A crackling fire illuminated the deep darkness. Its orange-golden hues where beautiful to behold, but as for those who could behold them, few could. A particular figure sat facing the ethereal existence, their existence hidden in deep shadows that were not extinguished by the brightness of the ethereal flames.
***
"Where am I?"
A confused voice resounded in deep darkness. It sounded confused, scared and unsure. The owner of the voice seemed to be capable of sight as they saw nothing but an all-encompassing darkness. It cried out aloud again, this time in deep worry and fear.
"W-WHERE A-M I?!!"
Their voice echoed throughout the all-compassing deep darkness, hoping to elicit a response in this mysterious space...
One second
Two seconds
Three seconds
But the silence that had reigned before meet their earnest plea with nothing. Fear welled up in their hearts as they cried out aloud again
"WHERE AM I?!!"
Where were they?
How did they arrive here?
Why don't they remember anything other than their own pitiful death? A dull sadness echoed within their mind as they remembered who they were.
He wanted to run away, he wanted to cry, he wanted to scream. Their whole being begged them to throw all pretense of self control that had been inbred within their great lineage and accept their plight... but they held on to their sense of reasoning, albeit by a thread.
Receiving no answer from the darkness, he roused his being and began wading through the pavilions of darkness. His expression filled with deep apprehension and a shallow fear.
"I thought the help from the voice was supposed to be something joyful but I never would have expected this. Maybe this is part of the help, but, to be a slave. Wait, what if that voice wanted nothing but this to happen, what if its a special being that takes joy from harming me? Sigh... I really wish I was strong."
His musings were filled with doubt and regret but he continued his walk nowhere. The pains that had inhabited his body seemed non-existent as he seemed to have gained a sense of great vitality in this deep darkness. But the longer he journeyed within the darkness, the more unnaturally frightful he became.
"What was that?!"
'I thought I saw light, but it couldn't be."
Resuming his long walk within the empty darkness, unnatural doubt crept in his soul as he began doubting whether he was alive or was sleeping in his opulent bed.
"What's going on?! I first see light flicker, now I see a strange glowing circle? But it couldn't be... or... "
Madness began to gnaw at his already thread held mind as lights began flickering around him but in reality, all that surrounded him was the same deep impenetrable darkness that held countless secrets.
His steps faltered, his mind wandered, his heart trembled.
Walking in no particular direction as north, south, east, west bore no meaning. The thread holding their sanity, frayed and frayed with each distance he covered...
Collapsing, their terror stricken heart seemed to lose its self as fears, doubts, apprehensions and insecurities where expunged in great bitter cry.
" I died.... hfgh..... I really died!!"
His mournful sobs, breaking up the words spoken. Trembling's and cries where all that remained of the person lost in the deep darkness. But it was odd seeing the young boy cry, his voice and tears were no less than a self defense mechanism he had deployed to keep himself from growing mad.
Though he was crying, he seemed not be crying as another him had appeared within the darkness crying as he cried.
" I need power."
"I Need... power."
"If only I had power, then-, then, I wouldn't have died. I wouldn't have been killed by that bastard... if only... if only... I had, power."
Lament and anguish it was. Laced with anger and valediction, his voice hissed. But the other him crouching beside him, smiled gleefully as invisible tendrils of darkness began appearing between the two of them.
Rising to his feet, a new found resolve burned in his apparitional heart, as he decided to pursue power. The strange version of him that crouched beside as he had made his declaration to seek out power, birthed another version of him that clasped the gleeful fellow.
"Power." He muttered, with each step he would repeat the same word, "power."
He had died in pool of vomit, strangled to death by a person wishing to live, to survive the wretched world they called, 'home.'
He had been ousted from his own house because of his own weakness, he had lost his place among the great because of his weakness, he had suffered because of his weakness and he had died because of his weakness. As he rose up from the deep darkness, the two strange creatures that resembled the boy formerly known as Jedaiah rose up with him as they began wading through the pavilions of terrible darkness. These strange versions seemed to bear a complete and total resemblance to the original Jedaiah as they marched forward with him. One smiling gleefully the other having a blank expression.
Time lost all meaning, direction was a thing of the past, but he and the other moved together trudging their own nonexistent legs through the deep darkness. The longer they trudged, the more animated they seemed as the invisible trendrils produced by Jedaiah began linking with the gleeful fellow which he in turn, began linking with the other blank faced fellow.
Then a strange thought began to burrow within his heart that,
'if I can find power, then I'll be brought back to life, so that I can attain even greater power.'
The ardent desire for power which had begun burning deep in his apparitional heart, made him throw all caution to the wind, as more and more tendrils began linking the two strange beings birthed within the deep darkness. He had wanted power, ever since his pitiful death, his desire for it seemed to grow in its intensity.
"Power."
He muttered, trudging towards that golden light in the horizon.
He neither felt tired or weak since death. Moving forward like a juggernaut through the deep darkness that seemed denser and denser with each approached step. His mad desire to attain power, began fusing the original Jedaiah with the second and third as the invisible tendrils grasped each ones entire being.
power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power, power... Power... POWER... POWER... POWER!!!
His desire for power pushed him forward as the darkness rejected him the closer he got to the imagined horizon. The ground swallowed his steps, forcing him to crawl on his assumed for limbs. He was obsessed with it, he wanted it, he thirsted after it, that's why though he was sinking in the deep darkness, he pushed on forward.
As for what he wanted to accomplish after he attained that power, he gave it no thought. Just the all consuming thought of gaining power, filled his entire being.
His apparitional body having sunk in the deep darkness, only his weak right arm crossed through the horizon.
The warm light of a fire soothed his illusive skin, though sinking deeper and deeper in that darkness, just the warmth of the light made him continue his crazed crawl towards power. It did not matter whether the light offered no power, all he could think of was attaining power.
Shadows moved grabbing the illusory arm of the young boy, which seemed to shirk back in the tenebrous darkness.
"cold."
They felt as they dragged the apparitional body of the young boy through the thin horizon. The darkness swallowing the young boy seemed to gain sentience as it focused on swallowing more of the apparition but the shadows pulled just as equally.
Not feeling any pain from the supernatural tug of war, he kicked of the sentient darkness that illusory darkness, but it was in vain.
After a long while, the darkness seemed to settle back, giving up on the young boy's soul. The shadows pulling him through the thin horizon into to the warm light of the fire.
Blinded by the sudden introduction to the light, the boy winced his apparitional eyes, trying to adjust to the source of light. His eyes finally adjusted as he cast his gaze towards the orange-golden flames that burned solemnly, his thirst for power burning deep in his soul as he approached the silent flames,
Step, Step, Step.
Avarice shone in his illusory eyes, as he tried to touch the flames.
"Power, Power, Power."
His apparitional arms feeling the heat, but he cast aside all manner of stopping.
"Power, Power, Power."
His hands grabbing the fire.
"Power, Power, Power."
Pulling out his arms, his hands having grabbed the fire. The silent flames burning silently in his apparitional hands.
"Power, Power, Power."
Bringing his hands, full of the fire, towards his apparitional face, he opened his maw.
"Power, Power, Power."
Engulfing the silent flames.
"POWER!!"