⁽ black ⁾ 𝓕𝓞𝓔

His fellow miners, his people, had been killed. He knew it in his heart. Eru forgive him, he'd even hoped for it. At least they would be free of the endless torment.

As the deepest shadow of all engulfed his battered frame, Maeglin felt all fragments of hope left within him extinguish. The chains felt somehow heavier, the bars more foreboding. There would be no leaving Angband. Of that, he was certain.

Not even his fëa could escape, he wagered.

"I did not welcome you..."

His voice, though carrying a trace of that power it had once held, sounded timorous to his own ears. Though he was no craven, Maeglin did indeed fear Melkor. How could he not?

Your pain is of your own making.

That sounded awfully familiar, and for a moment, his mind lurched back to his youth, to Nan Elmoth.

Only for a moment.

The clawed gauntlet beckoned, and Maeglin wept. His once fine clothing (sensible, for mining, and yet such a luxurious black velvet) had been reduced to rags about his slender body. Hunger pains assaulted his senses, and he knew he had to obey. Even further torture would be preferable to being left to languish in darkness and his own mind.

A trembling hand reached out, settled in the palm of Morgoth's armoured one. A little surrender. One of many.

"Please, I'm hungry..."

𝕾HADOWS HATH GNAWED UPON THE LIGHT LIKE RATS STARVED. And where Lord Melkor knelt, the cascade of his cloak upon the bloodied stone eclipsed even darkness, smothering the dying embers of the torches cornicing the labyrinthine corridors. A low rumble welled up from his chest for that little bit of defiance Maeglin had mustered, a resonance dark and terrible, spilling out betwixt the gleam of sharp teeth. Thus, the claws of his Voice even now abraded the elven spirit, tearing at the ruined fortress of his mind.

And lo, when Maeglin came unto his grasp, the Dark Lord feigned goodwill, and in his iron gauntlet did he take the slender hand of the lordling. The mighty gaze of the Enemy lingered upon him, tracing the ragged cloak, the fine bones trembling beneath pale skin, the tracks of tears glinting on his cheeks. A slow, dark amusement curled in Melkor, ❛ Ah, so the tongue betrays what pride would starve! ❜

The chain, woven tight around the elf's wrists, is coiled in Melkor's grasp, and he pulls with no thought for the flesh, raw and rent beneath the mighty steel. ❛ Think not that I am without mercy, princeling. I would not have you perish nameless on cold stone, gnawed hollow by your own ribs. ❜ With effortless strength, the Lord lifted him off the dirty floor and carried him out into the passageways.

༘⋆༄.

INTO THE MAW OF A BLACK HALL, the frail creature was deposited upon a wooden chair as though it were a throne, much to the mirth of the Lord, for he delighted in such mockery of elves. Pillars rose etched with twisted gargoyles, carved with writhing shapes that seemed to shiver in the dim light.

(  dialogue  prompts  taken  from  nosferatu  (2024),  directed  by  robert  eggers.  feel  free  to  edit  and  change  as  you  seem  fit.  ) 

❛ come to me. ❜

❛ a guardian angel. a spirit of comfort. spirit of any celestial sphere. anything. hear my call. ❜

❛ you wakened me from an eternity of darkness. ❜

❛ you are not for the living. you are not for human kind. ❜

❛ and shall you be one with me ever-eternally? ❜

❛ come here. there’s nothing to be afraid of. ❜

❛ i wish i could stay, my love. ❜

❛ why have you killed these beautiful flowers? ❜

❛ i must tell you my dream. ❜

❛ i’d never been so happy as that moment… as i held hands with death. ❜

❛ i wish you to have all you deserve. ❜

❛ you mustn’t leave. i love you too much. ❜

❛ i will stay with you until you are fast asleep. ❜

❛ uh, forgive me. i only wish to stay one night. ❜

❛ by god’s name, never speak of that castle. ❜

❛ i banish you, i banish you with garlic. ❜

❛ beware of his shadow. ❜

❛ the shadow covers you in a nightmare. ❜

❛ you are late. the midnight hour has passed. ❜

❛ i wish you to do as i request. ❜

❛ i will be addressed as the honor of my blood demands it.❜

❛ speak not of it again! ❜

❛ take heed what you do. ❜

❛ i might ease your wound. ❜

❛ come by the fire. ❜

❛ your face shows you unwell. ❜

❛ do you ever feel at times as if you were not… as if you were not a person? ❜

❛ look at the sky. look at the sea. does it never call to you, urge you? ❜

❛ you are fortunate in your love. ❜

❛ now are we neighbors. ❜

❛ it is late. you must wish to retire. ❜

❛ i have been enduring the most irregular dreams. i fear i am taken ill. ❜

❛ it is a black omen to journey in poor health. you will remain and well rest yourself. ❜

❛ dream of me. only me. ❜

❛ oh, he’s coming to me. ❜

❛ i cannot resist you, my love. ❜

❛ i am no one. i am his servant. ❜

❛ look, this is a pretty one. his lordship likes the pretty ones… ❜

❛ you are lost in his shadow. ❜

❛ soon i will no longer be a shadow to you. ❜

❛ soon our flesh shall embrace and we shall be as one. ❜

❛ i have not failed your lordship! ❜

❛ embrace me, my boy. i am so rejoiced to see you. ❜

❛ my dear creature, yes, i am he, and i am hither come to help you. ❜

❛ my dreams grow darker. ❜

❛ does evil come from within us or from beyond? ❜

❛ i shall persist to join you every night… first in sleep, then in your arms. ❜

❛ everything will be mixed with abomination, and you’ll be knee-deep in blood. ❜

❛ you are promised to me! ❜

❛ i will end this plague. this devil. ❜

❛ he hasn’t found you. ❜

❛ i feared i’d never see you again. ❜

❛ you shall crave of me nothing. ❜

❛ the bells of dawn shall toll in despair of my coming. and i shall taste of you. ❜

❛ pray, forgive me for all the troubles i have caused you. ❜

❛ i am only glad you have become yourself again. ❜

❛ may i… stay with you tonight? ❜

❛ this creature is a force more powerful than evil. it is death itself. ❜

❛ i have seen things in this world that would’ve made isaac newton crawl back into his mother’s womb. ❜

❛ i have wrestled with the devil as jacob wrestled the angel in peniel. ❜

❛ if we are to tame darkness, we must first face that it exists. ❜

❛ i have felt you crawling like a serpent in my body. ❜

❛ love is inferior to you. ❜

❛ i told you, you are not of humankind. ❜

❛ i am an appetite. nothing more. ❜

❛ i lay within the darkest pit. till you did wake me, enchantress, and stirred me from my grave. ❜

❛ you are my affliction. ❜

❛ i care nothing of your afflictions. ❜

❛ yet even now we are fated. ❜

❛ your passion is bound to me. ❜

❛ you cannot love. ❜

❛ yet i cannot be sated without you. ❜

❛ remember how once we were? ❜

❛ i abhor you. ❜

❛ i will leave you three nights. tonight was the first. ❜

❛ tonight you denied yourself, and thereby, you suffer me to vanish up the lives of those you love. ❜

❛ you revel in my torture. ❜

❛ upon the third night, you will submit, or he you call your husband shall perish by my hand. ❜

❛ till you bid me come shall you watch the world become as naught. ❜

❛ tell me, what is this insufferable darkness? ❜

❛ nothing you can say will shake me, for there is a devil in this world, and i have met him. ❜

❛ i’ve brought this evil upon us. ❜

❛ i sought company. i sought… tenderness, and i called out. ❜

❛ at first, it was sweet. i had never known such bliss. yet it turned to torture. ❜

❛ it was you that gave me the courage to be free of my shame. ❜

❛ he took me as his lover then, and now he has come back. ❜

❛ all my sleeping thoughts are of him every night. ❜

❛ don’t touch me! i am not to be touched. ❜

❛ i’ll be good. i promise. ❜

❛ you could never please me as he could. ❜

❛ yes! take me! ❜

❛ kiss me. kiss my heart. ❜

❛ let him see. let him see our love. ❜

❛ without you, i will become a demon. ❜

❛ you’re safe with me. ❜

❛ keep away from me. i am unclean. ❜

❛ he will murder you if i do not go to him. ❜

❛ kill him i will. he shall never harm you again. ❜

❛ i can weep no longer, for i have no more tears to shed. ❜

❛ the grim reaper wields his heavy scythe with every change of wind. ❜

❛ the monster left you to the wolves, yet you prevailed. ❜

❛ his pull to me is so powerful, so terrible, yet my spirit cannot be evil as his. ❜

❛ we must know evil to be able to destroy it. ❜

❛ you are our salvation. ❜

❛ i bid you, come to me. ❜