chapter 2: the lost exile

The Immortal - Chapter II

Darian awoke from his coma, numb and torpid. His head was a swirling sea of lead. Every wave, every crescendo punctuated with a throbbing that mercilessly hammered at raw nerve. He struggled to find his feet. The temporary concussion-induced blindness did him no favours either. He would have to depend on his other senses for cognition of the environment.

Sniffing the humid air, he caught a rapturous sting of acrid, nauseating putrefaction. He battled to keep the bile from ascending his gullet, jostling with the stench of decay until it finally drifted away. Kneeling his re-composed self on one knee, he cautiously felt the ground around him. It was grainy and moist. A deeply worrying concern was creeping into his head when his ears suddenly snared a distant sound.

Was that a howl? At first barely audible, then the second, followed by the third, resonating with increasing volume and clarity. The disconcerting thought he had earlier was now re-affirmed and proliferated into morbid apprehension, as the bone-chilling echoes penetrated his ears, and translated into howling. The hair on his nape stood as his memory provided some recognition.

Wolf-cries were never heard of in the Garden of Eden, but Darian had learned enough from the stories of the other angels. Stories of a penitentiary created for the incarceration of condemned beings, just like him. A wasteland of vast expanse in perpetual night illuminated by the omnipresent shine of a majestic moon, it was a dreadful prison for immortals who have sinned. Darian was also told that there was a dominant race of creatures roaming this land of exile. The land was a prison, and they were its wardens.



Lycans -- bloodthirsty tormentors of the damned, they were notoriously brutal in their relentless pursuit for sanguine satisfaction. Well-known and feared for their titanic strength and agility, coupled with a mammoth physique, these colossal wolf-like carnivores were the perfect torture machines.

Designed to hunt those imprisoned for eternity, Lycans inflicted insurmountable pain and agony onto their victims. These straitened sufferers did not have the luxury of death, therefore destined to experience cruel punishments until the end of time.

Darian shuddered in his consternation, deeply perturbed by the imminent actuality of such frightful circumstances. His vision had just recovered, as his gaze was uncontrollably attracted to the ominous brilliance of the deathly pale moon. A tide of calm washed through his entirety and dissolved his trepidation. Darian’s train of thought was about to commence its motion. It was imperative that he formulate a plan to survive in the banished lands and conceal himself from the dangers that lurked just behind the horizon. Would there even be a chance of escape?


haven't seen chapter 1? click here.