Chapter Text
“Oh son, my boy
You wretched thing, fiend angelical
Child of fire and death, boy of rot and ash
I have met you once and I will meet you again in the next life
I can taste your black blood and you can taste mine
I will find you one day
I will find you demon boy, flowering with evil
And you will-“
Mori woke up weak and in a daze, arms barely holding him up. His shaking made the tears he held on his eyes fall out and mix with this sweat. The combination of sweat, tears, and the blood he spilt as he squeezed onto his sides in the night pooled underneath him and soaked into his mattress.
“I had that dream again,” Mori whispered, raspy and out of breath, “I really need to talk to Mr. Vondir about that.”
Mori weakly pushed over the sheets that covered his bare body and stood up while gripping onto his bedside table. Several clothes and notebooks were scattered across his dirty, cream-colored carpet. As Mori took a few steps and loosened his grip on the table, he slipped on one of his sweat drenched pajamas that he took off in the middle of the night and fell to the floor. The sound that came from his collapse could give the impression that Mori was severely injured, but Mori felt no pain. When Mori wakes from his insistent nightmares, he feels the pain of an awful migraine but everything else is completely numb; frozen solid, yet burning in a fire that could rival the flames of hell.
While looking in the mirror on his closet door he noticed a couple things that were abnormal. The pitch black marks on his limbs grew in size; his nails resembled claws rather than actual nails, despite having bit his fingernails till they were dull and small; his canine teeth grew sharper and longer; and the blood he spilt overnight was black like his hands and feet. The most notable change however, was a thin black tail that had a tuft of dark magenta hair— much like his own long, wavy hair—on the end of it.
“Hey, Mom?” Mori called out to no one, “Psh, of course she’s not here. She’s never here.”
Mori slowly rose up from the floor and made his way towards the window. Mori opened the windows in his bedroom to let some light in but immediately winced at the bright light and closed the windows.
When Mori left his room, he felt an ache in his head and felt himself loose control over his body, taking small steps as his knees gave into his weight. Mori felt his body collapse on the wooden floor as darkness consumed his vision. An unfamiliar voice came into his mind as he lost consciousness.
“My dear esteemed benefactor…
My proud, beautiful flower of evil.
You truly are the fairest one of all.
O magic mirror, thy wisdom I entreat…
Reveal unto me the visage I seek…”
Mori slowly regained feeling in his arms and legs as the voice spoke. He felt a soft, velvety texture under his hands and his body felt draped in a curtain of some kind. Mori felt around the small space he was crammed into. When his hands dusted over what felt like to top of the box, he pushed on it and the “lid” of the box popped open. Mori gently moved the lid to the side to leave the box he was in. Soft starlight entered his eyelids as the moon shone its gentle light upon him. The light from above was filtered through glass panes on the side of a black carriage. Mori’s eyes quickly adjusted to the light and he stepped out of the box to take a more in-depth observation of his surroundings.
For starters, the box he was in looked more akin to a coffin than a box. The inside was lined with dark purple velvet and the outside was made of some kind of plastic-wood material colored black with gold accents. Mori took a look at the lid to the coffin to figure out who kidnapped him but no information was on there. The lid was made of the same material as the body of the coffin, with a few additional flares. Around the top of the lid was a flat, greenish-teal gem outlined with intricate golden designs and the designs continued down the coffin lid. In the middle of the lid was a golden keyhole, what the keyhole was for was a complete mystery to Mori.
Mori moved his attention from the coffin and the other things inside the carriage to the outside of the carriage and where he was being taken. It was difficult to see through the dark but Mori made out the outline of several trees and bushes. Mori took a glance to his right and his eyes widened enough to pop out of his sockets. The carriage stopped at an elaborate black gate with the words “Night Raven College” engraved on a plack at the top of it. As the gates opened, Mori’s jaw practically disconnected from the rest of his skull. A long line of carriages stood in front of him. Mori decided to take a look back to see if the line continued past him and lo-and-behold the line continued to the horizon.
“ There is no fucking way this is happening right now ,” Mori thought to himself in disbelief. As the line of carriages continued to move, the end of the line began to clear up. At this point, Mori had audibly gasped and his hands reached up to his mouth. The carriages were stopping at a large, gothic castle and coffins, much like his own, floated out into the air as people in strange attire led the coffins into the castle. Mori decided that it would be a good idea to get back into his coffin just in case the people in front of the castle weren’t very friendly.
The voice in Mori’s head continued to speak and Mori continued to ignore it as he got back into the coffin. The moment Mori reattached the coffin’s lid to its body, Mori felt a pounding in his head and writhed in pain. It felt like a knife was grinding up Mori’s brain into mush, even though Mori knew he was—kinda—fine in terms of his physical form. The voice in Mori’s head began to speak of fire and Mori’s body began to burn, or at least that’s how it felt. The feeling of flesh being torn apart by fire soon engulfed his body as he started to sweat, like the heat of the fire began to make it’s way out of Mori’s mind and swallow his body whole. The voice then spoke of ice and Mori felt the flames quickly subside as a new pain took the fire’s place. This feeling was less agonizing than the fire, but still painful nonetheless. Mori’s limbs felt frozen solid, slowly numbing with a cold, burning sensation. If Mori looked down at his hands, he’d except to see purple and blue fingers from the frost taking over his body. The feeling of hypothermia quickly caught up to him as tears swelled up in his eyes. Once Mori lost all feeling in his body, his stomach felt punctured by a large object. As Mori writhed in pain, the voice in his head spoke of trees reaching the sky. Mori seemed to have little reaction to the feeling of a tree through his stomach but the pain was still there. Though much more gruesome than the last two, Mori felt little pain besides the impact of a tree impaling his gut. Mori felt the tree leave his stomach and felt his eyes flutter shut.
“Fear not the power of the darkness.
Now—show us your power,” the voice spoke as Mori’s vision turned white in the darkness.
As the flash of light dissipated, Mori saw an otherworldly sight. A large, furry, grey monster with blue flames shooting out of its ears and neck stood in front of him, growling and bearing its razor sharp teeth. Around them, rubble and blue fire scattered the cold marble floor. Dozens of people—around the same age as Mori—laid on the ground, bloody and unconscious. All the breath Mori had in his lungs was taken away from him as he panted and drooled. His jaw was slightly hinged open and his eyes bulged out of his head. Tears welled up in his eyes at what he was seeing.
“Wh-what the hell is that?” Mori managed to get out, trembling and stuttering. As Mori tried to crawl away from the monster, his hand slipped on a puddle of blood and Mori lost the support of his arms keeping him upright. Mori looked in the direction of the puddle and was met the the lifeless eyes of a boy who had to be no older than 16.
“No, I don’t wanna die I don’t wanna die…” Mori repeated over and over again as he closed his eyes tight. Mori opened his eyes and saw the monster pounce toward him and open its mouth. Mori’s vision was consumed by darkness as the voice in his head spoke, clearing the silence in his coffin.
“To me. To them. To yourself.
The hour grows long, and time is scarce.
Keep steady your grip, no matter what may come…”