Fan Fiction Friday: Within the Darkness – Chapter Four
Posted on July 22 2022 by Kat Vadam
Chapter Four: Drumbeat
I have been trapped here for ages. I have seen the rise and fall of this kingdom from below the surface, cycle after cycle passing since the time I last breathed.
I once bided my time, watching and waiting for the day I was discovered and arisen from my slumbers, to feast upon the nightmares of those who walk this land. The pounding of their hearts would be the beat of my drum, faster and faster and faster. I would relish in their screams, their last breaths. Every one, a gift.
And then came the king. His shadow walkers found me amidst his war, and in his paranoia, we struck a deal. He would feed me, body and spirit, those who threatened his power. And together, we flourished in a reign of terror, a black mark in the annals of history.
That was long ago. The reign of that king has passed, and I grow weak. My drumbeats are a mere tremble of what they used to be. The spirits I once consumed now the only company I keep. The walls of their demise my forgotten home.
I long for the day I am found again.
Come to me, Child of the Shadows. Princess of Destiny hiding in shadows. Descendant of my king. Come find me once more.
Come feed me once more.
“Come…come…”
That voice shakes me to my core, repeating louder as I descend the spiral path into the dark bowels of this temple.
“She who you seek is here. Come…”
Part of my mind screams at me not to trust the voice. Ancient demons awoke with the rise of the Gerudo King who usurped my father’s throne, and the farther down I go, the clearer it becomes that this voice belongs to one. He whispers promises to me that entice me to move forward.
“What do you want from me, spirit?” I say into the darkness. For a moment, I pause to look off the path into the hole. It seems as though I have made no progress at all, but looking above tells me otherwise. I had to have walked deep beneath the temple. The scattered torches lining the walls flickered far above my head, casting no light to help me now.
I only go where my eyes tell me I can now, one trembling foot in front of the other. A weight has settled in my chest, my lungs begging me not to go any farther. It isn’t too late. I can turn around.
Still, I press on, and I know I go to my doom.
“I want to speak to you. To see you.”
“How much farther?” My voice is weak. The spirit senses it, and I hear him chuckle, a sound that stands the hairs up on the back of my neck. The weight on my chest grows heavier.
“Jump, child.”
I freeze. “It’s too far, isn’t it?”
“You will not be hurt.”
I cannot trust a demon spirit. I cannot trust his words. He speaks only words he wants me to hear, never truths. “You told me she is down here.”
“She is. She came to see me, too.”
“…Is she safe?” I whisper. I almost don’t want the answer. He laughs once more.
“Come and see.”
I jump. A brief second of weightless plummeting, and then I am grasped in the largest hand I have ever seen. Fingers the color of a corpse’s decaying flesh and as wide as my head wrap around me, and I am rendered completely immobile as I am brought down to the bottom of the pit and dropped. I fall to my knees and try to catch my breath. I’m shaking beyond control now.
I don’t even know how to get out.
What have I done?
“I told you the jump would not hurt you.”
“Where is she? Show her to me!”
The hand retreats into the darkness above me. “Not so fast. I will show you your keeper, but first, we must talk.”
“I need to know she’s alive.”
“As alive as everything else down here.”
What?! “You lie…”
“Ignorant child, nothing lives within these walls. Your ancestors saw to that long ago,” the voice mocks.
My eyes try to pierce the darkness, to find a wall and the path back up. I have the eyes of a Sheikah, but even they cannot penetrate down here. I stand in the middle of the heart of darkness, and I cannot see a way out. My mind screams its mantra, What have I done?, over and over again.
My foot moves, but suddenly the ground beneath me shakes, and I am sent tumbling back to my hands and knees.
“Not so fast. I have been down here for so long, and I have been so hungry. You can be patient as I have been patient.”
“Let me go!”
The ground shakes again, vibrations that knock me aside like a child’s doll. I can feel the spirit’s malice as it drips from his every word.
“Your ancestor abandoned me. Your bloodline forgot about me.”
“I can put you to rest-”
He howls with laughter, causing my hands to shoot to my ears in instinct. The shaking has become a steady beat now, completely disorienting me. I cannot stand. I cannot defend myself. I have become this demon’s toy.
“I do not wish to rest,” he seethes.
Is this the fate you met? My best friend. My salvation. The one who taught me everything I know. The one I have been seeking.
“Impa, I’m so sorry,” I whimper as my body crashes down once more.
Above me, a single eye appears, bright and burning. It hangs for a moment, and I see it, far too late. The spirit’s hand, that had brought me down when I so foolishly jumped. It pounds the ground near my limp body. Then another hand repeats the motion. The eye blinks.
“Now scream…”
Featured image by さだぢ.
Kat Vadam is a mother of one, proud cat mom, and wife to someone far nerdier than she could ever hope to be. She also works by day as an analyst, writer, and editor. Here at Zelda Dungeon, she is the Head of Social Media and a copy editor, though she still enjoys occasionally writing things. Someday, she plans on giving up all her worldly possessions to move to the forest and become best friends with a korok. Were it so easy.
