Take something from Nothing

Dakota rushed toward Gwyn. He still saw her there. Like an after image of the little girl who was so afraid. He was digging and pouring the inky black liquid from his hands. He did not know what to do. He was so afraid.

He ran as best he could out of the apartment. It was dangerous and unknown. What other spiders and birds were hunting him.

As soon as he opened his front door he formed a silent scream. He had never been so wholly terrified in his life.

Thunder beat again and he fell to his knees. The liquid swallowed him to his belly button. It was still storming outside. He did not have the will to stand right away. But he did. He did not know what to do. but he moved.

The flooding was worse. So much worse than he thought.

Dakota ran to the corner of the building by the stairs and knocked on the old lady's door. She did not answer "Lady! Lady! We gotta go! We have to leave NOW!" He screamed.

Then he started to ram his shoulder into her door and kick it. It was cheap and bent in and broke apart.

Only chunks of wood at the hinges and lock remained after a couple determined and frenzied minutes.

He ran to the back of the apartment and saw amid all the pink furniture and lacey wall coverings an old woman in a pink robe in her chair.

She was not moving and her eyes were wide open and vacant. He heard a breath of air exhaled and she too became liquidized.

He rushed out grabbing at his hair. His light brown hair that always looked messy was a true mess now.

Dakota swam then. He dove into the liquid. He did not want to die or drown. But he could not just stay where he was.

As he swam he felt the wind pull on him and his hair.

He moved in bursts as he began to feel something touching his legs under this inky black ooze.

He could not tell if he was only a dozen or so feet from his home or further. He just could not see past all the "rain".

Dakota felt something pull him down. A claw. No, a tentacle! A tooth! Surely it was fangs. Some monster of the deep had him somehow and he was going to drown or live long enough to be eaten.

So much time seemed to fly by as he began to swallow the liquid. Until he could not tell if he was drowning. Or if he had drowned.

Only the pain in his right leg confirmed his life. Pain alone was proof of still being.

Before he knew what was happening he felt hot air on his face. He opened his eyes and saw nothing.

His body was floating. He felt upside down. The intervals of hot air told him he was in a very cold place.

Dakota's leg was still being gripped by something. He felt the thunderous chuckle and knew the hot air was breath.

That creature laughing. . . at him? It was his only source of warmth.

"Hunger"

The word echoed. Like a whisper and it echoed.

"All life feels hunger. Today. All life was given a choice. To feed. To Burn. Or to fly"

Dakota's head pounded and the whispering eachoes rang in his head. What was happening here.

"The fliers are too PURE to touch. The burners would destroy all they touch. Everyone. Everyone else was fed upon... or fed."

Images of the girls being attacked and the lady shutting her door flashed before him in the darkness. Like a projector.

"I fed"? Dakota thought.

"Yeeeees" the whisper moaned. " My darkness lives inside you. It has touched your heart. Desire. Take it then. Feed more" it chuckled.

Dakota did not understand. He felt the anger from before his run. How swift it came upon him and from nowhere.

His eyes went round. That was when this started. somehow that was feeding? Or was it when he swallowed the ooze for drowning?

No. It was when he stood up and left his apartment to go running. He wanted something. Anything. He had taken it. Running faster than the rain. He fed on that feeling. It made him alive. It would have been funny if he wasn't so afraid and confused.

"Tomorrow is a new world. Built on those who fed today." it laughed more and more. It's whispers echoed more and more. It's breath got hotter.

"Take your desire and live tomorrow. Do as you have always done. Live in your own world. With your own rules. Be unafraid to touch the lives of others and take what you want. Reach your hand in nothing and grab everything!"

The breath came from above his head. Dakota felt his whole body must be held above the open maw of some huge beast. Taunting his last mad moments of life.

He grabbed forward with am empty hand. His hand was full. What was this. He pulled and felt his heart inside his chest leap.

He saw it then. His fleshy heart in his hands. Just above it were the letters spelling his name. Dakota Alain Tibor.

The name floated over his heart in his hands. He remembered an RPG game he liked a few years ago. The non-playing characters, NPC's and characters in that game had their names hover over them.

Three thin bars under that name, His name, were getting shorter.

A green bar at the bottom depleted at the same rate as the grey bar above it and the red one above that.

As the bars depleted he felt himself go limp. His vision blurred and he began to fade away.

"Devour the world little creature. Devour until you are burned. Devour until the light destroys you. Devour until you too are devoured!" the whisper echoed these words until the very end. His end.

Dakota awoke with a heavy start. He was in his chair. Trash tv still on his tv. It was early in the morning. He heard the birds outside above his living room window.

He looked over and saw no cracks and the bright light of morning.

He heard a soft bell and above and just out of the way of his vision was a floating see-through button.

He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes.

"It could not have been a dream" He told himself. He was certain it had not been a dream.

He touched the button that hovered just out of his vision.

It read only "STATUS".

A similar hollow see-through window popped up before his eyes.

Name: Dakota Alain Tibor

Title: Demon Lord

Level 1

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 12

Constitution: 10

Intelligence: 8

Wisdom: 9

Charisma: 5

Skills: Devour Lvl 1

Items: Voidheart

"What the heck is this!?"