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fic_promptly's Author's choice, author's choice, give in to night
Night shifts: Muraki took these on willingly, given his sensitivity to the sunlight. Also, the night shift tended to bring the worst cases: victims of road accidents, victims of muggings and assaults, terminal patients on the last steps before crossing the river Styx. No one would grow too suspicious if these slipped away: it rarely took much to nudge them into the hands of the angel of death.
But some nights, he found himself less than willing. The demon within, the dark entity that sucked out their lifeforce to sustain him and keep him alive, would whisper to him, "This one... no one will notice... take this one... offer this one's life on that altar which you made of your body, making it a temple to me..."
He would at times refuse: his colleagues would grow suspicious, the family of the patient might launch a lawsuit, or he simply did not feel inspired. After all, a young patient had died in his care and the young man's father had made an attempt on the physician's life, causing the demon within to awaken. But the demon would yatter with hunger. " Give in to us, give in to the night which you cast upon your soul." until the host finally relented and while examining a patient, allowed the creature to reach out through him and take hold of the dying person's energy, gently but relentlessly drawing it off, like a black hole stripping away the shell of a dying star, till the patient lost their grip on life and their soul slipped into the hereafter.
Satisfied, the demon would sink back in his being, falling asleep while it processed its kill. The silence would allow the host to focus better on his work, but the thought would haunt his mind, that he had taken a life, would haunt the dark corners within, till what conscience he had left would start to whisper out of the shadows. This, too, would raise the beast for a moment, as it grumbled over the troublesome voice which shared its resting place.
"We can do better than this: you think of yourself as a creature of the darkness? You're no better than the creatures you feed on."
"Quiet, I have a duty to my patients and their families..."
"Waxing sentimental again? You know that we are something greater than they. Silence this voice of conscience: give in to the endless night..."
"And do what? become a mindless predator? I've seen what people do to the resources at hand when they give in to their desires too much: it's why this world is becoming an environmental wasteland..."
"You know better than they: you are no longer as they are. You are greater than they."
"I still have the blood of a human: my father was human."
"Your father was a weakling. You are more prudent than he ever was: You take care not to leave evidence of your conquests, when you feed through that soft means... Why not restrict yourself to taking lives?"
"Variety is the spice of life, even a life in the night of my own darkness."
"You annoy us, host..." And with that, the hunger fell silent. Until the next dark night when Muraki took a night shift...
fic_promptly's Author's choice, author's choice, give in to nightNight shifts: Muraki took these on willingly, given his sensitivity to the sunlight. Also, the night shift tended to bring the worst cases: victims of road accidents, victims of muggings and assaults, terminal patients on the last steps before crossing the river Styx. No one would grow too suspicious if these slipped away: it rarely took much to nudge them into the hands of the angel of death.
But some nights, he found himself less than willing. The demon within, the dark entity that sucked out their lifeforce to sustain him and keep him alive, would whisper to him, "This one... no one will notice... take this one... offer this one's life on that altar which you made of your body, making it a temple to me..."
He would at times refuse: his colleagues would grow suspicious, the family of the patient might launch a lawsuit, or he simply did not feel inspired. After all, a young patient had died in his care and the young man's father had made an attempt on the physician's life, causing the demon within to awaken. But the demon would yatter with hunger. " Give in to us, give in to the night which you cast upon your soul." until the host finally relented and while examining a patient, allowed the creature to reach out through him and take hold of the dying person's energy, gently but relentlessly drawing it off, like a black hole stripping away the shell of a dying star, till the patient lost their grip on life and their soul slipped into the hereafter.
Satisfied, the demon would sink back in his being, falling asleep while it processed its kill. The silence would allow the host to focus better on his work, but the thought would haunt his mind, that he had taken a life, would haunt the dark corners within, till what conscience he had left would start to whisper out of the shadows. This, too, would raise the beast for a moment, as it grumbled over the troublesome voice which shared its resting place.
"We can do better than this: you think of yourself as a creature of the darkness? You're no better than the creatures you feed on."
"Quiet, I have a duty to my patients and their families..."
"Waxing sentimental again? You know that we are something greater than they. Silence this voice of conscience: give in to the endless night..."
"And do what? become a mindless predator? I've seen what people do to the resources at hand when they give in to their desires too much: it's why this world is becoming an environmental wasteland..."
"You know better than they: you are no longer as they are. You are greater than they."
"I still have the blood of a human: my father was human."
"Your father was a weakling. You are more prudent than he ever was: You take care not to leave evidence of your conquests, when you feed through that soft means... Why not restrict yourself to taking lives?"
"Variety is the spice of life, even a life in the night of my own darkness."
"You annoy us, host..." And with that, the hunger fell silent. Until the next dark night when Muraki took a night shift...
