The Darkening (A Coming of Age Horror Novel) (The Great Rift Book 1)

by Christopher Motz

  After that, he gave Sam a wide berth. He still yelled at her every chance he got, but his threats were of the idle variety and Sam knew it. At times like these, when the house was empty, she made the most of it. She walked around in her underwear eating a huge bowl of Lucky Charms. MTV played loudly in the other room.

  She was still rattled by what had happened at the mall. She’d finally found a boy she really liked, only to find he was tied up in some crazy, unimaginable plot from a science fiction movie. She couldn’t determine if it was all some crazy dream. It hadn’t been so long ago when she’d put the monsters of her childhood behind her, the ones that crouched beneath the bed and hid in darkened closets. Monsters are real after all, but now they hid in plain sight.

  Goosebumps broke out on Sam’s neck as a frigid wind tore through the living room. Her breath steamed from her mouth as the temperature plummeted. Sam turned and caught a fast-moving shadow in her periphery as the bowl of cereal was ripped from her grasp and thrown into the wall; the bowl shattered on impact, spraying milk, glass, and marshmallows over the couch and carpet. Sparks erupted from the back of the TV as the picture went dark in the middle of a ZZ Top video. Laughter crackled from the television’s speaker, buried beneath a shrieking mechanical hiss.

  She ran upstairs as quickly as she could, feeling the warmth of the second floor slowly work its way into her bones. She pulled on a pair of shorts, grabbed her sneakers, and ran outside. She wasn’t waiting around to see if the Skryel had other plans for her. She sat on the front porch trembling, hoping Danny was on his way. Her nerves settled as she listened to musical birdsong in the trees. This insanity couldn’t continue. Maybe Danny and Eric were okay being chased around by that fucking thing, but she certainly was not.

  When she saw them round the corner and approach the house, she bounded off the porch to greet them, throwing open the front gate and jumping into Danny’s arms.

  “Oh, my God, I could kiss you right now,” she said.

  “Don’t let me stop you,” Eric joked.

  Sam kissed Danny on the lips, pressing his cheeks together between her palms. It was sweet and innocent, but it meant the world to Danny. He stood back, breathless as she kissed Eric on the cheek and smiled.

  “I needed that,” Eric said, blushing. “We need to come here more often.”

  Sam explained what had happened to her as they crossed town on their way to Ben’s. Danny was scared for her, but was also glad it hadn’t been worse. He wasn’t sure how much Sam could take, being thrust into this crazy situation unwillingly and seemingly overnight.

  They walked hand-in-hand, and for a moment felt like everything would be okay. The only thing missing was Brent. It didn’t feel right without him, but Sam knew Danny wouldn’t give up without a fight.

  Not if he had a choice.

  ***

  Brent’s leg throbbed with infection.

  He sat in his bathroom, naked from the waist down, poking at the swollen flesh. Yellow pus trickled from the wound, the skin around it turning an alarming shade of purple. The more he prodded, the worse it became. It felt like something was moving just below the surface of his skin.

  Brent grabbed a pair of tweezers from the medicine cabinet and spread the seeping hole in his thigh. He couldn’t see anything, but he sure as hell felt it. He gritted his teeth and dug deeper as clots of blood pattered to the floor. Grimacing, he opened the wound wider and stopped with a gasp.

  “Oh… oh no,” he stuttered.

  Two black antennae poked from the wound and Brent froze, watching as a wasp birthed itself from the bloody hole.

  Shocked, he fell back against the toilet bowl and held his breath as the wasp took flight, landing on his toothbrush and watching him from across the room. After a few lazy circles, it glided onto his knee, searching for the warm, wet meat of its new home.

  Before it could burrow back inside, Brent crushed it between his palm and thigh, moaning as pain shot down to his toes. A chunk of reddish-green slime squirted from the wound and covered the inside of his hand.

  Brent vomited into the bathroom sink and collapsed to the floor. He spent the next hour sprawled on the linoleum as wasps exited his leg and swarmed around the room. They crawled in his hair, squeezed into his ears and nostrils, exploring every inch of their living, breathing nest. He faded in and out of consciousness as his body hummed with the sound of its new inhabitants.

  The pain diminished, turning to a pleasant warmth.

  They needed him…

  …and Brent needed them.

  ***

  They’d just reached Ben’s house when thunder rolled across the sky. The clouds opened and rain pelted the ground in sheets.

  “You got here just in time,” Ben said. “Seems like you’re missing someone.”

  Eric shook his head and sighed heavily.

  The wind kicked up, bringing with it the melodic sound of wind chimes. The fire whistle blasted once as if startled as lightning struck nearby.

  “The power just went out,” Ben said. “How’s that for an omen?” He frowned and handed them each a cold Dr. Pepper. “How’s Brent’s leg?”

  “You saw that?” Eric asked.

  “It was kind of hard not to. He was stung by a wasp I imagine?”

  “Yes,” Sam said. “How’d you know?”

  “The Skryel has claimed many different species from other worlds to become its personal guard. The wasps are only one of them. There are also some very nasty wolves, giant vultures, and a rare species of firecat. Trust me, you don’t ever want to run into them, or it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”

  Danny shuddered, imagining these horrors in his mind. “What about the wasps? Is Brent going to be okay?”

  “They’re slow but mean, and the venom they carry in their stingers is nasty stuff. We’re going to have to move fast if we have any chance of saving him.”

  “So he’s going to die.” Danny’s voice cracked with emotion. How is this happening so fast?

  “He doesn’t have to,” Ben said. “If we can stop The Darkening and send the Skryel away, there’s still a chance. The poison will dissipate and Brent has a chance to recover. The longer he’s infected, the worse it gets.”

  “Explain The Darkening,” Danny said. “You’ve said it more than once, and I still don’t understand what it is.”

  “To put it plainly, it’s the end of all things. As the Skryel pulls more energy from the planet, the world will darken. The sun will dim and the land will grow colorless. Plants will start dying, strange events will begin happening more frequently. There’s a chance other entities will cross through the veil as it weakens. Eventually, it will become full night, the monster will reach its potential, and the sun will rise no more.”

  “The Darkening,” Danny whispered.

  “Are you ready to hear the rest?” Ben asked.

  They nodded.

  “Billions of years passed as the universe expanded. Planets were born and began multiplying, residing directly next to one another, but hidden from view of the others. The same energies involved creating one, created many, mostly in a mirror image of the one right next door. These alternate realities are known as slips. The more energy, the more potential for additional realities. It’s really that simple. Theoretical science has over-complicated everything.

  “As life evolved in the universe, so did technology. Some races were millions of years ahead of humans. Space travel had become a reality long before humans had discovered electricity. Time travel followed. The universe had become crowded. Realities were overlapping, creating cataclysmic results and giving birth to races of deformed monsters and aberrations. The Skryels took it upon themselves to become a universal clean-up crew.”

  “You mean they destroyed it?” Eric asked. He sipped his Dr. Pepper and moved uneasily in his chair. He was getting the creeps.

  “Not exactly. The Skryels were not evil. They’d spent millennia in the void with nothing to do. Everything in the multiverse has a purpo
se, and until then the Skryels did not. It’s not like there’s some cosmic temp agency handing out jobs, they did it because it needed to be done.”

  “There wasn’t a better way?” Sam asked. “The only solution was to kill and destroy?”

  “Sometimes things have to die for others to live. That’s just how it works. You look up at the night sky and think it’s infinite, but the truth is, there’s only so much room, and once it’s full the universe ceases to expand. It becomes stagnant, starts to rot… and then everything, everywhere dies.

  “The universe needs constant renewal; removing dying planets and empty realities was a necessary evil. The Skryels were doing what was required for the survival of the cosmos. As the eons passed, they began growing jealous of what the other races had. They watched the dead spaces of the universe suddenly come to life with light and sound. They’d known nothing but darkness for so long, that seeing these lesser races master the ability to harness energy in ways they never could only hastened their rise to anger.

  “Earth was the final straw. The Skryels resided in the Earth realities for centuries, but once the planets were populated, the creatures were forced underground. As humans evolved, they were forced out, no longer having a place to hide. They hated us for it, and to this day the war to reclaim Earth continues.”

  “That’s what this is all about?” Danny shouted. “A pissing contest?”

  Ben didn’t reply. He stared blankly into the gray sky, squinting against the pain that had suddenly settled behind his eyes. Danny reached out to him as lightning filled the sky, forcing him to cover his eyes. The afterimages had been burned into their retinas.

  Sam was the first to regain her vision, and the sound of her voice explained everything.

  “He’s gone,” she said. “Ben’s gone.”

  Chapter 12

  It wasn’t the first time the Skryel had yanked Ben into another dimension. This part of the game had been going on for a thousand years… it had become something of a tradition meant to distract and intimidate Ben as the endgame approached. It had never worked before, but the monster had never been one to learn from its mistakes.

  Ben looked to the gray sky and shivered. Two identical towers of steel and glass had poked holes in the low clouds. On Danny’s Earth, these buildings were immediately recognizable, but the horror of September 11th, 2001 was still fifteen years in the future. Time as we know it wasn’t the same for Ben. He waged war in multiple pasts and multiple futures in a million different realities. The events of 9/11 were purely the Skryel’s handiwork… a tragedy set in motion to guarantee chaos and a death toll. An attempt at creating a world war to rival all others.

  Once again, however, the human race had prevailed.

  “Where are you, Shadowking? Why bring me here? This is a testament to your evil, and to your failure.” The skyscrapers groaned as his voice echoed down the empty Manhattan streets. A stale wind blew up Liberty Street, trailing a wall of thick gray dust and the smells of rot and abandonment.

  On John Street, a building collapsed as the Skryel stepped through the veil. It floated above the broken street, dragging dirt and trash in its wake. It rushed forward, smiling at Ben with what remained of its rotten lips. The face it used as a disguise hung off its bulging head like a macabre Halloween mask.

  “Guardian,” it hissed. “So nice to meet up like this again. It’s kind of nostalgic, don’t you think?”

  “What do you want? You know you can’t harm me, and you’ll never have the boy.”

  “On the contrary, I have everything I need. It’s all quickly falling into place.”

  “He has to join you willingly, and I can assure you that will never happen. You’ve created a very powerful enemy, one who’s much too smart to do your bidding.”

  “Smart, yes, but the boy is in love. When these mindless rats are in love, they don’t think clearly. They start making mistakes, chasing that first kiss, that first fuck, brains flooded with thoughts of marriage and procreation. The concept is disgusting.”

  “You’ve never understood human nature, and it’s why you always fail. Love is what will save them. They’ll fight to protect it, fight to protect their freedom and their families. All you’ve done is brought them closer together.” Ben looked up at the World Trade Center and pointed. “Wasn’t this enough of a failure? You turned the dead into heroes and this great city came together like nothing else seen in human history. That is what love can do, Shadowking. They prevailed simply by honoring their dead and refusing to crumble beneath the threat of annihilation.”

  “Shut your mouth, impostor! You’ve taken their image and share their home, but you’re not one them. You’re no better than I. The number of bodies in your wake is as great as mine. You’ve killed your own, just as I have. Everything is done for a reason. We are the same, Guardian.”

  “We’re nothing alike. You kill to destroy, to hurt, to show your power. You enjoy the stink of rotting corpses. What I have done has been out of mercy for the greater good. Don’t convince yourself that you and I kill for the same reasons.”

  “Two sides of the same coin, old man. The point remains the same. I will have the boy, and when I do, Earth will fall at my feet. The scum has had it too good for far too long, and when the streets are paved in blood and bones, I’ll be waiting for you, Guardian. Your suffering will be legendary.”

  The Skryel disappeared, leaving Ben standing alone in a broken world. With a thunderous roar, the Twin Towers crumbled before him as thousands of voices screamed in unison, trapped in that moment of fear when their world fell out from under them.

  Ben vanished. It was one event he didn’t need to relive. It had sent a shockwave throughout the multiverse, leaving a permanent scar in all worlds.

  As the Guardian drifted in the black, timeless void between realities, he vowed to help banish the Skryel for good… even if it meant making the ultimate sacrifice.

  ***

  Sam pointed and stuttered, knocking her can of soda off the edge of the porch railing. “You… you disappeared!”

  “I apologize,” Ben said. “Was I gone long?”

  “Only a few seconds,” Eric said, “but you scared the hell out of us.”

  “It’s a very old and useless play from the creature’s handbook. Don’t worry about it.”

  “You were in The Gray,” Danny stated.

  “I was, and not a particularly pleasant one. Time is much shorter than I thought, and I need to prepare you for what happens next.”

  “And what is that exactly?” Danny asked.

  “War.”

  A hush fell over them as they stared fearfully at one another. Sam rested her head on Danny’s shoulder. Eric nervously plucked the hem of his shorts.

  “Once the Skryels were done with their extermination,” Ben said, “they left it to us to clean up what remained. We finished the job as the Skryels moved on to their next extinction. Some races who were unfortunate enough to survive the apocalypse had ended up living in a miserable, forgotten world, eking out an existence filled with pain and suffering until their reality was extinguished.

  “The Guardians were merciful. We were seen as gods of salvation by those who’d been left behind. They begged us for quick deaths and an end to their suffering. The Skryels saw us as a threat, jealous that we had been elevated to such a place of power. They began exterminating the Guardians, and the war between us raged for centuries until there were only a few remaining. The Skryel killed off the last of its race so it could claim the throne unchallenged, and I fled here to protect the last great civilization in the universe.”

  “You mean there’s nothing else out there? We’re alone?” Eric asked. He’d never felt so small or so lost in his entire life.

  “No,” Ben said. “There are other races, other civilizations, but humans are the only one of their kind. You’re truly a very unique race, one that must be protected at any cost.”

  “But why us?” Danny asked. “Why now?”

  �
�The Skryel needs a tremendous amount of energy to manifest. It was easier when there were so many of them, but by itself, it’s weak without help. It kills as many people as it can and intercepts their essence. The human soul is the most powerful energy in all creation… it uses it as an inexhaustible fuel source, a battery. When the soul is taken, all knowledge of that person ceases to be. Your souls constantly reach out to one another, and when one has been removed, their very existence is erased. This is what happened to Charlie. The beast will feed until the soul withers and dies… collateral damage in its war against humans.”

  Danny covered his face and cried. The idea of his friend being used as a power source and thrown away was too much to bear.

  “You’re a doorway, Danny. Your soul burns brighter and offers the monster a fuel source that’s a million times stronger than others. There are doorways everywhere, people just like you, but most live their entire lives without knowing it. Unfortunately, this time it has chosen you. The veil in Elmview is barely holding on by a thread; the Skryel doesn’t need nearly as much energy to pass over. In the end, there are only two ways to close a door - death or victory.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?” Danny shouted. He stood and balled his fists, looking like he was about to strike the old man. “I have to die for this thing to go away?”

  “Either that or banish it.”

  “How the fuck do I do that? It’s impossible!”

  “Nothing is impossible, but if death is the only answer, it’s a decision only you can make. The door closes, and the Skryel has to return to the void to start again.”

  Sam pulled Danny to the glider and cried with him. She felt helpless. She wanted nothing more than to kiss away his hot tears and make it all go away; the only solution didn’t seem like a solution at all. Eric looked away, feeling the moment was too private to watch. Instead, he turned to Ben and asked the question that had been burning in his mind since the incident at the mall.

  “My father was a doorway, wasn’t he?”

  “Yes, Eric, he was. He was a brave man, and he sacrificed himself so the rest of human creation would live on. Whatever that monster tells you, ignore it. Your father saved us all.”