DARK SIDE
“It’s the wish they make on a star.
It’s the dream they have from afar.
It’s a price that’s only paid in blood.
It’s a hunger that tastes like victory.
It’s dominion.”
Melody Manful – ‘Dominion Theme Song’
Tristan? Why Tristan? What the hell was what’s-his-face doing in our palace?
“Tristan,” the king said, hurrying over to him. “I’m fine.”
He didn’t look fine. I could see that he was stunned.
The king looked at me, his eyes opened wide with grief. I assumed he was trying to process what had happened. Well, my lord, I wrapped up your guards and shipped them off to Pleasantville.
“Want a chair, my lord?” I threw in a smile for free and dropped the guard’s bloody heart on the ground.
A moment of silence in which we all stood still, staring at each other. Tristan and Daligo looked forlornly at me as if my ship had just arrived from Hell.
“All right, you guys win!” I shouted as if we had been having a staring contest. “If you’ve got something to say, let it out.”
“Gideon,” Tristan finally said in the form of a greeting.
“That’s my name,” I sneered. “Don’t wear it out.”
“It’s been a long time,” Tristan said.
Was this guy for real?
Of course, it had been a long time. The first time I met Tristan, we were both four. The only reason we talked then was because we felt a strange, but strong, deep connection to each other. Tristan was curious as to why he felt such a connection to me, and he had asked me if I felt it, too. I had. Neither of us could explain it, so we chose to ignore it.
The last time I saw him was a year ago, when he tried to stop me from killing some innocent angels who were on their way home from Earth. Of course, he’d tried, but he wasn’t able to save them all. One small victory for me.
“Apparently not long enough,” I grumbled.
“Tristan was here to…” I waited for Daligo to continue his sentence, but he didn’t.
“Well, if this little rendezvous is over, I’ll go grab some dinner now.” I didn’t wait for an answer. When I snapped my fingers, I found myself at the center of Grands.
The center of Grands, more commonly called the town square, was where angels and other creatures from different planets came to shop and sell their wares. It was a lot like New York City.
Creatures from many planets came to the town square. Aside from the market, there were also museums that displayed articles from Earth so the younger creatures could learn about humans. This way, if they ever visited Earth, they would know how to blend in. The angels who were older and no longer went to Earth told tales of their journeys to the visiting creatures. Gods from Olympus came to talk of their purpose on Earth. Athena loved coming here and teaching others about the lives of humans and other species from around the universe.
Creatures also came here because although the Grandinians brought havoc to the human race, they weren’t evil creatures, and they were kind to others. There were very few like me—those who chose to be evil to others. Most of the visitors were as peaceful as the Lumenians.
However, I only went to the town square for one reason: to kill.
As I stood in the middle of the marketplace, no one spotted me because they were all too preoccupied with goods and with each other. Young angels chased one another through the crowd, shouting and laughing. Some of the people were mesmerized by an earthly house hanging in mid-air. Women, mostly, picked through colorful clothing from different planets.
“Gideon, what do you mean by grabbing some dinner?”
Tristan again! Seriously, did he live in Grands now?
Tristan landed across the marketplace in his angel form, glimmering as brightly as ever. His huge white wings stretched out behind him.
“My lord,” I bowed down to him, “I think I wasn’t clear on that part.” I then explained, in the most patient voice I could master. “My fault. Please allow me to clear things up.”
Heat emerged from my hands as I conjured a ball of fire. I launched the fire straight toward a couple of angels who stood beside a table, admiring a computer.
When the fire was inches from hitting them, it turned to ice, frozen in mid–air.
“I think I got it,” Tristan said through his teeth. Someone shouted my name. Panic ensued.
“Good,” I said, clenching my own teeth. I threw another fireball at the escaping creatures, and again, Tristan stopped it. I threw another, which barely left my fingertips before it evaporated.
I growled in anger. My whole body heated, but I knew it wasn’t the fire burning me from the inside.
“I can’t let you hurt these innocent creatures,” Tristan said, staring at me from across the marketplace.
I glared as anger boiled through me. “That’s a shame.” I took two steps closer to him, put my hands together, and hurled a flaming orb at him, but it froze, thawed, and sprinkled to the ground before it could reach him. I released several at a time, throwing flames in every direction so that there was no way he could stop them all. Displays shattered, creatures screamed as the flames burst against their bodies.
The screaming made me happy. I turned, walked away from Tristan, and approached the creatures still stumbling in the chaos. Black dust swirled behind my every step. My footprints burned holes into the ground. I turned full circle to admire my destruction.
“Gideon!” Tristan shouted as he waved his hands. A circle of air shielded some of the creatures.
Was he challenging me? I threw a fireball toward the circle, but it evaporated the moment it reached the barrier. I tried once more, and again it evaporated on contact.
“They are innocent!” His voice, filled with pain, echoed through the marketplace.
“Innocent?” Anger rippled through me as I pressed my teeth together, clenching my fists. “No one is innocent.”
Tristan landed right in front of me. “Right now, I see you hurting them for no reason, and that makes them innocent.”
I released a humorless laugh. “You tell Daligo I accept his challenge.” Our faces were so close by then that my red eyes reflected in his blue ones.
“I guess I’ll be seeing you tomorrow,” he said.
I pulled away from him and took a quick look around at the smoldering embers. A few bodies lay strewn across broken displays and crushed pottery.
“Save me a chair.” I hurled flames every each way, and as much as Tristan tried, he couldn’t stop all of them. I smiled as painful screams filled the air around us once more.
I glanced at Tristan, who was too busy protecting creatures he didn’t know, and hurled another ball of flame toward him. He spotted the flames within milliseconds, and with a flick of his hand, the flames spun back toward me.
I jumped out of the way, barely escaping my own creation.
This time, when I opened my hands toward Tristan, flames weren’t released, but rather dark smoke. Tristan stopped the smoke between us, combatting the dark haze with a blue smoke of his own. I pushed with all my strength, but he countered. Surprisingly, the blue smoke started to move closer to me, emanating powerful heat that burned against my skin.
I’d heard Tristan was powerful, but not this powerful. His smoke crept closer and closer to me, and I feared I might lose. But, then again, losing wasn’t an option for me. I braced myself for the pain and then released my hold on the black smoke. The moment I did, Tristan’s smoke hit me hard in the chest, sending me crashing through the tables and computers behind me.
Tristan’s blue smoke hurt. I felt as if I were literally on fire, my whole body weakening, and although I grew stronger on pain and was standing in a marketplace filled with pain, I couldn’t regain my strength.
I forced myself to stand. Anger burned through me, hotter than even the flames I released from my hands.
Using my mind, I was able to inflict pain onto others. I lifted my hand, causing a little girl trying to escape to float into the air. The girl screamed in pain as I mentally tortured her.
“Gideon!” Tristan shouted, and by the time his voice died out, the little girl was safely on the ground beside him.
I raised my hand again, this time levitating two angels, a women and a little boy. They screamed together as I brought down my hands. Tristan stopped them, too, in mid-air before they could crash into the ground. I wasted no time in creating another fireball in my hand and swiftly hurling it at Tristan.
This time he was too late to stop it. The fire hit him dead-on. I smiled as the flames formed a circle around him, and he yelled.
Some of the angels shouted his name and rushed to his aid, forgetting that I was there and that the danger hadn’t passed.
Of course they wouldn’t want Tristan to get hurt. No one wanted Tristan harmed because he was a hero and the only effective weapon against me.
It took Tristan mere seconds to free himself of the flames. Although he was in pain, I knew he would refuse to leave. I didn’t want to be the weakest link and leave, even though I was also in pain, so I did the one thing that I could think of.
“Until tomorrow, your highness.” I hurled a ball of fire toward the angels beside him. I didn’t wait to see if it burned anyone, which I doubted it did. I snapped my fingers, transporting myself out of the town square.