Fable of Darkness- as told by Marcus
This Fable is told in the voice of Marcus. It is chapter 9 of Checkmate. It is the origins of the characters of M&M of Restraint. Mild spoilers and can be read without having read a single word of the series.
Chapter Nine
Once upon a time, nearly thirty years ago… A pair of angelic twins lived in a huge castle known as ShadowHaven. These ethereal beings with their halos of white-blonde hair and eyes the color of mourning doves, were the polar-opposite of one another, as most identical twins often are. It was a delicate balance of the light and the darkness living within.
Upon entering the mythical place, Hillbrook, that eons ago was a huge Catholic cathedral, there was a shift in the balance. A pair of cousins known as Raymond and Celeste Hunter would unknowingly impact the lives of so many.
The happily ever after for the twin of light, brought forth darkness to fall over the school known as Hillbrook and the ShadowHaven Castle. Pearl was a divine being and she met her soul mate in a young man name Richard Hastings. The couple escaped to a far off land known as the West Coast and created their own precious soul- Divina. To this day, they live a happily ever after. Pearl splits her time between her soul mate and her twin soul, leaving the precious Divina to reside at ShadowHaven.
Diane was thrust into the dark when her light fled across the country. She lost her wings when she fell for the fair, raven-haired Celeste that possessed eyes of the dove. Darkness flowed over the land in its quest to obtain the one she couldn’t reach. For the raven-haired beauty loved another, the exotic Julian Abernathy. The exotic and the dove-eyed creatures combined their essence and through the power of magic, a precious child was brought forth- the highly imaginative and cunning God with the eyes of the dove and the coloring of the exotic’s gold, and he was named Cortez. The raven-haired God will one day find his soul mate, but first tragedy must strike.
While her twin soul and her soul mate found their futures with lesser-men that the darkness desired to smoother, she had to spread her gloom. The darkness was filled with the monster known as green-eyed. If she couldn’t have her Celestial beauty, she would take its mirror image. Raymond was fair of skin, dove-eyed, and raven-haired, but he possessed a manly attribute that disgusted her. For two years she courted disaster by covering Raymond with false adoration. She devised a plan that only the dark could manifest…
Celeste accepted the proposal of happily ever after from her Julian and that green-eyed monster bloomed within the darkness. She allured Raymond with her own proposal. No mortal man could deny an ethereal being. Laid upon a cloud she bided her time until the mortal man fused as one with the angel. Mid-coupling she began to cry foul. The mortal man was so taken that he didn’t hear her. Once coupling starts it is most difficult to halt. The Angel’s mock cries were to lure the Celestial being, but she had found solace within the embrace of the exotic and never heard the song. That evening two souls were conceived, one through love and one through deceit.
Darkness blanketed the soul of the mortal man as his thoughts were twisted and thrust back at him as a weapon until he didn’t know if he’d been invited to fuse with the angel or if he’d trespassed. Broken, he fled and lived a life that wasn’t his destined path. A destructive path that will not only harm him, but his child and his cousin’s child.
The raven-haired beauty announced with great celebration that she was ripe with child. The monster known as green-eyed completely eclipsed the darkness. She knew that her soul mate was headed to her happily ever after, taking hers with her. Deceit flowed easily from the tongue, she said she, too, was carrying a child, but it was conceived through trespass. The Celestial being rained tears for her companion. One final deceit and she ensnared the raven-haired beauty for a lifetime- she named the trespasser Julian Abernathy.
The exotic went back to his land in the south never knowing he’d created a God.
The darkness flowed as light as she proposed that Celeste join her in life to raise the sons, thought to be brothers, which were budding within their wombs.
The deceit was disguised as a great day of celebration when the dark pretending to be light birthed a God several months early. He was known as Ezra the fair. Ezra was haloed with white, fair of skin, and eyes of the mourning dove. Celeste looked upon the divine miracle with eyes gone clear. No magic known to the earth or sky could create an ethereal being from the union of a mortal exotic and an angel.
The raven-haired beauty erupted against the faux-light until the darkness poured midnight fury. Gloom flowed from her throat in a torrent; she lost her happily ever after when Julian Abernathy trespassed after she had laid with Raymond the mortal. The mortal was weak and fled in her time of need. With no way of knowing the origins of her growing child, all she could do was wait.
The darkness yet again transformed into faux-light. She and Celeste raised the males together, but never to the darkness’ vision.
The faux-light began to plot more deceit.
The Catholic cathedral of Hillbrook welcomed two children of Jerusalem: Bronzed skin Gods, whose eyes glowed amber fire, and hair spiraled of black silk. The welcoming arms of the alumni captured the youngest known as Marcus. Such as the ways of the era, he was betrothed to the faux-light by his ailing Matriarch. At the tender age of sixteen he was brought to ShadowHaven to begin his courtship of the faux-light, where he fell in love with the fair, the golden, and the divine. The faux-light shined bright as a promise of a happily ever after hung from the sky. Marcus the bronze was welcomed into a large family of blazing souls. Another wee-one known as Aaron, blessed the ShadowHaven Castle.
The faux-light was still on her quest for the raven-haired. In private she admonished Ezra the fair and doted on Cortez the gold.
The darkness shattered its light-shell when Celeste, the raven-haired beauty took ill. Darkness blanketed the ShadowHaven Castle, never to lift.
The darkness spewed chaos in private and shined angelic light in public. It twisted the souls of Marcus the bronze and Ezra the fair. Her love of Celeste cushioned Cortez the gold in a protective orb.
The twisting of their souls pushed Marcus and Ezra to commit unspeakable trespasses. After his final act, Marcus fled to the land known as Sin City. A demon in disguise captured him in her web and he was released the year thereafter, leaving behind a tiny Spyder.
Marcus returned a changed soul on a mission to protect the fair, the gold, the divine, and the wee-one.
An evil descended on ShadowHaven, an evil wrought through deceit. The fair was seized by Raymond the mortal who turned Hunter seeking prey. With his fate stolen, he was left to walk the earth lost and in misery. He wanted a companion created in his image. Upon learning that he had two such creatures, one from his loins and one from his cousin, he returned for another.
Marcus the bronze was going insane keeping track of Cortez the gold. The child was uncontrollable. He locked the children in a room and sought secrets from the darkness’ locked chamber. He found a scroll detailing this fable. His uncontained fury eclipsed the darkness. He went to Cortez the gold and renamed him Cortez the cunning. He knew the Hunter would return for his quarry. He laid in wait and sent the Cunning into hell with the wee-one in tow.
Three day passed and the children returned from their pilgrimage changed men- changed in the ways Sin City changed the bronze.
From that night forth, Marcus the bronze has fought the darkness. We now engage in a war as the darkness siphons power from the demon.
Erica Chilson: The Wicked Writer 