Romance Dancing with Horror
Copyright 2018 Albert Oon
Published by Albert Oon at Smashwords
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Unsatisfied with the destruction he’s caused, the ruler decides to go after Zander’s family. He sends a small loyal force of demonically possessed soldiers to his house and burns down the house. Zander’s wife, Prisca, tries to save their children but is caught by falling debris. Desperate to save her children, she cuts her trapped right arm off with Zander’s sword, however, she falls through the floor and is unable to go back up to where they were. She tries to find some way outside of the house to get upstairs, but the house collapses and her children and everything she has is destroyed.
Catching her in her shock, the demonic soldiers try finishing her off. Prisca does her best to fight off the assault with her singular arm, even though it is obvious that she is outnumbered and under skilled. The spirit of Zander comes down from the afterlife and fights off the demons for Prisca. His skills outmatch the demons as they can’t do anything against a pure spirit who is also skilled with a sword. Most of them retreat, but one manages to sneak up on Prisca. He carves the Chinese symbol for death in her left eye before being taken out by Zander.
Before being sent to Hell, the demon says, “You’re marked for death, Prisca! Other beings like me will be after you. There will be no rest for you until you die! Hahaha!”
Finally free from danger, for now, Prisca cries over the ruins of her family as it rains.
Zander tries comforting her by holding her. “Calm down. I’m here with you.”
“Some timing you have! Our children are dead!”
“I know. I saw them in the afterlife. I’m allowed here in the mortal realm to aid you in defeating our demonic ruler.”
“I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t even have my right arm. I can’t fight like I used to.”
“It’s okay because I’ll possess you to help you fight, but you have to allow me to do so when the time comes.”
“I still…”
“I’m here with you now. Remember that there’s nothing that can stop us when we’re together.”
Zander wraps and heals Prisca’s wounds. He then kisses her then holds her hands to make her feel his power and love for her.
He then says, “We’ll send that demon to Hell together and free our country from his control. I promise you that we can do this.”
Prisca breathes in deeply. “Okay. I trust you.”
“I knew you would. We have to hurry. Evil is heading our way.”
Prisca collects herself, sheathes Zander’s sword, and heads off in the direction of the capital city. Because of his efforts and rank, Zander was able to earn a nice house not too far from the capital. It’s a nice area with plenty of natural beauties to it such as rivers, flower beds, and good land to grow crops. Prisca can only look at it now as she says goodbye to it.
She says to Zander, “Do you remember those days when you were home from war? The days that we spent together enjoying each moment of being together as if it were our last?”
“How could I not? Those are some of my most treasured memories.”
“And what about our first time meeting? Doesn’t it count up there with them?”
“Of course it does. I didn’t know the day meeting you in the streets would end up like this.”
The rain, mud, and pain that Prisca is going through starts to harshly strike at her nerves.
“I need to hear more,” she says, “All of this is eating at my soul. I don’t know if I can survive it.”
“I’m here. Don’t-They’re here. Get ready.”
Zander possesses Prisca’s body. Despite missing an arm, she holds her sword as if she still had it. Zander’s spirit arm helps her hold it up and keep a proper fighting stance in the pouring rain. A shadow moves in the dark sly and silent.
“Be on your guard. I’ve imbued my sword with the ability to exorcize demons. Let me handle this,” Zander says as he helps Prisca move.
Because of the frail condition of her body and her weakened spirit, Zander is able to easily move Prisca even though he’s never possessed someone before. He’s never even fought a demon before, so he tries to be ready for anything. Meanwhile, Prisca’s thoughts are empty. She’s calm as she moves along with Zander. The two have never felt closer. As his thoughts flow through hers, she remembers his memory of being killed, the betrayal he felt, and his judgment by God.
“Now’s not the time to be remembering that, Prisca."
Figures start forming out of the darkness with their arms formed into swords ready to slash at Prisca. Zander senses their presence when they form and immediately reacts and cuts them down. He slashes at the shadows at the ground and the ones that form into soldiers. Archers form out of the shadows and shoot at Prisca from a distance. Zander manages to dodge them and even deflects back at the other shadows.
Seeing that they need to step up their efforts, the shadows and darkness of the small farm town then converge to a single point to form a singular being. This large shadowy demonic creature is comprised of two legs, two arms, three tails, and three heads with demonic faces. Its body is full of faces who laugh at Prisca since they think she has no chance of survival. It then begins to throw rocks and chunks of the ground at Prisca that Zander miraculously manages to slash through. The creature then uses its large fists to squash Prisca, but Zander manages to slash through its fists as well. Seeing that the creature’s fist regenerate because of the shadows, Zander keeps cutting down its limbs. First, its legs go then its arms, heads, and then Zander cuts into the creature’s chest then thrusts his sword into the core of the creature. The moon regains its light as the monster is destroyed and its body disintegrates into the light.
The damage it caused is now clear as some of the houses in the small town have major damage done to them. Some of the farms and flower gardens are ruined while the houses have major parts of it missing. The sounds of agony, loss, and fear are heard from the people who have suffered the most. Prisca feels their pain along with Zander.
“What happened here was terrible, Prisca, but we have to keep moving, otherwise, we’ll only be bringing them more suffering…”
“…right.”
Prisca’s mind has gone numb after experiencing so much suffering in less than an hour. She moves without feeling into the nearby forest so that the demons don’t hurt anyone else. After a short walk, she rests underneath a tree to give her some protection from the rain. Zander releases himself from her body and heals whatever damage that was done to her during the battle.
He says, “This battle is going to take a lot out of us, but if we cooperate like we just did, then we can take down the ruler.”
“…”
“We did great. That nightmare of a creature didn’t stand a chance against us. I told you that there’s nothing that can stop us.”
Prisca starts to smile to Zander’s relief, but then she starts to laugh in a crazy way with tears falling down her face. She holds out Zander’s sword and thinks about taking her life.
“Prisca! Calm down!”
“That’s easy for you to say, haha. You’re going to Heaven with our children after this. I’m going to have to struggle to stay alive.”
“I know what you’re feeling.” Zander puts his hand on Prisca’s and the two feel each other’s feelings. “You can feel how worried I am about you. The pain I feel over the loss of the lives of our children and the way things have turned out for us, but there is hope for us. We can make it out of this if you trust in God and me.”
“If you say so.” Prisca kisses Zander’s immaterial face.
“I’m sorry. I wish I could kiss and hold you as well.”
“You’re going to have to make it up to when I die then. Tell God to hold you to it.”
Prisca uses the tree trunk to help her stand up before heading off to the capital.
“I’m not sure if I should be more or less worried about you now.”
“If I die, I’ll be with my family. If I don’t, I’ll be a hero. It’s a win-win if you ask me.”
“I don’t think you’ll become a hero. You will bring peace to the land though. One of my most trusted friends should be the next ruler since I had him trained to be in case, I suddenly died on the battlefield or an assassin took my life.”
“I’m glad you were prepared for that, but you weren’t prepared for twins. I remember seeing your shocked face and you being scared for weeks. How can a general who constantly stares death in the face be scared of two of the sweetest children ever?”
“I know more about warfare than caring for children.”
“It’s scary stuff, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know how you did it.”
“It’s because I loved my children and wanted to give my husband the best children possible.”
“I didn’t think you would fail me even for a second.”
The rain starts to slow down as something in the environment changes. Zander quickly possesses Prisca and assumes a fighting stance.
“What weird demon do you think is after us next?”
“I don’t know. I just know it’s dangerous.”
“Thanks for the obvious information.”
“Silence. It’s coming.”
The rainfall progressively slows down until it completely stops. Zander stops as he closely listens to any possible footsteps until he catches them that sound like a single drop of water. He slashes at, cutting the water in the air. It then starts to pour again.
“Did we get it, Zander?”’
“No.”
Prisca runs underneath a tree for cover from the rain. It then begins to thunder.
“Move!”
A bolt of lightning strikes the tree Prisca is near and almost electrocutes her.
“What are we going to do?”
“Dance like we did at our wedding.”
“Dancing with lightning. How romantic.”
“Concentrate!”
Lightning strikes all around Prisca as Zander helps her dodge around it. A direct hit is about to hit her, but Zander manages to slash the demon within it while protecting Prisca from the electrocution.
“That was amazing!”
“Did you expect anything less from me? The demon isn’t done with us yet.”
“What else could it throw at us?”
“Watch out!”
The demon takes the form of rain again and is falling upon Prisca. Zander tries cutting it, but it gets on Prisca anyway.
“What’s going on?”
“Prisca! The demon is on your body. You have to trust me and stab yourself with the sword.”
“Don’t trust that demon, Prisca! I killed the demon for you. It’s just influencing your thoughts to try to make you kill yourself.”
The voices sound the same so Prisca doesn’t know what to do.
“Zander?”
“You’re going to have to trust me! Stab yourself and I’ll protect you!”
“Don’t listen to its insanity. It’ll go away from your mind eventually.”
Prisca takes a chance and thrusts the sword into her chest. Before the tip of the blade can touch her chest, the demon releases itself from Prisca. Zander takes back control and quickly upward slashes the demon, sending it back to Hell in pieces. The rain stops pouring and begins to calm down.
“Thank you for trusting me,” Zander says.
“I’ve never not trusted you,” Prisca replies.
“Come on, let’s keep moving.”
Prisca makes it far enough into the forest to see the capital in sight. The rain finally dies down as her goal is nearly within reach. Zander removes his control from her body as the two travel along the deserted road.
“How did you know stabbing myself would release the demon from me?”
“It was honestly just a bold guess.”
“A bold guess?!”
Prisca tries hitting Zander with the hilt of his sword multiple times.
“You’re not hurting me.”
“I’m still getting satisfaction from this!”
“Come on, stop messing around.”
“Fine. Do you have a plan for me to get close enough to the ruler to cut his head off?”
“My friends and his garrison should be there guarding the castle. If I say something to them that they would know, they should let you in.”
“I’m not sure if it’ll be that simple.”
“I do have backup plans if that doesn’t work.”
“I hope so.”
“Hope that we don’t bump into any more trouble along the way.”
“I doubt we won’t. They have to know how close we are.”
“And here one is on cue. You didn’t hope hard enough!”
“I’ll hope more when we kill it.”
Zander possesses Prisca again as she assumes a fighting stance.
“It seems that my constant possession of you has allowed you to copy some of my skills.”
“Good. I’ll need them after we succeed.”
“At least you’re thinking positive now.”
The various rock formations and trees start shaking around her until she is lifted into the air just near the top of the rest of the trees in the forest.
“What is this, Zander?”
“It’s a turtle dragon. That demon must’ve let it rest here in case we got close to the capital.”
“Shadow demons, rain demons, and now this? Why not? We can take it!”
“That’s the spirit!”
Trees and rocks on the dragon start forming themselves into parasites and attack Prisca. Zander dances in between them and easily takes them out because of their large size. The dragon then turns its head completely around, extends it, and swallows Prisca. Inside the belly of the beast are the skeletons of its previous victims near treasure.
“What happened to these people?”
“Turtle dragons like these act like small tunnels with sparkling treasures in them to lure in greedy treasure hunters. Once inside, the travelers starve to death with the treasure they went through the trouble to get,” Zander answers.
“That isn’t going to happen to us.”
Zander cuts through the dragon’s stone interior, which does major damage to it. Its defense system of parasites try defending its inside to no avail. With his sword in Prisca’s hands, he cuts open the turtle dragon, killing it.
Prisca gets out of the corpse of the dragon and says, “If we can defeat that thing, then we can beat that demonic ruler.”
“We can, assuming he doesn’t have any tricks up his sleeve.”
“You said to have hope, right? Then let’s have hope.”
“You’re right. Let’s keep going. We’re almost there.”
Once she finally reaches the capital, Prisca grabs a cloak to not draw attention to herself. Zander then leads her to the entrance that her friend should be guarding. He finds him there and his friend recognizes Prisca.
“Prisca. It’s good to see you, but what happened to your eye? Why do you have death in it?”
“Because the demon you serve marked me for death after taking everything away from me. I’m here to avenge my husband and my children. Please let me through.”
“I know our ruler is corrupt but it is my duty to protect him. Zander would agree with me. I’m sorry.”
“Zander has helped me get this far. His spirit has given me his skills and strength.”
“Prove it.”
Zander possesses Prisca and says, “Move it you, fool or do I need to tell your soldiers about the paintings of your wife that you keep in your bunker? I’m sure it’ll boost troop morale.”
“Ah! Zander, you are here!”
“That’s right. Our ruler is completely corrupt and killed me because I was going to be the next ruler of this country. Move aside so I can dethrone him myself.”
“I will. Godspeed, brother.”
“Thank you. You will be the ruler in his place as planned. You can’t say we did this for you or else you will be executed for conspiracy and the assassination of the rightful ruler. Be ready when the time comes.”
Zander’s friend nods as Prisca walks away into the castle. She makes her way to the throne room where the demonic ruler is waiting with his sword drawn.
Zander says, “It’s over, demon! You killed me, but God has granted me revenge.”
“Zander, do you really think you can beat me by possessing your wife who only has one arm?”
“We do,” Prisca and Zander say in unison.
“Then your arms better make up for hers.”
Six arms with swords come out from the ruler’s back. Despite his disadvantage, Zander manages to keep up with the flurry of attacks and cuts off two of the extra arms.
“Gah! Impossible!”
“If you only knew the odds, then you’d know that it’s impossible for you to win.”
“Ahhhhh!”
Zander then cuts off another two arms then another two on both sides, which leaves the demon with his original two arms.
“Your reign is over.”
“Not by a longshot!”
An arm comes out of the demon’s mouth with a sword and cuts off Prisca’s other arm in an instant. She writhes in pain as Zander gets her to dodge the demon’s finishing blows. The demon then laughs as continues his assault.
“I’m not giving up yet!” Prisca says as she thinks of a plan that Zander allows her to execute.
She slides through the demon’s attacks and picks up Zander’s sword with her mouth. Zander’s possession of her allows her to fight this way and cut off the mouth hand before beheading the demonic ruler. The symbol of death fades away from Prisca’s eye since the ruler is sent to Hell.
Prisca lets go of the sword in her mouth as she says, “We did it!”
“What did I tell you? Nothing can beat us when we’re together,” Zander says as he heals and wraps Prisca’s dismembered arm, “I’m sorry about your arm. I didn’t expect an arm with a sword to come out of his mouth.”
“It’s okay. We freed the country and you can move onto Heaven.”
“Right. Let’s get out of here.”
Prisca exits the castle the way she came. Zander’s friend sees this and brings in his fellow soldiers to show them what happened in order to take control of the throne. Meanwhile, Prisca rests on the streets of the capital, tired and weary.
“This is hardly a good treatment for a hero,” Prisca says.
“You’ll get your reward in Heaven where our children and I will be waiting for you.”
“How will I survive until then?”
“A priest will come by to take care of you.”
“Are you kidding? I’m of no use to anyone.”
“After what happened tonight, can you truly say that? I’ll be praying for you until I see you again.”
“I’ll see you then. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Zander shares one last real kiss with Prisca before he fades away from her vision into a bright light that no one else in the capital sees.
After a few moments, a priest walks up to Prisca and says, “Poor woman. You need shelter and a place to stay.”
“I don’t think I’ll be of any use to you, father,” Prisca says as she shows the priest her lack of arms.
“Do not worry. I need people to talk and inspire others. I’m sure you will do this because I was led here to you.”
“Is that so? Ha, alright.”
Prisca becomes a teacher for a small convent in the capital while Zander’s friend becomes the next ruler of the country. Rumors of what happened circulate through the country. The most popular one is that the corrupt ruler had Zander killed and his spirit took revenge on him. Others include mentions of his wife, but she doesn’t play an important role. Despite getting neither glory nor rewards in this life, Prisca moves onto a happy life where she cares for new children to become as brave and strong and she and her husband are.
The End
Not Dead Yet by Ledger is a great song for this story. I think I've used most of her EP to describe most of my stories.
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