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Blackness

Author: ZOA
last update Last Updated: 2025-03-26 23:23:52

The blackness was heavy and oppressive, pressing down on Emery like a living thing. The air seemed heavy, coiled like invisible snakes around her. Every breath she drew seemed to have been snatched from the solitude and belong to someone else. Then... A murmur.

Gentle, purposeful. It touched her ear so closely.

Her pulse pounded in her throat as she tensed up. She hadn't felt her own breath. The heavy air had not been moved by her own body.

Then the contact occurred.

Her wrist was grazed by slender, skeleton fingers that curled around it. Not dragging. not restraint. Making a claim. A path of numbness crept through her skin like ink in water, a creeping caress as cold as the dead. Her body resisted her attempts to draw her hand away. Something stuck in her throat like a silent scream.

Then there was a spark.

Across the room, a candle flickered to life, its little light protesting the oppressive darkness. The faint light seeping across the floors toward the vanity, the only piece
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  • Locked in the Devil's Deal   Earth

    Emery's first breath tastes like remembrance and ash. When she awakens, she sees a sky that is divided in half, half dawn and half dusk, neither of which is subject to the sun. It's a familiar world. However, it is incorrect. Structures tilt where they shouldn't. Streets twist and turn. Trees groan, their leaves glistening like mirrors. Somewhere, a bird's sounds dissolve into quiet as it sings in reverse. The clocks tick, but in reverse. Time seems to be striving to reverse itself. Additionally, the mirrors The mirrors depict her then, not now. Previously. She recognizes faces, but not exactly. Faces with her anger, scars, and eyes and another item. Something more ancient. She staggers along. Before it stops feeling normal, her body feels normal. Her skin starts to blossom as a result of her decision. [If the dagger was Emery's choice:] Her fingers are burning. She casts her gaze downward. Godfire. Her veins pulsate with a sluggish, simmering flame that is bla

  • Locked in the Devil's Deal   Apocalypse

    It was a lie, the quiet before the storm. In the empty space, three pedestals stood motionless and silent, observing her as if they were gods deferring judgment. A dagger with a black blade that glistened with ancient runes and vibrated with power beyond this world can be seen on the left. It beat. It recalled her. A golden, elaborate ring that shines too brightly for a space this hollow sits in the center. It appeared to be salvation. Or a glittering cage. A dark, smooth, blank, and innocent key is on the right. However, it was the realm's heaviest object. From this distance, she could sense it. As if gravity itself leaned in that direction. Emery stood between them, her lungs hardly remembering how to breathe, her breath seizing in her throat. It's this. The instant the cosmos had been turning back toward. The decision that had always been hers but wasn't just hers. Her hands shook. Not in terror. Using memory. Then— She took a step forward. She extended her han

  • Locked in the Devil's Deal   Mask

    As soon as Emery entered the mirror-door, reality engulfed him. Under her, the earth glowed like water, shattered like ice, and then came back together as luminous obsidian. Something ancient pumped through the air, not heat or cold. alive. The following step snapped back like elastic, the first one stretching into eternity. Here, the laws of distance did not apply. Or they had been rewritten if they did. Under her feet, symbols glowed—runes that glowed silver, gold, and something darker, like ink derived from the stars. Every time her foot touched down, more of them woke up, igniting a route that changed the more she attempted to follow it. They pulsed with her heartbeat. All at once, high-pitched, guttural, and musical voices murmured in the air. a language that she somehow grasped despite not knowing. "Emery." From all sides and none, her name was spoken. It's more like a remembrance than a hello. perhaps a cautionary tale. She turned in slow circles. “Where am I?”

  • Locked in the Devil's Deal   The Masked Man

    The reflection moved first.Emery's breath hitched as the image of herself inside the mirror smirked, lifting a hand as if reaching for her. But the movements weren’t hers. The woman in the reflection... her, yet not her... tilted her head in quiet amusement. The golden glow of the mirror intensified, illuminating the fractures beginning to spread across the glass, fine as spiderwebs.Emery stepped forward, an almost uncontrollable pull dragging her in. She lifted a hesitant hand, fingertips hovering inches from the surface. It felt alive. Pulsing beneath her skin like a heartbeat.Her fingers touched the glass.Pain exploded through her skull.A memory... not a memory. A force shoving itself back into her mind.She staggered, gasping, clutching at her head as images slammed into her one after another.A veil of gold and candlelight.Two men standing at the altar. One in the light. One in the shadows.Her own voice, trembling with hesitation. "I choose..."The sound of screams.The Ma

  • Locked in the Devil's Deal   NO!

    Under Emery's fingers, the metal handle pulsed, sending a constant, throbbing beat up her arm. It seemed warm, almost alive, as if it were anticipating something. For her. The man in the mask spoke in a quiet voice that was slightly tinged with dread. "Are you certain that you are prepared for this?" Emery remained silent. as she wasn't certain. However, the noble was. His golden eyes flickered with delight as he leaned against the splintering frame with his arms folded. His lips curled into a lazy smirk as he whispered, "Go ahead." Don't claim I didn't warn you, though. She gripped the handle with her fingers. She turned it after that. The world disappeared. She was pulled forward by a gust of wind that ripped through her. Everything was sucked up by the weightless, limitless darkness. She was falling for a short, horrifying minute, her heart pounding in her ears, her air stuck in her lungs, and then— She landed. The air was heavy with laughter and music, and the aro

  • Locked in the Devil's Deal   Reforming

    Before she even considered saying it, Emery's mouth came up with the name. It was waiting there, so sure, so familiar. Pain burned through her skull like a blade slicing right through it the instant it emerged in her consciousness. She shook from the sudden pain and gasped, sinking her fingers into the man's arms. The name escaped, barely within grasp. When she touched him, the man tensed. He strengthened his hold on her, as though preparing for the next move. His face was still expressionless, but there was something more in his keen, dark eyes. "Don't think about me." There was something almost regretful in his quiet voice. Emery's breath caught in his throat. "So why do I?" He didn't respond. There was a shudder in the room. The floor beneath them, the lamp, and the walls all wavered and warped like a water-shattered mirror. The tiny light from the carved symbols pulsed in time with the pounding in her head. It was falling apart here. Or perhaps—reforming. Another

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