Excerpt: Shadow Sorcerer

Screams. Screams still ringing in his ears as he fled blindly down the dark maze of alleyways and streets that made up the small town. His breath now came in painful gasps, but he refused to slow down, refused to stop. He just needed to get away from those screams. Those hideous, inhuman screams. And the blood. There was so much blood. The faces of the others, staring, screaming. His face, bloody, near unrecognisable from the burns. The hate filled eyes now glassy and empty. The screaming, screaming screaming…The darkness seemed only to emphasise the memories, haunting him every second.
A siren wailed shrilly behind him, echoing through the still night like a hidden war cry to the town, screaming for his own blood, his own screams, his own death. He had to get off the roads, out of the town, away from the prying eyes of the public which stared at him so hard. The boy covered in blood.
The woods loomed on the edge of the town, a dark and safe haven for those who knew it well. A darkened death trap for those wonderers who strayed too far. It was here he ran. The woods were his domain. Few if any knew it like he did. The paths were more familiar to him than even the halls of his own house. His feet followed the hidden trails automatically, though his sprint was more a stumbling, slow run by now. His throat and lungs felt shredded, and it was getting harder and harder to draw in the air to keep him going.
The tall trees surrounded him, reaching up to the sky like longing hands, protecting him from the town whilst reaching for their dreams. He had trodden this path so many times he didn’t even stumble once over any tree roots or half buried rocks. He knew them all. Although the woods are constantly changing, it will never have a new landscape overnight for those who know it well. He was the master, the friend who the trees would never deceive. The branches seemed to part before him, showing him the way, and close once more behind to confound and halt any pursuit should it be following.
Finally the clearing came into sight. Finally his one sanctuary in this world appeared before his eyes, and he staggered the last few steps, before collapsing breathless at the base of the trees thick and sturdy trunk. Leaning back against it, he closed his eyes and tried to control his breathing, trying to calm it. But that was easier said than done when the tears that kept on threatening to overwhelm him forced his breathing to speed up once more, and his throat constrict painfully. His limbs felt so heavy and he ached all over from his mad sprint across town, and the beating he’d taken just before.
He couldn’t stop the sobs escaping from his throat, and the hot tears trickling down from his eyes. The images still flashed across his eyes, brighter and more vivid each time he closed his eyes, and yet still there, glaring and spiteful when they were open. The sound of screaming would haunt his dreams forever and a day now, the smell and feel of blood staying with him, never truly leaving him.
His shoulder bag lay sprawled on the leafy floor by his feet where it had fell when he had stopped, and it was this that he picked up once more when he finally felt that he had the strength to climb the long ladder, hidden so well by the bark of the tree trunk, so loyal and solid. For hidden high up in its branches, invisible from the ground and leaving no trace of its existence for anyone to find. He grabbed onto the first rung of the ladder and, bag slung over his shoulder once more, began to carefully climb upwards. His vision was still blurred, and he climbed faster and faster until he fell suddenly forwards onto the wooden floor of the tree house, having lost his handholds. He was still shaking violently from fear, exhaustion and most of all, confusion. He scrambled across the floor, not noticing the cuts and splinters he picked up on his already bloody hands as he scraped them across the floor and branches that covered it. He finally collapsed onto a small pile of cushions in the corner of the small room that made up one third of the tree house, curling himself up tighter and tighter, wishing he could disappear, but only descending further into his own darkness.