Curtain of Despair

[battle captain corpus]

Feel free to comment guys! :blush:

 

It hadn’t taken long. Not more than 15 days, if that. Small changes is how it had begun. The odd beggar here, a thief caught unawares. Dragged into the darkness, their shoes scrabbling momentarily before they were gone. No blood, obviously. Why waste it? It was a rare commodity these days. And anyway, it wasn’t as if anyone cared was it?

Then the trickle became a stream. Families, in the outskirts of the flea markets and shanty towns disappearing. Fathers came home to find empty hovels, food burning on the stove. Children wept in the dusty streets as parents never returned.

A river opened. Its banks swelled as the 3rd world was fed upon now. Terror walked the streets. Communities flocked and prayed for forgiveness as the suns sank in a haze of orange. Shimmering cloaks billowed in the dusk, blades rose and fell and it seemed as though Hell itself had opened a rift into the cities fouled outskirts. Stalking shapes roamed shadows and flitted from house to house. Within 2 days the populous had been taken a grip in the darkness. Whole lighting rigs ceased working, the power couplings fused into smoking ruin. A circle of night fell around the capital.

And it tightened.

Alleyway by street. Room by room. House by field, ebbing and flowing it funnelled its way onwards. Choking the life from them, sliding down their throats and freezing hearts the reports said. Households that had stood for millennia echoed with the dead now.

Cardinal, the Lord Damsy, issued a formal curfew upon the cities inhabitants now. Arbites patrolled the lanes and highways, some wandering upto the wall of ink that crept forwards, masking the remains. Some say whip like ropes ensnared the foolish officers, entwining them and taking them to the darkness. Others swore that merely looking on the curse was enough to have your eyes burned away and soul dragged from your gullet.

A week passed. Men and women fell. Arbites fired rounds into the now swarming crowds around the palace, citizens burst as autocannon rounds ensured that the social ladder was not rocked. The armoury was besieged by the now incensed city dwellers, doors flung open as carbines and explosives sounded out.

But the night did not care. Every night running gunfights erupted between dwellings. Strobing flashes of muzzle fire lit facades riddled with craters. One priest, crying that the planet was doomed jumped from the cathedrals timber roofs, only to thud onto the street the other side of the encroaching wall. He rose moments later, audible cracks as his legs splintered and cracked from the impact had shattered his body. But he walked away, no blood, walking out of the cities gates.

Soon, all that stood was the palace itself. White towers, gleaming with silver raked tiles, shone. Like a jewel, a pearl sitting in the ink of spilt bottle it stood. Banners, normally snapping in the easterly wind now hung limp and lifeless. And then midnight came.

Nightmares punched holes into the steel gates. Spirits swirled and pitched over the walls before curling into pools and washing across courtyards. Laughter, surreal and high pitched haunted corridors. Arbites stationed in the gate house opened up with heaby stubbers at the shapes, which twitched from within but none fell. Bullets sank into shadow.

An officer, just 19 years old, stumbled off the lip of the tower. Falling, he screamed before an apparition grasped him, playing with his limbs then tossing him into the night like a used doll.

And yet, the worst was to come.

Astropath Jeus lay at the thrones base. Ornate, griffons feet splayed next to him, wrought from rare gold. With a slam the twin doors of the archway hammered back on their hinges, revealing a black wall waiting.

“Emperor I beseech you!” Cried Jeus, whining like a child he rummaged in his cream robes for his laspistol. He glanced to his right…what was that? A cloak? Some...thing had spun past him and was gone.

Thunder rumbled from the doorway, a sheet of lightning burst across its surface, grounding on the marble. Like ice it cracked and tilted.

Screaming in agony the Astropath clutched his third eye and doubled over in pain. Then they came.

Like a bass drum sounding, a backdraft of air, they entered. Through the wall. Tendrils of the darkness begged them not to leave, clinging to them in a final embrace. They shrugged them off, midnight armour soaking up the light.

Jeus fired once, a stab of ruby whining at them. Finding its mark, a massive chest plate absorbed the shot. Smoke rose briefly then was gone. They strode to the throne, heavy footfalls crunching the fallen plaster.

Jeus felt warm liquid soak his legs as his body betrayed him and brought the pistol to his temple. “May my soul be commended to the warp!”

With a grunt of effort he was lifted from the ground, his pistol shaken free.

“Its him.” A wash of foul breath emitted from the helm facing him. Lenses, oddly pale green, shone like emeralds.

“You’re sure?” Another spoke, his voice rasping from a vox unit mounted on his chest.

Brining the astropath closer, the first speaker tilted his head to inspect the man. “Yes its him, he’s unconscious, but its him.”

“Good.” The second speaker turned to leave.

“This human,” spat another, “Is all we have left?”

“Yes,” dragging Jeus the first turned back also.

Laughter rang out, “I’ll miss this world!”

“Why?” Both stopped and looked back at the third one.

“Because,” he walked to catch up, “The sport was good.” He hefted the satchel hung from one shoulder, its opening revealing a number of freshly severed heads. Blood, thick and sticky had soaked it edges.

All three grinned, before pacing back to the warp rift. The robes of Jeus caught on the floors ruptured surface.

“Lord, it is done. We return with your prize.”

“You have done well my children, your reward will be awaiting you!” the voice was felt rather than heard. It shook the ceiling and walls. “Now…come home. We have much to do my Night Lords.”

[davidren2401]

Awsome fluff man, simpley awsome

[Lord_Caerolion]

While quite good, it was a bit too... impersonal, for my likings. Other than that, good work! It makes me want to post up my own Night Lords fluff...