Darkness Within (The Darkness Series Book 1)

by Candis Vargo

  “Yeah man it’s cool, come on over. Though I’d love to know what the hell you did.”

  “I beat the shit out of my neighbors’ car.”

  “The fucking car that costs as much as a damn house?”

  “Yeah,” Mike said, rubbing his temple with two fingers, “that one. Just shut up, I’ll be over.” He hung up and drove off to Anthony’s.

  When Mike showed up he walked up the stairs that led to Anthony’s small, one bedroom apartment. He didn’t bother knocking before he walked in. The front door led right into the living room, which was open and attached to the kitchen. Mike always swore that Anthony would never be able to find a woman to settle down with, not just because of his cockiness, but because his apartment was your standard bachelor pad.

  Every wall in his apartment covered in the same tan paint it was when he moved in and his furniture was minimal. He had your standard couch with a TV stand and gaming console. The only appliance he had that didn’t come with the place was a coffee pot.

  Though he was never in Anthony’s bedroom, he was sure that it only held a mattress that probably didn’t even have a bed frame.

  “You did it, didn’t you? You went and lost the last of your damn marbles…” Anthony sat on the couch looking over at him as he closed the door.

  “I’m a little too drunk to do this right now, Anthony.” Mike held his hand up as to shush him as he walked over to the couch and flopped down next to Anthony. “But, please, if anyone asks…say I was here all night. I’m so screwed.”

  “Yeah, I got your back.” Anthony stood up and threw Mike the blanket he was sitting on before walking towards his bedroom. “Mikey has gone and lost what sanity he had left, ladies and gentlemen.”

  But Mike was already asleep and didn’t hear a word Anthony said.

  ***

  When Mike felt his body shake, not by his own doing, he jumped up almost spilling the cup of coffee Anthony was holding out for him.

  “Whoa, man, you all right?” Anthony laughed.

  It seemed like everything was always a joke to him, something Mike would never understand.

  “Yeah, I’m good,” Mike replied as he took the cup of coffee and took a sip, nearly vomiting at how stale it tasted. “Just been a rough couple of days is all.”

  “Well, relax man. Try to loosen up, let things just roll off your shoulders, you know?”

  “Yeah.” If only you knew, Mike thought.

  “Well, just try not to carry it with you at work. Come on, we’re running late.” Anthony took Mike’s cup of coffee and smacked him on the arm. “I’m driving us there you drunk fuck. We’ll get you a real cup of coffee along the way. That shit was made days ago, I just nuked it.”

  Mike sat up and rubbed his head, still groggy from the night before. Once they were outside Mike practically fumbled down the stairs, damn he needed some coffee and some Ibuprofen. His head was killing him and he felt like he was still buzzing from last night.

  He climbed inside Anthony’s large, red, diesel truck, cursing him for revving the engine which made his head throb even more. On their drive to work, Mike sat in the passenger seat with his hands folded in between his legs. He was huddled over, like he was trying to take up as little space as possible.

  “So you really did it,” Anthony laughed. “You really fucked up your neighbor’s car?”

  Mike groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

  It wasn’t like him to do something so ruthless, so evil. As much as his neighbors pissed him off, he wouldn’t do anything to vandalize their property. At least that’s how he used to be.

  He shouldn’t have drank as much as he did. He told himself it was the alcohol mixed with his pent up anger and frustration. Alcohol only enhanced emotions and in his case, it flung him into overdrive.

  “What the hell are you going to do, man? The cops are bound to come asking you questions.”

  “I was with you all night, remember.”

  Anthony laughed harder. “You really did lose your marbles…”

  Mike ignored his comments and went back to staring out the window.

  “You all right, man?” Anthony asked.

  “Yeah. I’m fine, just tired.”

  “You sure? You keep flinching over there. You can’t sit still. You look like a crack head going through some withdrawals.”

  Mike didn’t realize he was even moving until Anthony said that. He tried to loosen up a bit but to no prevail.

  Anthony eyed him nervously. “Maybe when we get you some good coffee it’ll help calm your nerves.”

  Mike just nodded.

  Anthony just couldn’t let it go. After a few more moments he continued, “Do you want to talk, man? Just between you and me, like doctor and lawyer or some shit.”

  Mike rested his arm on the door and started chewing on his fingernails as he looked out the window.

  “There's…there’s something following me,” he spoke matter-of-factly.

  “What?” Anthony laughed.

  “I know it sounds crazy, but I’m not crazy…you know that. I’ve been seeing shit. I’ve tried to ‘get rid of it’ or what you will, but it’s getting worse.”

  “Are you sure you haven’t just been smoking crack?”

  “I know how it sounds,” Mike shook his head. “I’ve told myself the same damn thing. I just…never mind.”

  Anthony pulled into the parking lot of a local convenient store to hold true to his word on getting Mike a cup of coffee.

  Anthony’s tone changed from his usual arrogant self to one more serious. “No…listen. I don’t believe in any of that ghost humble jumble, but my cousin, on the other hand…swears she was possessed. Now, if you’d ask me, I’d say she just needed to be locked up in the Looney bin, bitch was crazy. Still is.

  “Anyway, I guess she saw somebody who she says ‘healed her soul’ or some shit. I know all you’ve been through, and you’ve come a long way from everything you’ve been dealing with these past couple of months. I can get a hold of her and find out his number for you, if you’d want. I guess he practically lives in some church a few hours from here, his name is Father John, or something like that.”

  Chapter 23

  Mike snapped his head to the side, finally looking at Anthony. “What’d you just say?”

  Anthony narrowed his brows, “Um…I could get the number for you. Is that cool?”

  “Yeah,” Mike nodded. “Yeah, thanks.”

  “All right, I’ll be right back. Black, right?”

  Images of the darkness danced in his mind and it took Mike a second to realize that Anthony was talking about his coffee. “Yeah, black.”

  He watched as Anthony walked into the store and the moment he disappeared behind an aisle of goods, Mike jumped out of the truck. He hurried to the side of the building and hid behind a blue dumpster that was overflowing with trash. The stench reminded him of the smell the last time the darkness was in his room…when it was restricting him.

  He stayed behind the dumpster, heart pounding in rhythm with his head. How in the hell was everyone in on this shit? Could they be the cause of this thing haunting him? It seemed like everyone he turned to knew something, was a part of something greater. Did they really put this darkness on him and his wife?

  But why, he wondered. What the hell did I do to deserve this shit? He thought about how most people have someone that is there for them through thick and thin and realized he had no one. No one stood by his side; everyone had abandoned him and his wife. They were left all alone to suffer the loss of their son, and no one deserved to lose their child.

  He began to wonder if they caused the accident. Was taking his son some sick way to put this demon in their lives? He wasn’t sure what the hell to think anymore, but he knew that some immoral people were out to destroy their lives.

  He wasn’t even sure if Anthony was actually part of this ‘greater plan’ shit going on, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to wait around and find out.

  He peeked out from
behind the dumpster, looking at Anthony’s car. He watched as Anthony walked up to it, realizing that Mike was no longer in there. Anthony glanced around the parking lot, looking for him. When he glanced towards the dumpster Mike turned his head back behind the dumpster, praying that Anthony didn’t see him.

  After a few seconds he looked back out and watched as Anthony got in his car and drove away.

  Mike became sick to his stomach as he realized there was something completely sinister going on. He stayed behind the dumpster a few more minutes, pondering what he could have possibly done to have pissed someone off bad enough to put a damn demon after him and possibly have killed his son.

  What did they want? Maybe they didn’t want anything...maybe it was just some sick way for them to enjoy themselves. In the way the world had become, he wouldn’t put something like that past anyone these days. He didn’t know if he’d ever get any answers, but he sure as he wasn’t staying around anyone who he thought somehow tied into all this shit.

  As he walked back to Anthony’s house he constantly looked over his shoulder and flinched with every passing vehicle. For nearly the first time in his life, he checked the back seat of his car before getting in it. He didn’t quite know what he was looking for, but he realized he couldn’t trust anyone. He was becoming paranoid.

  By the time he made it back to his house he found it empty, remembering that Mia was still at her mother’s just as she said she would be. He ran inside, slamming the door shut behind him. He ran down the empty hallway and into his bedroom, grabbing suitcases out of the closet and throwing them on the bed. He started grabbing handfuls of random clothes from the dresser and tossed them in the suitcases. He continued grabbing some of his clothes and some of Mia’s and threw them at the suitcases before shoving them in.

  He was getting the hell out of that town. He dialed Mia’s number and when he heard her voice mail click on he hung up and threw the phone on the mattress. Never answer the damn phone when it’s fucking important, he said to himself. As he was zipping up the bags, he froze in his tracks. He felt the familiar chill run down his spine and the overpowering stench of rotting flesh.

  Mike turned around and saw Mia standing in the doorway.

  “What the hell are you doing,” the harsh tone of her voice pierced into his soul.

  “We’re leaving,” Mike wasted no time. “We’re getting the hell out of here, now.”

  “I’m not going anywhere, this is my home. You’ve gone crazy! Why would we leave here? This is where our family was born, where our memories were made,” her fierce eyes meant every word she said.

  “Mia, listen to me,” he pleaded. “We need to get out of here. We should have left in the beginning, I don’t know what the hell we were thinking but we’re not staying around to find out what the hell is going to happen next!” He turned around and zipped another bag.

  “I’m not going anywhere, this is my home,” she repeated, only this time her voice warped with a deeper tone just as it had with Eli in his dream. Mike stopped zipping up the last of the bag green luggage bags. He stood straight up as he turned back around to face Mia. Mia was just a faded image inside of the mass of darkness. His body temperature rose and his hands balled into fists. He knew it wasn’t really Mia, but instead this demon that toyed with him. Fear turned into anger as he yelled at the intruder.

  “What do you want from me? What the hell do you want? Get out. Get out of my damn house!”

  His face reddened as his veins pulsated in his temples.

  He grabbed a suitcase and threw it at the darkness, watching as the suitcase passed through it.

  He expected as much.

  “What do you want? What do you fucking want?” Mike screamed, his throat starting to burn.

  The darkness slowly backed into the hallway and disappeared. Mike ran into the hallway, looking for it. He’d had enough and wanted this damn thing gone. He would find a way to beat it, to get it out of his house.

  Looking down towards the kitchen, Mike saw it just hovering in front of the counter, even without any eyes he knew that it was staring at him. Still engulfed with rage Mike ran at it, screaming. It vanished once again before he had reached it.

  His muscles tensed as he looked around. He knew it was still there, somewhere. He could feel it.

  “Where are you? Come on, come get me,” he pounded his fist against his chest. “Come get me!”

  His surroundings began to vibrate and a high pitched humming pierced his ears. Instinctively, he grabbed his ears as he dipped his head down, but he regained his composure after a moment.

  “That’s all you got,” he gave a halfhearted laugh as he tried to ignore the humming. “Come on! Come at me. Show me what you've got. Come on, huh. What the hell are you waiting for? Come on!”

  The humming grew louder and the whispers joined in as the cabinet doors opened. Dishes began falling out onto the floor, shattering as though they were hit with a sledge hammer. His heartbeat quickened and his palms grew sweaty, but he wasn’t going to let his fear take over him this time. His instincts took over and deep inside he knew this thing was out for his wife. In one swift moment the humming and whispers stopped as his surroundings stopped shaking. He could feel the heat rise in his face as he glanced around, waiting and listening.

  He heard the turning of a door knob, followed by a slow creaking. He looked over at the front door and watched it as it opened. When the door fully opened he saw Mia run in front of the doorway on the outside of the house.

  “Daddy.” Eli’s voice echoed within the darkness causing him to spin around.

  The darkness floated in the air as it started to form a vision of Mia from within it again. The image became clearer and he saw Mia hovering in the center of it.

  She floated there in her cascading white nightgown and her long brown hair hung over her shoulders. It raised one of its arms, extending it fully while pointing in the direction of the open door.

  Mia’s head jerked completely to the side, her ear colliding with her shoulder of the extended arm.

  Her eyes were filled with the darkness as her mouth opened wide, displaying the pit within it that matched the darkness that had created her.

  Her mouth never moved as the deep voice that tried to mimic Eli’s escaped her throat. “Run, daddy…Run!”

  The sound of the voice deepened as the last word stretched out.

  “Run!”

  His heart seized as he unconsciously ran out of the door, listening to the darkness yelling, Run.

  He wasn’t sure if he was actually obeying the darkness or if he was just running from it.

  But if the darkness was in there with him, then it had to have been Mia he had seen outside.

  “Mia!”

  As he ran out the door to find her it slammed shut behind him.

  Chapter 24

  He didn’t see Mia anywhere. He frantically searched all around the outside of the house yelling for her, determined to find her. He couldn’t lose the only thing he had left in this world.

  “Mia! Mia,” he called.

  She had to be there somewhere…she had to.

  When he made it back around the house and ended up in the driveway he placed his hand on his head and continued to look around.

  Confused and overwhelmed.

  Scared yet angry.

  He looked down the street and saw a figure standing by the road. Mike squinted his eyes though it didn’t help his vision.

  “Mia,” he called. It had to be her.

  It had to be.

  He ran down the street.

  “Hey, Mia!”

  The closer he got to her, the farther she seemed to be.

  “Mia, wait! Stop!”

  She never did.

  His chest burned with every rapid breath he took. A knot formed in the side of his stomach, causing him pain.

  But he kept running. Panic and desperation, he had to get her.

  There had to be something wrong with her. What was she running t
owards? Or was she running away from him? Why would she be running from him? She had to be running to something…she had to be.

  His legs started to buckle underneath him as they grew weaker with his every step. Exhaustion finally surpassed his strength, and he slowed to a stop.

  “Mia,” he tried to yell again but his throat was sore and dry from his deep breaths. He bent over resting one hand on his side hoping it would numb the pain and his other arm stretched out towards her like he would somehow be able to catch her.

  When he finally managed to catch his breath, he stood up and took in his surroundings.

  Somehow he had run all the way into town. He glanced over the familiarity of the buildings, searching for any sign of Mia.

  Glancing across the windows of the local shops that lined the other side of the street, he saw a little boy staring at him through a thin sheet of glass.

  His first instinct said Eli but no, it wasn’t Eli…Eli was dead. It was the damn thing that had been pretending to be Eli, making everyone think his wife was crazy.

  The boy’s eyes were narrow, piercing deep into Mike’s soul.

  He felt his rage grow within him again.

  This damn thing took his son from him, he knew it. And now it was posing as him, as his little boy. How could someone be so cruel as to do something like this? How could they take his boy from him and then turn around and stick this thing on them that taunted that fact in front of his face.

  That’s what it’s doing, taunting him. Saying it had won because it took his son from him.

  But it didn’t win.

  He wouldn’t let it.

  “Leave her alone,” Mike yelled as he barreled across the street. He flung the door open that led into the building where the boy stood and heard the familiar ringing of a bell.

  He came to a stop, letting the door close behind him. Looking to the far left, somehow he knew exactly what he would see.

  There, at the very table he would sit at in the coffee shop sat Kris and Father John. Kris immediately stood up at the sight of him.