Athen turned around quickly, noticing one of the soldiers behind him.
The soldier seemed... weird. His eyes seemed emotionless, lifeless even.
Athen, startled by his presence, failed to react fast enough as the soldier lashed out with a fist. Athen tried to dodge, but the fist collided against his head, disorienting him.
His vision was blurry, and he was having a hard time thinking. Before he could compose himself again, he felt another pair of hands grab him from behind as they began dragging him towards the center of town.
Athen tried to fight back, but no amount of flailing could release him from the second soldiers grasp.
Noticing a large metal cage that he was being dragged to, Athen had a terrible feeling.
The soldiers threw Athen in the cage and locked it, before leaving him to go massacre more of the townspeople.
Athen looked on, helplessly, as more and more people he knew were killed before his eyes. Their screams assaulting his ears and the ever growing smell of blood making him sick.
Tears poured down his eyes as he watched everything unfold. He tried as best as he could to escape his confines, but his young body was incapable of doing anything to the metal cage he was trapped in.
Why am I the only one trapped here? Who are these soldiers? Is my family okay? Martha and Aubrey?
Many things were going through his mind at once, but no answers were showing themselves. Person after person was being massacred before his eyes, and yet he could do nothing.
His only hope was that maybe his Mother and Father were okay, and that Martha and Aubrey had somehow escaped all of this.
That hope was quickly destroyed however, as he two screaming girls get dragged into town as well.
Martha! Aubrey!
He tried calling out to them, but his voice was drowned out by the sounds of death. The two girls were blindfolded and clearly beaten already, tears strolling down their faces.
Two soldiers walked behind the girls, wielding large battle-axes. They raised them up above their heads, readying.
Athen felt the world grow still, time slowed and the sounds around him slowly died out.
He knew what was about to happen, he knew what he was about to witness. He felt the shadows around him grow deeper, as though the darkness of the night was absorbing all the grief around him.
SLICE
The two axes came crashing down, cutting cleanly through his friends heads. The two heads fell to the ground, their blindfolds falling off.
All Athen could see was an something that would be implanted in his memory forever, the sight of his two friends terrified and bloodied faces lying there, dead.
...
Everything went silent for Athen once again, the world losing its color as a depressing grey overtook his view. The air around him felt like a thousand needles pricking him, his body grew cold and numb.
Time itself seemed to slow down even further, everything moving at a crawl. People were screaming all around him, fires were burning everywhere, but he couldn't hear any of it.
He felt the shadows around his cage shift, trembling under the carnage before him.
Lost, Athen kept looking around. The same sight before him, but it felt... different. He felt numb. In the distance he noticed a strange figure, a familiar figure.
Standing in the middle of town was a young boy, same age as Athen. The boy had black hair, and eyes that seemed to devour all light that dared to trespass around him. The boy was looking at Athen, an strangely expectant look on his emotionless face.
Is that... me?
It was too similar to not be, but there was something different about the him he was seeing. It was like he was there, but also wasn't. None of the soldiers nor townspeople seemed to notice him.
Athen grabbed the metal bars of his prison and stared deeply into the eyes of his reflection. He felt a madness hidden deep within those eyes, a madness that was beckoning Athen to approach.
The shadows around Athen changed again, no longer trembling but dancing. They looked at Athen, seemingly laughing at his grief.
His reflection then moved his mouth, speaking a single word to Athen before disappearing.
ABADDON
A loud boom resounded in his mind, it sounded like a heavenly drum being beat. It reverberated his entire being, and he felt his body swell with a strange power. The metal bars before him began to disintegrate, melting away from his touch.
Athen stepped out of the large opening in the cage slowly, his eyes still focused on where his reflection had once been. He slowly walked to the center of town, and one of the soldiers lashed out to attack.
He saw the soldier lunge forward, his fist heading for Athens head. It felt.. slow. Athen moved his head slightly, dodging the attack, and sent his palm flying to the mans head. He grasped the mans head.
Cracks spread beneath Athen's palm like veins of light, then darkness rushed to fill them. When the soldier fell, he left no shadow.
Following this, the rest of the soldiers looked over at Athen. They ceased their attack on the town, not that there was much to attack anymore as everyone was seemingly dead. The soldiers lingered for a moment before they began to retreat.
Athen paid this no mind, as he continued his slow stroll to where his reflection had been standing.
He could see a strange void flickering in and out of existence, like a candle light about to go out. He tried to focus on the void, but before he could a new voice called out to him.
"Don't look, Athen."
A shadow spilled out before him, and an old man crawled out from it. At his appearance, the night seemed to bend around him.
Athen stopped, as though he had lost control of his own body and looked at the old man. The shadows around the man were much deeper than he was used to, and they flowed around the man as though he was in control of them.
Athen continued to stare, his mind lost and wandering as though he was on the cusp of vanishing.
"Return to me, o' chosen one"