Outside Hell (4 page)

Then as he’d looked forwards he was shocked
because there only a few feet away in the darkness of the
foreboding room, was a line of glistening light. It was about a few
millimeters in width and about two meters high, hovering a few feet
up from the ground in front of him.

Panicking but also sensing no danger from it,
he’d then cautiously approached it and after studying it, he’d then
realized that on either side of the light, the air was distorted.
Then as he’d prodded the distorted air, it had flapped back and
forth like a tent door. So then next he’d pushed his fingers into
the light and found that behind the light there was a room inside,
so he’d climbed in.

A moment had passed and then when he’d turned
back around to look outside, he couldn’t believe it because he
wasn’t in the castle anymore, but in the caves where Janus was
living as he’d wished for.

The doorway was some kind of magic portal
that he must have summoned from his mind.

Vrakug had discovered him gone though and
then beaten him for fleeing the place, and because he couldn’t or
wouldn’t dare say how he’d got down there from the locked castle,
he’d spent six months chained in the cells for his
disobedience.

Then as years went by and after he’d been
allowed out again, the evil lord had given his old job back to
clean the place. Only one day though, and as he was passing the
evil lord’s room, he’d glanced in at a book on the lord’s desk that
was strangely calling to him. Stopping and then after checking that
the tyrant wasn’t around, he’d tip toed inside and then as he’d
approached it, suddenly he’d realized that he could read the
strange archaic writing in it.

He hadn’t understood though what reading out
the short paragraphs would do, but he’d liked the look of the words
as they’d slanted on the page, so started reading them out. Only as
he did, he’d suddenly realized that in front of him there was
something appearing, and then with every word that he’d read out,
he could see that it was becoming even clearer, as if the words
were a spell creating it.

Then suddenly from behind him he’d heard a
noise out in the passageway that had sounded like footsteps
approaching, and in response he’d stopped reading the words and
quietly closed the book. Only as he had, then suddenly the manly
shape that was forming in front of him, had vanished too.

The sound of footsteps out in the passageway
had gone as well though, like Vrakug had taken another corridor,
and wasn’t coming his way after all.

The fear that was racing through his soul
though for being caught in the room, and what the punishment would
be for it had suddenly got the better of him, and then not wishing
anymore years rolling around in the squidgy liquid, he’d decided to
leave.

Then as his feet had already started walking
he’d glanced back at the book that he’d been reading out of
curiosity more than anything else, and then noticed that it had a
beautiful crest of arms on the front cover. A moment past and then
when he’d stopped by the door to check that the coast was clear,
he’d suddenly realized that all the thousands of other books that
were on the bookshelves surrounding the entire room, had the same
crest on them too.

So from then on and when he could get back in
the lords study by either tip toe or late at night using the
portal, he’d flick through the pages of some of the books, and try
to memorize spells from them. Then when he was back in his cold
stone room by the cells, and sure Vrakug wasn’t around, he’d
practice casting them.

Not all of the spells had worked because some
of them as he’d been reading them out, he’d actually forgotten the
words. Dracus was sure though that had he not forgotten them, that
he would have made them all work.

Then many years later, and after using the
magic portal when he was supposed to be sleeping to see his love
Janus, who he’d then married secretly with no ring but a promise,
he’d asked her to run away with him, only she wouldn’t leave for
fear of being eaten alive by the Zamourn death hounds.

He’d wanted to tell her that he’d used a
secret doorway to see her, only because she might think he was a
spy, or Vrakug’s son, he hadn’t had the balls to.

He didn’t want to mess up the relationship
with her, as he’d loved her so very much.

So all the times that he’d seen her, he’d
told her that because he’d been good in the castle, the evil lord
had cast a spell that had sent him down to her, and that he’d cast
another to bring him back up to the castle by a set time. Then
always just before that time, he’d kiss her goodbye and then run
around the corner from the cave and jump into his portal.

He’d hated lying to her but had no choice,
because he’d wanted to see her.

Then one day he’d begged Vrakug to let him go
down to his village by foot and see her, only he’d wished
afterwards with all his being that he hadn’t, because the result
had been a heinous beating. The bastard had cast spells that had
held him against the wall of his study, and then whilst stuck there
shivering, Vrakug had removed his belt and struck him with it
too.

Then afterwards with his hands glowing
crimson red and spittle coming from his mouth, he’d cast another
spell and locked him back in the dungeons again.

Then finally after another year in the shit,
Dracus who was now 24 years old and hadn’t used the portal ever
when in the cells because he didn’t want Janus to see him dripping
in the stuff, suddenly heard the locks on the cell door turning. A
moment past and then as the doorway was filled with garishly bright
light, and the evil fuckers silhouette had appeared once more,
Vrakug gave him his old job back. Only he’d told him sternly with
red energy beaming out of him, never to mention Janus’ name
again.

Inside as he’d heard it, Dracus had been wild
with rage and really wanted to try casting a spell on the lord then
and there, only feared immensely what he’d do to him if the spell
didn’t work, so swallowed his anger and accepted his fate.

Then a few more years on and when he was
twenty six years old, he’d seen a new book in the lord’s study that
wasn’t red like the spell books but black, and it didn’t have a
crest on it either. So walking over to it, he’d opened it and then
realized that it was a notebook and that the writing looked like
Vrakug’s too.

When Dracus was reading
the notebook that he’d found in the lords study, he’d been
horrified to read that the lord had been looking for a baby for
many years that he was going to kill.

He was aware from the
lord’s writings that the baby would have grown up as the years had
passed, and that the only thing Vrakug truly had to go on was that
the person had a mark on their back, with the same crest as seen on
the spell books too.

Then as he’d read through the next few pages
fast, and was ready to summon the portal for a fast escape, Dracus
read that the mark was a royal mark given to the baby at birth by
its parents who were the former king and queen of the castle.

He’d paused at that moment and thought to
himself, ’Former king and queen.’

Then as he’d read on he’d found that Vrakug’s
notes had also mentioned that the castle was previously called
Leanorisque Castle, and from the magic window that he’d been
watching the king and queen through, he’d seen where their powers
had gone. They’d given them to their child the day before
surrendering, and whilst full of tears then sent the baby away with
the child’s nanny, to escape his evil wrath.

The nanny had been hurriedly rushed out of a
secret entrance and took an old path that led underneath the cave
of the Jahunti Witches, to escape his powers from following it.

The strong spells from their cave had masked
out his powers and his magic window had stopped there.

Dracus was shocked because he wasn’t aware
that a king and queen had lived in the castle before Vrakug, and
that it was called Leanorisque Castle too.

Dracus’ mind suddenly flicked back to when
he’d been outside by the portcullis and remembered that he’d even
seen the sign saying Vrakug castle.

Then pausing for a moment with his fingers
turning the next page, Dracus tried to rack his brains for the
slightest memory of his villagers ever saying anything about a king
and queen. Some moments had passed and then he’d realized that he
couldn’t, they’d never mentioned anything about a king and queen
either.

Then as he’d looked down at the next page,
he’d found that there was a list of ingredients for some kind of
spell, and once cast, it would then make Vrakug more powerful than
the witches.

The list was,

Eye of a Parchaka killer,

Shavings from a claw of a Skylark Beast,

Bones from a villager,

Dust from Eldor’s ground,

Blood from the king and queens baby,

The two things on the list that made him
deeply concerned was this.

The first being the bones of a villager and
the second being the blood from the king and queens baby, but then
to placate his immediate worries for their safety, Dracus had
laughed when he’d read that he also needed shavings from a claw of
a Skylark Beast.

The dark lord knew his magic for sure, but to
think that for a moment he’d be able to get a claw from one of
those heinous beasts, he’d either have to be crazy or have gigantic
balls.

Dracus had seen him walking around the castle
and from his trousers he sure didn’t look like he had gigantic
balls, balls that were so big he could quit his evil magic and then
get a job as a porn star. Then again as Dracus had reminded himself
of the evil fuckers face, he’d realized that he hadn’t got the
looks too.

Vrakug had a sinister looking pallor to this
face that was mostly grey and coupled with his straight shoulder
length black hair, and his heavy eye brows, plus his twisted nose
and rotting teeth, he’d looked more like he could be a head banger
in a heavy metal group called the insanely uglies.

Dracus laughed suddenly as he’d thought of
Vrakug standing up on stage in front of hundreds of people holding
an electric guitar whilst banging his head to music.

Maybe Vrakug would send out hundreds of his
death hounds hoping as they’d been turned into piles of black ash
from the Skylarks inferno breath, that one of them might be lucky
enough to break one off, but Dracus highly doubted it.

Then reading the last few notes, Dracus
couldn’t believe that Vrakug was hoping to kill the witches and
then afterwards destroy all the planets in the Valstrath realm,
before joining his father to destroy another planet called
Earth.

A moment had past and then as he was closing
the book with anger building up inside him for what Vrakug was
trying to do, suddenly from out in the passageway behind him, he’d
heard the distinct sound of the evil bastards footsteps, only this
time they’d great pace.

Summoning his portal, he’d leapt inside it
and the thing vanished.

Then when he’d reappeared in his cold stone
room by the cells, he’d remembered back to the castles name being
called Leanorisque Castle before Vrakug had killed the king and
queen, or whatever had happened to them. So using the piss bucket
quick, then after relieving himself he’d decided to go out to the
portcullis and check the castles name again.

Once out there and checking that he’d enough
time before the darkness consumed the land and the Skylark beasts
appeared, he’d been shocked to see that the name did say Vrakug’s
Castle. Only as he’d looked hard at the words with moss forming
over them, he’d realized that the stone all around the words held a
slightly different grain. So then as he was carefully rubbing away
the moss, he’d seen a crack running around the words and reached
for his knife. Then as he’d dug it in and twisted the blade,
suddenly his knife had flown forwards and the words saying Vrakug’s
castle had fallen away, revealing a sign underneath that said
Leanorisque Castle.

After Dracus had found out that there was a
king and queen living in the castle before him and that the castles
name was different, he’d put two and two together and got four.
Vrakug never bought it from them, so he must have waged some kind
of dark magic war against them and stole it.

Then with his plans to destroy all the
planets of the Valstrath Realm including Eldor, he must have
already tried it but somehow the witches had stopped him, which is
why he wants them dead.

Vrakug had approached him in the heat of his
anger towards him and Dracus had found it very difficult to look
the evil bastard in the eye after that. Although because of the
grave consequences, he’d known that he had to let the rage inside
of him go and not let Vrakug get suspicious of him. If Vrakug
suspected that he was acting strange he’d demand to know why, which
of course he wouldn’t tell him, but that would lead to more jail
time. No he’d play it cool and see if he could somehow find the
person with the royal mark that he was trying to kill, and then
warn them. If they believed him and then fled, Vrakug couldn’t cast
the spell to kill the witches and then in turn all the four planets
would be safe too.