Troy: The Demon Knight S2: - Nick Venom (best summer reads of all time .TXT) 📗

up.” She pointed at the scanner, which opened on its own. Inside the scanner was a place for a person to sit, large enough for Victoria to comfortably lay Troy on. She backed away as the scanner closed by itself, beginning the scanning process.

Jessica glanced at Victoria, who was worried about her brother. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t take more than an hour. Longer if we face problems, but he should be fine.”

Victoria nodded. “You’re right… He’ll be fine.”

***

“Where am I?” Troy asked out loud, looking down at himself. He wasn’t in his cat form, but his human form. Where in the world am I? Wasn’t I in the scanner? Troy wasn’t sure how, but he had disappeared from the scanner - either physically or mentally. As soon as the scanner closed, his eyes closed on themselves without any notice. He couldn’t fight the weight over his eyes, thrown into a plane of time without light. All he could see was darkness around him. There were no buildings, people, or even the faintest of light. It was all darkness.

“Where am I?” He repeated. “Can anybody hear me? Why am I here?” His questions fell on non-existent ears. People who don’t exist can’t answer questions.

Troy stumbled forward, deciding to walk as far as he could in hopes of there being something else aside from darkness. He walked forward, then jogged, then ran, before coming to a stop. He felt like he walked for an eternity, but his surroundings never wavered. They remained a bleak shade of darkness, devoid of life and light.

How did I get here? What am I doing here? This isn’t part of the scanning process, right...? It can’t be, she would have warned me beforehand. So… So then what is this place?

“It’s called the Twilight Zone.” A voice remarked from behind, an unfamiliar female voice. It didn’t belong to Victoria, Kelly, Amanda, Jessica, or any other female he knew. It was a new voice. “You’re in the first layer of the Twilight Zone.”

*** 

 

“It’s been two hours already. Why hasn’t the scanning process ended already?” Victoria asked. 

Jessica shrugged her shoulders. “I told you already, I don’t know why. Something is stopping him from leaving the scanner. His body is present, but not his mind.”

“What do you mean his mind isn’t present? I thought you said this machine was safe?” Frost chimed in. “What happened to Troy?”

“I told you, I don’t know. If I did, I would’ve said something. That boy is experiencing something new. This entire case is something that I never experienced before. He’s cursed by Merlin Hell and inflicted with a confidence-based curse. This type of curse is a low-level skill and a mostly useless skill, but useful against people with low self-esteem.”

“So how do we break the curse? Raise his self-esteem?” Kelly interjected. 

“You can do that or find the caster who cast the curse. Either option would work.” Jessica said. 

“It’ll be easier to raise his self-esteem than to find Reid and defeat him. Reid is a constantly moving snake that gets more and more difficult to trace when-” Frost was interrupted by Zac rushing into the room, sweating slightly.

“We have trouble outside. It’s a demon!” He exclaimed.

Jessica jerked her head back out of shock. “A demon?” She shot up from the chair she was sitting at, charging towards the front. Frost followed behind her while Victoria turned to follow but stopped, turning to look at Kelly and Amanda.

“Both of you, stay here. Protect Troy while he’s inside the scanner. In case something goes wrong, I expect you to be his final line of defense.” She told them before leaving. Kelly and Amanda nodded at each other, staying back. Zac, who watched as everybody split apart, turned to leave but stopped. He looked at the room across from them, barging into it. He sifted through the mess of a room for something important.

Meanwhile, outside, Jessica and the others faced the black and green demon standing in front of them. Standing at a height of seven feet with several tens of cracks all over his body as if to show the tectonic plates of his body. A green light brimmed through the cracks but didn’t leak out. 

Jessica and the others brandished their weapons, facing the demon. Jessica’s weapon was a silver shuriken that she held onto tightly, keeping it between her fingers. She glared at the demon as it neared them, every step it took decimating the ground under it.

The demon had two large horns that sprouted out of its head, pointing upward like spikes. The face of the demon was one eye, the mouth, and an almost non-existent nose except for the crater where it once was. The rest of the face was obscured by cracks.

The demon wielded a battle-ax, holding the middle of the handle with one hand. It raised the battle-ax high into the air, threatening them.

“Why are you here?” Jessica shouted.

“Kill… Troy!” It roared, lunging forward.

Troy? He wants to kill Troy? Victoria thought, frozen stiff. Why?

 

TBC…

Episode Twelve "Twilight Zone"

“Where am I?” Troy thought out loud as he glanced around his surroundings. “Am… I alive?” He muttered while looking down at himself, noticing that he was in his mortal form, not his cat body. “Where am I?” He asked again, to no one in particular. He couldn’t see any light, only darkness around him. He wasn’t even sure if he had his eyes open or not. 

He took a step forward, almost scared of falling. Luckily, his feet touched something solid. He then took another step, his feet continuing to touch the ground(?) and move forward. Troy continued onward, not able to see anything. No matter how far he walked---or at least he thought he was walking---his surroundings wouldn’t change. He was stuck in an abyss, doomed to be suffocated by the darkness. Not a single light would appear, giving him hope that he could escape the abyss. There was only darkness.

How did I get here? Why am I here? What is wrong with this place, there’s only darkness? He thought to himself as he turned his body, looking in a different direction towards more and more darkness. Nothing changed no matter where he looked.

“You?” Troy snapped his head towards a middle-aged woman who stood behind him. She was dressed in black cargo pants that weren't baggy, sticking tightly to her flesh. She had on a weather leather jacket and a black tee as her top as well as a pair of durable military boots that crept up her leg and stopped short of her knees. “You are new?”

Troy stared at her, tilting his head. “Who are you?” He asked. “Where am I?”

“Oh, you must be new. I am Kim,” She extended her hand to Troy, shaking his bewildered hand.  “We're in some kind of other-dimensional called the Twilight Zone. My Mentor here told me many things about it.”

“There are more people? Do they know how to leave?” He asked.

She shook her head. “They’re gone. They left the dimension and descended.”

“Descended?” He questioned. 

Kim nodded. “They descended into the Deep Layers. We’re on the First Layer, which is the layer for new people. Anybody who has been here for too long and keeps onto their regret descends. Nobody has ascended before.” She explained. “Everybody here has a regret.”

Troy nodded. I… have a regret? What? He thought to himself. What could I…. I know what I regret.

Kim turned away from him, taking a step forward. “Can you believe that there's no light here? This entire… dimension is filled with darkness. Not a single torch or match. And there’s the reasoning behind putting people here. Is this some kind of cruel trick by God or the Fates… or is the entire thing a figment of our imagination. I used to say it wasn’t, but I’m not so sure anymore.” She remarked. “Do you mind listening to my story?” She asked, turning around to face Troy. 

“You could tell me,” Troy said. 

Kim smiled a small smile. “Thanks,” She turned away from him. “Darkness was plaguing my world, a sentient being you could say, and took my baby. Of course, as a mother, I did what I could to get my precious child back. I contacted the police and waited for them to help me, but they did nothing but squabble about there being no possibilities my child was alive, so I went on my own. I went to get my child back, but I failed. I was sent here somehow by the King of the Darkness. When I awoke here, I met my Mentor and several others, but they’re all gone now. Soon I’ll be gone. All because of my regret.”

“If you know your regret, couldn’t you get rid of it and ascend?” Troy innocently asked.

Kim shook her head. “Knowing about your regret and expelling it from your body are two entirely different things. If it was so easy to get rid of your regrets, I wouldn’t be here.” She said as she turned around to face Troy, tears bubbling at the corner of her eyes. “And even if I manage to do it before my expiration, who says I will ascend to somewhere better. The Fates might have something cruller waiting for me.” 

Troy stared at her, dumbfounded. He knew she was telling the truth. Regrets were never as easy to get rid of as tears would be. His regrets had been collecting over the last several years and not a single one had been resolved, no matter how hard he tried.

Kim noticed his expression, which went from confusion to sadness. “What is your story, child?” She asked.

“My story?” He asked. She nodded her head, approaching him. Troy looked away from her, his eyes on the darkness that consumed their surroundings. “I… I have some type of demonic energy inside my body. It’s… the reason my parents and adoptive parents are dead. I couldn’t restrain the demonic energy inside and it tore everything outside me apart.”

Kim nodded, listening to him. “Have you told anybody about what’s in you?” She asked.

Troy shook his head, a tear streaming down his left cheek. “I’m scared they’ll hate me, especially my siblings. I’m the reason they… I killed their parents. I am the murderer.”

Kim shook her head. “I don’t think you are the murderer, it’s what is inside you that murders. Your soul is pure, but your body may be tainted - even so, all you need to do is tell the truth and have them help you expel the energy from your body. It’s like a regret.”

“But you said that it’s easier said than done.”

She nodded. “You’re right. I tried my best to get rid of my regret, but I couldn’t do it. My Mentor disappeared before I realized my regret, so I was on my own.” She smiled another small smile. “I’ve always been alone. I walked into the Darkness by myself and I walked out by myself. There’s never been anybody by my side, except for my child. The father is a bastard, leaving because he couldn’t handle the responsibility of having a child. He forced me to raise the child by myself. Even so, I didn’t need him. All I needed was my child. But then… they took her from me. They stole my beautiful