Ancient Darkness
D. A. Alexander
Copyright © 2018 by D. A. Alexander
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Epilogue
About the Author
Chapter 1
A rustling of leaves in the darkness, just out of sight, but within earshot, drew my attention to “it”. I held my breath for several seconds to drown out all of the surrounding sounds that were quickly replaced by the thrums of my heart, quickening from fear, or perhaps it was anticipation for what was to come. I shook the notion out of my mind as I exhaled the now stale air from my lungs and replaced it with the chilling nighttime air that stung the flesh of my nose as it entered my body.
Enough of this, I thought to myself. It was nothing more than an overactive imagination. Still, the truth and the lies that we tell ourselves to steady our nerves can be as blurry as my vision was becoming, what with the cold breeze whipping through the trees, squeezing the lubricating warmth from my tear ducts. I shivered with an unworldly chill as I pulled my jacket tighter around my body.
It had been five days since the reports were first released. Three slain by an unknown assailant, read the initial reports. The mystery and speculation of what was happening had only just begun. I thought of how cozy life had been before the questioning brought fear to my heart. Are these predators amongst us? Have they moved on from our region? The answers to those questions resounded in an otherworldly sound that emanated from just beyond the tree line. The growls of a monster; or of something much worse haunted my mind like a malevolent spirit caught between earth and whatever second life greeted us after our designated expiration date.
The thought was as icy as the breath that fell upon me. I made a mistake and looked up. That was the last thing that I remembered...until now.
The frenzy of the living assaulted my eardrums as my eyes opened, weary from the slumber from which I was awakened. The cold air around me felt natural to my bare arms and chest like a distant memory that was relived over and over again. My eyes reflected the darkness of my abode, the confines of a plush bed wrapped all around me like some kind of luxurious cocoon. I was home, but it was not the home that my mind would have remembered before this, this second life as it were.
My natural instinct was to push the lid up and over to free myself from this space, but the result was something more suited to a tantrum inflicted by an overly strong toddler who refused to go to sleep. The basis for strength and the control of my body did not coincide with my mind. Muscle memory was non-existent, I was not afraid, but I was puzzled as to why. A nagging sensation crawled through my brain, alerting me to a small truth that had not seemed to click in my mind until that very moment. I just woke up inside of a coffin.
I was now standing in a dank mausoleum as the light of the night sky permeated through the stain glassed windows. The pale light reflected upon my even paler skin and danced around my fingers as I turned my hands over and peered at my flesh. I looked like the man that I remembered, but I was not myself. Not anymore. Perhaps not ever again.
The sound of heavy traffic drove my senses towards it, not just my hearing, but my sense of self reached out to the sounds and felt it in the way that a child might feel the gaze of their parent overlooking them. I felt the sound with my eyes, the movement that caused the sounds at least, though I saw nothing except cement walls. I tasted the sounds with my tongue, or at least the odors of air that moved with the rush like rivers of air that cascaded around me. I was, and I wasn't. It was hard to explain, but I understood the connotations of my situation. This was death without dying.
Despite a new level of understanding, I was afflicted with two truths that I could not immediately explain away. The first was the hunger, or what I understood to be hunger, I questioned the thought of ever having satiated that hunger before. The second question rebounded from the first, why can't I remember how I came to be this way?
The questions fell from existence momentarily as the presence of a rat shifted into my view. With an uncoordinated ratio of balance and speed, I flung myself towards my victim. Had I learned nothing from waking? My body rolled clumsily on the floor as my hands gripped the rat's body. Lost completely to the hunger, I did not realize until the blood dripped from my lips that I had cracked a support beam for the ceiling. The chips of plaster and concrete had fallen into the dust that had not been swept from the floor for what must have been over a century.
My bearings were a bit more leveled after feeding. The small morsel was not enough to curve my appetite for long, but it dulled the hunger enough for me to collect myself. My senses were on fire due to the stimuli that dug its way into acknowledgment. I knew what the hunger craved, the lust for blood resembled the kind of lust an adolescent boy finds when he discovers girls for the first time. A taste was not enough; he must have all of it. This felt the same, perhaps it was the same and I was just being coy about it all.
The next moment seemed to happen in slow motion as I stood up and sauntered towards the door, loosely barricaded with a chain link that sat undisturbed for a generation, maybe more. The door opened as I willed it to, my fingers merely made its journey pass more quickly, with splinters and revelry. I was free and the darkness greeted her poor, lost soul. It was a marriage birthed in hell, her and I. I had awakened to a betrothal that I could never have willed to exist, but I was happy for it.
The mausoleum grew smaller behind me as I stepped through the darkness and towards the sounds of life, the beating of hearts, the laughter that was fed by spirits and conversation. I had no concept of time or my relationship to it, but I calculated my movement bringing me to the epicenter of the town within a few breaths time. The blur of motion was my only indicator.
I hovered, in a manner of speaking, and took in the ambiance of the locale. The rhythm of the heartbeats was a taunt much like I remembered the smells of the local steakhouses when I was human, stuck in traffic, and famished from a day's work. The only difference now was that I was willing to kill to satiate my hunger.
My how the times have changed, I thought to myself.
“These grounds are taken, you’re trespassing.”
The sound of a woman’s vo
ice tickled my ears in a way that I found quite interesting. I turned to face her, curious as I was. “Excuse me,” I said, not asking as politely as possible.
“You heard me,” she said as she stepped forward into a kind light that lit upon her face, exposing the crevasses that defined the gentle curves of her body against a pale shadow. “This is my town, these are my people.”
“Ever heard of sharing?” I snickered, mostly to myself, but I was sure that the slight had caught her preternatural ears without deception. I paced a few steps and lifted my arms nonchalant, feigning a smile, and made eye contact. “I detect a nervous air about you, my dear. To whom do I owe such pleasure?” I asked with a hint of an accent, semi-mockingly. She was endearing, whoever she was.
“My name is Maggie, now you know my name. If you’re satisfied then I suggest that you get going,” she said with a gesture towards the highway.
Direct and to the point, my heart would flutter if it still had a beat.
“And if I choose to stay?” I asked, testing the waters.
Her eyes narrowed and I caught a glimpse of the whites of her teeth flash momentarily before I felt my legs swept from under me and I crashed hard to the ground. I grasped for recovery only to be thrown off balance and feel my chin greet the pavement of the dark street upon which I had been standing. It hurt, and not in the playful, flirtatious kind of way.
“If you don’t,” she said as she pinned me down on my stomach and held my face to the ground. “Then I will kill you,” her voice was whispered and fell from her lips just above my ear. I felt a tightening of her grip for several seconds as I lay, pinned, helpless, and then there was nothing. The weight just ceased to exist, like she had just disappeared.
I took my time to collect myself before standing up. I felt shaky, perhaps from fear, or some other side effect of my long slumber. The hunger did not scream as loudly as it had been before my encounter. I thought it strange but shook the thought from my mind just as quickly. The hunger was like an excited child. Quick to leap out into the world and lead the way, until reprimanded, and its pride taken away. I knew now that I should be more alert in this new environment.
I would correct that mistake.
I sniffed the air around me. It felt empty, but a smell lingered its familiar scent. She was still near, the fragrance of her nudged at me, pursued me, seduced me. I would accept in time, but for now, I would walk away with a smile and try not to draw any unnecessary attention to myself.
I crept away, not wanting to leave, but not willing to confront her on her own grounds. That time could come later, but for now, I had a single purpose in life.
To feed.
Chapter 2
The hours felt like days, though I never witnessed the sun rise, cresting over the mounds of dirt that encompassed the earth. The ethereal natural of his blood coursed through my veins and I felt almost invincible...almost. I could have sworn that this was death, but it felt like life with every nuance of existence coming and going out of my field of vision. Even with my eyes closed, I bore witness to the details surrounding me. A trembling leaf upon the wretched branch of a nearby maple tree. The droplets of water created a burst as they released from their elevated stations before falling to the ground. This was the keen, sentimental, spiritual longing that I had always wanted, but without evidence of God, or devil, or angel. Not yet, at least. That would come later. For now, I was to exude this ecstasy for a short time longer. The bite marks on my neck were still open and burning, but I liked the sensation, it kept me awake and craving more.
Another sound drew my attention. I was unafraid. I was longing and expectant. I could see my visitor, cast in shadows and the silver moonlight cascaded around his body and blinded me briefly. More sounds followed as others joined around him, soon they blocked the moon out of view and I felt closed in. The excitement and the detriment met as one as the others closed in on me. Their ice-cold hands found purchase on my body. My sweet oblivion would come, I felt it as more blood flowed from my veins and received welcome in their throats. These were gods, devils, and angels. I knew what was to come, I no longer welcomed it, nor did I fear it. I just accepted it and fell to sleep.
The music of this culture filtered into ears that once bore witness to the sounds of Elvis Presley, of Bach, of Miley Cyrus, and if time was any indicator in this world, the heart did not grow fonder of the later. These sounds were different, more electronic if you could call it that. The nauseated repetition threw me off balance as it droned on, digging into my mind with claws sharper than any blade previously known to man.
What is this? The question was without utterance, but the sting was present. I meandered through what I found to be the incorporated limits of a town called Lucedale, Mississippi. It was near my home when I had once owned residence here. It would seem that time and ‘death’ had a kind of difference in the matter. My human home would lie thirty miles to the east of this township, but I was unsure of how I had come to be here. The gifts that came with this new life proved to have come with a cost of memories.
I noticed a sense of longing that was almost magnetic. It repelled and then attracted almost like a pulse keeping the beat with time. I supposed it translated nicely into a metaphor of one's heart being ripped from their chest and then shoved back into place, forcibly.
My thoughts drifted back to my new companion, Maggie. I knew she was my companion because her scent still lingered in the air. She was growing on me. I just hoped I would be able to tell her so by my actions. Ahead, just out of sight of the dim street lights that that ended a mile out of the town limits I found new prey. She had told me that the people here were off limits, it was a cute notion, one that I felt that I would play along with, for now. The doe was cautious of the white line that formed along the backwoods country road separating the neglected tall weeds that grew along the roadway. A car had not passed in well over three hours and she contemplated the safety of crossing such an inherently dangerous area. She had no idea.
With the precision of an athlete, I bounded towards her. This was not a repeat of what I had come to call the ‘rat incident’. I was in full control of my body now. The muscles flexed with the accuracy of a brain surgeon. I held her throat open and drained the blood from her before she had even realized that she no longer was breathing. The widening of her eyes was something gentle in nature, but I knew that it was a mirror into the horror of reality. I could see myself in her eyes, a monster, something more brutal than human, something more beautiful at the same time.
“Deer season is still a few weeks away,” Maggie said behind me. I didn’t have time to answer her so I settled for the grunts of a man deep in concentration while eating a delicious meal. “Why haven’t you left yet? I thought I was clear the other night.” She paced around me waiting for an answer. A wait that she would continue on until I had my fill.
“Ah,” I said as I finally pulled myself away from my feeding. This was the first full meal that I had taken since my awakening, instead, I had focused on smaller prey, maybe it is true that size mattered, it certainly rang true when it came to feeding. She eyed me warily as I wiped the blood from my lips with my arm, now covered with a dark shirt that I had stolen from a clothesline down the road. It would hide the stain well, I assumed.
“Ah,” she mimicked me with a gesture of her hands raised over her head and a sarcastic expression on her face. She was playful. I liked that.
“I have no intention of going anywhere,” I said.
“And why is that?” she asked, her concern more evident than she probably wanted to let on.
“Because this is my home. Or near about it at least,” I answered.
She looked puzzled before speaking. “I have no recollection of you, and I’ve been here for well over a century,” she said. The puzzled look on her face was a pointedly cute expression.
My curiosity was quickened by how much time had passed. “What year is it?” I asked, genuinely wanting the answer to the burning question.
“Because the last year of my life was 2014,” I answered. My last memory coincided with my death in some strange way. I had just awakened from a sleep of unknown duration the night that I met you.” Over a century of potential slumber, it was no wonder at how things had changed, but even still I did not think that much time had passed.
She stepped towards me and looked me in the face. A silver hue of her eyes reminded me of the stars above. Her full mouth was a sweet color of red, and I was sure that it tasted as sweet. “You died your human death when I was five years old.”
I nodded, assuming she was correct. “I suppose I did.”
“You’re from here?” she asked, slightly less on guard.
“About thirty miles away, yes.”
She squatted down and grabbed the deer carcass by the head and took a hit from its neck. There was plenty to go around. After a few seconds, she looked back up with lips that looked even more delectable. “So, what are you going to do?”
“With what?” I asked.
“With the mystery that you’re hiding behind those eyes,” she said as she stood. I realized that we were standing on even ground now and that she was only a mere inch or two shorter than I was. I figured her age of death was around twenty to twenty-four. About a decade younger than myself when I was turned.
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