Ethereal Darkness

Prologue

Some things can never be fully understood.

The hows and whys of the world lie far beyond what most beings will ever grasp.

Strangely, many believe the stories passed down through the centuries without ever questioning a single word.

But the truth is this: most of those tales are so far from what really happened, it's almost laughable.

And yet—beneath every lie, something true still waits.



Buried, forgotten.

But never lost.

Lucien

Months ago

It’s been a while since I have been here in particular. I mean, I have wandered around for a while, making sure that I never stayed too long in any place. Not when you know that there might be eyes on you, watching every little move that you make. This place used to be one of my favorite stomping grounds.

The air here is thick with the scent of life and noise, but it does nothing to mask the rot beneath the surface of the city. Sin always has a certain odor about it that I can pick out anywhere, and the farther I move through the city, the stronger the decay grows.

Even the soft perfume of the blooming trees in the nearby park is fleeting and soon overwhelmed by the acrid stench of rotting waste, the filth pooling in the alleys, and the quiet remnants of sins left to decay in the dark.

It is the perfect kind of environment for someone like me and my kind. Makes it easy to blend in when everything is already rotting at its core. What’s one more bad seed?

New York.

The city still felt the same. Familiar, unchanged, mockingly preserved in time, as if it had never even noticed my absence in the first place. They probably hadn’t. Humans were not as observant of the spooky things that liked to lurk in the dark as they wanted to believe that they were.

The echoes of screams bombard me, and for a split second, I contemplate returning. Calling it quits. Wouldn’t that be hilarious? Me tucking my tail between my legs?

Well, it’s not like I haven't done it before.

I mean, I have been basically in hiding for the past five years, not that I have done a good job at staying off ‘His’ radar.

I always seemed to find myself in some kind of entanglement that always had the telltale signs of ‘His’ meddling fingers on it.

And right now, I knew that the reason that I had felt the need to return here, to New York, had everything to do with ‘Him’ and whatever he was planning.

The sun sits high over the skyline, casting its golden afternoon warmth onto the busy streets. Humanity moves with its endless rhythm—unaware, unconcerned of what is about to come.

But I can feel it, deep in my bones, but I don't want to admit it to myself, not yet anyway.

There's no way he would do something like that, right?

I walk unhurriedly along the busy streets with my hands tucked into my pockets and the hood of my jacket pulled over the top of my head. Hey, I still have to at least try and blend in while I’m here.

I got the feeling that I was not searching for anything, but more like I was being slowly guided to something instead. Like another thread was tightening around my ribs, pulling me along like I hadn’t managed to cut those strings long ago.

I hated how ‘He’ still had this hold on me even after all this time. It pissed me off, and I really had to fight the urge to f**k s**t up right now. I clenched my fist inside my pockets, refusing to allow my anger to surface more than it already had.

I rounded the corner of a block and came face to face with a Cathedral. Its presence pressed against my senses like an unwanted touch. The soft hums of prayer drifted from within the walls, laced with a sincerity. The sound of faith, the weight of devotion, and the smell of burning wax was a suffocating purity.

I tense for a moment at the bottom of the stone steps as I stare at the stained glass windows on the front. It was an older building based on the architecture, but it had been well-maintained over the years. One of the arched wooden doors opens, and a little old lady, her hair long since lost its color of youth, steps out. She gives me a small smile as she passes, and I simply glare at her as if it is her fault that I was drawn here in the first place.

“Young people today are just so rude,” I faintly heard her mumble under her breath as she walked away.

I smiled to myself as I ascended the steps and entered the church. The ground didn’t quake beneath me, nor did the stained glass shatter as I entered. The walls didn’t crumble under the presence of darkness that was walking within its inner sanctum either.

If only they knew the truth.

But that's the thing about Faith, isn’t it? The truth is what ‘He’ makes them think is true. But underneath the polish and bright glowing lights is a truth that rots far worse than what lines the streets of this city.

I quietly slipped into one of the last rows of pews, the sharp scent of incense burning curled through the air as I stared ahead. The murals lie. That angel never looked like that, not then anyway. And that scene, the one with his wings breaking in mercy—it was never mercy at all.

It's all lies.

My skin itches, reacting not to the blind faith of the humans, but to that unseen pull beneath it that is still tugging at me, drawing me to it.

I tilt my head at the image that is above the pulpit staring back at me, mockingly serene. I clench my teeth, trying to suppress the growl that threatens to rip from my chest. I grip the pew in front of me and squeeze the wood until I hear it crack. The sudden sound echoes throughout the otherwise silent cathedral, causing a few parishioners to turn and glare at me for the sudden disruption to their worship.

I didn’t belong here. I never had, and I was never meant to in the first place. I found that out a long time ago.

I stood suddenly and damn near knocked the pew over in the process before I stormed out. The doors slamming against the stone walls, and I’m sure that I heard the wood crack in the process. My rage hums deep within my chest.

“f*****g bullshit,” I growled, drawing even more eyes to me now that I was outside once again.

As my feet hit the pavement, I felt the world around me shift.

My body begins to move before I understand what is happening. I round the corner of the net block, and the air shifts, blowing the hood of my jacket back in the process.

The closer I get to whatever it is, the more the city begins to stutter—like its pulse is faltering, but I am the only one that seems to notice. The distant voices began to dull, and the rhythm of the footsteps slowed as a hollow dread washed through me. It's not fear, but recognition.

I can feel it now.

The world is about to fracture, and none of them has the slightest clue.

The humans continue to go about their pathetic lives, unbothered by the unraveling beneath their feet, completely unaware of the suffering that will crawl its way through their bones before they even understand what is happening.

I feel the pull—that undeniable tether to chaos that had been woven into my very existence long ago, pulling me father even more.

Towards the inevitability of ruin.

A familiar sensation prickles at the back of my skull, and I come to a complete halt. Then, it’s as if the entire city stops breathing. The human's movements slow to almost a crawl. The moment stretches a few more seconds—a single drawn-out breath before it happens.

The air splits far off, but I know that distance means nothing to the force that will follow.

I know that they can’t see what I do. I know that the truth behind the mask will be warped, altered in a way to fit into the grand design. I guess living in the darkness for as long as I have has had a few positives.

I can see the blinging column of gold light that fractures the horizon, not flickering, not blooming, but shattering—breaking through reality like a glass splintering apart. A energy rips through the ground in waves, moving fast—too fast—rolling forward across like a storm-fed tide.

It consumes everything in its path.

The roar builds, almost as if it is rising from beneath the city itself—an unraveling of existence that I can neither stop nor bring myself to look away from.

I stand there frozen, forced to watch as the force tears through steel, through brick, through flesh and faith alike. The cathedral walls crumble, its presence no match for the divine power that swallows it whole.

A dark cloud rises—its shape twisting and spilling out across the sky, eating away at the last of the light that dared to shine above.

And then there was only silence.

Nothing moves. Nothing even dares to breathe. The city that was once alive has been stripped to its bones in a matter of moments. A soft whisper cuts through the roaring silence pulling me from my frozen state—it sounded like a name, like one that I had once known, carried on the wind. A name that I thought I had buried long ago and never thought I would hear again.

I suppress a shiver as the ash continues to fall around me like snowfall, slow and deliberate, blanketing everything it touches. That feeling in my chest slowly starts to subside as I take in the destruction around me.

Movement off on the other side of the decimated city catches my eye. My blood boils as I see the all too familiar smile before the figure disappears into the air as if it were nothing more than a figment of my imagination.

“Holy s**t, man,” a voice says from behind me, but I don't turn to see who it is.

I kneel as something gold flutters in the breeze on the ground beside me. It’s a child's hair ribbon, still warm.

I stare at it, not because it matters, but because now…everything does.

And deep within my being, I felt something shift.

Something is breaking, and I know...

This is only the beginning of what’s about to come.