†D E A N E X†

My, my, it is so empty here. Not a single soul walks these stone rubble roads; not a shadow cast upon a building wall. The streets of Emmer seemed so dead now – it really makes me laugh. I half expected to find troops of elves, fallen angels, humans, trolls, demons, the whole entourage, storming these streets with guns and domestic beasts to weed out the untamed ones. Those poor, poor security force dogs, prisoners of war, held with a tight leash that literally meant death was soon to follow should they disobey their captors. The Human Species, with their power-hungry faces gleaming erotically toward this wasteland. I was nearly surprised that I could not see them. Nearly, but not quite. You see, it is only I that knows what they truly search for. Not even their hearts knew, but in the twisted essence that writhed through Emmer, seeping into every pore like the plague of the Black Death, insanity itself knew their motives. None would be immune to this epidemic. None were immune to Me.

People were dying. Souls were cascading to the heavens or to the caverns of Hell every second of the day. I could feel the pulsing of the life force quicken and slow dramatically, spontaneously, beneath Adun Torridos. Trees, love, and hope were all dying. Hate, greed, and the flames of wildfires combusted into a power far beyond their usual capability. Yet just as God saw the Earth he had made and saw it all very good, He had turned a blind eye to this particular creation that He Himself had made. Insanity. With the Living mind comes the power of life. The mind is one of the most powerful creations, but it is also the weakest. Pose a question to a person, and their answers could be quite different depending on the circumstance. Humans and beasts alike – they were all prone to attempt survival. Their minds drove them forward, gave them instinct and the capability of remembering and storing knowledge. Their minds directed them through life, gave them a hand to hold and a metaphorical ‘heart’ to love others around them. What is the heart without the mind? What is a mind without the Sanity? What happens when logical thought flips upside-down and seems completely unrealistic, but your eyes are telling you something else? Well, dear, it seems that you have been infected by Me.

I am not a living creature. I am a living creature. I am a figment of your imagination. I am a reality to everyone at Adun Torridos. Should you talk about me, others know my name as though I had a past – as though I had a story. I do have a story, and it is quite the gruesome one, but how can you tell the difference between Sanity and Insanity when Insanity itself has become Sanity? A truly Sane person would deny my existence, because to them I would never appear, unless of course I grasped them in my web-like claws, pulling them close, entwining them in my silky threads. Ask your neighbor next time all of the lights go out in the city. Deanex? Could It be here? Blink again and you may notice that the lights had never turned off in the first place. Hold your hand to your heart to find yourself dead, without a pulse, and die from the fright of a lie. Oh, I have the capability to destroy so much. Turn your eyes to the left. See the deserted streets of Emmer? Look to your right and see the same. But should you look forward, even though your eyes skimmed past that location to look the other way, you suddenly see before you the crimson eyes of a ebony wolf, its pupils slits like a reptiles, its jaws agape with gleaming teeth. Scream and fall backwards, if you will. Feel the crushing weight of the wolf as it lunges on top of you, plunging toward your throat. Stop for a second and look to your left. People? All staring at you in bewilderment, wondering what you were doing on the ground, writhing as though a wolf were on top of you. Look to your right and find the very same thing. Look in front of you to find not a wolf, but the vacant space that Insanity had passed by not a moment ago.

All these things are both true and false. The wolf that was there truly was there, but only to you. You may go home and find scratches down the length of your arm, swollen with the marks of claws. You may be walking down the street the next day to find someone screaming, pinned against a building and staring at the sky in horror as though it were blanketed with a black sheet, in which a giant dragon loomed, devilish breath ablaze with hatred for human kind. But you... you would see nothing. You may whisper to another person next to you, and they would have the same response any knowledgeable person would have.

Deanex.

But for now, I loom in these abandoned streets of Emmer, placidly awaiting for a victim to infect. Time lurched like a sparrow treading the air with a broken wing, dipping down and crying out in pain, but lurching back upwards in an attempt to stay alive. Every second jerked by with a new image to anyone who may be there. Look to the windows and find nothing but a vacant store, robbed to extinction some years ago, but look to the door and see it swung open with a horrid stench seeping out of it. You’ll hear a baby crying, but wait. Look to the window again and see a young woman hanging from a noose, her limbs torn from her torso, her eyes rolled back in Death. Look away quickly, child, but there will be no escape. Close your eyes and find those same, crimson, dragon eyes boring into your mind, destroying it, manipulating it however It may please. You are wrong to say that I don’t exist. Deanex runs these lands now, perhaps without you knowing it. It is here in Emmer that I now take my fortress, spreading like a plague, searching for a mind to inhabit.

Watch where your feet lead you, now. You don’t know the danger you may be in where you tread.

I am lonely… please, someone come and heal me. Someone come and give me a host. Let me be your beloved parasite. Allow me to step into your head and direct your thoughts, your sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Close your eyes and concentrate on none of the above; revel in the sensation of being completely alone. Please, by all means make yourself comfortable in my presence. I am no stranger to these parts, nor am I royalty in any way, so do not feel intimidated by my status. Clearly, I am your home and heart, your desires and fears. I can be anything you want me to be, darling. Save me from this terrible solitude. Give me a mind to inhabit and destroy, to covet as my own and weed into a vine of twisted memories. Oh, how I enjoyed death in the finest, most indirect of ways. I thought that Emmer would be a place to feed, an easy target for lost souls, but I seem to be wrong. I don’t see anyone around, and I’m ashamed to say I was growing quite impatient. How can an entity, not even a true spirit, grow impatient? You could say I was a figment with an ego so strong that I had formed my own essence. I was above the other mental illnesses. I was Insanity.

To explain myself in a clear manner, I would put myself this way. I am not a living creature. I have no true gender, no true body. I do not have a soul, and I do not have a personality. I am simply the aura of malignance and evil. I am a figment of your imagination. I am everywhere and nowhere all at once. If you looked up, I could be there, but you would see nothing. It is only people I choose that see me in one of three entities: a woman, a wolf, and a dragon. Each powerful creatures in their own manner. Each so desirable. Each so destructive. Many people of Adun Torridos make the mistake of assuming I am a female, and that would be a lie. Think of me as Satan, in the most shallow of ways. One does not see Satan, yes? But one feels him. One knows he is there and feels his tempting caresses to sin. Think of me as an illness. That is what I am. Insanity.

But oh… I must not continue to talk about myself like this. I feel someone approaching. As he neared, his mind drew more and more miserable. More entranced than awake. A werewolf? Delicious! My essence writhed away, locked itself behind the doors of the abandoned streets of Emmer, allowing him to walk by in peace – for now. I watched him trip and fall into the dust, and silently I laughed. This child would be mine tonight. Today would be his everlasting nightmare, or perhaps I would bless him with a euphoric dream of reality for a day. He seemed exhausted… lost. He needed a friend, but he also needed a wakeup call. But which to choose from?

I knew exactly what.

I watched him walk some ways farther, and it was near the center of the town, where my essence was strongest that I finally took on a physical shape. Understand that if anyone else was around, they would not see a single thing. I appeared to this boy and this boy only. In front of him I stood, my ‘spirit’, if you will, writhing together into a physical shape. As he looked up, the dust from the road solidified into a texture of the palest skin, laced in a coy, black dress. I was the most beautiful of women. So tempting, so dark. My hair was blacker than the night (truly), and its bangs fell in my face, blocking my eyes and the majority of my nose so more than half of my face was masked in its obsidian color. Vines laced over one shoulder and wrapped about my waist like it would a tree, as though it fed off of me, the Parasite of parasites.

I looked up, but he wouldn’t be able to see that. A mystical smile drifted to my icy lips and I stepped towards him, bare feet brushing the road silently. I approached him, stopping closer than a foot in front of him. Slowly, my hand reached out and grazed his cheek, a finger trailing through his hair before my hand dropped to my side again. He’d be able to feel it all. He’d think I was real. “Callum…” I cooed and leaned my head close, bringing those dead lips to his ear. “I noticed you’ve been alone for some time now and thought you might be lonely.” how graceful every word slipped out of these nonexistent lips! I backed a step away from him and my face fell back into complete emotionless expression. What would he do, I wonder.

If he wouldn’t play my game, I’d just have to change my tactics.

His mind WILL be mind.

[ooc - i'm assuming that your program was showing a number of letters instead of words... some programs do that for some reason XD but it's alright if you don't post 500 words right away... just get as close as you can ^^ it's not that bad once you get used to it]

Ah yes… watch me a little closer. Revel in the beauty that your mind has created! Such beautiful black hair falling all the way down to my mid-back, bangs falling in front of my eyes, over my light, chiseled nose, just before my full lips and pointed chin. Simply don’t dare to brush those beautiful bangs aside, dear lost boy. Behind them lies the eyes of a serpent, the irises of scarlet, the pupils slit like a snake’s. I watched your awestruck face and a genuine smile stretched across my façade. You may wonder why I am alone, without a man at my side, but entertain the idea that you may be that man for now, if you wish it so. You did not move when I reached out and caressed your face. All the more amusing for me. Oh Callum, you’ve no idea the amount of entertainment I get by reading your thoughts, by being your thoughts. How you think I’m real and have no key to the thoughts in your mind. I’ll allow you sweet ignorance, child. I’m here to console you tonight.

His words brought forth an endearing chuckle from me. A spy! Although those words could count for an insult, I knew me meant nothing of it. His subdued reactions played one after another. His words spoke riddles, and I saw clearly through all of them. Callum, the lonesome boy. Werewolf and outcast to both Kosiri and Emmer. How alike we were! While he saw a beautiful, lonely woman, he saw a parasite without a host, a virus with no home. He was the very same. We were both lonely… but ah, we could fix that in a heartbeat, couldn’t we? “Ah, you’ve caught me. I couldn’t help but be curious, since you were out… here… with no one with you. It’s not safe in Emmer, you know.” and an adorable scowl covered my lips, perfectly feigning interest in your safety. But wait, I may take that back. I need you safe; I need you alive.

Just then, a dog emerged from the shadows, missing an eye and limping terribly. My eyes trailed over it, and the poor beast looked back at me, only to be struck mad with the desire to get away from me. It lurched its bleeding body sideways and changed directions altogether, picking up an unstable, lofty gait to be clear from my sight again. My attention drew back to Callum, who was speaking again. This time he assured me his loneliness was welcome, and then he paused again. My face grew expressionless in the silence, until he finally spoke again, regarding his need for a motel. A musical laugh escaped me. Poor wolf-boy! I grasped both his hands in mine and drew him forward a step.

“Oh, Callum. I know a beautiful place you can stay. No one should be outside at this time of day anyway.” I replied coyly and led him forward, veering off to the right and through an alley to a rather intact building. The windows were boarded up and the door was missing, but when I led Callum through the doorway, the inside was almost untouched. Of course, dust covered almost everything, but the furniture and everything was still there, as well as all the keys to various rooms. Strange, how all of this was untouched. Just a food for thought.

I grabbed a key and led the boy down another hallway to a room. In the key went, and the door sluggishly opened. Inside was a quaint little hotel room, fixed with a few stray paintings on the wall, two queen beds, a television that didn’t work, and a bathroom, of course. I smiled proudly. “It’s nothing grand, but it should make due. I’d like to get to know you, Callum…” I said, seating myself on the bed. “It’s not every day I see another wanderer such as myself. You may call me Deanex.”