# Madness in the Dark



## Acherontius (Apr 22, 2009)

_My first attempt at 40k fiction and my first post in the forums! So hello, hello!_

The silence of the cavernous room unsettled Decicar. Not even his footsteps brought their reassuring echoes to his ears. No word had come from Selena and her team after they had ventured into these halls and Decicar had been sent along with the former Guardsman, Thorin and his good friend of the Ecclesiarchy, Calrithan to ascertain why. Nothing about the place they had entered seemed right to them.

"Shh!" Thorin whispered from the front of the group, stopping abruptly with his hand raised. Decicar brought his attention from the smooth metallic walls of the chamber to where Thorin now stared. Dim orange candle light played along the walls as they came to an end some 50 meters ahead of them. He hadn't seen any end to the darkness before and was unsure how it had escaped his trained eyes. For a fleeting moment he caught a glimpse of movement in the shifting shadows.

As his eyes strained to find whatever it was the hair on his arms stood up, tickled by a cool breeze that blew across the group. Instantly the silence of the room was shattered by a terrible, rasping laughter that seemed to come from every direction.

"Psyker!" Calrithan cried out. 

The laughter stopped and shrill voice invaded their minds. "Oh-ho-ho!" The man's hollow voice seemed to grate against them. "Not so dim, not so dull, this lot!" A sickly cackle followed and the three men winced.

"Well now," the voice continued, "this is a terrific turn of events!"

"Show yourself, coward!" Decicar yelled to the darkness.

"Hmm, not so dull, but still no humor. No humor, no humor! Such a pity!"

Calrithan hefted his hammer from his back and gripped it tightly. "Come out from your shadows, witch!" he bellowed.

"Perhaps in time. No, no. Definitely in time! But you have to wait!'

Thorin had his bolter drawn and spoke slowly, menacingly to the nothingness around him, "Do you think this is some kind of game, psyker?"

More laughter erupted all around them. "A game? A game! No, no no no. A game is only a game if I know you can't kill me. But you can! Oh yes yes, you can. This is no game. Those boorish dullards before you, though, that was a game. Toys, toys, toys the lot of them."

The cleric's grip tightened around his hammer. "Where are they, witch?" he said through gritted teeth.

The voice stifled a laugh and taunted, "You know, cleric, for a man of Faith you don't....look.....UP much, do you?"

Decicar's breath caught in his breath as he turned his eyes upward toward the ceiling. Surrounding a daemonic rune carved into the metal above were Selena and her two companions nailed to the ceiling with spikes of twisted, black iron. He tried to keep his mind focused, reminding himself that he was in danger and needed his wits about him, but the grotesque sight above and the tormenting laughter of the psyker was overwhelming.

Only Calrithan remained steady. Taking a deep breath he said in an even tone, "Come forward, heretic, and answer for your crimes."

"Hmm, such an offer, such an offer! But no, no no no, not yet."

"That is not a request!" The cleric shouted. "Come out of your darkness!"

The voice seemed to ignore him, continuing to laugh. After a few moments, the cackle ceased and the voice drew in a sharp breath. "Oh my! This one feels regret!" Thorin and Calrithan looked at one another and then to Decicar. Their leader was staring down at the ground, a look of despair on his face. "Why such regret, Decicar? A regret, a regret of responsibility! Ahhh, ha ha! Did you send them here? You did! You sent them to me to die! Such a shame, such a terrible shame." The voice spoke faster and faster as it went on, "you sent her down here first, knowing full well that in this place something of power lurked. You didn't come yourself, hmm. Fear? Fear! Yes yes yes, fear! You were afraid, so scared and small, afraid to come down and face what you knew to be here! And you call me the coward!" The psyker let out a laugh of pure hysterical joy.

Thorin stepped towards his stunned comrade and grabbed his arms, shaking him out of his stupor. The voice protested loudly. "Come now! Just a bit of fun. A game! Yes, just a little game. You have to allow me that, as you have denied me my entertainment by coming prepared."

Decicar shook his head violently, and drew his own pistol. "Enough!" He cried out. "Get out of my head, you filth! I shall allow you nothing but a quick death, more than you deserve!"

The laughter trailed off and the voice let out a deep sigh. "No fun, no fun at all. Alright, then, here I am."

They heard footsteps coming from the far end of the hall and turned, scanning the dim light with their weapons. Decicar knew in an instant that he had fallen for the psyker's bluff. They turned back in time to see Calrithan scream and fall to his knees, a skeletal figure with gray robes hanging from his bony form standing with his hand of the cleric's shaved head. Thorin's pistol came to bear on the man.

"Ah ah ah!" The heretic chided. "You wouldn't kill me with my mind entangled in his, now would you?" His body shook as he laughed at them. "No, no no no. We wouldn't want that, not one bit. I don't even know what would happen! Kind of exciting, isn't it?"

The two acolytes kept their weapons trained on the psyker, unsure of what to do. He sensed their uncertainty and laughed again.

"Do I shoot?" Thorin asked his leader.

After a long pause, Decicar sighed. "No, don't shoot."

The psyker let out a giddy laugh and grinned. "Good! Oh good good! Yes! Now we can play."

"What would you have us play, heathen?" Decicar spat, lowering his pistol.

"Ohh, nothing is particular. In fact, I hadn't thought that far ahead! Ha! Me! Unprepared! Such fun we can have. Let's see, let's see. Ah! Well I can't be playing with servants of some crippled deity, now can I? So I think you should first denounce that false idol you worship! Oh yes, that would be fun to see! Then perhaps you could fight each other. Yes! Ohh yes yes yes. A fight to the death. The winner gets to take my prisoner and his shattered faith as a prize! Wonderful!"

Thorin spat on the ground and his finger tightened on the trigger. "Decicar," he said, "I can't promise I won't accidentally shoot this bastard."

Decicar barely heard him, his eyes fixed on Calrithan. "Not yet, Thorin," he whispered back. "Not yet."

The psyker's grin grew. "Ohh! Ha ha! Can't live with another dead one on your conscious, is that it? So typical, so predictable. And here I had thought you wouldn't be so dull!"

Thorin's vision blurred, red filling his eyes. "I'm sorry, Calrithan." He fixed his sight and prepared to kill the heathen and his friend. 

He didn't get the chance.

--

"My my my! Such a complex mind!" The psyker taunted. His essence hovered slowly around the mental cage he built in Calrithan's mind, keeping the cleric restrained. "Such wonder, such hope!" He chuckled to himself and prodded his captive with psychic energy. "So! Will they kill us? What do you think? I think they won't. So dull and boring!"

Calrithan withdrew himself from the barriers and fell silent. The psyker snorted, "Fine! Be boring just like your friends. Let's go see if I'm right, shall we? Oh! You can't follow. Pity that, pity that. Well, we'll know soon whether or not we're dead, won't we!"

The essence flew on, leaving the cleric confined to his cage. Locked away in his own mind, Calrithan began to let the words flow from his consciousness, "O Eternal Emperor, Who Alone watches us and rules the tides and storms, be compassionate to your servants..."

--

A moment before pulling the trigger, something caught Thorin's eye and he pulled the pistol up. The shot cracked through the empty chamber, causing Decicar to jump.

The psyker opened his eyes and seemed genuinely surprised to be alive. His laughter seemed more nervous than anything else. "Ha! Weak and dull, dull and weak. I knew it, didn't I? I did know it, I did indeed."

"You know, heretic," a soft voice spoke, "for a man of the warp, you don't look down much, do you?"

The psyker looked down a second too late and Calrithan's shoulder slammed into his face, breaking his nose and sending a stream of blood down his chin. Calrithan bent down and picked his hammer up off the floor, gripping it tightly and turning towards the stunned psyker. "Fear me now, psyker," he hissed, "for now you shall bear the burden of the Emperor's wrath!." With one mighty swing of the hammer the psyker's head exploded like a melon, grey-pink strands of brain and bone flying out in all directions.


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## Crimson_fists (Oct 19, 2008)

Interesting storey Archerontius. Damn crazy pyskers, usually funny but dangerous to the Imperium. Nice writting, do you have any intention to write more?


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## Acherontius (Apr 22, 2009)

Crimson_fists said:


> Interesting storey Archerontius. Damn crazy pyskers, usually funny but dangerous to the Imperium. Nice writting, do you have any intention to write more?


Thanks much! Those silly psykers and their crazy. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I most certainly do plan on writing more. Most likely serialized stories involving a set of characters, three of which were introduced here. I just got the idea for this today, so there's much development to be done, but I'll just let the stories come as they do and, though I have definite ideas of their personalities, see who the characters turn out to be 

Thanks again!


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## Lord Ramo (Apr 12, 2009)

That was a great read. I look forward to more.


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