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The Darkness in Me Page 4


  I start to follow her through the house. She walked into all the rooms, looking in all cupboards and drawers, even under pillows, blankets and beds. That’s until she reaches my room. She can’t enter that room, no one can, unless I have given them permission to do so. I hear some men downstairs, the whispering, as if that would help them. I heard them before they even entered the house. I let them in. I want to see how this all plays out. She must have heard them too, because she snaps her head around and that’s when my heart stops beating. The only thing I feel now is the steady beating of her presence and fucking sunshine. Fuck.

  The beast is trying to get out, trying to take control. Her perfect grey eyes search the darkness I’m in, she knows I’m here. Her full red lips part slightly, and a small gasp comes out. I almost lose control of the darkness that surrounds me. She is fucking beautiful, her smell intoxicates me, and I’ve yet to hear her voice but I bet it will be like music to my hears. What. The. fuck. The beast, his thoughts slip into mine, he wants to claim her, he wants her for us. But she is a weakness I can’t afford to have now. He will have to wait, I must see how this plays out.

  I unlock my bedroom door, I want to see what she is searching for. I let her into my room, I need to see what made her tempt coming back into the house, when she wouldn’t dare step a foot in it all those years ago. The many magical objects that I have hidden in this house are not detectable, I’ve spelled them to be hidden unless I need them. This might give me the answer I have been waiting for, what the darkness speaks of. I watch as she walks into my room.

  ~Natalie~

  I search the last bedroom top to bottom as quick as I can. I heard the two men enter the house, but the shadows tell me they are nowhere close to me, I’m safe for now. They are my constant companion. They haven’t mentioned him yet, they haven’t mentioned if he is here, if he is near. They never mention him, I have asked the shadows many times, they do not speak of him. I can’t bribe a shadow either, what possibly could I offer them?

  When I’m done with the bedroom, I find nothing. I’m not only trapped in my nightmare, I’m trapped with no gem of Danté and no means of escape. I need to find a way out and soon. The magic that went off earlier after I entered must have been a signal of some sort. That much magic could definitely not go unnoticed. I hear movement on the floor below me again, these men are not very quiet, they are not even worried about been found in this house. Maybe I am the only one that is not supposed to be here, but I push that thought aside, this place was deserted, no one lived here in what looked like decades, when it was only a few years.

  I make my way down the stairs, as silently as possible, the men are in this house somewhere and I don’t want them to know I’m locked in this house with them. I make it to the hallway and stop, the voices of the men are close, I call the shadows to me, they surround me, they hide me. The darkness allows me to blend into it. A neat little trick I discovered I could do after the darkness spoke to me for the first time. No one has ever seen through them before, the black cloud they make around me is so dense, I even battle to see through it.

  I push myself back against the wall and bring the darkness around me. I move quietly into the kitchen and move into the hallway and into the narrow passage, with the black door at the end of it. I stand up against the wall, hidden in the shadows and try to listen in on their conversation. I’m straining my ears trying to hear when darkness covers me. I didn’t think I could get any darker than I was, but could, I can’t see my hands in front of me or anything else in front of me. What. The. Fuck. I push up off the wall, but I’m slammed back against the wall and what I assume is a hand, covers my mouth. I try to wrestle free, but whatever, whoever has got me is strong, I can’t move, I can’t make a sound.

  The shadows have never done this to me before, they tell me to relax, that its okay. I’m clearly in more danger than I thought I was if they are holding me down like this. So, I relax into their grasp, and wait out the men that are now so close I can hear their silent footsteps.

  “Are you sure it even works; this place is empty.” I heard a man whisper

  “It must of, the house has changed, the fog is back, he must be here, which means she is here, somewhere.” Another man whispered back.

  “I don’t see how this woman is the key to ending everything, are you sure that’s what it said?” The first man whispered again

  “Not exactly, Master never told us the whole prophecy, just that she was the key to everything.” The second man replied.

  “Well let’s keep moving, we need to find her.” The first man said again.

  They will never find me in the darkness, the shadows won’t let them find me. They keep whispering to me, they assure me I cannot be seen. They keep telling me over and over again. the pressure continues to hold me still, but I’m sure I felt a breath on the back on my neck. And that’s when my hair on my arms stand up, I look around the cloud that has formed around me, but I can’t see out of it, I struggle with the pressure that is holding me still, but someone is close to me, I feel it to my core.

  The shadows start up again, “You are hidden mistressss.”

  “You can’t be seeeen missstressss.” They drag out to me. On and on they whisper to me, the men are still close by, but they are drowned out by the fear that is promising to swallow me whole. I know someone is behind me.

  “Hidden misssstresss. Hidden, only Master can see youuuu.” The shadows whisper into my ear. And that’s it. I’m don’t for.

  He is here, the shadow of the man that haunts my nightmares, the one I ran from all those years ago. He is here, and he can see me, he can see through the shadows. Those thoughts are enough to push me to break through the cloud that the shadows have formed and rush to the front door, praying that it will open this time, if it doesn’t, I’m breaking a window. I can’t be stuck in this house any longer.

  I make it to the front door, all ready to bust it open. When I try the door handle it opens, and the door swings open to my freedom. I don’t take a second look back into the house, I don’t ever want to come back to this house.

  I make it to the now perfectly manicured lawns that have transformed like the house did, then I notice something in the darkness. Its swaying back and forth, like its dancing to the wind, only there is no wind and there is no music. I notice it starts to move towards me, but I can’t take any more steps back, then I’ll be right back in the house. I stand my ground, hoping its nothing more than shadows playing tricks on my mind.

  It’s no trick, and it’s no shadow. It’s some sort of thick black smoke that’s making its way over towards me. I look around the garden, and notice the smoke is everywhere. The smoke is moving slowly around, twisting and turning as it moves. It’s moving closer to me and now I’m stuck between the house and this smoke that seems to be alive somehow. I can’t move as I watch it twists and turns as it makes its’ way towards me. This thick dense smoke is about an arms-length away when it starts to rise and reach out for me.

  When it suddenly recoils, like there is some unknown force that is keeping this thing back from touching me. It keeps reaching for me, only to rebound again. Yet it keeps trying and failing. Before it starts winning against whatever is stopping it, I circle around it. I need to get out of here. I notice how it starts to spread itself around the garden and move down the drive way.

  I start to wonder if I could out run this thing. What if it is him that is causing this darkness? That gets me to shift my gears and run as fast as I can down the driveway, I need to out run this damn thing. I make it half way down the drive way, when I chance a look back. I shouldn’t have done that, the darkness is on my heels, it keeps reaching for me, but it never gets a grip.

  I make it to my car that’s parked just a short way from the driveway. I unlocked the car while I was running, and made the door swing open with my magic, so I could just launch myself into the car. If I didn’t, it would have got me. I slam the door shut and watch as the darkness surround the car, it has com
pletely covered the car, trying to find a way in. Before I can give it a chance, I speed off into the blackness, until I’m free of the darkness. I keep going, this time I don’t chance a look back. I drive, I keep going to the one place I think I can be safe from this fog. Home.

  Chapter Four

  “I play hide and seek with my demons, they can hide, and I’ll seek, if I hide, they seek.” - Jacin

  ~Natalie~

  “Don’t worry child, you are safe.” The witch that lives in the woods says to me. Trying to calm me down.

  “How do you know I’m running from something?” I ask her, when I don’t even know what is going on.

  “You smell of fear. He will not find you here, you are safe.” She says back to me.

  “How can you be so sure, I feel like he has been following me my entire life.”

  “Always child, he will never stop, never. You need to learn to fight, learn to protect yourself, your path is set. So, learn to fight, learn to survive, learn to live.”

  “How do I do that, when I don’t even know what I’m fighting against.”

  “Be prepared for everything and everyone.”

  After I arrive home from that house, my body can’t relax, my heart is still beating like crazy I’m actually worried I might give myself a heart attack. My mind is doing some crazy thinking, and I’m thinking up all these scenarios of what could possibly happen, one of them is I’m thinking he is just going to pop up out of no-where. The witch from the woods, keeps popping back into my head. The things she said to me, coming back to me like it was just the other day. I need to fight. I need to protect myself. I learned all that I could so that I could survive.

  The conversation I overheard about me being some sort of key, or he would not have returned, has set my paranoia off the charts. Me returning has brought him back here. Just great. Why the hell did I take it upon myself to save the world and get this stupid gem I will never know. But what if he knows I’m looking for this stupid gem. I can’t now just stop looking for this gem, for one, it gains entrance into the underworld, and two I can’t let just any slime bag get entrance into the underworld undetected. Shouldn’t there be like some sort of gate keeper for this kind of thing not to happen.

  In that damn house, being held down by the shadows, has got me thinking was it even the shadows? The shadows didn’t alert me to anything strange or harmful like it normally does. The shadows that swallowed me whole and held me still, freaked me out. They have never done that before and I have been in worse situations before. The thing is I didn’t even hear anyone coming or see anyone and then the shadows were upon me. And if I’m being absolutely honest with myself, the shadows were darker than usual, they were dense, like a combination of darkness, and my own darkness enjoyed it, it craved this other darkness, it wanted more, it was drawn to it. And I almost let it, almost.

  I know one thing is now I have to lay low. After that strange fog and what those men were saying, he is clearly back. And that’s the thought that has got me awake at this horrible hour pacing around this room like a crazy person. I have no clue why I’m so on edge, how do I even know that he means me any harm, I know I felt the power when I first walked into that house, I felt the magic working over my body, I felt my power behind that magic, but nothing else.

  I need to sleep, and the only thing that gets me to sleep nowadays is a tall glass of whatever alcohol I can get. I have tried everything else and this is what knocks me out, and me being in the state I’m in, I need something strong. I make my way down the stairs as quietly as possible, I don’t want to wake my parents from their hopefully peaceful sleep.

  I make it to the kitchen, grab whatever I can find, vodka, this should do the trick, and make my way back upstairs again. I know this is a bad idea, and I know I will regret this in the morning, but I need sleep. I take a long gulp of the vodka, it burns its way down my throat and into my stomach, definitely going to regret this in the morning. I take another long gulp and another and another until I can feel it working.

  ~Jacin~

  I told my men to watch her like a fucking hawk. She is not to move a fucking foot without me knowing. What happened in that house can never happen again. My darkness, it wanted hers, I watched as the shadows protected her, consumed her, and now they won’t say a fucking thing about it.

  I watched as she called them, she actually called the shadows, and they came when she called. They did what they do to no other, they protected her. People should be afraid of what lurks in the dark, the shadows will only protect their own. What. The. Fuck. Why would the shadows protect her, she comes from light, this whole coven is light, they ban anything dark, or run from it? They learned their lesson about the darkness a long time ago, and it seems they haven’t forgotten. So why keep one thing that the darkness answers to. Another fucking mystery, another fucking piece to this puzzle.

  “Your mother is here to see you, Boss.” Tray says to me, I didn’t even hear him enter. This woman is driving me fucking crazy to the point I’m consumed by it.

  “Send her in.” I say back to Tray. I haven’t seen my mother in twenty years, give or take a decade. I’ve lived so fucking long, time means nothing. When this world ends, me and my men will simply move onto the next one, we are not held by the constraints of this world.

  “Jacin.” I hear her familiar voice. I wish I could say it would bring me some sort of comfort. It doesn’t. Comfort is a foreign thing to me, I only know death, destruction and sin.

  “Mother, even though this is an overdue visit, but for you to just drop by, now of all times, is just too much of a coincidence, so what the fuck do you want?” I say a little too short to her. I don’t have fucking time for this shit.

  “Watch your language Jacin, I don’t care how old you are, you will watch your tongue before it becomes useless to you.” She says all too short as well. I would like to see her try, but I give her the respect she deserves, and tone down the language for her.

  “I apologize Mother, what is it that you want.”

  “Why would I need anything, why couldn’t I simply have just dropped by to see my son.”

  “You didn’t drop by for some afternoon tea Mother, now again, what is it that you want?”

  “I’ve heard the rumors; the prophecy has begun then?” She says without an ounce of emotion in her voice. This fucking prophecy has been a fucking thorn in my side for over a thousand years. When it first came to light, no one believed it, no one thought it would come into play, until I ended my father’s life with my own two hands. It had to be fucking done. He would have destroyed this world and the worlds to come if I hadn’t.

  “Yes, it seems like it. And I’m dealing with the problem, I’ll end this thing before it even begins.” I say back to my mother.

  “Not all weaknesses are bad my child. You must understand that before you do anything stupid. If a person was to ask what my weakness is, I would say you and your brother. But that does not mean it’s bad, my love for you two are my weakness.” She says to me, I know she has a soft heart, that’s why she couldn’t stand up to the asshole of a father of mine.

  “It’s a good thing for you then mother, that I’m nearly impossible to kill then. And since I have no offspring, that is not the weakness we are talking about. I cannot afford a weakness, and it will end soon.”

  I wait for her reply, but I don’t get one, she shakes her head and disappears. I don’t know what her point is, I will end this weakness once and for all.

  I call Tray in, he needs to do some shit for me while I’m gone. These fuckers have heard I have a weakness, they think they will get out now, they think me weak now. I’ll just have to remind them who the fuck they are dealing with. Tonight, is not going to be a good night for them.

  ~ ~ ~

  Being down here, only brings me some sort of joy. The thought that I get to rip shit up keeps the darkness in me happy. Even happy is a strong word, tolerable is a better word to describe how the darkness is inside me. These assholes th
ink because the rumors might be real, that I might have a weakness, that I’m weak, they forget who they are dealing with, what they are dealing with. Tonight, I will remind them who I am.

  I walk down the dark corridors; the darkness consumes this place. If you didn’t know where you were going, the darkness would consume you, and I have heard that in its self is like hell. Puddles of water line the floors, without the nearly constant spray of water in this place, the heat alone would kill them, and that I cannot allow. They are here to be punished, and death would be the easy way out for them. They are to spend eternity with me.

  I walk passed the occupied cells, they dare not say a word, some even know what’s good for them and cower back. They know what fate they will have if they did, but a few of these idiots get bored down here, think they can take me out if they had the chance. So that’s what I did, nearly two thousand years ago I gave them the chance. Beat me, then they deserve their freedom. If not, they will forever live within me. Their powers will become mine. These stupid fuckers forget that I was unstoppable before, and with each new kill I gain more power, yet they keep trying.

  The three that have challenged me already await their fate in the ring, and the others that have somewhat behaved are allowed to attend. I even allow them to bet on it. After all, gambling is sin, and I do enjoy sin. I turn the next corridor and I hear the faint cheering that surrounds the ring. They think if one beats me, they all will be free. It does not work like that, I have never bothered to tell them, none have even come close to beating me.