Exerpt 1: Nigel Raskin "The Incubus"

With the speed and reluctance employed in tearing off an old bandage, Nigel tore out of his living flesh and slipped once more into the soft intoxicating darkness of the shadow realm. The snaking tendrils of living darkness wrapped around him and utterly consumed him, and in exchange he drank in the shadows deeply. They filled him past his capacity and he exploded into shards of smoke and black dust, that naturally became one with the nothingness of the Penumbra.

Every time he experienced the sensation it became more a part of him. There was no pain here in his new home. There was no weight, or cold, or noise to cause him any discomfort. He drifted without effort at great speeds through the water-like opacity of the Penumbra's hungry skies. He flew over dark spiraling towers of shadow, and under great looming clouds that melted like tar and dissolved all around him. He blew and drifted like a leaf on a gale wind, and simply let the shadows carry him to the next wonderful sight.

It was the sensation of fulfilling emptiness and improvised reality he had always dreamed about, before the hand of fate guided their passage through the actualization hidden deep in the bowels of hyperspace. It was better than his drugs. It was better than any physical sensation he had searched for in all his years. There was no way he could ever go back to the real world....but he had to. Even with the all enthralling comfort of his new world, he could tell there were places here he was yet to see. Outside the seeming infinite borders of his personal domain here in the shadow world, he could sense a darkness that went beyond any shade of black. There was a terror and chaos waiting just outside his bubble of safety. The idea of it all made Nigel feel confined, almost trapped in a cage of darkness. The sheer endlessness of it all made him feel very tiny in a place far beyond his comprehension.

The fear and panic began to take over, and with them the walls that protected him began to close in. He was running out of safe places. His world was shrinking. The terror and depression waiting at his borders closed in. Focusing his senses he could see past the darkness of his realm, and see tall green trees. He reached out for the nearest one as the prison of blackness snapped shut around him. With an explosion of senses he left the dark plane. Nigel was overwhelmed by the warmth and light of the false sun. The smell of the damp grass. The touch of the ground (which to some would be considered soft, but compared to the clouds of shadow it was like razor sharp flames). With a gasp and a muffled scream he fully materialized prone in the cast shadow of the tall oak tree in the center of Clark Station's off planet forest.

He lay there panting for some time. The sunlight creeping around the tree felt like flames licking at his skin. Even the soft smells of nature made him nauseous. His whole body felt so hot and heavy, like sacks full of sun baked rocks. It was not worth trying to stand yet. It was morning now. He had entered the shadows late last night. Time and reality slowly started to fit back together in his mind. It hurt. With a chuckle that sounded like a whimper he moved his hand slowly and sluggishly to his hidden coat pocket. Showing visible effort from the search, he produced a tiny black pill. It had a hair and some dust on it, not that he cared or noticed. Nigel dropped the pill into his gaping mouth before he let his arm fall back to the hard earth. Sucking and gulping with dry sour saliva he managed to get the capsule down, and almost immediately it kicked in. The darkness of his mind washed over him like a blanket, and all the pain and confusion went away.

There he stayed for hours, looking up into the Penumbra from the painful reality of the mortal realm. He watched it dance above him, like a painting being crafted in the sky. Drops of black paint seemed to drip onto his skin and make him smile. He just lay there and watched and smelled and tasted the doorway to darkness. He couldn't wait to go back......