Bound in the Night

[Sol]

Part 1

The Rebellious Man fell and fell in the darkness with the freezing waters beating his scarred body, chilling his broken bones. His smirk was erased. Disappointed, in pain, a terrible fear creeped up behind his shoulder. The time had lost its meaning ever since he saw the purple flash that ripped off his being from his body.

He crawled around in thin air, covered his head and shoulders, pulled his knees towards his naked body, and gave in to the sorrow and distress in full defeat.

The worst of all was when he thought of the ones he left behind, the promises he broke, and the bright lives he darkened and withered with his touch. His bad fortune destroyed a host of people, his own people, everyone he cared for and loved. Would the Almighty Wrathful take ahold of them as well? Would they follow him to the depths of hell? Would they suffer what he suffers?

After a time immesurable, his beastley carcass hit the surface of a black lake, felt as hard and harsh as ebon diamonds. The shock was great, so were the pained cries that followed, but the magic of this plane wouldn't let the mind go blank as the night above.

He swam to the edges of the lake, and freed himself from the waters, threw himself onto the sand covering the ground of hell. The water dripping from his body left frozen tears on the white ground.

Straightening up on his limping feet with great effort, the Rebel stood long. He saw what kind of a place he was brought to, and despaired:

First the waterfall as long as heavens, like a giant hurricane chasing the dead to underground. Flowing down and beating loudly a black cliff with spiked rocks.
Then the lake that was boiled coldly by the fall. Fed from the dark waters housing a thousand dead spirits, equally despaired, their bodies unformed and ugly.
Many a rivers extended like the limbs of the dead lake. Spread around with their skewed shapes and wicked currents, reaching all the four corners of earth.
Frozen shores by the rivers and lakes, the bleached surface of hell. A desert devoid of life, great and small sand hills were standing as far as a tired eye could see.
A cloudless, starless heaven above, as lifeless as the earth and the mirroring lake below. No light could pierce through the pitch black cover of the sky, their dungeon.

The Rebel watched the dead walking out of the lake in all directions, some straight, some lame, some big and some small; all bare, in anguish, fear and pain. They were carrying a piece of rusty chain bound around their necks and dragged behind them on the sands. It was like the reminder of their slave pasts, even in death they wouldn't be free.

The man saw his own chain tangling around between his feet, attached from his throat, putting weight on his breath. Its rings all wide as his waist, a lot longer than the rest, and still ending inside the lake.

Within the crowd of despair, there was one maiden pushing a wooden coffin on the surface of the lake, towards where the Rebellious Man stood. She was not chained like the rest. Her crimson hair was all aflame, her naked skin was illuminating the scene, her very existence defied the idea of this horrorful place.

But her beautiful face was not in any lesser pain than the dead all around. Her tears dropped onto the coffin and the lake, the warmth radiated from her tears were like candle fire within a snow storm. The Rebel and the dead all watched the girl as she dragged the coffin on to the shore, passing by the Rebellious Man. Her sad, emerald green eyes noticed none, she was in a different plane of being like the coffin she was carrying.

As the girl started to make distance towards the darkness surrounding the desert, the Man realized that his chain was being dragged along by the coffin. He felt himself being pulled by the neck, tried a weak resistence but failed. The girl was bringing the coffin and himself with her, a strength unexpected from her frail looking body.

They reached an altar raised on a low pillar; it was made of gray stone with cracks all over. With great effort, the maiden took out a giant body of a man from the coffin, then placed it on the altar. A chain was starting from a hollow in the body's chest, elongate towards the Rebellious Man like a snake, then end up with a bite by his throat.

Curiosity made the Man limp towards the altar to have a look. He peeked through the hollow on the body's chest and saw a beating heart, felt the pulsing through the rings. The face on the altar was too familiar; the bastard looked so peaceful despite the hell that's going on all around him.

The girl reached towards the altar, then left a lover's kiss upon the hollowed man's lips. Still teary, she started to sing a sad song into the deaf ear of the man.

She sniffed and weakly cried out; "Sol... My Sol... You said you'd never leave me..." her sweet voice echoed in the desert, reverberated by the sand hills surrounding the altar.

The Rebellious Man heard the name; like a relic of old, barely with a meaning. The people he failed a long time ago gave him that name, his woman of his past life was calling out for him.

"You'd always be by my side... come back to me..." she continued wailing with a whisper.

The body she spoke to did not move an inch, but the Man behind her fell on to his knees in great sorrow with the realization of his past. He crawled towards his lover with claws at the end of his weak arms. He wanted to touch her and calm her down, tell her that he's right next to her and everything is fine. Though neither his tongue could shape the words, nor his throat could sound them.

Sol threw his arms around the body of his lover, but his touch was as weak as the black rain clouds. His fingers travelled on her cheeks; he wanted to pick up her tears before they fall on to the unworthy earth, angered everytime he failed.

Sol couldn't feel her at all, and couldn't make her feel him. His kisses went right through her lips, her sorrowful cries kept going right through his heart like a dagger. The more he saw her, the more he missed her; she was a flame unreachable in a freezing desert.

No one could bear this wicked tease he was forced to suffer. His frozen spirit now was all rioting. He swore he wouldn't be stopped by the chains he was bound, he wouldn't be held down by the dark heavens.

"Kate!" he bellowed, as much towards the heavens as it was for his lover, "I will be back... I will," he cut it short with a punch on the sand beneath him; from the heavy weight that was on his throat, to the cold winds that was hitting his back, everything was screaming otherwise in reply.