Bella Hayward
She walked down the hallway. Four days since they had left. It was getting unbearable. She paused, feeling the Gizzamuluke's eyes on her. They glowed green. The figure pressed against the painting for a moment, the canvas bowing outward.
It was daylight. What was it doing?
"He's not here to protect you," the thing whispered in my mind. "And I can smell that whelp in your womb. I know he'll be sweet."
A stone dagger appeared in my hands. "Try it! I'll cut off your balls and shove them down your throat."
He laughed, his eyes glowing brighter. "Soon."
****
Lance Hayward
I stood in complete darkness. In the power of the Seductress. Alone.
I couldn't hear any of my maids that I had brought into the clearing with me. Not even Cali who was behind me and crying out her warning. We had walked into the Seductress's trap. A chill ran through me. A wave of fear.
I stood in the Seductress's power. She wanted me here.
I stepped forward and conjured my golden lance. It glowed in the darkness, and yet revealed nothing. I could barely see my hand holding it. Just a shadow. I turned slowly in the darkness, my heart hammering away.
"Kylie!" I shouted. "Andrea! Aunt Nancy! Izzy!"
No one answered.
"Cali!"
A profound quiet gripped me.
I moved slowly, not sure what else to do. My heart pounded. Terror seeped through me like oil bubbling out of the cracks in the earth. A thick sludge coated my insides and threatened to swallow me. I wanted to run. To shout. I clenched my hands on my lance.
I had to control my fear before it wiped out my reason. Killed my thoughts. I had to master it now. I took in slow breaths. Fighting the panic demanding I run.
I would not run. I would stand tall. I was the Master of Hayward Manor. I had the Golden Power. I would stop the Seductress and save my mother from the evil bitch's grasp.
"Mom!" I shouted, my voice strong.
Nothing answered me. I turned slowly in the dark, my feet moving slowly. Carefully. The oppressive night pressed in at me from every direction. I felt like I was at the bottom of the sea floor in the abyssal night. Completely alone and waiting for some horror to drift out of the black and attack me.
"Mom!" I shouted again. I had seen her. Chained to the wall. "I'm here, Mom!"
"...mine..." whispered from the darkness. A soft sigh, almost like a final exhalation wheezed out from a dying body.
Pain ripped across my back. Burning claws slashed me open. I grunted and staggered forward. Blood poured down my back. I gripped the staff and snarled against the agony. My knees buckled from what had happened.
I spun around and thrust at the darkness. My golden lance plunged into the night and struck nothing. I could feel her, though. She was all around me. I had walked right into the Seductress's power, and she--
Pain burst in my side. I staggered as more blood spilled from my wound and splashed on the ground. It ran hot down my thigh. I snarled and thrust in the direction it came, my heart pounding now. The stench of copper filled my nose.
My blood splashed on the ground.
"...power..."
The shadows quivered around me with the Seductress's excitement. This time, the words were breathier. Not like that final exhalation. It held more life. Like it was growing stronger. I shifted in place, the only sound I could hear was the drops of my blood striking the earth.
PLOP! PLOP! PLOP!
A third slash in my left thigh. A single nail scraped across my muscle. I growled and slashed my spear, swinging it in a glowing arc out to the side, hoping to strike her as more of my blood splashed on the ground. My life ran down my body. None of the wounds were deep, but they bled.
PLOP! PLOP! PLOP!
"...my power..."
"You're not trying to kill me," I snarled in realization. "Not right away." She wanted my blood.
How could I stop her? The darkness devoured my blood. She ate it. It didn't matter where my blood landed, it fell into her... power. The shadows around me were her power. I needed to... to... stab not at an unseen foe, but at the black around me.
I had to stab at her power.
I gripped my spear in both hands and focused on my real enemy. The oppression around me. The black trying to swallow me. That was the Seductress. I believed I could hurt her. That my golden light could plunge into the heart of her shadows.
I thrust forward and struck the darkness.
The night hissed with pain. My light tore a hole in the black. In the shadows. It grew brighter for a moment. I could see the ground I stood on, my blood vanishing the moment it landed on the earth, swallowed by her shadows.
I stabbed again at the dark. I struck it. The shadows recoiled for a moment. I panted. My fingers grew numb. Too much blood spilled out of me. The wounds all bled freely. Drop by drop, I lost my life. My energy.
A wave of dizziness washed over me. Panic nibbled on the edge of my reason. I was dying.
I formed my lance into a sword only. It was still at the end of the long handle. A glaive, I think. I held a glaive now in my hand. I slashed at the darkness, desperate for help. I didn't want to die in this dark place.
I didn't want to be devoured by the Seductress.
She would feast on the Golden Power in me. The Hayward blood would energize her. What could she do with it? Take down the Hay? Allow all the nightmares in this realm to spill back into our world and plunge it into madness.
She would kill my maids. My sister. My mother. Bella pregnant with my son.
"NOOOOOOO!" I roared and slashed with all my might into the darkness.
My golden light ripped through the night. A deep slash. A mighty scream echoed around me. I left a gash in the black. A tear in the night around me. I staggered, almost collapsing to my knees. The world spun around me. I slammed the butt of my glaive to the ground, my blood running down my body.
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