THE CHRONICLES OF FINALGAMER
He Walks As My Shadow

"The body is but a vessel for the soul, a puppet which bends to the soul's tyranny.  And lo, the body is not eternal, for it must feed on the flesh of others, lest it return to the dust from whence it came.  Therefore must the soul deceive, despise and murder men."
A.J. Durai, Vagrant Story

A dark night greeted him upon his awakening arrival.  For one single moment, he thought he had died.  That Silent Hill had fooled him with the illusion of departure.  That the light was where he would succumb, to a redemption equalling that of death.  But no such luck.  He didn't want to remember.  All he wanted was to keep walking, to find his way home.  Even if Sarah was dead as he had secretly feared, even after what he had remembered about her, he wanted to go home.  He NEEDED to go home.
Death was unavoidable upon his mind due to waking up in a graveyard, coincidentally waking up within a fresh open grave somehow.  He took a moment to comprehend where he was, gazing upon the earthen walls all around him with the darkened starless sky above.  He slowly clambered out, the tombstone unmarked behind him.  James shivered and sighed wearily from the cold, sitting down against the gravestone as he tried to collect his thoughts.
	"God...I can't...where the hell am I now?  I don't know where I am, or what I was even thinking to get here.  ...what did that town do to me?  ...it's all true isn't it?  I can't do this... I'm sorry Daisy."
He imagined the grave was hers, trying to give his respects to another grave many worlds away.  It didn't help.  There was not even a breeze to keep him company within this darkened new world.
	"I can't keep doing this.  How long do I have to keep going until I find someone to get me home?  I don't care how they do it, I'd...I'd do anything to get home.  Anything..."
He sat in respite, staring into the grave and contemplating the idea of just lying within it and never waking up.  But he knew he couldn't.  Something refused to do so.  He couldn't understand it, but he soon got up with a heavy sigh, gazing upon his surroundings.

He appeared to be in some sort of ill-kept cemetery, one he would have imagined as being long abandoned were it not for the prepared grave he had just departed from.  The night was without a moon.  Crooked fences lined up alongside skeletal black trees.  Tombstones of various designs littered the surrounding area in a haphazard careless fashion.  The barest of respects had been given unto them.
He began his journey once again, lost and confused as he was before.  He had no direction, deciding to continue upon one path, weakened with his newfound guilt.  It weighed his heart down, his every step thick and trudging through gravedirt.  He tried to comprehend what sort of place this could be.  So far there was no indication of a time period, nor of any civilisation he could gleam from the graveyard.  Names he could not recognise in another language were scrawled upon each tomb.
As he passed near a tall ruined tower, a simple circular battlement long since forgotten, he had the feeling someone was watching him.  The sudden sensation sent a shiver down his spine, yet he kept walking.  At first he believed it was nothing but paranoia in such a gloomy setting, until he heard the flap of wings.  His step stiffened, as he turned and drew his blades.
	"Who's there?!"
No answer came from the darkened night.  The wings stopped, yet the feeling of being watched never left him.  He stared all around him, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.
	"I know you're there!  I don't have time to deal with this, so come on out!"
Still no answer came.  No sound would reach him, except for the sudden rumbling of the earth beneath him.  His feet began to tremble and start shifting against their will.  Soon, the ground undulated beneath him, rising and sinking like a serpent across a river.  Loose soil shot up into the air as the rumbling turned louder, causing James to almost teeter with unbalance before he started to run.

He leapt and clambered over the ground as it rose and fell before him.  Tall scrabbling climbs became arduous as he the land shot up like a slab.  Leaps turned longer than he expected as the ground suddenly sank, causing him to grab the earthen pillar behind him and prevent serious injury.  He dodged through the graveyard, panicking at the sudden tumultuous geography.
All through this escalation, the sensation of being watched never left him.  He swung across deadened tree branches, used tombstones as ledges when the earth began to rise to the height of monoliths, and leapt over pitfalls deeper than graves.  Soon, at the end of the obstacle course, or rather the gates of the cemetery, something called out to him.  A deep raspy voice.
	"Haakhrumni beyano, hmm?"
He stopped as the ground finally ceased its quaking, the graveyard returning to a disused state somehow.  A gravestone was dislodged here and there but nobody would care to remember.  He could make out one or two skeletons, but he did not recognise them to be human, bleached bones shining beneath the moonless night.  The voice was closer to him now, a dark deep voice with a smug harsh undertone.
	"Mar kuum filai hha?"
	"Wh-wha-who the fuck's there?!"
A shadow appeared in front of him all of a sudden, rushing past the raptor's side to almost knock him down with the force of its speed.  An intimidating creature stood before James.

Resplendently red like blood and a full head taller than the raptor, his eyes piercing yellow within a reptilian face between long pointed ears.  He spread his wings, grey and blue against the sky behind him, his burly arms flexing slightly with a small sigh.  Despite his muscles, he was not huge in width, with no barrel chest.  He had a lean build, combining both speed and power into one perfect form.
	"Who...who are you?"
James kept his guard up, his scissors out before him already as the demon spoke in another language.
	"Ensxha khafumni hanhjyiou?"
	"I...I don't understand what you're saying."
	"Ahhh...you speak the mortal tongue?  Fine.  I assumed you to speak otherwise."
	"Not answering my question.  Who.  ARE.  You?"
	"Hah...you truly do not know of me?  The hero of the Makai Realm, the legendary Firebrand?  Some may know me as a Red Arremer...THE Red Arremer, boy.  Perhaps it is best that you bow."
	"I don't bow to strangers that quickly."
	"Is that insolence?"
	"No, I'm just suspicious."
	"Heh...wise choice.  You don't appear to be of the humans, but not like us Makai either."
	"I'm from a whole other world."
	"Yeeees..."
The demon slowly walked towards James, thick red fists swinging casually, with silver armlets around both wrists.  He had quite the build, countless years of dangerous battles and explorations had seen to that.  He had very few scars, that or they were hard to see from the colour of his flesh.
	"I sense quite an aura about you.  An immature...darkness you have."
	"Immature!?"
A flash of rage came over FG, making him shudder out of nowhere.  The anger he felt was alien somehow, not like his own, his mind still in pieces as he stammered:
	"W-w-whatcha mean by that?!"
	"What I mean is, that you are still very young, with a lot of experience left to fill your soul."
	"I-i-i've had plenty experience!"
	"Yes, I can tell by your scars, your wounds, and your traumatised eyes."
	"What the hell do YOU know?!"
The Red Arremer grabbed James' cheeks within a single clawed hand and gazed deep into his eyes.  The demon had a piercing powerful gaze, almost hypnotising in his casual prowess.
	"You can't hide your sorrow from me.  Your darkness is feeding well upon it.  Should I tell him?"
	"Wha-GET OFF!"

He swung his scissors out and tried to push Firebrand away, but he merely dodged backwards with a surprisingly fast step.  It was as if he had teleported, the gravedirt now a single line in the earth towards him.
	"It is good to see that your spirit has SOME strength left.  Perhaps you won't succumb just yet."
	"What the FUCK are you talking about, you freak?!"
	"Come now, surely you must know."
	"NO!  I DON'T!  WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!?"
	"Hhhha ha ha ha ha...and here I was almost unnerved by a presence such as you, but you are nothing more than a child!"
	"I'M NOT A FUCKINGRAAAAAAAAARGH!"
He rushed towards the unmoving demon, his blades resolute in furious insult as he plunged his scissors forwards with an unladen fury so strong, that he felt his entire weapon sink through, almost unbalancing him.  Then he saw that he had his blades wedged right through the insides of the Red Arremer, the scissor handles rubbing against the lower abdomen.  He merely looked down, unconvinced with no indication of pain, and grinned toothily.
	"Oh look...you've actually hurt me."
	"Hehe...y-yeah...fuckin' told you I'd-"
	"But only a flesh wound."
Before he could even register the horrendous gut punch that pulled the scissors clean out of the demon, the raptor found himself flying backwards to hit a tombstone, toppling through it.  It broke cleanly in two from the force, his spine bruised hard as he fell over half-buried in stone.
	"Heh...I wonder who is more pathetic?  Your weapon for being unable to harm me, or you for even trying to."
	"Nnngh...a-agh...a-a-aaaagh!"
	"I shall consider you both pathetic.  I am even offended to see such a thing.  You do not even deserve to clean a seamstress' shoes."
	"F-fuck you!  I'll show you what I am!"
	"Hah...then you may start when ready."
He opened his arms smugly and waited for his foe to attack once more.  James stiffened his muscles and readily charged, dodging to the left before he struck just to throw the demon off.  But the beast merely dodged in his direction and slammed his fist several times in both the raptor's face and chest, knocking him hard to one side.  Bruised with a throbbing eye, he struggled to get up once more and screamed with a roaring charge.

He did better this time, managing to score a few strikes and dodging some of the fast brutal punches.  He slashed left and right across the chest and arms, scoring seemingly superficial wounds that barely made the Red Arremer bleed.  Some of the punches he even managed to block with his scissors, striking back to slash at the wrists.  Nothing seemed to tire the demon out when he grabbed the scissors in one hand, and gutpunched absurdly hard with the other.
James collapsed to the ground with a dry vomiting sound.  He was shaking with an internal bruising, roaring hoarsely to encourage himself to get back up once more.  Despite his failing performance as a fighter, the demon was somewhat impressed.
	"Not bad, creature.  I thought you would not have the strength to keep fighting after that blow."
	"YEAH!?  WELL GUTPUNCH THIS!"
A sudden blast of fire from his hands was close enough to char Firebrand's chest, his surprised grunt making him fall back as the fire licked across his muscles.  For once, he seemed to react to pain more from this development.
	"Fire eh?  So...you wield magic too?"
	"Whatever it is, it's gonna FUCKING KILL YOU!"
James mixed it up with a water-like whip attack, striking an aquatic stream from his hand to slash across the demon's face with the force of a gale.  It was hard enough to make him stumble back, but he only grinned with a toothy chuckle.
	"Hmhmhahaha, not bad!  Why were you holding back?!"
	"STOP LAUGHING!"

The demon charged forwards only to be met by a furious flamethrower attack that scorched across his body, but he resisted the pain to bring out his own fire blast.  A fireball directly shot out of his mouth, slamming James in the shoulder with the feel of a burning punch.  He spun and almost fell, screaming as he clasped his unprotected shoulder.  He kept the Red Arremer away with a violent roar of wind, shoving him away with nano-spun gales that spun around his arms.
He was certainly getting the hang of his elementals by now, enough to handle the most basic of them at least.  But it wasn't enough, as Firebrand used the raptor's wind attack to lift up into the air, wings blanketing across the sky resplendently.  He grinned malevolently as he swooped down with the speed of a hawk, slashing his clawed feet straight at James' face, scarring him and almost taking out his eye.
He ducked and dodged, shooting fire and wind up towards the beast, but he merely dodged with expert aerial maneuvers.  He cackled at the sight of the raptor trying to hit him, before charging once more.  James however was ready, and summoned a furious fire ball, focusing his entire energy into making the most fucking furious ball of fire he could create.
	"HAAADOUUUUKEN!"
It did the trick, at least for now, slamming brutally hard into the demon's chest and throwing him off his course.  He stuttered and struggled to keep himself aloft, flapping furiously like a bat before landing once more.  The slightest sign of exhaustion showed itself in him, as he clutched his chest with a grunt.  James was panting heavily, as well as feeling somewhat light-headed, either from pain or exhaustion.
	"Hmph, it took you a while to make me underestimate you, didn't it boy?"
	"Hhhh...well...now you know."
	"And knowing is half the battle?"
	"Y-yeah."
	"Then you've already lost.  If you don't even know your own darkness-"
Before he even realised it, a gunshot rang out across the graveyard.

He felt a strange dulling throb suddenly within his left pectoral.  He looked down with bemusement to see a burnt-looking hole in his skin, and the feel of metal.  James stood opposite him, holding a smoking beretta handgun, his hand slightly shaky from pain and breathing.
	"You...shot me?"
	"Yeah, whatcha think about that?"
	"...I dare you to do it again."
Snarling, he fired once again, the bullets missing this time.  Not because of his shaky aim, but because of Firebrand now anticipating the shots well enough to dodge with supernatural speed.  He rush-strafed forwards with each shot James fired, until he grabbed the handgun and forcefully disarmed him.  The demon grabbed the raptor by the throat, while crushing the handgun in the other, burning it hotly with a fire ball from his mouth before doing so.  Rendering the gun completely broken, he grinned towards the now-fearful raptor.
	"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted...if you don't even know your own darkness-"
With phenomenal speed, the Red Arremer shoulder-slammed hard into the raptor's snout, a mighty crack of his jaw resounding throughout the night as he fell.  James barely had time to react, falling onto the gravedirt as he was knocked flat-out unconscious with a broken jaw.  His only consolation was that he wasn't awake to feel the the throbbing pain of it.
	"-then you cannot win.  Hmhmhm.  You have quite the glass jaw, don't you my strange little vagabond?  Hmmm..."
He bent down carefully on his muscular thighs, flexing them slightly as he examined the raptor's unconscious features.  He had never seen such a creature before, yet it spoke in the tongue of mortals which intrigued him all the more.  He could also feel something else, the state of the raptor's body seeming to trigger something, trying to awaken within him.  Firebrand examined his face, gently propping him up against a withered tree.
	"Hmmmm...strange."
He opened the eyes cautiously, seeing them to be a blank green.  Yet he could see an unnatural blackness creeping all around the pupil.  He opened the raptor's mouth and gave a cursory glance, as if giving a dental examination.  He soon sniffed the inside of the mouth, smelling the scent of apple juice and meat, before he pressed his tongue inside.  It was not a kiss, rather it was an oral examination of the most invasive kind.

He took no pleasure of it, despite his involuntary breathless moans, shivering at the strange taste across the inside of the cheeks.  But no matter how much his tongue slathered within the raptor's mouth, no information could be gleamed from the saliva, which he swallowed gently.
	"Tastes just like a mortal...then he must be one.  Hmmm...it would be a waste to leave you here."
Whether it was compassion or curiosity, he decided not to leave James abandoned within the graveyard, and carried him within his thick red arms.  The legendary demon held the raptor's body in both hands like a baby, before flapping off into the cursed night sky.  A subtle chill wind alleviated his wings slightly, allowing him to glide with less exertion across the landscape.  He looked around to find a small suitable spot to place James.
	"Let's see if we can't find a nice little street to let you sleep in.  From the way you act, I'm sure you're used to it.  Hmmm..."

After scoping the lay of the land across villages, towns and hamlets, he soon found what he was searching for across a wide sea.  Gulls flew beneath him, oblivious to the demon's passage as the sea air carried him towards a land, across green hills and soon a desert.  Then he saw it.  A city, one he knew well from previous visits.  He kept himself away from the harsher lights, sweeping his demon wings across darkened rooftops.  Eventually, he found a suitable spot somewhere near a rather gothic-looking building, with an immaculate garden in front of it.
	"Perfect."
Swooping down into a tight grubby alleyway with expert precision, the Red Arremer flapped his wings partially before his claws touched the ground, the raptor safely within his arms.  He placed him down in a corner, propped up beside some boxes, good enough within view for anyone passing by.
	"If all goes well, and if you deserve it, then I shall see you soon."
With a firm nod to himself, he leapt up into the air once more.  His wings spanned wide across the night sky, as he disappeared towards the horizon with a resounding cackle.
The raptor laid within the alley oblivious to his surroundings.  A dream haunted him within his mind, sparked within the burst of pain he felt before his entire world had blackened.  He could only remember the last word the Red Arremer had told him.
Darkness.
He did not understand, nor would he ever be able to in his current state.  His world had faded, his mind doing all it could to not completely fracture itself.  Things would turn worse that night when three shadows descended upon him from the corner of the alleyway, dragging him further within the darkness.
When the raptor woke once more, he found himself immediately restrained within a chair.  His mind was already bleary, and his jaw was still broken, making it difficult for him to speak.  The pain still throbbed within his lower jaw as he grunted and tried to move.  His weapon and satchel were gone, but his clothes were still on.  The feeling of being tied up in a chair in the middle of a darkened room only brought back terrible memories of Sarah.  His fear was evident as a shadow approached.
	"Well lookie here...our guest finally woke up."
	"Wh-whu...who aw you?"
	"That don't matter...now, how about we have some fun?"
A dagger glinted in the dark, the creature revealing itself to be some sort of altered human.  He seemed to be human enough, wearing the shredded hand-me-downs of military green camo clothing, but something was off about him.  The muscles were too lean, the mouth curved a little too off, his eyes piercing like a beast's.  Two more of them arrived from the sides, crowding the raptor as he tried to speak in a panic.
	"Wh-whuyuh wan'?"
	"Ohhh just a little feast, a little blood.  We're conoisseurs of the sanguine my friend, and...we like to taste strange new things.  You're definitely a strange new thing and...well I have to say your blood was pretty delicious when it was dripping off of you."
	"WH-WHA!?"
	"Oh don't worry, we don't bite...yet."
He grinned malevolently, revealing his sharpened teeth.  James knew now what they were, and he struggled in his chair.

He had never been afraid of mythical beasts such as vampires, but after what he had been through, his spirit was at an all-time low.  Fear very easily took hold of him.
	"P-pleah...n-no."
	"Hahaha...yanno, yer pretty cute when you beg with that broken jaw.  You'll look cuter when you squirm that scaly neck of yours."
	"N-NO!"
	"Don't be selfish, we haven't had a good feast in a while, having to resort to just simple humans.  I mean...they are good, but you eventually get bored of the taste.  But you were...exquisite."
	"NO, LEMME GO!"
	"Hmmm...best we don't have that jaw flopping around, Borgia, muzzle 'im."
A vampire from behind quickly tied his snout shut with what appeared to be gauze, wrapping it quickly to close him up.  The forced clenching of his mouth shut made him groan in agony at his broken jaw being moved, but now he was helpless before them.  They soon approached, three of them altogether with crooked-looking daggers.  He squirmed and shook in his chair, struggling to get out, but he was too weak, even to use his nanos.
He soon felt the first cut, slowly streaking across his belly as he groaned with the pain.  It wasn't deep, not enough for serious injury, but it was enough to bleed as the vampire went down on him, lapping at his belly slowly.  The blood smeared upon his scales as it dripped within thin rivulets.  The other two started to cut along his arms, gently gulping down the thickening ichor that oozed from new wounds.
James was terrified.  His body shook, and his heart begged them to stop, blood pumping out in thinner quantities.  The vampires certainly seemed to enjoy the taste, their moans almost sexual as the raptor shook and whimpered.
Why is this happening to me?!  I just want to go home, I don't care about anything else, please, just someone help me!  Someone help me!  I don't want to die!  I DON'T WANNA DIE!
With this thought in mind, tears started to flow down his cheeks.  The vampires found it amusing and merely brushed them from his face.
	"There there my strange little friend...we're just getting to the main course.  You two can have his wrists...I'll enjoy his sweet throat in a few minutes."

James screamed through the muzzle and shook violently within the chair, trying to buck it as hard as he could, but it was bolted down firm.  They merely chuckled as the raptor felt two blades simultaneously cut open his wrists.  He cried out in agony, feeling the blood run hotly from one of its richest sources.  He knew he wasn't going to last long with both of his wrists slashed.
He was going to die.  He could feel it.  He knew there was no way out and his fear would not tell him otherwise.  He stared up towards the vampire group's leader, who smiled cruelly upon him as he stared at the scaled pulsating neck.  How it throbbed with whimpering terror, carotid arteries twitching inside as blood slowly ran out of him.  He could feel himself slipping away, tearful sobs turning weaker.  He could have saved them the trouble and done this in Silent Hill.
He didn't know why he didn't kill himself before.  It was all forgotten when he soon blacked out between terror and weakness.  Yet he would not die.  Somehow, he found himself waking up once again.  But what he would soon discover upon awakening made him wish to go back to sleep.
He was still in the chair, but his restraints were now gone.  His scissors and satchel had been returned to him and the chair was untouched beneath him.  Yet something was definitely different about the room itself.
Blood.  Everywhere.

The room was no longer as dark thanks to some reflective new liquids upon them.  Blood spatters.  So thick upon the walls that they glimmered in the darkness, allowing James to see.  The stench of the fresh fluid made him shiver with panic, as he desperately fell to the ground onto his knees.  He also realised his jaw was somehow no longer broken, and his wrists, while retaining the marks of being cut, were no longer bleeding.
The vampires were nowhere to be seen.  He gently got up with shaky footsteps and gently followed the bloody trail as his only way of navigating.  He found himself walking a long blackened corridor, black to the point that he felt he was walking into an infinite abyss.  His mind was hazy, his vision left trails everytime he moved his head.  Halfway down the corridor, he could hear something behind him.  Someone struggling to walk, groaning weakly.
From behind him, he saw one of the vampires struggling to walk, clutching its rib.  The moment it saw James however, it hissed with a venomous screech, and began to chase him down.  The raptor ran with terror, his speed only affected by his blurring vision as the humanoid shrieked with either vengeance or hunger.  He could swear he saw wings coming from it, its eyes piercing red in the darkness, fangs exposed like a cobra.
As it managed to catch up halfway to him in a blinding run that almost looked like flying, something came from the shadows towards it.  An ear-splitting shriek was made by the vampire as it fell down, suddenly set upon by the hulking darkness.  James could barely make out what the shadow was, its form not solid, wreathing coils of black smoke.  The screams were soon followed by the sound of devouring.

What James imagined to be thick meaty jaws suddenly snapped shut upon flesh and bone, crunching squishy sounds of digestion resounding throughout the hall.  The shadow turned towards James, bloodless upon its "face" as it roared at him.  The raptor screamed and ran even faster, down the hallway with all of his speed as he screamed like a child.  Tears streaked his face as his breathing turned into shaky sobs, before he finally found himself in a different area.
The walls became brighter, turning towards a more stone-coloured hue.  Cobbles were now underneath his feet, clacking with his claws as he dived out into the main street he was now in.  Neon lights blinded him in every direction, forcing him to stumble between them.
He had not even realised that his entire body was covered in blood, streaked across with various other fluids.  The street was somehow empty, yet he could hear people nearby as he screamed:
	"HELP ME!  S-SOMEONE HELP MEEEEE!"
His heart was racing violently fast, weeping with panic as he fell onto his knees, staring at his blood-stained hands.  He cried with fear and confusion, clutching his head in his hands to bloody himself further in the middle of the street.  He hoped someone would help him.  Anyone.  He didn't even hear the car roaring up from his side.  He could barely turn before he screamed and shielded himself upon reflex.
The car had managed to slow down just enough, but he still took the hit from the bumper hard as it slammed into him, forcing him to roll hard along the street.  He was knocked out almost immediately once again, blood trailing from where the car had hit him, as the driver got out in a fearful panic to investigate his casualty.