The darkness is suffocating. It clings to the mouth, the nose, even skin covered by clothing, wrapped tight as if in a hug, cold chilling to the bone. Breath forms a mist in the air, a puff that rises into the air, only to dissolve into nothingness in the dark. Somewhere in the dark, a scratching sound echoes as if there are walls to rebound it, the echoes getting closer. Were the walls closing in? The sounds again, and from the other direction, a rumbling growl that echoes even further, getting louder instead of fading away into nothing. The walls move in closer, the scratching and growls grow louder.
Silence. The darkness fades, but even so, a shadow remains, standing perfectly still, breath still misting before its face. Beneath the shadows is a man, shadows draped over his form like a cloak, the infinite darkness dotted here and there with what appear to be stars and pinned together with a small, faintly glowing moon, currently full. The light casts his face into frightening relief, the image added to by his eyes, an almost pleasant periwinkle ringed by a striking blue, staring out from a fringe of shaggy hair the color of an overcast midnight. Under the cloak, the man is willowy, nearly skeletal, his skin pale as death, energy as black as shadows crackling here and there around his hands where they stick out from the cloak. Bony fingers seem to trace a word across your skin: Dunsel…