The angel of darkness
Chapter two: The angel of darkness
The angel's voice was now closer to her than ever before and not just his voice, she felt his hands leading her … and she saw him, punting their boat lined with candles over an ocean of darkness, guiding her through a mysterious labyrinth of stone bridges that would never withstand the physical principles. But Angewomon merely noticed those, she could not keep her eyes from that Angel of Music. He had no wings as she had imagined but his black cape weighed in the slight air both caused in running down the stairs. She noticed that its interior was red like blood, but it did not make her shiver, neither the golden bat brooch which clasped it to his medieval-aristocratic suit of pure cerulean. It followed his adequately sculptured body with every fiber, lined with gold and two magenta bat symbols on each sleeve. Two belts of leather black as ebony embraced his thin waist, his just as black boots with a shiny silver bat on one, a skull on the other leaded his persistent pace forwards. The strong but gentle hands holding hers, rested in ash-colored gloves with bat tableaus on the backs. She could not see his face, just his hair, well groomed and combed back as golden as hers, maybe even more angelic. He led her into a dark stone room as high and wide as the theatre's hall. Black and crimson candles were the only lights brightening it, in the middle stood a throne of black marble with crimson veins in it, like lightning, in front of it a stone table, with candles, cards and scripts thereupon. At the back of the room, a giant door was carved into the rock. Angewomon shuddered slightly; this was not what she had dreamed of. He felt her hand quivering in his and slowly he turned his face to her. Everything she saw, everything she felt was petty when his eyes met hers under the helmet. She descended into their shining, icy sapphireness, captivated by them but still able to behold his well-chiseled face with his strong chin and his glossy amethyst lips with the pointy canine teeth. She noticed the three stray strands of his cherubic hair falling gently over the mask… The mask that veiled the upper part of his face, underlining his pale blue skin in its opaque crimsonness, its tips shaped like a bat's wings… She could not withhold her emotions to overwhelm her, could not hinder the words to burst out of her deepest heart…
"In sleep he sang to me
In dreams he came.
That voice which calls to me
And speaks my name…
And do I dream again?
For now I find
The phantom of the Digiworld is there
Inside my mind…"She fell onto her knees engulfed of her feelings, her mind spinning in black spirals of darkness and craving. She felt her body lifting from the ground and then realized that it were his powerful arms, supporting her feeble flesh. She gazed up to his face as he carried her and saw him rocked by emotions too.
"Sing once again with me
Our strange duet!
My power over you,
Grows stronger yet.
And though you turn from me,
To glance behind.
The phantom of the Digiworld is there
Inside your mind!" His voice, that voice which had encouraged her all day and night far away in the theatre, now as she heard it purely, its gloomy but equally persuading and heartening intonation, made her soul surrender to his tune… But his eyes were so strange, stunning but still… they reminded her at something she had known far away in the theatre…
"Those who have seen your face,
Draw back in fear…
I am the mask you wear…
It's me they hear!
My spiritand my voice
In one combined.
The phantom of the Digiworld is there
Inside your mind." Voices like ghosts echoed in her ear. "He's there, the Phantom of the Digiworld. . .Beware the Phantom of the Digiworld . . ." White shadows floated through the room like specters, she began to shiver but he expelled them away with a wave of his hand.
"In all your fantasies,
You always knew
That man
And mystery...
Where both in you...
And in this labyrinth,
Where night is blind,
The Phantom of the Digiworld
Is there inside my mind . . .
Sing, my Angel of Music!
He's there, the Phantom of the Digiworld..."She began upraising her voice in a high and steady tone, standing in front of him, not looking at him, her wings pressed against his chest…"Sing my Angel of Music!" While his hands sustained her, recumbent at her sides, approximately at the level of her breast, cautious not to touch her. "Sing my angel!" She sang, upraising her voice the more, the tighter his hands lay onto her ribs, gentle but in firm support. "Sing for me…" She had to close her eyes as the candles began to blind her; she felt his soft breath on her throat. Relishing it and shivering slightly she hurt the tune. "Siiing!" Sing my angel!" Slowly her lungs began to sting and her heart throbbed in rhythm with her voice, she laid her head into her nape. "SING FOR ME!" And she sang as fervidly as she was able to, she felt his quaking hands and her feet loosing the ground…
And then it was like vacuum in her lungs and the blood rushing in her ears simply drowned every other sound out. It was like being born, when the oxygen filled her lungs again and she subsided into his arms. He carried her to the throne, feeling her long golden hair falling softly over his arm. She watched him out of half closed eyes and listened to his reassuring voice. "I have brought you, to the seat of sweet shadow's throne. To this kingdom where all must pay homage to darkness…darkness." He sighed silently laying her down in his throne. "You have come here, for one purpose and one alone… Since the moment I first heard you sing, I have needed you with me to serve me to sing for my music, my darkness…" He looked at her and closed his eyes, sighing deeply. He skimmed over his hair like pondering and then he let her succumb to his tempting voice.
"Night-time sharpens
Heightens each sensation
Darkness stirs and wakes imagination
Silently the senses abandon their defenses…"He began slowly pacing through the room, hiding there where the candles' light could not touch him.
"Slowly, gently night unfurls its splendor
Grasp it! Sense it! Tremulous and tender.
Turn your face away
From the garish light of day
Turn your thoughts away
From cold, unfeeling light…
And listen to the music of the night---!"Angewomon had sat up and was listening to him, spellbound by the sound of his voice and the conjuring of his eyes, which seemed to rest in hers under the helmet.
"Close your eyes
And surrender to your darkest dreams
Purge your thoughts
Of the life you knew before
Close your eyes
Let your spirit start to soar-----
And you'll live
As you've never lived before---…"Wherever he wandered his eyes were with hers, as much as his voice was with her heart. She felt him like the blood rushing through her veins and hoped he would feel her, too.
"Softly, deftly music shall caress you
Hear it, feel it,
Secretly possess you…
Open up your mind
Let your fantasies unwind
In this darkness which you know
You cannot fight…
The darkness of the music of the night---!"He took a deep breath as if to suck in all the darkness and then he upraised his voice to its full splendor…
"Let your mind start a journey
Through a strange, new world!
Leave all thoughts
Of the life you knew before!
Let your soul take you where
You long to BE-----" He stand quite in front of her, she looked up to him like a rookie to an ultra, with naïve curiosity and inexperience, believing he would never, could never, hurt her. And he shivered when he kneeled down to be at the level of her eyes. Softly as his hand caressed her hair, his voice caressed her mind.
"… Only then
Can you belong to me…
Floating, falling, sweet intoxication
Touch me, trust me
Savor each sensation
Let the dream begin!
Let your darker side give in!
To the power of the music that I write
The power of the music of the NIGHT!" He took her hands into his, leaning his head against her shoulder, hearing her lively sensual heartbeat at this moment of touch. And when he stood up he almost whispered than sang…
"You alone
Can make my soul take flight…" She looked at him and he steeped aside revealing an image of her… Like a ghostly reflection of herself… in a silken white wedding gown, slightly veiled by a velvety fog. Amazed and ingenuous she reached out to touch the heavenly dress, slightly dazed and unaware of the person wearing it… When suddenly the image thrust its hand through the fog grabbing her arm roughly. She screamed and fainted.As he caught her, a silent smile flew over his lips. He took her into his arms and carried her to the room he had prepared in his castle of darkness, just for her… He laid her down onto the four-poster, wondering how light she actually was. His forefinger fondled over her cheek, carefully not to touch her helmet. He did not want her to arouse.
"Help me
Make the music of the
N-i-g-h-t-----..."He sighed and walked over to his study room, next to hers.
Myotismon sat down in front of his desk a large book covered in black leather laid down upon it. He had studied in it this evening before he had heard her singing in the show. He laid his head onto the book's cold pages…"What have I done… How foolish can one be?" He never wanted to take her with him, never. She did not belong into this world, into this castle of darkness… But when he heard her voice this evening he lost his mind to her. And how she had yearned for him to reveal himself…"Angel of Music…" He gasped despaired. "How suitable… Angel of darkness, angel of blood, angel of death… wouldn't those fit much better? How could I be so naïve, such a lovelorn fool!" He tried to calm himself, but his mind was wandering… "They surely have noticed her disappearance already… And this loathsome Wizardmon will surely scare the chorus girls by now." He shook his head, rebuking himself. "Why did he have to see me! Why had I been so careless when I bowed over one of these stupid chorus girls that night? And why did she have to defend her self and beating down my mask! My unlucky fate that this drunkard of a workman was stumbling around there… WHY DID HE HAVE TO SEE MY FACE!" He banged his fist onto the desk, making the candles on it nearly topple down. "But well… It is advantageous though too… When this stupid chorus girls and these incompetent directors are timorous of me, no one will sniff around in my matters…" -Beside of one little blonde Angel of Music!- A malicious tiny voice in his head remind him. "This is my own shortcoming… I never ought to begin training her…But she had so much talent, all she needed was a stimulus." -You could have stopped after you gave it to her.- Said the little voice. He wondered where it came from; it was surely not some sort of conscience… "Yes I could have… but… no I couldn't, I could not withstand her longing to hear me… I tried to… I know I did… but only two days without my voice sufficed to made her throw herself helplessly to the floor of her dressing room, sobbing in desolation. Like a spoilt child…Five days and she smashed her fists into the mirror, cutting her hands and wrists, bleeding onto my addiction… She nearly had discovered the digiport I use to get to the theatre… That's why… That's why I cannot leave her!" He sighed but the little voice inside of his head would not ease. -So that's the whole reason, is it? How altruistic you are!- He screamed in frenzy and rubbed his temples. The walls were of thick stone, she would not awake. "Why! Why don't YOU leave!…" He buried his face in his hands and felt tears running down his wrists. "Because I cannot… I am incarcerated in my darkness…I cannot be with …her…BECAUSE OF THIS!" He whipped off his mask and walked over to one of the mirrors. He had them everywhere in his castle, those mirrors bewitched with darkness so they would never show a data or vaccine, but a digi-vampire. This was his way to remind himself why he would never be able to be with those happy little digimon in the world out there. He forced himself to stare at his reflection, to look at his face. He turned round leaning his back against the heartless glass, gasping and nearly suffocating on his tears. He needed to get out, needed the cold air of night on his skin, needed blood… Angewomon would surely be sleeping for some hours… He took his mask from the dark corner in which he had flung it, grabbed his cape and plunged into the night.
Meanwhile Lillymon managed to find the second key for Angewomon's dressing room. Carefully she unlocked the door and entered into the dark. After lighting up a candle, the room seemed quite homier to her. She looked around but there was not even a blond hair of Angewomon. Lillymon found that her friend was obviously not there. She turned around and wanted to leave the room when she noticed that her candle flickered in a slight draught. Again she looked around and this time she saw that Angewomon's mirror was leaned slightly aside, like a door… She went over to it and was surprised when she found that it actually seemed to be a door. Behind it was a dark aisle; at its end something glowed gently. She walked down the corridor and saw a misty gray sphere incorporated in the wall. Her curiosity told her to touch it while her mind shouted a clear and unmistakable NO! But as she was a very typical chorus girl, her curiosity prevailed. Her hand converged to the sphere, her fingertips where just atoms away form it… and suddenly out of the darkness behind her, a hand grabbed for her shoulder and drew her back into Angewomon's dressing room. LadyDevimon glared at her. "Foolish girl! I always told you not to sneak around in the phan…in those matters!" She pushed Lillymon out of the room and closed the mirror door, sighing. Then she locked the door of Angewomon's dressing room.
Myotismon strode the night; yes night was his element, no one around… Hardly anyone, and those who were, did not care for a guy with cape and mask. This district was good… at least for him. It was full of inebriated digimon or the sort of female digimon that… well let's just say: streetwalkers. He was handsome, beside of what was hidden under the mask and often one of these girls blinked her eyes at him, like this night, too. A condescendingly grin appeared on his face and he nodded. She walked into a blind alley with him, not knowing that he unlike her other suitors was not yearning for her tainted flesh.
No one took notice of the fact that she was not with him when he left the alley. He wiped down the rest of blood from the corner of his mouth and wanted to pace into darkness again… "Myotismon?" He stopped petrified. How could someone…? "Why do you think you know me?" He said slowly turning around and then looking toward a familiar face. "I never forget someone who saved my life, twice." DemiDevimon said with a friendly smile. "Once when I had this terrible disease and the second time, when that Scorpiomon had hit me with its sting." Myotismon was surprised of meeting him, and in a deep struggle whether this was a good or a bad incident. "Yes, yes!" He said slightly bored and impatient. "And you saved mine, when Piedmon tried to kill me…I'll never fail to remember: blood with crushed glass splinters. And when you helped me to flee from File Island… We're quits! You do not owe me something, neither do I… So why did you come to Server?" He was still not sure if he was pleased about seeing DemiDevimon or if this could become a problem. They walked through the city's dim park. "Well after your flight from File Island… I wasn't very popular there. Of course they had no proof that I had helped you, but I was suggested to leave… I'm a policemon now!" Myotismon looked at the fluttering digimon and raised an eyebrow. "I thought only vaccines were permitted to?" DemiDevimon denied and told him that now, as times had changed into peace, vaccines and viruses worked together in harmony. Somehow this idea made Myotismon shiver. "And? What have you done all the time?" Myotismon writhed inward, now he knew this meeting was not good… "As you know me. I have studied most of the time…" DemiDevimon flapped in front of him now; obviously he wanted to get rid of something. "Yes as I know you! That's quite the cue, because I KNOW you!" Myotismon looked at him astonished. What did he mean? Actually he knew something… "Well in my role as policemon, I became acquainted with the case of the digimon theatre…" He left a short break to see Myotismon's reaction, but there was none. "Ahem… Did you know that many accidents happened there? Peculiar accidents?" Myotismon shrugged and walked on. "These things are not my concern! Anyway, why should I care?" DemiDevimon followed him; he fluttered onto the level of Myotismon's eyes. "Well… there is a certain blackmailer calling himself the 'phantom of the Digiworld' and those accidents were really strange… I mean digimon without blood in their veins… petrified digimon… reconfigured digimon… digimon hanged and strangulated with crimson lightning ropes… This handwriting seems to be yours, Myotismon!" The tall' s eyes narrowed to slits and he grinded his teeth. "So the first one that you thought of to be the perpetrator, was me? Even though at that point you did not even know I was here? It is quite exhilarating to learn how much you actually trust me!" He turned and wanted to leave but DemiDevimon would not let him. "You're not factual. I did not say it was you, I've just admitted a certain analogy… Well I thought if you know that guy… inform him that it would be wise to stop these accidents from happening…" Myotismon smiled impressed. -He's cleverer than I thought!- Flashed through his mind. "I will tell him so, if I ever should come across him!" He said and paced into the darkness, while DemiDevimon looked after him. "Myotismon!" The rookie called out for his old friend. "Angemon is already searching for her… Let her go!" First Myotismon just twitched, then he was like petrified. He did not turn around. "The ice on which you are walking is very thin… DemiDevimon!" He had not even thought of going away when DemiDevimon flapped over to him. "Oh please Myotismon! We both know it very well!" Myotismon whirled round and shouted at him. "Yes we both know it very well! That whenever a digimon is reconfigured or disappears, it is the guilt of the vampire, the monster, the deformity!" He clenched his fists and stared into DemiDevimon's eyes. What hurt him the most was that this little bunch of feathers was objectively even right. She was with him… But she was… Myotismon calmed down. "Yes… She is with me. But do you know what! She's with me on her own will! Unbelievable right? But in fact she asked me to take her with me!" His lips curled in a smugly smile. "But thank you for reminding me. I must go now and see whether my guest had woken." DemiDevimon grabbed his arm to hold him back and the vampire suddenly winced like he was hurt. "Myotismon, are you still…?" He sounded quite worried and released him. "No… Yes, infrequent. They are fairly difficult to get here. You had been my only source." Myotismon said rubbing his arm. "Well this way it is better for you!" DemiDevimon admitted, while his friend could just laugh disdainful. "Yes, of course! It is much better for me that my eyes start to ache at the slightest piece of light and my skin begins to itch with every ray of the sun! You are right, that's so much better for me!" DemiDevimon sighed, probably he would regret it later but… "I think… I could bring you some…" Myotismon looked at him pleasantly surprised. "Are you serious? You do remember you're a policemon?" DemiDevimon nodded and said that he should tell him where he could find him. Myotismon trusted him enough to explain him how to align a digiport onto his castle of darkness. "There's only one condition. You have to let Angewomon go!" Myotismon groaned in disbelief. "You should not overstrain our friendship. I told you. She is granted to leave whenever she likes to do so! Good bye my friend." He said disappearing in the night.
LadyDevimon drew Lillymon into the chorus girl's dormitory but everyone was awake, listening and cheering to one of Wizardmon's stories of the phantom of the Digiworld… He jumped around with a torn blanket as a cape; grunting and snorting like a monster. Trying to scare the little chorus girls, obviously with success as they laughed in joyous fear.
"Like pale blue parchment is his skin! A black hole around those ice-cold eyes, where data never grew!" From under his jacket he fetched an old rope bound like a hangman' s loop.
"You must be always on your guard! Or he will catch you, with his crimson lightning lasso!" He grabbed one of the girls and acted as if he wanted to strangulate her. LadyDevimon could not stand this way of ridiculing something so dangerous. She walked over to him and sent the girl away.
"Those who speak of what they know, find to late that prudent silent is wise! Wizardmon, fool, hold your tongue!" She slapped him in the face and lay the loop around his neck and fastened it with one strong pull. "KEEP YOUR HAND ON THE LEVEL OF YOUR EYES! Or he will burn you with his' cold as ice!"
It was dawning and Myotismon had come back into the eternal darkness of his castle and returned to his studies.
When Angewomon slowly opened her eyes, at first she did not remember where she was or how she had get there. She looked around in the dimness feeling the velvet pillow at her cheek. Gradual she got up from the bed and barefooted walked through the room, her hands groped for the walls to lead her to the door… And slowly her memory began to return… "I remember there was mist… swirling mist upon a vast glassy lake…" She opened the door and made her way stumbling down the corridor until she saw a faint shimmer of light at a threshold. "There were candles all around, and on the lake there was a…boat… " She carefully opened the door, first blinded after the darkness, even by some little candles' light. "And in the boat there was… a man." Myotismon lifted his head for a second, listening up. He briefly turned around glancing at her and then… returned to his studies… He had a strange feeling, as if he could not look into her eyes. She walked over to him, remembering her Angel of Music. She reached for his mask but he turns almost catching her. "Who was that shape in the shadows?" Again and again she attempted to grasp the crimson veiling, being stopped by him several times. But she still caressed his face. He tried to ignore her, tried to ignore the soft hands on his shoulder and cheek. "Whose is the face in the mask…?" He still tried to ignore her though his head followed every movement of her hands upon it, as if an intuition would tell him to do so. But he could not ignore her hands removing his mask eventually…
He yelled out agonized and jumped up from his chair, turning from her, hiding his face with his hands. In the first second he was paralyzed by distress but then his wrath was as hellish as the darkness filling his castle. Brutally he thrust her away and glared at her. "DAMN YOU! YOU LITTLE PRYING PANDORA! YOU LITTLE DAEMON! IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED TO SEE?" She was on her back trying to skid away from him; his eyes were filled with hatred. "CURSE YOU! YOU LITTLE LYING DELILAH ! YOU LITTLE VIPER! NOW YOU CANNOT EVER BE FREE!" He yelled at her and swept away the candles from his desk with one strike. "DAMN YOU!…CURSE YOU!…" He suddenly saw his reflection in the mirror and then his ire lessened deferring to his anguish and black despair. "Stranger than you dreamt it, can you even dare to look? Or bear to think of me? This loathsome gargoyle! Who burns in hell… but secretly… YEARNS FOR HEAVEN… secretly… secretly… But Angewomon…" He gazed at her and lost the rest of his rage when he saw her watching him with fear of his outburst but still with sympathy and shattered faith…
"Fear can turn to love
You'll learn
To see,
To find the men
Behind the monster, this
Repulsive carcass who
Seems a beast,
But secretly, dreams
Of Beauty, secretly
Secretly…
Oh Angewomon…"He fell down onto his knees next to her covering his face with one hand, the other reaching out to her. She trembled still shocked, not so much of his face but of his fury. Though there were hardly three candles burning, she could see the shiny moist lines down his cheeks as clear as she could taste her own salty tears. It took her a moment, which appeared to him like eternity, to realize that her hands still clutched his mask, with outstretched arm she passed it over to him. He turned from her and put it on. Still slightly shaky he got up, calming himself… Now he felt no longer as vulnerable as he had without his mask. He looked down at her. "Come. We must return. Those two fools who run my theatre will be missing you."
He led her to the digiport without loosing a word. –He's no angel…- She thought. –He's a digimon, like me, like Lillymon, like Angemon…- There was still a difference between angels and angelic digimon. "Angewomon." His voice was slightly husky from the shouting so he nearly whispered. She looked at him absent-minded. "You can… return to me, whenever you like…" She regarded him like a rebuked child, not really grasping what she had done wrong. He explained her how to use the digiport in her dressing room, it was a special one connected to only two places. His castle of darkness and her room… "Just do not tell someone about anything you have seen and learned here." She nodded and almost touched the digiport when she remembered something. "Wait… I still do not know your name…" She said looking down onto her feet, she did not dare to look into his eyes although he was looking much more amiable now. "Certainly not Angel of Music…" He sighed deeply and revealed the proper denomination of the angel of darkness. "… Myotismon…" And she felt herself drawn back into her dressing room… There she slumped down onto the floor, she was so mentally shattered, when LadyDevimon found her, she stammered in her arms. "My Angel of Music is no angel. He is a man… He is a digimon… He is not immortal and heavenly… He is defenseless… His soul suffers in purgatory… His name is not Angel of Music… His name is Myotismon…" She fell asleep held by LadyDevimon, who skimmed over Angewomon's blond hair. "I know… He's a poor child…" She sighed looking into the mirror.
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Please R&R
