Whispers in the Dark

Leah couldn't sleep.

The fire was dying, the snow was floating in the air, and the fires of Hell could be seen to the north. Already Azmodan's army had laid siege to Bastion's Keep. Already, they were running the risk of being too late to save the fortress, and through it, Sanctuary.

But that wasn't why she couldn't sleep. Nor was it the hard ground that she and the others were rested on. She sprung upwards, the cow-hide blankets falling off her body.

What happens when we sleep?

She sat there, as if possessed. Her eyes red from lack of sleep, and what those eyes had seen. Gingerly she flicked some snow out of her hair. As well as taking out some of the hair itself. Falling to the rocky ground.

What happens when I sleep?

She sat there. For what felt like a lifetime. Like the passing of the clouds, the moon, the end of Man and time itself. Then-

Can't sleep.

She crawled. Animal-like, scavenger-like. To the centre of the camp. Glancing at the sleeping forms of her friends.

Are they friends?

They killed. She served. Her mother, once unknown to her. Tyrael, still the Stranger. Heroes, followers, craftsmen…all around her. Like a circle. Closing in on her.

So she crawled. To the centre of the camp. To the object. Undid the rags binding that object. Held the object to her chest and rocked back and forth, whispering under her breath.

The Black Soulstone.

She could hear their cries, like ants crawling through the passages of her mind. The souls of six Lords of Hell, whispering the lullaby of the damned. Slowly, her rocking continued. Swallowing, she felt the dryness of her throat, as if scorched clean by fire.

What happens when I sleep?

In her dreams, she had seen the Lord of Sin. In her dreams, she had seen the future. The Black Soulstone was the cause of that. And now, tightening her grip on the thing, as a mother would to a babe at her breast, she held it close. The one thing preventing her from sleeping again. The one thing that would keep her awake.

Can't sleep.

The one thing that would keep her sane.

Release us…

Free us…

End terror…end your anguish…

Lies!

Pain…you feel it.

Hatred. Destroy it.

Release!

Black mist came up from the stone. Tendrils of the dark. Suffocating. Surrounding her.

Can't sleep.

The tendrils moved upwards. She felt their touch, how it burnt her. She smelt sulphur, and something more. Something burning.

No.

Something was on her tongue. Blood.

"Leah?"

And she heard something. A voice outside the chorus.

Release us.

Free us.

Now.

"Leah?!"

Now!

She sat there still. Holding the stone close. Like a babe. One that crawled out of the womb, intent on killing its own mother.

Mother?

Her mother wasn't there. She had never been there. Twenty years and-

"Leah!"

No!

And it was gone. The stone was away from her. Being bound in rags.

"What were you doing?!"

She sat there. Looking at the voice. At Tyrael. At the Stranger.

All strangers.

She sat there. She herself a stranger. She felt something in her stomach. Welling inside her, festering inside her, demanding release from inside her…subconsciously she reached for a blade, a rock, a bow…anything to plunge down into herself. To tear it out.

"Leah?" the Stranger asked. He knelt down. "What's wrong?"

She wanted to laugh. Cry. She did neither. The cold snow whirled around her, and the hellfire she felt within. And finally, she spoke.

"I can't sleep."