The Aching Darkness_A Dark Fantasy Anthology

by Parker Sinclair

  “Shall we play with her first?’ A monstrously vile voice escapes the silver-haired Queen; one close to a scheming child’s, triggering shivers along my spine.

  Another, equally as sinister, but whispery voice reached me. “Oh yes, Needa. We shall play until she’s near her death, won’t we, Milanka? She looks terribly fun to chase, like a little bunny rabbit.”

  Milanka’s laugh shakes her body. “Yes, sisters, we shall play, and then, we shall take her and everything she lov…”

  A firestorm of bullets shuts Milanka up on her desert hill. My drones have made it to their location, and there’s no hesitation in the vicious unleashing of weaponry. Willing my legs to move, I work my way forward. The new Queens move quicker than my eyes are capable of tracking, and they make quick work of the drones taking delight in their bullets, dancing and swatting at the flying machines, like cats tormenting a flock of birds.

  595 joins me, and we continue to creep towards the madness, darts at the ready as we get close enough to hit at least one of our targets. Needa’s silver hair whips around as if caught in a cyclone of its own while she falls to the ground, legs taken from under her by the poison, her sister too busy playing to notice. Cockiness will be their undoing this night.

  Taking a bit of a gamble, I run at her, eyes blazing. “Look at me, Needa. What do you see?” Her head turns, and her red eyes greet my own.

  “No! No, sister, turn away. Don’t look at her, don’t!” But it’s too late for Needa. She’s locked on to me, her face set in a hateful glare, unable to move from her own undoing. Milanka hits me again with her force, tossing me backwards, my body slamming into the van, every ounce of breath kicked out of me by the impact.

  Laughter takes over my body once I’m able to breathe again.

  “What is so funny, Ilese? I’d be a little more worried what Ana will do to you, now that you’ve taken her sister away. Isn’t that right, Ana?”

  She’s right; Ana is stalking towards me like feline predator on the hunt. Regardless, I continue laughing. A word from Milanka, and Ana stops in her tracks, spitting and hissing at me, barely holding onto her human form. She waits, impatiently for Milanka to join her, before they stride in my direction, as one.

  “I’ll ask you again. What is causing you to find humor in your situation?”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I see 595 moving around the fallen drones back on the Queen’s hill, looking for survivors to assist with our plan. Milanka and Ana don’t seem to notice, their hateful eyes transfixed on me as they continue their march towards my death, or capture.

  “Your people have been taken from you, only to die at your hands. Your machines are easy targets and of no help to you. We will take what we want, you and your creation, but the others.” A duetting laugh of pure evil springs up between the two. “Well, they’ll all be dead, won’t they, and you know it. So, I’ll ask you again. What is so funny?”

  Ana’s own laughter appears to trigger her human form to shed as she begins to look more like an S2 Hollow Walker, arms turning into tentacles, claws extending and her hair sloshing off. Her skin ripples, and spikes form along her arms, followed by massive horns upon her head. The Queens are able to transform into whatever nightmare version of themselves they choose, so Ana is in devilish mood tonight.

  They’re closing in on me, barely twenty feet away. Knowing that this can play out either way with the mere seconds I have, I get my feet under me, sliding up the van to stand and face their highnesses. “You aren’t going to kill me, Milanka. You want something from me, and he’ll never be yours if I die tonight.”

  “Oh, you are correct. We aren’t going to kill you, but we can hurt you real bad. We so delight is causing excruciate pain to those who oppose us.” Ana answers for Milanka, her voice having changed from childlike to grisly, while drool escapes her mouth, larger now and full of large, sharp canines.

  Milanka’s hand touches hers, calming her slightly. “No, Ilese, our Master, the Fallen, wants you alive and mostly unharmed. How else can we have both of you?”

  “Josh will never come to you willingly. He’d died first.”

  Tossing her head back, it’s the Queen’s turn to laugh. “Oh, he will, once he knows we’ve taken you, but that’s not the one we’re here for. Thank you for showing us how much you care for him, though. He’ll be an easy pawn to use against you. Such a pity, you don’t even know, do you?”

  Now, it’s my turn to be thoroughly confused. Who does she want if it isn’t Josh? I don’t have much time to consider the riddle. 595, having moved behind the hill, begins to retaliate with everything it has, joining ranks with the few remaining drones the Queen’s children didn’t rip apart. Dodging darts and bullets. I run behind the van, making sure Milanka and Ana see me, peering over the hood to watch the show.

  Ana tears off with a crazed roar escaping her creature lungs, using her horns to drive into drones at such a speed that they have no chance to escape. Swinging her long, many thorned and tentacled arms, she puts an end to nearly every drone we have, except 595. He lifts high into the sky, tearing through the night in my direction. Ana’s focus is only on him, and Milanka delights in her sister’s sadistic fun, unseeing of my body climbing the ladder behind the van to hover just below the roof. 595 drives the new Queen near the back of the van, I ready my sword, and when Ana is close enough, I make it to the top of the van and launch myself off. Swinging my sword, I hit my mark, following through with a cry of victory when Ana’s head tumbles to the ground.

  A roar of anguish and madness answers me, tearing through the sky and erupting all around. Milanka, her anger catapulting her towards me, as her cyclone starts up all around her once again. Ana’s body starts to streak glowing red, her essence, preparing to jump from the body as if it has a new host. I look to the tornado, hearing a faint call from Milanka.

  “Sister, come to me, and you will be reborn.”

  Not if I can help it. Sheathing my sword, I stride towards Ana, not having much time with Milanka closing in, I take the last couple feet in a leap, landing with my knee in her chest, and my outstretched hand grabbing her head by the horns where it lies close by in the sand.

  “Any last words, Ana?” Before she can answer, the blue ring ignites in my eyes, and her ensuing ash spins around in the funneling air. Milanka’s snarl, propels me to move faster than I thought possible. Sand shifts, the outskirts of her cyclone smacking it to me, making it hard for me to see. I manage to run towards the driver’s side of the van, hollering to 595 to join me inside. Clamoring in, I feel the van shake and rattle, Milanka’s anger creating an expansive funnel, far larger and more ruinous than before. Along with it, the earlier storm returned to batter the desert with unnatural rains and wind once again.

  A weightless feeling signals the van lifting into the air, turning and swirling like the mad teacups at an amusement park. Grabbing onto the seats, I work my way to the back with 595, and we sequence the weapon once again, this time for a countdown rather than on my mark. Fifteen seconds show on the screen, the back of the van now tilting downwards, inverting so that it seems like we’re driving towards the stars. 595 works to loosen the screws securing the machine on one side, as I do on the other. Once we have it free, we push it to the back doors, and I press the button letting the countdown start.

  Fifteen.

  I struggle to hang on to seatbelts, walls, anything I can, to get back to the front seat. Fourteen. Once I’m there, I snap on my seat belt, call to 595, and grab onto him as securely as my belt holds me. Thirteen. With one hand, I press the door release button. Twelve. The double doors swing open, dropping the weapon. Eleven. My eyes fight sand to watch it free fall, right into the middle of the funnel. Ten. I look in my review mirror, seeing Milanka, eyes closed and arms raised wide, in the epicenter. Nine. She’ll never see what’s coming. Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four. Her eyes fly open, mouth widening in a silent scream, her sound unable to break through the ruckus of her own storm. Three, Two, One.

  T
he weapon releases its sonic attack. Milanka’s arms drop to her sides, the frozen look of rage and horror plastered on her face. Blue light is all I see reflecting off her oyster skin, and then blackness as her form disappears, turned to ash that spins madly, caught in her cyclone before the weapon crashes to the sandy ground.

  All time freezes at this moment, or at least that’s what it seems Sound ceases, drops of rain dry instantly in the remaining wind. The van, caught in an up-current, turns slowly for a second, and then, we’re falling. Plummeting towards the ground, my arms wrapped right around 595, holding the large drone tight to my body, as the ground appears to rise below us. Willing myself to relax, I let my body take on the feeling of the free fall, not tensing for the impact; that’ll only make it worse. I say good-bye to Josh in my mind. Words trickle forth in my awareness that I’ve never spoken before, and then, a deafening crash and darkness.

  CHAPTER 7

  Beginnings

  A screeching noise triggers my eyelids to crack open. Who’s waking me up so early? I try to move, but pain greets me in my lower back and my chest. Memories come rushing back, and I gasp, shocked I’m still alive. A whirling noise rattles against me, and I see 595 hovering in front of my face. His swords are out, which would have been frightening at first, but I look to the right and see where he’s been making quick work of freeing me from the van.

  My safety belt is nearly severed, but the van has been smashed in all around me, pinning me in. Glass tinkles and drops away with my small movements. Freedom is right in front of me. If I can just get loose, I’ll be able to crawl right out of the broken windshield. I try to move again, and pain shoots through my back all the way up to my neck. Shifting only my eyes, I look to the rear view, seeing only darkness, the van having crumped under the weight like a can under a boot. I reach behind with my right arm overhead, touching a mix of metal and sand right behind my chair. How we survived is shocking to me, unbelievable, even.

  Remembering my final part of the plan, I reach into my right leg picket, remove the remote, and press the activation button along with a few others. My thoughts jump to Josh and the compound. “595. Activate speaker and camera under my command.” A speaker crackles, static and tones shooting through it as if it’s been damaged. Understandably, 595 has taken his beatings tonight as well.

  “Commander Gage, this is Captain Katan. Do you read me?” The camera’s lens focuses and swivels, but the only noise coming from the speaker is garbled squeaks and squawks. “Lieutenant Langdon, Josh, are you there, can you hear me? The Queen, Queens, are down, but I can’t give an all clear. Are we clear?” Oh, and by the way, I am smashed in a sardine van can, but I won’t tell them that. Nothing comes through, nothing I can understand anyhow.

  “595, signal any perimeter drones to report. Send it to my visor.” Touching my head, I realize I don’t have my visor or my helmet anymore. Yeah, falling from the sky in a van can have its setbacks. “Okay, never mind, continue what you were doing. Sorry to interrupt.”

  595 works diligently on my belt and on pieces of the door that have warped, trapping my legs.

  “Careful there, I may still need those if I can ever walk again.” I’m pretty sure my back is broken, or at least it seems to be. I don’t have many memories of pain like this, and those I have were fleeting, since I mend quickly. I can’t heal in this crushed position, though. I’ll be contorted, unable to walk or fight properly. Though I may have won tonight, the fight’s never really over.

  595 hits a sweet spot, and I’m able to grab my legs and move them. My arms are thankfully strong enough to pull myself up and over the steering wheel, though blood seeps like a small stream from my left. 595 flies out, stopping in front of me, slightly above my head, close enough to be in my way. “Hey, move it, big guy.”

  He turns around, I swear giving me an annoyed look, and then spins, showing me his drone ass once again. This time, he vibrates a little as if shaking it at me.

  “Oh, gotcha.”

  I grab onto 595 with one of my hands, carefully avoiding his propellers. He’s strong, though small; our engineers must have equipped them with some tiny badass motors. He gives me enough of a lift to remove my body from the seat, and I let go, allowing my arm strength to drag me out of the window. The hood is intact, no hints of smoke or anything else that may explode in my face just as I make my escape. Another miracle.

  I roll unceremoniously onto the sand, pain shooting through my back and my left arm. Army crawling away from the van, I flop onto my back, panting in exhaustion before I see the first rays of sun breaking above the horizon. If anything remains to attack us, I hope they’ve either retreated to rethink their plan, since this one didn’t go so smashingly for them, or they prefer the cover of darkness before coming at us again. I close my eyes, willing my body to heal now that it isn’t crunched at odd angles. Bones and muscle mend, and the pulls and strains bring tears to my eyes and torturous breaths of air into my lungs. My left arm pulls and tugs, my muscles once severed and tendons torn, stitching back together. I hear a rumble in the distance, envisioning Milanka’s storm or her shifting cyclone once again, but instead, I can tell this is a vehicle, one of our off-road ones. Brakes screech, and a door swings open just before a shadow falls over my body,

  “Are you done playing hero now, because it really isn’t sexy at all.” Josh’s form greets my open eyes, and I manage a painful smile. “At least you look better than the van.”

  I can’t bear to see it again; it served me well, but it nearly killed me in the process. “Yeah, you should see the other guy, or gals, rather.” We both chuckle as he takes a seat next to me in the wet sand.

  “I caught up with this thing making an escape.” His thumb signals to the vehicle. “Planning to leave without saying good-bye?”

  I smile at him, finally feeling the pain subside from my arm down, giving me the ability to lift onto my elbows. “More of a protection plan. I can’t stay here. They’ll just keep coming.” I’d say they’re coming for him as well, but Milanka made it clear it wasn’t him. Though, she knew about him, which means so will her father, and any other children he sends our way. They will use Josh to bait me, even if I’m gone. Is that a rational idea, or do I selfishly want him to come with me? I have to tell him, let him make his choice.

  “She knew about you, us, I guess. The Fallen will use you against me, even if I do leave.”

  He nods, looking over my body and grimacing at the obvious points of my injuries. “Well, we should stay here, and you can let me in on all the new tech you and Gage have obviously been working on, and then seek them out before they can return, or…”

  “Or you leave with me, and we do this alone.” His fingers graze my face, and I manage to come to a fully seated position, closing my eyes as I lean into his touch.

  “Why don’t we take a drive and think about it.”

  Dozens of drones fly over us, leaving to search the area for another wave of Walkers and Queens, but something tells me they’re going to rethink their plan of attack for now. An idea digs into my awareness, as if the Fallen himself is searching my mind, trying to figure me out. I shiver at the invasion, balking at the unsettling feeling that no matter where I go, they’ll always find me. Shaking the thought away, I smile and nod to Josh. He lifts me from the ground in response, and walks me to the car. 595 comes along, having stayed off in the distance during the reunion. I signal for him to get into the car. He flies into the open door, lands on the back seat, and enters low power mode. Yeah, we could both use a nap.

  Josh slides into the driver’s seat and leans in to kiss me gently, letting me know how happy he is I made it out alive. Putting the vehicle in gear, he pauses to look at me. “So, she came for us?”

  I knew the question would come. I don’t know how to answer it, but I try my best. “She came for me, but also something else, and I still don’t know what or who it is. She kept calling it ‘my creation,’ so I thought that meant you, but apparently it’s not.”

&n
bsp; Josh’s forehead creases, and he drums his fingers along the steering wheel. “We’ll figure it out, don’t worry, but this time, we’re doing it together. Right, Captain?”

  “Right, it’s a promise.” But deep inside, I know if his life is in danger, I’ll do it all over again, because now, I know what this is. I love him, and nothing is going to take him out of my world. Josh pulls away. The wind races through my window, and I greet the sun as it hits my face.

  “You’re different now, Ilese.” His warm fingertips graze my cheek and slide along my jaw before returning to the wheel. “A good different, you’ve changed somehow. I guess we both have.”

  Because I can love, I can feel like you do. The words don’t escape my thoughts, though, as we drive away from the compound, not knowing where we are going, and not caring while the terror from before slips away as easily as the shifting sand beneath our tires.

  The Dark Angel story continues in 2018!

  GLOSSARY

  DARK ANGEL: Part Fallen and Part Divine. Only a Dark Angel can fully destroy a Queen or Hollow Walker. A blue band around black eyes glows turning them to ash. Dark Angels have supernatural gifts of strength, healing, exceptional sight, and hearing. (Ilese)

  THE DIVINE: The overseer of Good

  THE FALLEN: The overseer of Evil

  HOLLOW WALKERS: Wicked, emotionless creations of the Queens. Normally made from humans who aid the evil causes of the Fallen. Can be Stage 1 or Stage 2.

  HYBRID: Half Dark Angel and Half Human. They possess some of the same supernatural gifts as a Dark Angel, but not all.

  OPERATION QUIETUS: An elite military team led by Ilese (Dark Angel) with the soul purpose of fighting the evil the Fallen has beset upon the world.

  QUEEN: Nearly indestructible children of the Fallen. Births Hollow Walkers through her blood and supernatural gifts.