Whispering a silent prayer to the gods, you squeeze the talisman you travelled so far to find, and you feel it crack within your fist. A wave of shadows surrounds you. Engulfing your light. They sense your anger and follow your gaze to the town beyond. They reach out and touch you so they can hear the screams from your past. Feel the pain imposed by those who dwell below. They mingle with your intentions, and you feel their excitement. “Do it for them.” They whisper, already eager to taste the darkness beyond. Enraged, your power is electrified. Your skin tingles. “Do it for what they did to you.” They’re angry FOR you. Heat rises at the back of your neck. Crawling with rage up your nape and throughout your scalp. “Do it!” They scream! Chills creep down your spine. A sickening contrast to the heat you feel inside. “Because we know you want to.” One giggles You cannot do it. You know this to be true. No matter how badly you want to see them destroyed, even though you know it must be done and that you are the only one strong enough. And yet, YOU cannot. “I am who I am,” You speak as if those in the town below, the ones who have wronged you, stand before your great presence. “And I am no monster,” you cry out. “You are! It is time for you to pay for what you have done!” You are shaking with impatience. One of them giggles excitedly at the edges of your seething mind. “Now you must meet your match, for I have brought your doom to your doorstep!” You spit the words out in anger. Hot tears sting your face as the heat inside you begins to rise. Electric energy ignites within, and finally you open your mental barriers, and your power’s light embraces the strength of their shadows. Something within grips your very being. Your shaking, convulsing, your body fighting what feels like an unnatural solution. “I am no monster!” you wail. “But they are!” It is almost unbearable—the heat you feel inside. As if your skin were overcome with the building pressure within and could split at any moment. Yet you are smiling; after everything, the time for revenge has finally come. Their shadows creep in. Filling the whites of your eyes and threatening the edges of your vision. You, now, are not who sees the city below. They do. You have surrendered yourself, relinquished your power for them to wield as they must. For the sake of your sanity, you see nothing of what comes next. You find yourself engulfed, your thoughts laying dormant in the comfort of their darkness. A mercy you did not expect. * * * * As if simply put away, boxed within your own mind, a lid is finally lifted, and light pours in. “It is done.” They whisper softly. Stirring your mind and beckoning you to emerge. “A delicious darkness it was indeed.” One states, lustfully caressing your mind as you rise from their darkness and into the light once more. A shiver explodes across your skin as you feel them release you from their grasp as they leave your weary body behind. Your mind clutches the edges of your being and reclaims your body, before you fall to your knees, gasping out in what feels like relief. Your eyes are your own once more, and when you open them, they are standing before you. Cloaked in black with a face of shadows. Smoke rises from the town beyond, with buildings crumbling in the wake of the battle. For the first time, your power feels depleted, and you wonder if it has gone or if they have kept it for themselves. “We have stripped this place of darkness." They turn away from you, looking out at what’s left of the city below. “As agreed.” “We will return it to where it belongs.” The voice has changed. Exposing the many that live within. "The souls of those who wielded that darkness will come with us.” Another says. They leave no room for questioning. “It is going to be so very fun.” One giggles again. Which one? You will never know, and you are not so sure you want to. A sorrowful emptiness takes over, and your eyes feel heavy with fatigue. You were not here, but you fought with everything. And you feel the weight of weariness settling in. Your head falls down, and you instinctively choke back the horror you feel inside. Seeing now, for the first time, bolts of lightning-like burns in your skin. They start from the tips of your fingers, exploding up your hands, past your wrists, and across your arms. Your eyes well-up at the sight of your wounds. Ones that will no doubt leave behind scars. An ice-cold hand presses against your chin. Tipping your head up to meet a face of shadow. They kneel before you now. Tears blur your vision, and you can see the many faceless souls swirling around them. They are trapped. Trying and failing to escape whatever holds them amid the shadows. You finally realise that those who have wronged you and this place have finally been defeated. And you let yourself feel everything. “Do not linger on the pain here.” This one speaks sternly. “For darkness will find you, and naturally, so will we. That, we promise you.” Their finger trails up your chin and brushes along the slope of your bottom lip as they stand, stepping away. Before you can say anything about what was done her or, about what you have promised them, they’ve travelled. Leaving you alone. Down below, amidst the wreckage, a loan figure appears. Souls among shadows billowing out from the hem of their coat as they walk out into the growing night. You watch them go, and when their shadows meet the approaching nightfall, they disappear. The talisman laying before you disintegrates into dust. They were brought here for your revenge. To state your thirst for justice. It has been done, and they leave behind destruction void of darkness. A hope for balance. The land now primed for light to grow one more. Even now, something blooms from within, and you feel stronger. Elated even, energy now flooding your system. “Ouch!” Sudden pain pricks at your finger tips, and you look down to see them glowing white with heat, trailed by the deep red burns you now bare. That satisfyingly familiar energy is once again filling your very core. They did not deplete you. You are still who you are. You. Are. Powerful!