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I floated through empty space, turning and twisting in darkness so absolute, that closing my eyes changed nothing of the landscape. A light breeze brushed across my skin suddenly coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once, causing the darkness to twist and coil, shades of black on black.

"I'm dreaming," I said aloud, "and rather poetically too."

My voice was dead and flat in this otherworld, sounding eerie and alien, tendrils of shadow recoiled from me back further into the gloom. I suddenly felt uncomfortable about speaking aloud, it felt out of place; an incredible feeling of age dwelled here, older than me for certain, maybe even older than everything. This was not a place for soft, pink humanity, it wasn't a place for anything, it didn't even seem to be a place. My next thought after that was that I should be disturbed by this place but somehow I wasn't, there was no fear of this place, it simply was, in fact...I rather enjoyed it here. This new realization caused me to shudder, why was I so comfortable in the dark? Here I was floating in a place where there was nothing but me and the shadows and I was more comfortable here than I was in my own home. Then there was a shift in the shadow and I knew I wasn't alone here anymore.

What had been a warm gentle breeze had become hot and malevolent. This wasn't breeze this was breath. Primal fear ran up my spine this was what we feared, blindness, helplessness, and knowledge that something's out there, something that wants us. Even as the fear built in my chest I felt slightly relieved, obviously we were back to our previously scheduled nightmare and the peace beforehand was simply a prelude to the madness. I watched the tendrils of shadow coalesce in front of form into a giant face with closed eyes, a face covered in scales, a face disturbingly similar to the one I saw in a mirror every day. Then in a flash the eyes opened wide and I looked into the darkest part of my soul, the part that you try to deny every day, that wants you to take, to be more powerful, to crush those weaker than you. A gaping maw filled with needlepoint teeth opened before and said...

I woke up flailing in a cold sweat and knocked my beeping alarm clock off of the bedside table into a pile of dirty laundry where it beeped in a muffled way and flashed at me that it was now time for me to get the hell up. What the hell was this, the movies? Oh gasp, the face in the nightmare is about to say something, and then my alarm goes off...ridiculous. I sighed and ran a hand through my long brown hair, well, I thought, that's just part of the weirdness of my life. I looked around my dirty cluttered apartment at the variety of junk I had collected over the years.

Walls were covered with a wide variety of decorations, manga and medieval, Sci-fi and fantasy posters plastered to the walls with reckless abandon alongside newspaper articles of paranormal happenings. Partially this was because I hated to throw things away, but mostly it was to cover the holes, dents and scratches on the walls. A rack propped up against one wall held a variety of exotic weaponry and a crossbow. One corner was home to a pile of laundry that had been here longer than me and refused to be moved. If I had more money they'd call me eccentric, as it is I'm that crazy guy that no one wants to make eye contact with. And to think I was only nineteen yet.

I sighed again for lack of anything better to do and finally lurched out of bed into the meager bathroom and took a quick shower. I stepped out of the shower, a towel wrapped around my waist droplets of water dripped off my hair landing on the linoleum floor and looked into the mirror. Long dark hair hung to my shoulders dripping occasionally, I knew that when it dried it would lighten and curl slightly. Pale blue eyes stared from a sharply angular face above a sharp nose and strong mouth giving a look of grim determination. Finished with studying my face I let my eyes examine the rest of myself, five-foot eight, medium shoulders, good firm muscles. With a grunt I finished my self examination and left the bathroom.

I pulled a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt from an old scarred dresser beside my bed and quickly pulled them on, while also fishing out a box of cereal from a cupboard. Once I'd finished breakfast I threw on a jacket got in my junker of a car and headed out into the world. I finally arrived at my office at 8:00 and unlocked the door to my office which read: Alecs Night, Paranormal investigator.

I checked my answering machine as I hung up my jacket, hoping for another job to keep the rent paid and as I listened to the message I thought about the proverbial saying. "Be careful what you wish for."

"I need help," a quavering male voice came on. "The entire towns gone nuts! It s-started out small, a couple of kids going out into the woods late at night to some old rock circles, on the third night though something happened." Here the man took a deep shuddering breath, "when they came back that night they started preaching about the coming of the dark god and that we should all prepare for His coming, and what did we do? We laughed. Then they gathered their friends and took them out to the woods and then they changed too. We tried to stop them then, forbid them from going out there but they just ignored us, a couple of people tried to go out to the rings and destroy them, none...none of them ever came back. Last night two parents were dragged out of their homes in the night, about six teens broke in and dragged them right out of their beds. The police can't help; they've already converted to this horror. We need help...God help us all." Then he gave the directions to get to their town, it was only about an hour away.

I sat where I had settled down at my desk staring at the answering machine and drumming my fingers across the battered desk, faced with a dilemma. On the one hand it could be a hoax but it really didn't seem like it. On the other hand it definitely seemed like a job for more than a single worn out paranormal investigator. Should I go and verify his story? Should I go straight to the authorities? Suddenly my thoughts went hazy and I fell forward barely catching myself before I smashed my face into the desk. I lifted my head up and shook it.

"I'll go there and have a look for myself, I can bring my cell phone and call for help if I need to, after all I wouldn't want to trouble anyone."

"Yes, that's exactly what I'll do."

My shadow grinned up at me from the desk.

***

I arrived at town approaching midnight and parked my car just on the outskirts of town. I had spent all day preparing as if I was going to war, which with my luck was probably what was going to happen, my lips twisted in a wry grimace as I got out of my car into the cool night air and walked around to the trunk flipping it open and revealing the treasure trove stored therein; A pack full of food and survival gear, a flashlight, and an arsenal of pointy objects. I began loading up from the trunk strapping myself with weapons antiquated a lifetime ago, a tanto slipped into a boot, and other various sharp objects hidden on my person. I could have gone with a gun, but I preferred the more discreet ways, and a knife was far easier to use in the dark than a gun without special equipment. A full moon hung in the night sky and the town was illuminated eerily by its glow.

"I am so screwed aren't I," I muttered under my breath, "how many times have I been watching a scary movie and gone "if I were in that situation I would never be so stupid," now here I am walking in the middle of the night under the light of a full moon walking to a spooky town allegedly controlled by whacked out cultists."

I savagely booted a rock off the road into the ditch and patted my weapons to reassure myself, and then slipped quietly into the town. I slipped across the train tracks on quiet feet and began climbing the grain elevator, trying to get a better view of the surrounding countryside. As I looked over the edge of the building I noticed that there wasn't a single light in the town, the streetlights and houses were all dark and eerily silent, no dogs barked, no babies cried, this entire town was dead and lifeless, as empty as my dreams. I shook my head in an attempt to banish the thought from my head and turned around to climb back down the ladder and get the hell out of this town with it's dark streets and hollow homes, that was when I saw the flicker of lights coming from a point off in the woods about half a mile out in the woods.

I looked down to where my car still waited and decided that this was definitely not the job for me, I just looked at "haunted houses" and crop circles and UFO sightings, or at least I would, if any ever happened anywhere near here. I wasn't a hero, I couldn't burst in there and save the day, life wasn't like that. I climbed into the drivers seat of my car and pulled out my cell phone, there was no signal. Ookay that was bad, I turned the key in the ignition, it didn't so much as cough

"Shit." And then everything went black

***

As I regained consciousness I first noticed four things. One, for the love of god my head hurt, it was like having nails driven into both my temples. Two, I was tied down and gagged, that was bad, but I wasn't dead which was good, or bad, my headache wouldn't let me decide. Three, I was surrounded by several hot naked women on every side, things were looking up! Four, the aforementioned hot chicks were smeared with blood and didn't look particularly sane. Oh. Fuck. One of them must have noticed that I had woken up because she went over and whispered to a man in a dark cloak with dark silk trim, casual necromantic type gear, you can buy it every Halloween, who walked over to loom at me.

"Greetings holy one, I see you're awake." His voice cut into my head like a saw, he completely believed everything he had just said to me. His voice

Now normally I would have at least had a witty comment before my heart got cut out and eaten by a bunch of loonies, but I hardly expected this so what came out was more like.

"Urk?"

"My apologies holy one but the restraints are for everyone's safety, when we kill you to release your spirit from this mortal body we wouldn't want your host to cause the strike to be misguided, it would botch the whole ritual." The man who I had already mentally named Necro Nuts went on smoothly. Events were moving far too quickly to follow after what felt like my head being run over so I responded the one way I knew how.

"Urk?" I riposted wittily. Inside my head there was a roar of rage that seemed to press out on my skull.

The naked woman who had informed Necro Nuts I was awake came over and whispered in his ear again, too low for me to hear. Not that I probably would have heard her if she was shouting over the head expanding roar.

"Pardon me your Glorious Darkness but I must oversee the preparation of the ritual now." It's amazing how imminent death really takes your mind off the trivial things like a horrible headache. He bowed and walked away towards the edge of the clearing; I realized we must be at the place where I had seen the lights in the woods from the top of the elevator.

For a moment I just lay there pitying myself and trying to think what I had done to deserve this. In that moment I came to believe that there wasn't any real justice in this world that we didn't make for ourselves, and that there were a million things that I wanted to do but had never done, and now these assholes in their store-bought robes and delusions were going to strip all that away from me. In a moment my mind turned from despair to a cold rage. How dare they! Well if I was going to die I wouldn't die easily for them, not like the bound cluster of people I suddenly noticed cowering and weeping at the edge of the ring like sheep being prepared for the slaughter, I wondered idly if one of them was the one who had sent the message that had brought me here.

That was when revelation struck me like a hammer; Necro Nuts had been the one who sent me the message! But why, why did he want me? Suddenly it was all just too much and I strained at the ropes that held me while panic washed over my head in a wave, I had to escape! Flee my mind screamed! Kill them all my mind screamed! I pulled at the ropes a couple more times to no avail, whoever had tied me knew what they were doing; as I did that though something poked my inner arm and I realized that while the person who tied me up knew what they were doing the person who searched me didn't. For the first time since I had come to this godforsaken place I grinned, I may yet die but I wouldn't die helpless.

With a flick of my wrist I brought the shuriken I had felt jab me from my sleeve to my hand and began sawing at the rope that bound my hands to the stone slab I lay on; it was difficult with my limited range of movement but I had sharpened it to the point I could shave with it, and it didn't take me long to saw through most of the rope binding my hands. The best time to strike would be when they were in the midst of the ritual I could break the last few threads holding the rope together and take their high priest as a hostage to make my escape...hopefully. Now that I had at least a semblance of a plan and might not be facing certain death I examined my surroundings.

I was tied to a large stone altar in the middle of a clearing, scattered out from the base of the altar runes covered the ground in every direction, set in overlapping circles. I could count about twenty or thirty cultists in the clearing, some were chanting prayers in obscene sounding gibberish, drinking or simply waiting to witness the next sacrifice, and a large ladies were having a spirited orgy, gasping and rubbing against each other erotically. Necro was the only one wearing the spooky robe; in fact, he was the only one wearing anything. Cults did have one thing going for them; they knew how to throw one hell of a party.

Necro, had finally finished whatever preparations he thought were necessary and suddenly raised his hand into and shouted in that obscene language again, with a whisper all of the fires in the clearing died. The entire clearing had stopped, frozen in time as black energy crackled from the robed mans fingertips, bathing the entire clearing in an eerie un-light. The cultists had all stopped whatever they were doing to star in awe and adoration at their leader, I felt my gut wrench as I saw these people worship this man and what he stood for with complete fanaticism. I wasn't making it out of here alive.

It was rather simple really, these poor saps had found their Purpose, and they were tools to a greater power as has always been the case. No doubt since the beginning of our species' struggle to survive there had been leaders and followers. Hitler, Stalin, history portrayed them as evil, but what about the men and women who followed them. Hitler and Stalin were both leaders, they caused terrible things yes, but mostly they caused other people to do terrible things for them. Hitler and Stalin controlled people like puppets making them dance on little strings and kill for them. Just as these people were manipulated, Necro was their own little leader, there was no huge power base, he didn't rule a country, but bad people can make all the difference in the world; much more so than the good people it seemed. Even if I were to take their leader hostage, their own fanaticism wouldn't allow them to let me go, they were going to kill me, but I was going to take down as many of them as I damn well could, for myself and for the world.

Necro resumed his chanting, and seemed to draw the light from the moon directly into the darkness in his hand. Words of power twisted through the air, familiar yet alien at the same time, the runes on the ground burst into crimson light and began rotating in increasing speeds until they were nothing but a blur of red light. My mind reeled as I watched. This wasn't some magic trick or special effect, this was real! A part of reality that we ignored, and that I had wanted so desperately to find, something that proved that there was more to life than just comfortable scientific fact. And now it was going to kill me, be careful what you wish for, huh. Then tendrils of night stretched from the Necromancers hand and plunged into my chest, I stared at them in shock momentarily and then the pain hit like a wave.

Ice shot through my veins chilling me instantly, and my back arched in shock straining against the ropes that bound me. The chant picked up power again and sent another jolt through my system and I screamed my fury and pain at the world. It rocked the clearing. What started as a normal scream of pain increased and magnified and became a roar of rage instead. I felt my skin crawl crackle with energy from the tendrils and saw that where they impaled me was changing into something inhuman. Soft scales spread out from the tendrils and hardened into armor. My mouth split and stretched, teeth elongated, bones shifted, and talons grew, tearing my clothing, and finally my eyes change to the slit eyes of a reptile, a dragon, an agent of chaos.

"At last it is done!" A voice that was my own and yet not shook the clearing again, and I felt control of my body wrested from me. As the Necromancer tried to bring his power to bear against me, a newly transformed arm burst through the rope I had weakened with the shuriken and plunged into his chest up to the spiked elbow and pulled the body down towards me so that his ear was level with my mouth. I could finally see his face now under the hood. He was a teenager, probably about my age his eyes were full of fear and he stared down at the arm embedded in his chest in horror. The rest of the cultists had drawn back in fear and watched, full of indecision.

"I'm afraid you misinterpreted the last bit about sacrificing me," A sibilant voice emerged from my mouth, dripping with sarcasm, then the arm twisted inside his body causing him to scream, as blood bubbled from his mouth, and more ran down my arm. "Or perhaps you didn't," my mouth twisted into a humorless smile. "Perhaps you thought that if you sacrificed me at the height of my power that you could take my place and my power," there was a pause as he/I let the necromancer regain some control of himself, "It gives me great pleasure to disabuse you of that notion." Before he could scream or struggle and even before I knew what was happening my other arm reached up snapping the rope binding it, seized the doomed necromancer by his shoulder and tore him in half like a paper towel.

With a heave of my new shoulders the entity controlling me snapped the last ropes tying my body to the stone slab and threw the remains of the man who had tried to kill me beside the altar in a pile. Then he/I sat up, tearing of the last shreds of my clothing and looking around the clearing at the terrified cultists and sacrifices.

"I am Kazath Aran," his/our voice carried across the clearing, "and you are nothing." he/I paused briefly to watch the helpless little humans cower in fear, "now then, where were we." And looked towards the cluster of women who had been very recently having an orgy, "ah yes, now I remember."