A week had passed since the incident with Nick. Emily had recovered enough to leave the orphanage infirmary. The rest of the kids steered clear of her, except for Sammy. She stuck by her side, but even she had grown noticeably quieter. The nuns had questioned her about what had happened when she woke up, but she had kept silent about it. Nick was still alive but comatose. They had moved him to a hospital where professionals could closely monitor his condition. Over the course of the following days, the orphanage slowly returned to a semblance of normalcy.
As the sun set, the kids filed into the mess hall for their supper after the usual head count. The giant hall was illuminated by massive bulbs that hung from the ceiling. It was abuzz with the excited murmuring of kids and youths who sat at different tables scattered throughout the hall. The tantalizing aroma of delicious curry wafted from the serving tables where the children had lined up to receive their portions.
Emily was sitting alone at a table, noticeably isolated in a corner of the room. A book lay open before her as she ate her dinner. Samantha sat beside her, lost in thought. She was absent-mindedly turning her food on her plate. The palpable silence was broken by the rhythmic flapping of paper as Emily turned the pages of her book, taking small bites of her food.
"You aren't eating your food," Emily said quietly, glancing at Samantha's untouched plate of curry.
"I'm still thinking about what happened the other day. I can't seem to find a possible explanation for what happened, no matter how deeply I think about it."
An awkward silence ensued.
"Say, you wouldn't happen to know anything, Em? About what happened?"
Emily sighed. " For what it's worth, I'm just as clueless as the rest of you."
"But you must have seen something. I saw you, you know, the way you froze up. It's like you knew something was going to happen." Samantha quietly whispered.
Emily abruptly stood up.
"Let it go, Sammy." She said as she grabbed her book and tray.
After supper, the sisters tucked the younger kids into bed.
They moved around, ensuring all the children were in bed before retiring to their quarters for the night.
. "Good night, Emily", sister Claire whispered as she ensured the girls were tucked into bed before switching off the lights and lightly shutting the door. She was like a mother to Emily and the other kids. She was responsible for the well-being of all the younger children and the kids who had recently joined the orphanage. As she left, the room was plunged into darkness. A still silence filled the room, and soon small snores reverberated through the corridors.
"Hey Emily, are you still awake?" Samantha whispered in the darkness. " Yeah."
" Listen, I'm sorry for getting on your nerves earlier. It's just that with everything that's going on, I was a bit confused, you know."
"It's alright, Sammy, if anything, I should apologize for treating you like that. Honestly, there was something that I saw, vaguely, but I'm not quite sure how to explain it. It was like some kind of apparition, you know."
Emily kept tossing and turning restlessly in her sleep. Sinister whispers plagued her dreams, dark wraiths that carried her towards an obsidian altar. A dark being floated above the dark altar, laughing in a deep malevolent voice that sent cold shivers down her spine.
"You're mine", he whispered. The whisper slowly grew into a cacophony of loud voices competing for her attention. Outside the orphanage, lightning streaked across the dark skies and thunder rumbled in the distance. A loud thunderclap merged with the phantoms in her sleep.
Emily woke up gasping. Her olive green eyes widened in terror as the memory of the insidious whispers fleeted across her subconscious. Her nightgown clung to her, drenched in cold sweat. She glanced around the room, looking at the other children sleeping around her.
"It's ok, it was just a dream." She took small, deep breaths to calm herself. The pale rays of the moon flitted through a gap in the curtain, illuminating its outline on the wall. As she lay down to return to sleep, her eyes were drawn to the shadow cast by the moon's light on the wall. As she watched, the darkness came alive as the shadows within the room came to life, moving and twisting across the surface of the ancient, cold, stony walls of the orphanage. Her eyes widened in shock as a spatial fissure cracked into existence in the space above the sleeping kids. The fissure slowly widened, extending to the ground. Her lips quivered in terror, her body shaking in fright as her mind rejected what she was seeing. She screamed, the shrill sound rousing the sleeping kids.
"Emily, what's wrong?" a little girl named Anna asked, tugging on her night gown.
She turned to see what Emily was looking at and similarly screamed in fright. Soon, a chorus of frightened screams emanated from the kids' bedroom. The pandemonium roused the sister's from their slumber. The sisters rushed to the room, racing through the corridors. Sister Claire burst into the room, her eyes widening in shock at the anomaly that was taking place in the room. The doors slammed shut behind her, locking out the rest of the sisters. She quickly huddled the kids towards the far wall, shielding them with her body. Emily peeked around her, staring at the fissure. Fiery electric sparks of power flew around the void in space.
Chilling wails emanated as the space twisted in on itself to create a gateway out of which a hairy, long, muscular, clawed hand emerged, gripping the space with a palpable energy. A loud, piercing screech emanated as the creature widened the fissure. Two crimson pyres of fire glowed on the face of the giant abomination that proceeded to step out of the fissure and genuflect before it. A suffocating presence invaded the room, making it hard to inhale the air itself. A tall, dark-haired man with pale white skin clad in a long coat and a tunic of the finest velveteen silk stepped out. The man's scarlet eyes glowed in the darkness of the room, the moonlight illuminating his angular face. The children shivered as his cold gaze swept over them, seemingly searching for something.
The man stood still, then nonchalantly strode forward to stand in the centre of the room. Behind him, the fiery inferno of the void and the moon's translucent rays illuminated the stranger. He wore a dark armor beneath the coat with adamantine chain mail that reflected the moon's light. He wore long, dark leather pants and gilded boots. He cocked his head to stare at the kids and their protector. A slow, cruel smile stretched across his face, revealing pristine white teeth as he grinned at the kids.
"How long has it been?" he whispered softly, letting the question linger in the air.
" Who…Who are you?" sister Claire stuttered. The hulking monster behind him growled threateningly. He slowly turned his terrible gaze on her.
"Who I am is none of your concern; rather, the question should be what is it that I desire."
With a flick of his hand, she was hurled across the room, crashing into the wall with a sickening thud. Her vision went dark as she lost consciousness.
"I've waited for this moment for longer than you can possibly imagine, love. Aeons, millennia have gone into planning for this one moment. An eternity…all for this one girl." He sighed, closing his eyes, as though savoring the moment. His eyes shot open, burning with scarlet flames that seemed to emanate from the abyss itself.
" What is your name, child?" He said as his eyes locked onto Emily.
Emily's heart pounded wildly in her ribcage, her breathing becoming erratic as the man's scarlet eyes seemed to bore into her very soul. He moved until he stood in front of her.
"What is your name, child?" He whispered softly.
Her throat dried as she struggled to form words, a gurgle escaping her mouth.
" Ah, forgive my oversight," he said, as he closed his eyes. Slowly, the suffocating presence seemed to recede a bit. The kids gasped for breath, some of them falling to their knees.
" Emily, my name is Emily". Emily gasped.
" Emily…" The stranger said, as if tasting the name on his tongue.
Come to me, Emily. ", he whispered compellingly. Emily's feet seemed to move of their own accord, no matter how much she frantically willed them to stay still.
He squatted down and extended a gauntlet-clad hand to Emily. She stared at him with wide, uncomprehending eyes, her body frozen in fright.
"Do not be afraid, come, you belong with me."
"No, Emily, don't! Snap out of it." Sammy screamed as she regained use of her limbs, jumping forward to shield Emily with her body. The man smiled eerily, a glint of amusement flickering through his eyes as he slowly raised his hand towards Samantha.
Sister Claire slowly stirred, straining to get off the floor where she had crashed. She saw the abomination reach for one of the kids.
"Please make it in time," She thought desperately, as she clawed her way forward.
The doors exploded in a rain of splinters and dust, and the room was flooded in a blinding flash of light.