Darkness Falling
Part 1: Arrival
Part 1: Arrival
Prologue
You don't know who I am.
No...no one does.
Everyone who knew me is gone
My Name?...No
I forgot that years ago.
But if you have to call me anything....
Call me Link.
You may think I am insane...believe me when I say
the only insane person here is you.
You people go about your lives, never truly understanding how precious life is...
And you never truly realise how easy it is to lose it...and to take it away.
Life is the most precious thing anyone can have...
And it pains me to see people wasting it...
Be thankfull your never going to meet me, because if you did
I would show you how easy it is to take a life away....
1.
"This is bullsh**..."
Joseph stumbled out of the small hut that he had been in the whole day, a half empty bottle of wine clasped in his hands, he was wearing the typical guard uniform, his helmet placed hap hazardly on the top of his head. This was his life, he sat at this gate, all day p*ssed out of his mind untill Kenneth came and relieved him of his duty. He would then sit in the barracks drinking for the rest of the night till he collapsed and the boys dragged him up to his bed.
"Every day's the same.." he said aloud, peering into his bottle, and then threw it aside when he saw it was empty.
"Could be worse I spose'..." he turned round back to his hut to grab anouther bottle of wine, when he heard the familier clip clap sound of hooves.
"Duty calls..." he mummured, straightening his helmet and sighing, he turned round and saw a large carriage approaching from the distance, pulled by two large, black horses. At first Joseph could'nt see the rider, but as the carriege drew closer he caught a glimsp of a figure clad in a dark red robe, its face hidden by a hood. As it got closer Joseph felt cold, then scared. He suddenly wanted to turn and run, run away from this carriege and its rider, but he had no idea why.
After what felt like an eternity, the carriege stopped in front of the gate. The rider turned and stared at Joseph, and Joseph got a good look at the face under the hood, He looked like a young man, only about 25 years old (which was very young to Joseph, who had'nt been 25 for a long time), he had long blond hair that hung down over his face, he had a very blank expression on his face, but what Joseph really noticed were his eyes.
His eyes looked like they had no emotion in them at all, they looked dead, Joseph looked into thoses eyes for only a moment, then had to look down.
"Hello sir..." Joseph managed to say.
"The road beyond this gate leads to K-Kreya." He stammered saying the last word. He didnt know how, but he could tell, this man knew he was scared of him.
"Its a toll road, sir. It costs 5 coins to use" He pointed to the small bucket that had been nailed to the ground.
"Please put your money in there."
But the man didnt move, he just sat there, staring at Joseph, who looked away form the mans face. He did'nt want to look at those eyes again.
"Sir, im not going to open the gate untill you pay."
The man stared at him for a second longer, Joseph's hand reaced down and gripped the handle of the short sword that was hanging from his belt.
"Sir, either put the money in the Bucket or turn this thing around."
The man stared at Joseph for a second longer, then reached into a pocket in the front of his robe. When he did this Joseph saw a large scabbered lying on the seat next to him.
Joseph swallowed hard.
"I think this guy's crazy, crazy and armed, Ill have to be carefull."
The man took out a handfull of gold coins, and began flicking them into the bucket one by one. When the last coin hit the bottem with a quiet mettalic click, he turned back and continued to stare at Joseph.
"Thank you sir." Joseph walked over to the gate, not takeing his eyes away from the man and not takeing his hand away from his sword.
When he got to the gate, he quickly turned and unlocked the various locks and swung it open, he then turned and said to the man
"There, you can use the road now sir, I wish you a safe Journey and hope you enjoy Kreya."
But the man did'nt move, he still just stared at Joseph, who was now getting annoyed at the situation as well as scared. In front of the carriage one of the horses let out a loud whine, as if he wanted the carriage to move on as well.
"Sir, the road is open to you now, please move on, I do have other work to do,"
And then, suddenly, in a voice that chilled Joseph to the bone, the man talked.
"You seems to like your wine..."
"Sorry?" Joseph moved closer to the man, wondering if he had heard him correctly.
"You seem to like your wine." the man repeated. "I can smell your breath from here."
"Oh," Joseph murmered. "Yes, I do like the occasional drink now and then, yes, I mean, who does'nt?
"No..." the man leaned towards Joseph, so thier faces were almost touching, Joseph was frozen on the spot.
"Not just the occasional drink, you depend on the wine, you are...an alcoholic..."
Okay, now Joseph was really scared.
"Please sir, can you continue on now? I have work to do, and I dont want to talk about this with a stranger."
The man reached out his hand, and placed a finger on Joseph's forehead
"Sir, what are you.."
There was a sudden flash of white light in front of Joseph's eyes, he fell back, he suddenly felt faint.
"What's happening..."
Everything around him had gone, what replaced it was white, an endless plane of white. He fell backward.
"S**t! What the f**k's happening?! S**t!"
He hit the ground, but there was no pain, nothing, he couldnt feel anything.
"I think im dieing...what did that guy do to me!?"
Then he heard a voice, it was different from the voice of the man, it was loud, and seemed to echo all around him.
What your doing is slow suicide
There was another flash, and he was back standing where he had been, looking up at this strange man, who now had a cheerfull smile on his face.
"I hope you have a nice day, Joseph."
Joseph tried to to say something, but all that came out was a long wheeze. The carriege had already started to move along, the horses hooves making loud sounds on the ground.
"Sir, wait. How do you know my name? What does slow suicide mean? What did you do to me!?"
But the carriege continued on, and before long it had dissappeared.
"What...?"
Joseph turned around and stumbled into his hut. He saw anouther bottle of wine, and grabbed it up, he went to pull the stopper out of the top...then stopped.
He looked at the red liquid in the bottle,then put back on the table. He sat on his small stool, and sat, and sat, and sat. He was sitting there for about 3 hours, no-one else came to use the road, so he didnt do anything, just sat.
And when Kenneth came to relieve him of his duty, he saw a sight that he had'nt seen in years. Joseph was smiling.
"Are you ok, mate? You look strange."
"Ok?"
Joseph turned to look at him.
"I feel great!"
He had smiled and whistled to himself all the way back to the barracks. When he got there he on of the boys had passed him a glass of beer, and was more then a little surprised when he pushed it away.
"No thanks, I dont feel like drinking at the moment."
And from that day, Joseph underwent a strange transformation. He was more cheerful, started to lose weight and, the thing that surprised the other men the most, was that since that day, to Josephs death from a stroke 30 years later, He never drank a drop of alcohol again.
