When Darrell came into the room and told me food was on the table, I felt the sensation that at least eight hours had passed, but watching the clock I realized it had been three.
During the dinner, there was perfect silence. Neither did I want to talk, nor did he seem about to start any kind of conversation. I enjoyed that silence: I feared if we kept speaking, more horrible truth would come out.
But that wasn’t supposed to last. Once we both ended our meals, Darrell looked at me and announced:
“We’re going to leave before ten.”
“Why?”
“By that time it will be completely dark. Also, there will be the news on BBC One.”
“Why do we have to go out when the news is on TV?”
“Because,” he said with a severe tone, “few things raise hate more than murder and corruption.”
He raised a hand and moved it horizontally, like for indicating he wouldn’t tolerate more questions.
Not wanting to fall into my heartache again, I sat on the sofa and watched some TV by myself, looking for cartoons. Much better. For the first time in one day, I succeeded in not thinking of anything unpleasant. Just what my mind needed: some freaking break.
Much earlier than I hoped for, Darrell put himself between me and the TV. “Go prepare yourself.”
I watched him incapable of saying anything. Words didn’t look necessary, since he quickly added: “Hayden, as long as you stay next to me, you’ll be safe. Now, I repeat, go prepare yourself. Immediately.”
That authoritative tone he had just used...it was a tone that admitted no replies. It felt so weird from him. I went changing my clothes – Darrell had moved all my belongings from my former house in the morning – and then I was ready, my mind tormenting me with images of what the demons could look like. Horned beasts dripping blood? Zombies? Or what?
We went out of the flat, then into the elevator and in the road. The very first thing I saw was the silhouettes of my parents’ bodies, marked by the police and occupied by a sign which ordered everyone to not cross it; just like in films. I hid my face into my coat, in order to not see anything.
“Hayden, you need to watch your step- oh whatever, I’ll pick you up until we’re far enough.”
He maintained his promise. Now my face was in his coat instead. I stayed like that until he announced to me the view had disappeared. He put me down, and I realized it was true.
“Tonight we don’t need to go too far,” he commented, “I’m perceiving the demons very closely.”
“W...where do they appear, usually?”
“It depends. Tonight I was lucky: usually it takes longer,” he stated. “Each Darkfire controls one wide area. Right now I control the south-west of London metropolitan area, for example. In London itself, there are some who control single districts. Those who are located into less inhabited zones control entire counties: this happens especially in Wales and Scotland.”
“And tonight they’re...”
“Here. I’ve perceived them since night came.” He checked his wristwatch. “Ah, now it’s the time...ten o’clock. The news has just started. Stay next to me, Hayden, and don’t you ever think of making any movement.”
The street, an absolutely normal residential neighbourhood, was desert. The houses showed the lights of the living rooms. No voices could be heard, only the buzz of the television of the closest inhabitation. A lamp was emitting its light discontinuously. Nothing was happening. Nothing was perceivable. I stood there, tense like I had never been, waiting for something I couldn’t even imagine.
“They’re coming here,” he finally said. “Wait...now! Here they are!”
“But I don’t see anyth-”
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“Use your hate!”
So I did. I concentrated, for the first time willingly, on the killers of my parents. Those who had marked that unbearable scar that made me a destined boy forever. How they deserved to be punished, how they deserved to...
With that, I finally saw them.
The street wasn’t desert anymore...but also, it didn’t look like a street. The light had suddenly become so vivid, it looked unnatural.
All around were bipedal creatures made of something that looked like pure fire. They were taller than any man. None of them had a clear face, but they all had two empty spaces where there should have been eyes. Despite that, they had a clear expression: it was pure rage. The rest of their body had no details at all: just masses of flames, each of them penetrating inside the buildings, or attempting to destroy whatever they found on their path. Their number was uncountable.
As I saw them, I screamed, like I had never done in my whole life.
“Hayden you’re safe with me!” Darrell said loudly, while launching fireballs from his hands in every direction. “I’m used to handling them.”
One of the demons turned to us, floating above the ground. I screamed even louder, but with just one gesture, Darrell threw a fireball, and that disintegrated into several small pieces of fire that dissolved suddenly after. Then he resumed fighting the rest of the demons, while tapping my mouth with his coat. He was so fast and precise, he gave them no time for doing their destructive plans.
Slowly, but constantly, the road became less and less set on fire, until it was now only some small pieces of flames, which disappeared as they came, disintegrated by Darrell’s fireballs. The yellow glare faded out, giving rest to my eyes; all turned back to be the empty neighbourhood it was. With that, Darrell took my hand. “We must move out of here, now!”
We ran quickly, until he made me stop in a desert public park. I was shaking uncontrollably, covering my eyes for the fear of another possible appearance of those atrocious beings. “It’s alright, Hayden. I’ve driven them out for tonight. They won’t come back.”
I uncovered my face and looked upon Darrell, who had again assumed his severe face he made when he was about to say something important.
“Now you see,” he said gravely, “why you must.”
“W...w...what are those things?” I cried.
He began his new explanation. “The Apollonids, as I explained today. Now I can give you some more details about them. They have been given this name by the first who discovered them, a priest called Kleopiros from Delphi, in Ancient Greece. Delphi was a settlement sacred to the god Apollo, so when he first saw them, his first thought was his god had just manifested in the form of a blinding light, since Apollo is the god of the sun. But he soon discovered he was wrong. He then realized fireballs had appeared in his hands, so he threw them at the demons and realized it was effective. It took time for him to discover this happened to him whenever he felt intense hatred or distress. Kleopiros was the first Darkfire.
“The Apollonids are creatures made of pure hatred, and it’s the hate felt by humans that generates them. Each time a person hates, this gives life to a new Apollonid, which will manifest only at night, when the fear of the people, and the consequent negative feelings, reach their highest peaks, so that it will get the most nutrition. Being solely composed of odium and anger, they have no purpose but destroying whatever stands in front of them. Had I let them go tonight, had I been absent, that road would be reduced to dust, and its inhabitants carbonized.”
My brain, despite feeling totally devastated, was working fast and coming up with more and more questions.
“But if we must hate to fight them, don’t we create more of them?”
Darrell sighed. “Yes. It’s the tragic irony of the Darkfire Order: we constantly create the very kind of beings we fight, many more than a normal man does. Nevertheless, we’re the only ones in the entire world who can fight them. We do our duty aware that this is an endless battle, which can end only if one day we surrender. Remember, Hayden: you’ll win several battles, but never the war. You can only delay your final defeat.”
“You’re preventing them to let them burn a world you hate,” I underlined venomously.
“When years have passed, you won’t even feel it any more. Hatred will become just a constant companion inside your mind, ready to be used at every time. The inner me hates it, but the conscious me doesn’t even realize it nowadays.”
He watched me again. “It is late now; let’s go back home. As your first exercise of your official training, I must ask you not to cover your eyes once we pass next to the place where your parents have lost their lives.”
He had used those words on purpose to make me raise my hate. Still, I couldn’t fight it, and I know I had to let this overcome me.
“Next days,” he added, “we’re going to move to Devon, where my real house is. There, we can make you practice without having to travel. Now that I must train you, I won’t operate any more here; I have already messaged those who take care of where each Darkfire is. Its inhabitants had better forget you as quickly as possible, and you should forget them too.”
I swallowed, with no more force left inside me, accepting this last announcement passively.
Too much had just happened in twenty-four hours. Last evening, I was almost a normal boy, just with a weird unexplained power, within a happy family; suddenly I had become an orphan who had to fight demonic creatures of flame and hatred, soon even to move permanently and never be heard again.
Worst of all, I’d had in front of me the definitive evidence that it was all true. I could not escape my fate in any way, or those horrible demons would take everything over. But still, I was sure it would be much better if Darrell and whoever was within this damn order just let the world burn. I was still too young to know why it is not better. Besides, I was still too young to rebel anyway.