Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

The Dark Ones

The day dawned like any other, the pain and torment continuing from when I first woke. Screaming, I ran around the tombs and the hills, banging my head on the walls, cutting myself with stones and flinging the remainder of the chains on my wrists around the trees.

I can remember times before this. I used to be an ordinary man who spent his days working to earn enough to feed his family. Then the Dark Ones came and entered my mind, torturing me, driving me away from my family, my people, and my home.

The worst part was the voices. Always whispering, never giving me a moment's peace. It was because of this that I ran screaming through the hills. People avoided my whole area because I killed them or chased them away. I did not want to be this way, but I had no choice.

I remembered when the strong men of the town had come. They had heard my screams and realized what had happened. They came and tied me up with ropes and left me. But as soon as they turn their backs I broke the ropes and chased the men back to the town.

Some days later the men had come back with chains and bound me while I was sleeping. But as soon as I woke I snapped the chains in two and they hung from my wrists. After that people just avoided me altogether.

Until today. Around midday I saw a man walking toward my tombs from the lake. Using my mouth the Dark Ones began screaming. They made me run forward and fall at his feet. Then my mouth began speaking, although I could not understand what I was saying because of the whispers.

Then the man spoke the first clear words I had heard in a long time. "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!"

As the Dark Ones left, the pain was so intense that I began screaming, but it was my own voice that was screaming. Then they were gone. I found myself lying at the feet of the man. As I looked up, his hand reached down to help me to my feet. As he raised me to my feet, all I could see in his eyes was love and compassion.

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