Fear. It binds, cripples, chokes, and smothers. The weak and the strong, the courageous and the meek all have something to fear. The fearless do not exist, they never have save in myth or legend. Fear. It shows no mercy, silencing the small and crushing the mighty. Fear. For centuries we have been encumbered by it's unforgiving weight. Of one thing we are certain. It has no end. Fear.
The air rushed all around him, and a guttural cry sounded in unison. Shards of glass and bits of metal, heated until white hot, ripped into his flesh, stripping bone bare. A scream built up in his chest, his throat; so much strength it cost to reduce it to nothing but a groan.
One second he was icy cold, so that he shivered convulsively
'You are a fool,' the Voice snarled, 'YOU allow this world to rot! YOU allow these people to suffer! When ALL would be over in a matter of a word and a moment, YOU allow this place to fall into madness...chaos!'
'We both know that you only prolong the inevitable,' the Voice went on, 'But we both know who owns the upper hand... We will win. We will rule. That is something that you cannot hope to prevent. You cannot stop us. You cannot fight us, not alone as you are. Accept defeat. Accept the end. Tell me where the Threshold lies.'
And darkness, perfect darkness, enveloped the light.
The sting of infection and fester boiled in the lashes and gashes that marred his back, shoulders and chest.
Their presence became and the overwhelming evil of (don't need of)bore down on him like a great weight that became more and more ponderous with every passing second.
'I will break you...' the Voice said vehemently.
The weak and the strong, the courageous and the meek- all have something to fear.Use something to separate your list from the later part of the sentence. Maybe a semi-colon, or else it'd look confusing.
His throat burned,(;) dry and thirsty.
Fear. It binds, cripples, chokes, and smothers. The weak and the strong, the courageous and the meek all have something to fear. The fearless do not exist, they never have save in myth or legend. Fear. It shows no mercy, silencing the small and crushing the mighty. Fear. For centuries we have been encumbered by it's unforgiving weight. Of one thing we are certain. It has no end. Fear.
A cold chill brought him to consciousness.
One second he was icy cold,so thathe shivered convulsively.
His throat burned, dry and thirsty.
He could feel sweat rolling down the bridge of his nose, beading in his temples and collecting on his upper lip despite the cold.
The sting of infection andfesterboiled in thelashesand gashes that marred hisback, shoulders and chest.
The silence tore at his ears, pressing his brain from seemingly every direction.
Within his chest his heart beat rapidly, thundering in his chest like a ferocious storm.
Inwardly, he was frantic, desperation clutching him in it's cold, sharp claws.
But outwardly, he managed to maintain a calm, quiet countenance, refusing to display his own fear...Or too weak to.
The expression upon his face was that of silent misery, defeat.
[sEven[/s] Their heart beats he could detect as clearly as though his ear was pressed against the breast of each individual.
A door creaked open with a heavy groan.
Light shattered the darkness, exposing the barren chamber and illuminating his eyelids as though he was staring directly into the sun.
Their presence became and the overwhelming evil of bore down on him like a great weight that became more and more ponderous with every passing second.
Their consciences assaulted his now, each one bashing against the barriers carefully constructed around his brain like battering rams.
How long had it been since last he felt the conscience of another? Since he felt that comfort? That satisfaction? He hungered after it, he had for so long. To know that feeling again would be paradise.
'This, then, is what it comes to,' said the Voice, alluring as the sound of a harp, venomous as the bite of a viper, and cold as ice,'While our worlds vitality is sapped away and our universe succumbs to the frost, Zayn, prince of shadow and the Dark, keeps the Door shut and himself hidden away from the all... Selfish, selfish, selfish... Do you not see that this was a doomed world from the very beginning?'
"My patience us wearing thin,' hissed the Voice, irritation and hatred saturating his every word,'I will kill you... I will have your blood...'
The air rushed all around him, and a guttural cry sounded in unison.
'You long to protect her,' said the Voice. A hand snatched a handful of his hair and wrought his head back,'The One behind the Door... But no matter how you try, you will never be able to protect her from us... From...me...'
'Don't...' Zayn growled through his teeth, his voice wavering.
'I will keep you alive long enough for me to find her... Capture her,' whispered the Voice menacingly,'I'll make sure you feel everything that I do to her... I've planned it all very carefully you know...?'
'I'll start by taking a knife...' the Voice breathed in to Zayn's face,'And I'll cut out her eyes...
'You are a fool,' the Voice snarled, 'YOU allow this world to rot! YOU allow these people to suffer! When ALL would be over in a matter of a word and a moment, YOU allow this place to fall into madness...chaos!'
'We both know that you only prolong the inevitable,' the Voice went on, 'But we both know who owns the upper hand... We will win. We will rule. That is something that you cannot hope to prevent. You cannot stop us. You cannot fight us, not alone as you are. Accept defeat. Accept the end. Tell me where the Threshold lies.'
Zayn replied tersely, his voice tense,'No.'
'Then you leave me no choice,' said the Voice,'We will find it on our own.'
As the Voice spoke a blade of cold steel slipped between Zayn's ribs. Zayn caught a strangled cry before it could fully escape his throat.
It retracted and blood spilled from the wound like water from a spring.
But even as he fell into unconsciousness, he was aware of the presence of others, perhaps no better than those who held him captive now.
He was too near Death's welcome hand to care. This was how it ended. For them both. Worlds apart, alone, and afraid. Nonetheless their struggle was at an end. They could rest knowing that they had tried. What happened next was none their concern, he did not want it to be.
PRINCE
Fear. It binds, cripples, chokes, and smothers. The weak and the strong, the courageous and the meek all have something to fear. The fearless do not exist, they never have save in myth or legend. Fear. It shows no mercy, silencing the small and crushing the mighty. Fear. For centuries we have been encumbered by its unforgiving weight. Of one thing we are certain. It has no end.
Siobhan watched Zayn pull on a pair of black leather gauntlets from where she stood in the center of their chambers. Tears filled her eyes as she watched him, donning those last pieces of his armor.
'You don't have to do this...' she whispered.
He paused, and then glanced at her, his vibrant violet eyes flashing beneath his darkened brow, 'I have no choice.'
'But you do!' she half-sobbed, half-cried.
He looked up, shocked by her sudden outburst. The silent tension that hung between them was suffocating.
'Zayn,' she whispered brokenly, 'I would rather die than be separated from you for an eternity! Please! Don't go!'
She hurried into his arms, sobbing as she buried her face in the hollow of his neck.
He grimaced at the inward heartache as he wrapped his arms around her.
'Zayn...' she whimpered.
'I know none of this makes sense right now,' he whispered, 'And I wish I could tell you everything...'
She went rigid in his arms as a sob escaped her, 'Zayn, please...'
'All I can tell you is that I am only trying to take the Danger away from here,' he said, using his forefinger to tilt up her chin so that their eyes met, 'I have to do this. Death for us,to leave all of this trouble behind usthis might be a tad wordy, your choice, as sweet as that would be, would only leave the world in more peril than it is already in. Darling, the rebellion has begun something horrible.'
She bit her lip, meeting his gaze with now understanding eyes.
He ran the fingers of both his hands through her soft white hair, caressing the braid that hung by her ear, 'Be strong for me now... I cannot do this without you...'
She nodded, with tears streaming down her face and a heavy heart weighing in her chest. He knew she was still unsure, still afraid, but he knew she would do whatever was necessary for the sake of their world.
She cupped his face and pressed her lips to his in a hesitant kiss. She did not want to say goodbye. She drew back, 'I'll pray for you...'
He shook his head, snatching her by the shoulders as he captured her mouth in a kiss of passion and desperation.
This kiss was perhaps the last they would share.
But it was cut abruptly short when the door creaked open and one of Zayn's men said softly, 'They are here.'
Lovely!
The cold chill brought him to consciousness.
He could not move. He could not breathe. He could not see. His stomach churned, his body throbbed comma and his mind drifted. One second he was icy cold; he shivered convulsively. The next, he was feverishly hot; his skin coated in a film of perspiration.
As his senses cleared, however slowly, he became more and more aware of a number of things this sentence sounds like it could be rephrased. You could describe how it felt as he regained his awareness or something else, but right now it‘s the only sentence so far that sounds a bit bland. . His arms were bound above his head, twisted together by chains encased in rust. His feet dangled just inches from the floor.
He could feel sweat beading on his forehead, rolling down the bridge of his nose, and collecting on his upper lip. Blood trickled from his wrists where the chains gnawed into his flesh. The sting of infections churned in the gashes that marred his body.
His heart beat rapidly, thundering in his chest like a ferocious storm. Inwardly, he was frantic, desperation clutching him in its cold, sharp claws.
But outwardly, he managed to maintain a calm, quiet countenance, refusing to display his own fear... He listened to the random rhythm of the dripping of his own blood, his own sweat...his own tears?
He faced now the inevitable, with none of the hope that for so long he had kept alive, if not in himself then in others. This was what for so long he had tirelessly been fighting to prevent. This was a truth he longed to prove a lie. This was the end.
And it was approaching. He could feel it.
Beyond the walls of the chamber he could hear the lilting cadence of a dozen feet nearing. Their heartbeats he could detect clearly as though his ear was pressed against the breast of each individual. To anyone else, these sounds might have been inaudible. But even in his state of disconcertion, he could hear.
The door creaked open with a heavy groan. Light shattered the darkness, exposing the barren chamber and illuminating his eyelids to a vibrant blood red, as though he was staring directly into the sun with his eyes closed. All the sounds he had heard before suddenly amplified in volume, reverberating off the domed walls and clashing in his ears so that he could not tell where They were, how near or how far. His heart beat faster with every step. The vibrations on the air swarmed around him, confusing, discombobulating. He could smell Them, Their robes strongly scented with his blood. The footsteps stopped, and all he could hear was the drip-drip-dripping of his own blood (liquids, since you said before he was also dripping sweat and possibly tears) and Their breathing.
He felt Their consciences brush against his own, to him an awareness that he would trade for death itself.
Silence.
He wanted to scream, if only to fill in the quiet. Their presence bore down on him like a great weight that became more and more ponderous with every passing second.
Their consciences assaulted his now, each one bashing against the barriers carefully constructed around his brain like battering rams.
He only hung there motionlessly, refusing Them the knowledge that They were in fact gaining the upper hand.
'This, then, is what it comes to,' said the Voice, alluring as the sound of a harp, venomous as the bite of a viper, and cold as ice, 'While our worlds world’s vitality is sapped away and our universe succumbs to the frost, Zayn, prince of shadow and the Dark, keeps the Door shut and himself hidden away from all... Selfish, selfish, selfish... Do you not see that this was a doomed world from the very beginning?'
Silence.
'You are burning my patience,' hissed the Voice, irritation and hatred saturating his every word, 'I will kill you... I will have your blood...'
Zayn's face was expressionless, his mind reeling as the Others' onslaught against his mind wore on.
'I will break you...' the Voice said vehemently.
The air rushed all around him, and a guttural cry sounded. Shards of glass and bits of metal, heated until white hot, ripped into his flesh, stripping bone bare. A scream built up in his chest, his throat; so much strength it cost to reduce it to nothing but a groan.
'She feels your pain,' the Voice whispered.
The whip cracked as it struck again. Zayn gasped, the pain coursing through his every fiber like fire through a field of dry grass.
'She writhes... She screams...' it breathed.
Warmth spread down his back and shoulders. Fresh blood. The whip lashed into his back again. His body screamed silently for mercy. 'You long to protect her,' said the Voice. A hand snatched a handful of his hair and brought his head back, 'The One behind the Door... But no matter how you try, you will never be able to protect her from us... From me...'
'Don't...' Zayn growled through his teeth, his voice wavering.
'I will keep you alive long enough for me to find her... Capture her,' whispered the Voice menacingly, 'I'll make sure you feel everything that I do to her... I've planned it all very carefully you know...?' I would not end it with a question mark ‘I’ve planned it all very carefully, you know…’
Silence.
'I'll start by taking a knife,' the Voice breathed in to Zayn's face, 'And I'll cut out her eyes. Then her ears...and her fingers I'll cut off one by one. In little pieces from the tips to the knuckles. Her tongue, I’ll save that for last so that you'll know she's screaming your name and you won't be able to [do] anything about it... Then, I'll brand her body with hot iron... I'll set fire to her skin and her flesh, douse her and then do it all again until you beg for me to kill her... And even the I won't stop! I-!'
Zayn roared above the sound of the Voice.
The chamber shuddered, dust and rubble falling from the ceiling. His voice rasped into nothing, and his body went lax, his chest heaving, his breath visible on the air. The hands freed his hair and his head, and then struck him across the face.
'Tell me where the Threshold lies!' shouted the Voice.
Zayn was silent.
Again he felt the teeth and the claws of the whip, aware of each white hot piece of metal that tore into his flesh and bone.
'Tell me!' roared the Voice.
'Death...first...' Zayn rasped between uneven gasps.
'You are a fool,' the Voice snarled, 'YOU allow this world to rot! YOU allow these people to suffer! When ALL would be over in a matter of a word and a moment, YOU allow this place to fall into madness!
'We both know that you only prolong the inevitable,' the Voice went on, 'But we both know who has the upper hand... We will win. We will rule. That is something that you cannot hope to prevent. You cannot stop us. You cannot fight us, not alone as you are. Accept defeat. Accept the end. Tell me where the Threshold lies.'
Zayn replied tersely, his voice tense, 'No.'
'Fine!' spat the Voice, 'We will find it on our own.'
As the Voice spoke a blade of cold steel slipped between Zayn's ribs. Zayn caught a strangled cry before it could fully escape his throat. The blade retracted and blood spilled from the wound like water from a spring.
Zayn felt his grip on life slipping. He tasted the metallic, bitterness of his own blood.
But even as he fell into unconsciousness, he was aware of the presence of others, perhaps no better than those who held him captive now.
He was too near Death's welcome hand to care. This was how it ended. For them both. Worlds apart, alone, and afraid. Nonetheless their struggle was at an end. They could rest knowing that they had tried. What happened next was none of their concern, he did not want it to be.
He let go, willingly now. And darkness, perfect darkness, enveloped the light.
The ships had docked at the isle where the Threshold stood. It was a simple triangular platform of white marble, with a tall pillar at each corner and a silver bowl on pedestal in the center.
Zayn stood behind his league, waiting patiently as other Condemned assembled on the shores.
Fauns and Minotaurs, Wolves and Vampires, Centaurs comma and even Elves had gathered there as prisoners of war, all of them guilty of taking part in the Rebellion. Divines from other regions crowded around Zayn's league, murmuring and watching the rest.
'So this is how it ends,' sighed Arza, his underling.
'I'm sorry we got you all into this,' Zayn whispered.
'Don't be,' the other said softly, 'You helped free us. For centuries we were prisoners of this so-called Law without even knowing it. Until you and Siobhan united, we did not know what happiness was. We would follow you into the Dark if you required it of us.'
'Do you all feel so?' Zayn asked.
'Every last one of us,' he replied, clapping his hand on Zayn's shoulder.
Zayn nodded, and then he and the leaders of the other tribes approached the platform where They stood.
Each of the Divines pulled out a knife, save Zayn, who gave his wrist a shake and a blade shot out of his gauntlet from a small slit. They cut their palms so that blood oozed out of the lacerations, and then they held their hands over the bowl, allowing the blood to trickle in.
Their Leader stepped forward with a torch and set fire to the blood. The moment it ignited the mixture of Divine blood, a single ray of brilliant white light shot straight up into the sky, before splitting to three separate shafts. The light continued to soar upwards until each blaze contacted a pillar, and sent a shimmering curtain of light raining down over the Divines, illuminating the platform on which they stood.
All of the Condemned trudged up the steps of the platform and stepped reluctantly into to veil, vanishing inside.
All the while, Zayn was glaring at the Leader, who met his gaze with equal hatred. Both were waiting for the other to move first.
Zayn knew His intentions. He knew the real reason as to why the Divines were being banished rather than put to death. This had nothing to do with the revolt.
They escorted the Condemned, mortals and Divines alike, through the Door, but still Zayn stood rigid.
The last of the Divines stepped through the Door. This was his only chance.
All at once, Zayn snatched Him by the throat and kicked the pedestal over.
'You fool!' He cried. who cried? Zayn or the Leader?
Zayn dragged Him along with him as he ran toward to Door. It was beginning to fade, and quickly.
Zayn jerked Him off the ground and sprang through the Door. And then, it shut. Alright, it’s a little unclear whether or not he brought the Leader through the door with him or not. At the end, all you say is that he jerked him off the ground, not anything about dragging him through the door along with himself or anything. It would be easy to clear that part up.