A Life in Darkness

by Heinreich T. Sioson

  (faint static, silence)

  Kim, I love you. I wish…I wish I was able to hold you one more time, kiss you one more time. I wish I was lying beside you right now. I want to hold you in my arms, one last time. I love you so much. Please take care of our son. Wherever I go next I’ll be thinking of you and him. I’ll wait for you. I will always wait for you.

  (labored breathing)

  Jack, my boy. I love you, son. You are my pride and joy. I wish I could tell you more stories about the worlds I’d visit. I wish we could’ve gone fishing again at the lake back home. I wish I was there to see you take up the post as a Scouter or Shifter. However you choose, know that I love you and I will always be proud of you. Be strong, Jack. But you’ve always been strong; you got that from your mother. Promise me you’ll take care of her, she’s going to need you now. I love you, Jack.

  (labored breathing)

  I love you…

  ********

  Ethan Barris stopped speaking and there was only static. Another minute of silence passed before the recording shut off. I just sat there. I would be the one to tell his family what had happened to him. I’d have to think about what to say.

  Looking through the PDA’s data even further I found the exact location of where Kari and her mother were hiding; he must’ve found them before being attacked by the creatures, forcing him to retreat in this direction. During his escape he must’ve been fatally wounded and found his way here. I looked over at Barris, and whispered a word of thanks for giving me information that could save the lives of two people. I took out my PDA and wirelessly downloaded both the coordinates of Kari’s bunker and the last message.

  I didn’t want to leave his body here but what other choice was there? I’d have to double back and carry him all the way to the portal and then head to the center of the city where Kari was hiding. And there were still the monsters stalking the city, and I doubt there were only a few of them. But that didn’t matter now. It was time for me to go.

  While I was placing both PDAs into an inner coat pocket I heard a sound, just out of reach of something I recognized. I paused, trying to make out where the sound was coming from. It sounded like it was coming from everywhere, but it also sounded like it was coming from nowhere, merely a figment of my imagination. Just as I was about to discount it I heard the sound again. It was louder. Closer. The sound grew and grew and grew until I recognized it for what it was. It was the sound I had heard in that building where I first touched down into this world; it was the sound of many tiny, horrible things crawling on the floor.

  The darkness is coming for me.

  I went to the hallway and focused on trying to find where that wretched sound was coming from. I was so distracted I couldn’t react fast enough when a dark figure came at me so fast it was a blur and hit me square in the chest. The blow knocked me into the wall, knocking the air out of my lungs. I bounced off the wall hard and collapsed face-first onto the floor. Dazed and gasping for air I tried to push myself off the floor but I wasn’t given the chance to. A black hand grabbed me by the throat and lifted me clear off the ground. The hand was clenching so tight I was struggling to breathe.

  Still struggling for air I focused through the fog in my head saw what had struck me. It was one of the creatures, its featureless black face peering up at me. Even in my numb state I felt the creature’s hand. Its skin was cold and disgusting. Grabbing the creature’s arm I tried to struggle but I was still weak from the blow. The creature slammed me against the wall, pinning me there. In doing that I almost blacked out as what little air in my lungs was expelled like a balloon that had just ruptured. My arms went limp as all the strength left me.

  I was helpless and my mind was so clouded I couldn’t touch my abilities. Even though my vision was still blurry, I focused on the creature’s face, using it as point of reference to help me concentrate and recover. That’s when I saw its ugly smile. Its jagged, malformed teeth were an unnatural shade of white which was unbearable to look at. Without even touching the thing’s mind I knew it enjoyed seeing me suffer.

  I had to break free but I needed time to recuperate. I wasn’t sure if it wanted to prolong my torment or kill me outright but I couldn’t afford to wait. Taking a chance I gasped for air and asked, “What do you want from me?”

  The creature’s smile didn’t waver but it cocked its head, much like a bird staring at an insect it was about to devour. I didn’t expect it to respond until I felt a sudden push within my psyche as the creature entered my mind. It showed me images, ghastly images that burned itself into my mind as if they had always been a part of my memory. The creature showed me things that it had done. And seeing what it had helped wrought upon this Earth, I hated it.

  ********

  I relieved the events of the past through the creatures eyes. Soon after the Day of Dark it plummeted from the blackened sky to land near a park in the northern part of the city. It plopped onto the ground like an inkblot from the devil’s own pen. It had no shape, but it moved slowly until it picked up speed. My vision turned to see a middle-aged man near the entrance to the park, staring at me – at it – and trying to shield his wife and young son from what was happening. The black ink moved towards the man and he and his family started backing away. The creature stopped. I sensed its thoughts; there were no words I recognized but I felt its emotions. It was curious at the tall thing cowering before it. The black ink advanced towards them, but this time it was more brazen. They moved back further but they were still unwilling – maybe unable – to just run away.

  There was a sudden shift in the creature’s mood. It was more than curious now; it was eager. I felt a disgusting hunger. A hunger for something living. The black creature knew this pathetic thing on two legs could satisfy it. For a time, at least.

  I knew what came next before the creature showed me what it did. Without warning, like a starving cat spotting a mouse, it pounced on the man engulfing him in its inky body. The man’s arms flailed as he struggled to find a handhold that could save him. The mother screamed. The young boy tried to reach for his father but his mother pulled him away and they both stumbled onto the ground. The grunts and shouts of the man as he struggled were soon drowned out as the creature engulfed his entire body. The last thing the man saw were his wife and son sobbing.

  Soon the creature’s blob-like form stopped moving and became still, like it had never been made out of liquid in the first place. The woman and her son were still clinging together, trying to find comfort in one another and too terrified to run. Despite herself the mother stood and brought her son up.

  “Mommy?” said the boy.

  Sniffling and wiping away tears, she said, “We have to go. We have to run.”

  “But daddy…”

  New tears started flowing from the woman’s eyes but her voice was firm. “We have to go.”

  Forcing her son away from the still creature the two backed away until they reached the middle of the street. But before they were able to turn and run the creature moved. Its gelatinous body was sickening to look at as it rose and formed itself. It had taken the shape of a man. It had absorbed the man and used him as a template for this new body – the same one that had me in its grasp.

  Both the mother and child ran as fast and as far away as they could. The black thing just stood there, staring at the direction the two humans went - it was standing in that same way it had when I first encountered it. Then, I saw a horizontal line bisect the lower part of his face and as the line got bigger I recognized it for what it was doing. It was smiling that venomous smile. It was the first time it had done so, and I knew it wouldn’t be the last.

  It delighted in this new body because it knew the humans would loathe and dread it; it was both familiar and perverse. They would be terrified at the sight of the thing and it reveled in the fear and anguish that would emanate from the people it would encounter. It was excited to hunt down not only the two who had escaped, but others like them. It would feed and feed until i
t was bloated with the bodies and minds of those it had consumed.

  Its vicious, unearthly smile widened as it ran through the streets. Along the way it had consumed dozens of men, women, and even children, and it didn’t hesitate or feel remorse in anything it did. There were those that fought back and it found great pleasure in rending them apart and consuming them piece by piece. It especially enjoyed the humans that fought back because it relished the mental energies they radiated when they realized hope had been extinguished, like a candle in the face of a gale. As it traveled through the darkened city it met others of its ilk that had also taken human form. They hunted in packs, and they too would savor the stalking and the killing. Hundreds more would die at its hands by the end of the day. And eventually, the black creature would find the boy and the mother who had witnessed its first kill, and it would take its time devouring them both…

  ********

  After it had finished gloating the creature showed me one last memory from its past. I saw me, standing on a desolate street not two hours ago flinging an empty mailbox at the creature. I felt the impact of the large metal projectile slamming into the creature and the subsequent impact into the side of the building. A moment later, I felt a second impact, harder this time as a concrete slab hit the creature sending it into the building. The scene abruptly disappeared.

  My mind cleared and I was back in the present. The creature still held me against the wall. It wanted payback for what I had done to it and it showed me all those terrible things as evidence of what it would do to me as well.

  The creature tilted its head to at the bed where Ethan Barris’ body lay at rest. I looked at him, and then at the creature, and I felt a cold shiver run through me. The creature must’ve understood what I was thinking because its smile somehow became more sadistic without moving the slightest bit. A loud, sharp clicking sound seeped out of the black creature’s throat which painful to listen to. I heard the sound a second time, this time louder and more numerous, as if a thousand creatures were making that noise. But I soon found out it was more than that. Much more.

  Almost on cue softer clicking noises came from outside the room and it sounded like it was coming this way. I struggled but the thing’s vice-like grip prevented any escape. The sound grew louder and louder until it became a cacophony of noise that made me grind my teeth. And that’s when I saw the cause of it: there were thousands upon thousands of them. A sea of tiny black insects came crawling into the hall. There were so many it was impossible to see what the original color of the floor was. With what little leeway afforded to me I moved my head to see the creatures had covered the entire hallway leading into the living room and the bedroom as well. In a moment they surrounded the bed on which Barris’ body lay.

  The dark figure holding me stopped making that clicking noise and the mass of black insects followed its master in kind. It kept smiling at me. I knew no amount of threats or pleading were going to stop what was about to happen next but I still tried.

  “Please, don’t…”

  It was all I could muster before its grip tightened enough to locking whatever else I wanted to say in my throat. And the horror came as the creature clicked one last time, signaling the black insects to feast upon the body. They fell upon him, a black tidal wave colliding supple flesh. Tears of sadness and anger poured down my face as I watched thousands of unnatural creatures devour him. I heard skin rent from muscle, bone broken and bored through, organs being consumed - sounds I would never forget for as long as I lived. Watching it, as helpless as I was, the horrific event seemed to last for hours. The last thing I saw before his entire body was devoured was the picture he still held in his hand.

  I wanted to struggle but the anger that welled up inside me paralyzed me with its intensity. No, not simple anger. It was rage.

  After the horrid feast the insectoids crawled off the bed and onto the floor below, leaving very little of his body behind. I was disgusted. Collecting themselves in one massive formation they advanced towards us, settling around the feet of their master. I knew what was to follow but… But at that moment I didn’t care. I had become numb. I was numb for all the things that brought me to this place, to this point in my life.

  It was then I realized the rage that should’ve consumed my thoughts had changed. It changed into a focused control I had never felt before. With the suddenness of a seesaw shifting without warning, as if a great weight had landed on one end, my powers came back in a rush.

  I looked straight at the monster’s featureless face. Featureless, but for the terrible smile that made its home there. I focused and a wave of energy began to flow from me, at first as a trickle. The creature noticed it but didn’t move; I think it wasn’t sure what was happening. While it was still trying to figure out what I was doing, I loosed all the mental energies I had bottled up in a flash.

  Like a grenade going off in a confined space the psionic energy exploded outwards hitting the creature so hard it let go of my neck as its arm shattered into millions of microscopic pieces. The insects at the feet of the creature were annihilated in an instant. The telekinetic blast stretched outward in all directions, shattering furniture and buckling walls around me. Landing on my feet I stared at the creature with an intensity that could’ve burned the brightest of suns.

  But my mind was blank. My thoughts were null. I was fury made manifest in the physical world and I felt nothing could stop me. But even as the forefront of my mind was devoid of all rational thinking, I heard a tiny voice somewhere in the farthest reaches of my psyche cry out for me to stop. I ignored it, and when I did I released another burst of energy so great the creature standing before me disintegrated into a cloud of dust that scattered into the still air. I did not hear its last inhuman scream before it was obliterated. The walls around me buckled further until they crumbled in the wake of my power. I heard that tiny voice again, but it was now louder and impossible to ignore. I didn’t want to listen to what it had to say, I wanted to rid this entire planet of the terrible abominations that had devoured all life.

  Then a flash of memory came to me. Behind a building, a girl was sitting on a park bench overlooking a river. Her… I said something, and when she turned to look at me I saw she was smiling.

  I felt the tempest within my mind weaken and my body with it as I lilted to one side; I had to place a hand against the wall to stop myself from toppling over. I made a conscious effort to control my power and it subsided so quickly my legs turned into so much jelly and I fell to my side. My night vision flickered on and off in sporadic beats as with my other senses. I felt like someone was banging the sides of my skull with a sledgehammer in time with the heavy thumping of my heart.

  I laid there my labored breathing the only sound to be heard. I tried to come to grips with what I had done. Bol had never warned me this would happen, that something like this could happen. Maybe he didn’t get the chance to before he was hauled away for his crimes. While most of the uncontrolled mental energy had dissipated if I wasn’t careful I would succumb once more and there would be no turning back from it. So I closed my eyes and mediated, in the same way I was taught years ago. In my mind’s eye I created a small lake in a vast green field and stared into it. Waves were shifting in the clear depths of the water as it overflowed onto the grass. I concentrated harder until the lake’s surface became still. I focused until the headache disappeared and my heart became calmer. Once I was able to achieve this I opened my eyes.

  I was plummeted back into darkness, my night vision had shut off and was no longer fluctuating. My senses were back to normal, all I felt were the sensation of my body on the floor and the lack of sound that characterized this dead world. With careful movements I pushed myself up and sat against what remained of the closest wall.

  I turned my night vision back on and surveyed the damage I had caused. It was extensive. Not a single wall was intact; those that didn’t disintegrate had collapsed and most of the ceiling had disappeared, revealing the rooms above. Some of
the floor boards had disappeared but I was thankful the damage wasn’t enough to prevent me from leaving. Taking a preparatory breath I stood up making sure to stick close to the wall. While unsteady my legs didn’t betray me.

  I turned to look at the bedroom and debated going back in but it would’ve been useless. Ethan Barris was gone. I tapped my coat at the spot where I had placed his PDA and thought, I had this at least. His family will be able to hear his last words to them. I whispered one final benediction before making my way out of the ruined building.

  Part II

  It took me longer than expected to reach the bunker. I made my way back east in a slow, determined way stopping only to check my bearings. I stayed off the streets as much as I could; I didn’t want to encounter any more of those things or whatever else lurked in the remnants of the city. This also allowed me to recover most of my strength which I knew I’d need before the end.

  The bunker was unassuming, the only clear marking that it was a shelter was a small radioactive sign on the side of the plain concrete building. It was built during a time when this world still lived in fear of annihilation from within. Who could’ve guessed their destruction would come from without?

  I entered, being careful to check my surroundings I found it was deserted. Shutting thel arge door behind me the space I had entered was littered with all manner of broken furniture and detritus. I pulled out my PDA and allowed it to float in the air as I switched on the scanner. Beams of light shot out of tiny holes in the device as a 3D model of the interior displayed on-screen. No signs of an entrance so far. I went deeper into the building and the scanner did its work picking up a hollow spot in one of the back rooms. I quickened my pace in that direction until I found myself in a back parlor.

  The entrance to the underground bunker was hidden underneath a large table. I bent down and inspecting it I saw the outline of a trapdoor, big enough to allow a person to climb through it. I backed away and with a slight sweep of my hand the table slid to the far side of the room. Using telekinesis I tried to open the door but I sensed a heavy steel bolt holding it in place. It was simplicity itself to grasp the bolt with my mind and slide it back.