Prologue
The infant at the baptismal font was red faced, screaming with indignation at having water poured on her head. Her parents were nervously smiling. They were new parents and the ritual of Baptism amongst the community was powerful.
The chapel was small. Splinter Island was a tiny island at the end of a chain of small islands. Though common lore had it that Splinter Island derived its name from being just a splinter off of the main land, the truth had been lost to all but the most astute of scholars studying obscure lore and legend.
It was tradition that each child born on the Island must be baptised in the Island's single chapel before their naming day. Naming day only came once per year. The Islanders believed that if a child was not baptised before Naming Day became splintered.
The small island community were self-sustaining and few of them ever had the desire to leave their island. Visitors or outsiders were permitted for trade but there was no tourism on the small island.
The priest continued to dip the cloth into the holy water and pour it over the infant's head while reciting the ritual of baptism. Rather suddenly his peripheral vision recognized that the streaming sunlight through the chapels long windows seemed to fade and the chapel had grown darker. He tried first to ignore it, imagining a sudden unexpected squall had blown in. Then he heard the whispering sigh of something alien and looked up. What he saw made him blanche in terror.
Dozens of shades or shadow demons had slipped into this consecrated chapel. How, he didn’t know and he had no time to wonder. The darkness from the creatures seem to expand, spreading shadow and darkness. The young parents and the family and witnesses seemed to be frozen in a vacuum of shadow. A black hole appeared before the priest. A powerful demon stepped through the shadow of the hole to stand before him with its grotesque dark shadow hands held out.
The priest shook his head in horror. “Nooooo!” he screamed. He looked to the parents. Their mouths and ears and noses were filled with the black inky shadow and they seemed paralyzed. The dark magic had never visited Splinter before this day. But the priest knew what they wanted. He held onto the child but he was no match for a dozen shadow demons. When they had what they came for, they slipped through cracks and slithered out into the jungle and disappeared.
