The Darkness in Me Read online

  “Look, Mr. Wright, I’m flattered that my skills have earned me some sort of reputation in our world, but me going back home is just not an option right now, maybe not ever, so unfortunately you are going to have to be a little less conspicuous and blend in a little and retrieve the gem yourself.” I state.

  He looked at me like I was talking a whole lot of bullshit. But how on earth did he know I was returning home for a funeral that has yet to be arranged, considering my friends were in the accident last night. Unless it was less of an accident and more of a deliberate attempt to get me to return to that town, to that house.

  “Okay thank you for your time Miss Benson, Good Bye.” He says to me and turns on his heels to leave. That was a little too easy for my liking.

  “Good Bye Mr. Wright.” I say to him a little more tightly than I wanted.

  I watch this slime bag leave my office and I get this nagging feeling that if he gets this gem, it will not end well for anyone. That’s when I hear the whispers from the darkness again, they have been my constant companion for so long now that I’m used to them. I haven’t told anyone I speak with the shadows. I don’t think people would believe me even if I told them I did.

  I feel the air around me move, it caresses my skin, ever so lightly, I know it’s the shadows. Even though its light in my office, the shadows have a way of getting my attention, they move the air that surrounds me.

  “What now?” I ask them. To anyone watching it will look like I’m talking to myself.

  “Youuu need to get it, you must go back. It is time.” They whisper out to me, having a weird lisp sound coming from them.

  “I swore I never would.” I say back to them.

  “It is time, go back. Go back.” They whisper out again. The air displaces again, and I know they have left me to my own thoughts.

  The darkness has a way of speaking to me. It scared the crap out of me when it first tried to speak to me, but after a few attempts with me, I got used to it. The darkness has never steered me wrong before, but the darkness never spoke to me until that damn house popped up. Can I trust the darkness now that it wants me to return to the house? Especially now after all these years, after my high-school friends death, after some sort of gem that needs to be found?

  But I know without a doubt that this slime bag will not give up on his little search for someone to retrieve it, just because I have turned him down. That only leaves me with one option. I must just get there before he does and get the gem and hopefully hide it, but preferably destroy it.

  The consequences of the latter are unknown. Could it be possibly worse than that creep getting it. So, I’ll have to do the first, steal it and then hide it. Where someone will never think to look. I need a plan of action, I already have my reason for going back home, so no one will think it’s odd when I show up, but I need a plan to get into that house without getting into the house. After my last experience with it, I swore never to return to that damn house, because damned it is! I’m pulled out of my thought when I hear my phone ringing, the caller ID says its Eric, I completely forget to call him back.

  “Hi Eric, sorry I meant to call you I just got so caught up. What’s up?” I say into my phone.

  “Natalie, hi, I was staring to worry when you didn’t get back to me.” Eric’s voices coming from the other side of the line. My nerves start to rise, I just don’t have time for him today.

  “Yea, sorry about that, I meant to call, but I received some news today, and I wasn’t myself afterwards.”

  “Is everything okay? I can come over if you like?” He was almost pleading over the other end of the call. But I couldn’t, I just couldn’t deal with his infatuation at this moment, I have other important issues to deal with, like planning my robbery for one.

  “No, it’s okay, thank you Eric, I think it’s just best for me to be alone right now, I hope you understand.” I said as sympathetically as possible, not wanting to hurt his feelings.

  “I understand, maybe I can take you to coffee tomorrow, maybe we can meet up before work?” he says to me hopefully. Always so hopefully.

  “Yes, that would be great, but I actually have to go home for a while, I’m leaving tomorrow, so maybe we can meet by the coffee shop down the road from me?”

  “That’s great, I’ll see you tomorrow early then?”

  “Ok then, bye Eric.” I said before he could get another word in and dropped the call. I need to start my planning and if I didn’t stop him then, I would have to sit through another painful phone call with him, and today, I just can’t.

  ~ ~ ~

  Its late after I’m finished with my planning. A person cannot go in just guns blazing, hope for the best and expect not to get caught, especially now that I not only have to watch for the owner of the house, I would have to watch out for these goons as well, and make sure that I’m in and out of that house before they try to steal the gem first. Who knew I was a super hero in disguise!

  Going over and over every small detail, making sure that I’m ready for this. I know that I am ready, I’ve done this a hundred times over, but I was delaying the inevitable, I know I was, I had to go to sleep. I needed it. Tomorrow was going to be a long drive home and I just didn’t have the strength in me to skip one more nights’ sleep.

  I hated closing my eyes, in fear what I would see this time. Going to sleep, it’s the worst part of my day. These nightmares of mine are getting worse, I can’t stop them from happening, and I have tired, I have tried everything from sleeping pills to alcohol to herbs, but nothing works. Nothing at all. I’m drawn in every time, and they start the same way every time. It’s like he waits for me to fall asleep, then he starts, knowing I’m watching, having an audience to his play he is about to act out for me. Eventually I do sleep, and I’m once again drawn in, drawn to the monster that calls me to him.

  It’s dark, so dark, that I can barely see what’s in front of me, I can just make out what is around me. It looks like I’m underground in some sort of dungeon or prison. The air is so thick I struggle to breathe it in. The water dripping is from pipes, making pools of water everywhere I go. It’s cold, always so cold, my breathe comes out as a fog in front of me. My body involuntary shivers when I hear cheering, I always hear cheering from afar. I never know who is cheering, no one is ever in my dreams except for him and some poor person he has got his hands on.

  My body is pulled in the direction I don’t want to go in but, I unwillingly go towards the cheering, because this is supposed to be a dream, but I always fear it’s not, I feel this is happening before my eyes and when my eyes finally land on him, I know deep down its real and he is coming for me. I know he will find me. He always finds his way into my dreams, and I keep letting him in. I’m left without a doubt he will find me, one way or another.

  I can’t block him from my dreams, oh how I have tried every possible spell, every possible remedy, but nothing works. He’s always there, torturing people; demons; witches; whoever takes his fancy I guess, and he does it with a fucking smile on his beautiful face, ripping their souls from their bodies and crushing them, not even having the decency to eat their souls like a good little demon would do, no, he crushes them and then rips out their hearts afterwards. That’s one fucked up situation I would like to avoid being in, but I’m trapped in these dreams, these visions, I feel like I’m watching him do these things to these people from the side-lines, I don’t know if they deserve what they are getting, but I wouldn’t like to die like that.

  I watch him and the person he has his hands on this time. He is beautiful, but he is terrifying at the same time. I wonder if they feel the same way about him, I highly doubt it, I think they are just terrified of him as I am. The way that man is looking at the monster of my dreams, he knows his life is about to end and not in a way he thought it would, I guess. The monster, as I have come to call him, kills these people, these creatures if you could call them that, I know for certain they are not human. But this monster kills them none the less, unmercifully
and then he wipes his bloody hands on a clean white cloth, every time, and then smiles right at me, with his beautiful green eyes penetrating me, like he can see me there, as if I’m a witness to his torture of these people.

  He has never made a move to come closer to me or even speak to me, with which I am thankful for, I think. Yet, he seems so familiar to me, the way I feel when I see him or when I’m near him, is so familiar to me, I just can’t put a word out to describe it. He scares me, I know meeting him outside this dream, that’s even if he does exist, will be the end of me, but I’m drawn to him every time. And just like the dream begins, it ends, and I feel myself come back to my body. Then I wake, in such a state with sweat dripping down my body with no knowledge of what he looks like. It’s frustrating to not remember a thing about him, that familiar feeling that I felt being near him is gone and I’m just left with the feeling he is coming for me, and I know that he must never find me, I must hide. I just have no clue who I am hiding from.

  Chapter Two

  “Never say never, unless you mean it, and even if you do maybe just don’t say it just in case.” - Natalie

  ~Natalie~

  The drive home took longer than I thought. Mostly because I was driving slowly to hopefully avoid going home. Going to coffee with Eric was a bad idea, yet again, but I feel sorry for the guy. He is awkward and has admitted to me before that he struggles to make friends. I get guilt tripped into being his friend, maybe that’s why he finds it difficult to make friends. He wanted to come with me, he saw that I didn’t really want to go home, back to that house, but I couldn’t drag him into my problems, even though I’m sure he would have dived head first into them.

  I none the less arrived in the late afternoon, just after the traffic had cooled down, as if traffic was ever a problem here, in the one-horse town I swore I’d never return to. Ever. It hasn’t changed in the last six years, I remember every turn and every road as if I drove on them the day before. That happens when you spend your entire life in one spot, well up until 6 years ago that is.

  I made my way down the road I knew so well to my parents’ house. It was the same brick faced two story place I grew up in, with its large front garden I used to play hide and seek with my friends on. The garden itself seemed to have gotten bigger though, I suppose that would happen if there weren’t kids running through it every day, destroying the nature that grew there. It was home, just as I remembered it. I parked my car outside the gate, not sure on what to do, as I hadn’t been home in so long. It’s not like I hadn’t seen my parents, they come and visit me often, I just kept making up excuses on why I couldn’t come home, and eventually they stopped asking me to come home, until yesterday.

  My mother must have been waiting for me, as I turned the key to switch off the engine, she came barreling out the house, with arms wide open running towards the car. I hopped out and hugged her as if I hadn’t seen her in a decade. I missed her, I missed home, but I just couldn’t return, I just couldn’t stay.

  “Natalie, I’m so happy you have come home, I honestly thought you weren’t going to come after you hadn’t arrived by midday.” My mother says to me, her elated voice echoing in my ears. I have missed her.

  “Mom, it’s so good to see you, I have missed you so much.” I say through the tears that are about to run from my eyes.

  “I’ve missed you too darling, now come inside, your father is busy dishing up dinner, I bet you are hungry, we made your favorite.” My mother said beaming up at me.

  “You didn’t have to go out of your way mom, I would have been happy with anything you made, but I do miss your cooking.”

  “Don’t be silly Natalie, anything for you, you are still my baby girl, now come inside before your father comes out and gets us.” She says to me jokingly. But I know my father would literally come and pick us both up and drop us back inside.

  “Okay mom let me just grab my stuff quick.” I say to her while she lets go of her hold on me. I turn back to my car to grab the little luggage I packed for my short trip home.

  I hadn’t been in my childhood home in so long, I thought I would forget how it looked inside. Nothing has changed since I left, except for some upkeep all old houses needed, but it was still the same home and the same homely feeling I got when walking inside. Childhood pictures of me and the family still hung in the same spot in the lounge, same old solid wood floors, that creaked in the same spot when I walked over them. The stair case where I used to ride the railing down when I was a child, still the same, nothing had changed, nothing at all. I thought I would like that idea, the idea nothing was affected but me, but it bothers me a little, nothing had changed when I did, I have changed so much since I left.

  I walked further into the house and dumped my bags in the hallway, homemade cooking filled the air with such delicious smells my mouth started watering, I don’t think I had a proper home cooked meal in years. I made my way down the hall, and into the kitchen, to see my father for the first time in years. For the first time today, I was actually happy nothing had changed about him. He was still looked the same as he did, maybe just a little greyer hair, but his wonderful welcoming smile he always gave people was still there and I couldn’t help but smile back at him.

  “Dad!” I said and ran to give him a hug, I missed him. I might have been my mom’s baby girl, but I was still a daddy’s girl in the end.

  “Baby girl, it’s about time you got here, I was starting to worry, I thought you had turned around and went back!” He said to me as he returned my hug with a tight squeeze.

  “I almost did, but I’m glad I came home, I’ve missed you.” I reply. Holding back the same tears that threatened to fall earlier.

  “I’ve missed you to sweetheart, Come, we made your favorite.” He says to me, lightening the gloomy tone that has come home with me.

  “Thanks Dad, it smells great.” I said while walking over to the pot to smell the homemade stew my parents always used to make me.

  “Why don’t you go help your Mom set the table, while I dish us all up some dinner.”

  I found my mom in the dining room, already setting up for dinner. She also looked as though time stood still here, she was still as beautiful as the day I left, like she didn’t age one day. I’m happy to know that she is still happy. Even though they were angry at me for a while that I refused to come home, I’m hoping that they now finally understand it was for my best interest.

  “Let me help you with that Mom, you and Dad really didn’t have to go through so much trouble, its only me you are having over for dinner.” I say to her jokingly. I remember all the days I would sit at this table, doing my homework, eating dinner, grinding up herbs with my mother. I’m sure there are still burn marks under the tablecloth that have marred the wood from one of my many attempts to cast spells successfully.

  “I know sweetheart, but we have really missed you so much, and with all your old high school friends passing on the way they did, it gave us a big shock on how life is too short, and how much we do miss you being around.” She replies to me solemnly. I really don’t like to hear her upset. But there is not much I can do to help.

  “I haven’t spoken to them in years, I missed them more than I thought I did. Did anyone catch the driver responsible?”

  “No dear, it’s like the person just disappeared into thin air, I just hope they catch them soon, it will give closure to their parents.” My mother replies to me.

  “Me too mom, me too.”

  Little does my mother know her statement couldn’t have been more believable than she thinks. There are people that are more powerful than our coven is put together. We think because that we remain hidden from all that goes bump in the night that people or others don’t know about us. I think that they are just not interested in us because we pose no threat to them. After I ran from that house that day, after running to the woman in the woods, I found that things aren’t always as they appear or as people appear to be.

  The others know about us, they w
ant something from us, and from me stepping into that house started a chain of events that could not be stopped if I wanted to. I started the prophecy, what prophecy, I don’t know, but I don’t intend to continue it. I will just attend my friends’ funeral and disappear again, that way people are safe, people remain hidden, my parents remain alive.

  My parents cooking is the best, I ate so much I could barely move after dinner. I had forgotten how good home cooked food could be. At least conversation had been light and only the normal questions were asked like “How’s work sweetheart,” as if I would really tell them what I did for a living, I think my mother would actually have a heart attack. They think I work in a library, where it’s safe and sound, and I remain hidden from most. At least they didn’t ask when I will be returning home for good, I don’t think I could break their hearts all over again with my answer. Never.

  I found it strange that not once did my mom bring up my friends deaths again, maybe she thought I would get upset and she didn’t want that, but it seems like they are unaffected by their deaths, which is strange, we all grew up together, my parent knew them well, it’s strange that they seem so at peace with it all happening.

  “Mom, I need to actually go out for a bit tonight, I hope that’s okay with you, I promise we can spend the afternoon together after the funeral.” I say to her cautiously. I don’t want her more upset than she already is.

  “Of course, sweetheart, just be safe, and watch out for any crazy drivers on the road please.”

  “I won’t be going out far, just into town, I was hoping to see Aunty Amber, if she is still around. I don’t think I will be able to see her tomorrow.” I reply to her.

  I know she is still around, working at the town library for the last twenty-five years, but it is a good enough excuse that my parents will find believable and won’t be too suspicious about me going out after dinner.