps a stubborn stain—yet instinct screamed that it was something more, something wrong.

Ignoring his better judgment, Aziel slowly let his pointer finger touch the black spot on the mirror. For a second, nothing happened, and relief began to wash over him. Just for a second...

And then cracks of black, almost like veins of corruption, rapidly spread from the smudge, racing across the mirror’s surface with alarming speed. They branched and multiplied like lightning in reverse, dark tendrils consuming the silver surface until only fragments of reflection remained.

Aziel jumped backward, startled by the sudden change, his back hitting the opposite wall with a thud. ’What the fuck!’ his mind screamed as his eyes widened in shock, watching as the mirror was covered in these black veins, transforming from reflective glass to something organic and malevolent.

Then, staring into the small parts of the mirror still visible and reflecting, he saw it... the monster. It was behind him, impossibly present in a room he’d believed safe. It was in the mirror but not in the room—or perhaps it was in both, the laws of reality bending around its very existence.

Looking at it made Aziel’s brain want to explode, synapses firing randomly as they failed to process what his eyes were seeing. His pupils dilated, growing large as black holes as involuntary tears forced their way down his ashen cheeks. A warm wetness spread at his groin as he soiled his pants, his body surrendering to primal terror before his mind could even process the shame.

His teeth chattered uncontrollably, the rapid clicks filling the room as he stared, fear exploding from within and consuming him whole like a wildfire devouring a drought-stricken forest. Every cell in his body screamed to run, but his limbs were leaden, paralyzed by the incomprehensible horror before him.

While staring, the monster in the mirror... smiled. Not a human smile—nothing so simple or benign—but a contortion that conveyed unmistakable malicious pleasure. The fragments of mirror still intact reflected this grotesque expression, multiplying it like a kaleidoscope of nightmares.

And like a trigger was pulled, the mirror exploded outward in a shower of glittering shards that hung suspended in the air for an impossible moment before dissolving into smoke. Behind where the mirror had been was the same black void as before.

Just as suddenly as the mirror had transformed, the rest of the bathroom began to fall apart at the seams. The marble tiles cracked and dissolved into dust. The walls peeled away like old wallpaper, revealing nothing behind them. The fixtures—sink, toilet, lights—blinked out of existence as if they had never been more than illusions.

Within seconds, there was nothing but Aziel and the void yet again... well, and what lay in the void with him.

Aziel’s brain was too frozen from glimpsing the monster to even feel shock at the room falling apart around him. He simply stood there, a statue carved from terror, the only movement being his body’s uncontrollable shaking as he waited for the inevitable moment when the monster stopped toying with its prey and finally, mercifully, ended this game of cat and mouse.

But some small part of him, buried beneath layers of fear, wondered if death would truly be an escape from this nightmare—or merely the beginning of something worse.

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