Darkness Wakes

by Tim Waggoner

  Caroline walked over to Aaron and took his hands. “We don’t have a choice. You heard what he said. He knows about Penumbra … at least, he knows something’s here. If we let him go, he’ll start telling people about us, and once that happens — ”

  “It’s over,” Phillip said. “Penumbra will be exposed and the Overshadow will be revealed to the world.” He scowled at Caroline. “And while I can’t say my dear wife used her best judgment in taking you to Deja Brew, Aaron, I have to agree with her. This man must be dealt with.”

  “Dealt with?” Aaron repeated, incredulous. “Jesus, you sound like a B-movie villain!” He took his hands away from Caroline, and she made no move to take them again.

  “Lighten up,” Gillian said. “After all, you’re the one who went psycho and caved the guy’s head in. Besides, it’s not like he’ll be the first.”

  Phillip spun around to face Gillian. “That’s enough!”

  “Well, it’s true, isn’t it?” she said. “Why bother playing games at this point?”

  Trevor quickly stepped between the two of them. “We don’t have time for bickering. If we’re going to take him into the back room, then we’d better do it before he weakens any further.”

  “What difference could that make?” Aaron asked.

  “The Overshadow won’t accept a dead sacrifice,” Caroline said in such a matter-of-fact tone that it gave Aaron a chill. “And while it will accept one that’s weak or injured — ”

  “If a sacrifice is too damaged, the Overshadow doesn’t give pleasure then,” Shari said. “It … punishes you, makes you feel sick and miserable. It’s so awful you’d give anything for the Overshadow to take it away — including your own life.” She shuddered at the thought.

  “For that reason we’re very careful about whom we take in back,” Wyatt said. “They have to be strong and in good health.”

  “Sometimes we make mistakes,” Spencer added. “Why, just last month one of us brought in a woman who was a heroin addict and …” Spencer locked gazes with Aaron then and paused, eyes widening as if he realized he’d been about to say too much. He glanced at the others who, Aaron noted, were all frowning at the overweight insurance agent.

  Spencer licked at the perpetual trickle of blood dripping from his nose. “But that’s not important right now. In fact — ” he gave Aaron a weak smile — “forget I said anything.”

  “I’m not about to forget any of this!” Aaron said. “Caroline told me Penumbra’s been in existence for thirty years. How many people have been offered to the Overshadow in that time? Dozens? Hundreds?”

  No one spoke for a moment, but then Spencer said, “I’m afraid the members of Caroline’s parents’ generation didn’t keep accurate records. So it’s impossible to say. If I were to estimate, however — ”

  “Shut up, Spencer,” Caroline said. “You’ve said more than enough for one evening.”

  Spencer’s mouth closed with an audible click of his teeth. Embarrassed, he lowered his gaze to the floor. Tiny drops of blood pooled on his upper lip before falling to the tile floor.

  Caroline went on. “Gillian’s right. It’s time to stop playing games.” She turned toward Aaron and put her arms around his neck. He wanted to pull away from her touch — a murderer’s touch — but he remained where he was.

  “You were originally attracted to Penumbra, and to me because you have a need deep inside you, Aaron. A need that’s gone unfulfilled for far too long. Last night, when we sacrificed a rabbit to the Overshadow, you had a taste of the pleasure that you’ve been missing in your life, and unless I’m very much mistaken, you liked it.” She began lightly stroking the sides of his neck with her fingers.

  Despite himself, Aaron said, “I did.”

  “What you experienced last night at the Overshadow’s touch was nothing compared to what you’ll experience tonight if you choose to go into the back room with us. The sensations you felt, while intense, are as a sputtering candle flame compared to a blazing inferno. You’re so close to finding what you’ve been looking for all these years. You can’t turn away now.”

  Aaron could feel the need Caroline spoke of quivering inside him. Extreme hunger, intense thirst, raging lust, absolute loneliness … it was all of these combined and more, ratcheted up to a level that he hadn’t thought possible. Simply put, he needed, and only the Overshadow could provide.

  He glanced over at Bryan lying on the couch, eyes closed, face pale, breathing shallow …. How could Aaron condone purchasing his relief with the life of another human being?

  The fucker attacked you, the Dad-Voice said. He deserved what he got. And you heard what Gillian said: he’s going to die no matter what you do. So why not allow his pathetic excuse of a life to be redeemed in death?

  Aaron understood what the Dad-Voice as saying and found himself tempted to agree. But was that what he really felt or what the hunger inside him wanted him to feel?

  “It’s your choice, Aaron,” Caroline said gently. “Stay or go.”

  Aaron wanted to believe he had a choice, but from the grim expressions on the others’ faces, he knew that if he didn’t willingly go into the back room with them, he’d end up going unwillingly. And if that happened, Aaron didn’t think he’d ever leave the back room again, at least not alive.

  There’s an upside to this you haven’t considered, the Dad-Voice said. After tonight, neither Mr. Muscle-Shirt nor any of his relatives will be able to press any charges against you for caving in his skull.

  Aaron was ashamed to find himself feeling relieved by this notion.

  What’s to feel bad about? They’re going to feed him to their pet monster anyway. It’s not like you could stop them even if you wanted to.

  Maybe not, Aaron thought, but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t try.

  He took a step toward Phillip and got as far as grabbing his arm before nausea twisted his gut and vertigo spiraled through his brain. He let go of Phillip’s arm and stumbled backward, feeling so weak that it was a struggle to stay on his feet.

  Phillip smirked. “A noble effort, but you’ve been touched by the Overshadow. There’s nothing you can do to harm it now, including denying it a meal.”

  “You’re one of us now, lover,” Gillian said. The crimson portion of her odd eye seemed to pulse with a baleful red light. “Whether you like it or not.”

  “Oh, he likes it just fine,” Caroline said. “He’s just having a bit of difficulty admitting it to himself.” She cupped Aaron’s cheek with her hand. “But he’ll adjust soon enough. Won’t you, sweetie?”

  The weakness and nausea began to subside, and Aaron stood straight, shaky, but in control of his body once more. He looked at Caroline but he didn’t say anything. He feared that any response he might make could bring on another near-crippling wave of discomfort. It seemed he was along for the ride tonight, whether he liked it or not.

  “Enough foreplay,” Gillian said. “Let’s get this hunk into the back room before he croaks.”

  Phillip frowned at Gillian. “If anyone ever accused you of having too much class, they were lying.”

  Gillian stuck her tongue out at Phillip, but he ignored her and motioned to Wyatt to join him at the couch. Phillip took Bryan’s arms and Wyatt his legs and the two men lifted Bryan off the couch and carried him toward the door to the back room. Caroline removed a key from her jeans pocket, unlocked the door, then stepped aside to hold it open for the others. Phillip and Wyatt carried in Bryan first, followed by Trevor, Shari, Spencer, and Gillian. Aaron hung back as long as he could, but he felt pulled toward the open doorway and the darkness that waited beyond. The sensation grew with each passing second, until it had become so strong that Aaron thought nothing could prevent him from joining the others. Still, as if to make sure he came, Caroline took hold of his hand and led him inside.

  As soon as they were across the threshold, Caroline released Aaron’s hand and closed the door, cutting off the light from the outer room. At first the Overshadow’s chamber was ju
st as dark as it had been last night, but Aaron’s vision quickly began to adjust. It seemed his eyes had changed, just as Caroline had promised they would. Another blessing bestowed by the Overshadow’s cold touch. The room looked more gray than black now, and Aaron could make out the forms of the others as distinct dark silhouettes that held only a suggestion of individual features. He also had a sense of the chamber’s basic dimensions — the distance from one wall to another, from the ceiling to the floor. But the object that drew his attention the most was in the exact center of the room, surrounded by a circle etched into the concrete floor.

  The shape was seven, maybe eight feet tall and three feet wide. Its inky black substance seemed to rise and fall slowly, as if it were a column of dark water held in some invisible container. It was wider at the base than the top, and its surface was smooth and featureless. The way the thing pulsed made Aaron think of a huge, throbbingly erect penis. His first sight of the creature called the Overshadow filled him with a confused mixture of conflicting emotions: revulsion, fear, hatred, wonder, lust, reverence, and love.

  Just as she had last night, Caroline led him to the edge of the circle. Aaron again felt waves of cold emanating from the Overshadow, but instead of making him uncomfortable, the cold was soothing, welcoming. It washed away his doubts until he felt as if he were standing in the one place in the universe where he truly belonged, ready to perform the single task that he had been born to do — feeding his god.

  Aaron watched with calm detachment as Wyatt and Phillip carried Bryan’s unconscious form to the edge of the circle. They laid him down gently on the concrete floor and then rolled him into the circle until his body rested on its side only a foot away from the Overshadow’s thick base. Phillip and Wyatt then stood and took their places outside the circle. Wyatt — the policeman — stood on Aaron’s right side as if he were determined to ensure that the group’s newest member didn’t do something foolish to disrupt the ceremony. Wyatt needn’t have bothered, though. Aaron’s reluctance and confusion had vanished, and he was looking forward to what was to come as much as any of the others.

  At first the Overshadow didn’t seem to be aware that a new sacrifice had been laid before it, and Aaron began to fear that Bryan had died in the time it had taken them to carry him in from the outer room. He remembered what Shari had said the Overshadow would do to them, how awful it would make them feel if they brought it an unsuitable sacrifice. But then a groan escape from Bryan’s lips and the man struggled to sit up. By this time Aaron’s vision had adjusted even more, and he could now discern Bryan’s facial features as the man reached up and gingerly touched his head wound.

  Bryan winced in pain. “Christ almighty, what the hell happened? The last thing I remember was sitting at the bar and having a drink — ”

  Whether the man’s memory would ever return completely was destined to remain unknown. A pseudopod emerged from the Overshadow’s side and quickly lengthened into a tentacle. The dark appendage lunged toward Bryan’s open mouth with the speed of a striking snake and flowed between his teeth and down his throat. Bryan’s eyes went wide and he clawed frantically at the ebon tendril that had penetrated his body. But though he could grab hold of the pseudopod, could hit it, squeeze it, scratch it, yank on it, he couldn’t dislodge it. Though it was difficult to tell given the Overshadow’s black substance, it appeared that the tentacle continued to lengthen, burrowing into Bryan’s body and filling him with its darkness. Small tendrils emerged from his nostrils and ears, poked through the corners of his eyes, tips writhing as they wormed their way outward. Bryan stopped trying to pull the main tentacle out of his mouth and his body began convulsing violently, as if millions of volts of electricity surged through him. What Aaron first took to be black hair began to grow from Bryan’s face and hands, but as the tiny “hairs” began to lengthen, Aaron realized that what he was seeing was thousands of whisker-thin tendrils of the Overshadow’s black substance oozing forth from the pores in Bryan’s skin. The tendrils — large and small — began to flow together and merge, covering Bryan’s spasming body in a coating of darkness. When the covering was complete, Bryan’s exertions began to lessen until he lay still within the shadowy cocoon created by the Overshadow. A moment passed, then two, and then the darkness began to recede, flowing off Bryan’s body and back into the main pseudopod extruding from the Overshadow’s side. The tentacle then retracted and rejoined the column of blackness, leaving no sign that it had ever existed.

  Aaron looked at Bryan’s body, or rather what was left of it. His clothing was intact, but his form had shrunken in on itself, skin parchment dry and leathery, hair and beard bleached white, desiccated lips drawn back to expose yellowed teeth, eyes sunken into the skull, leaving behind twin dark hollows. The skin of his hands had become so dry and tight that the tips of the fingerbones had broken through, making it appear as if Bryan had grown two sets of ivory claws.

  Aaron had no doubt the man was dead, his lifeforce having been leeched away by the dark creature undulating within the circle. A small voice deep within Aaron that belonged to the rational portion of his mind cried out in horror at the sight of the mummified corpse. But the rest of Aaron barely heard it. He was anticipating the reward he was about to receive. Eight pseudopods emerged from the center of the Overshadow and extended toward the humans who stood at the edge of the circle that bound it. The tentacles then gently touched each of the eight on the forehead and slid past skin and bone and into their brains.

  The cold touch of the Overshadow’s tentacle made Aaron gasp, and he took in a deep breath as the tentacle dug into his mind. He didn’t worry about what damage the Overshadow might be doing to his brain this time. He was completely focused on receiving the great gift the Overshadow was about to bestow on him. Yesterday the Overshadow had been given a rabbit, and the pleasure that it had in turn granted its worshippers had been beyond anything Aaron had ever experienced or imagined. Despite what the others had hinted at, Aaron hadn’t been able to conceive of the Overshadow being able to make him feel any better than he had last night. But tonight the creature had feasted on a human being, and as it began manipulating the pleasure centers of its worshippers’ brains to show its gratitude, Aaron realized how wrong he’d been. Every cell, every atom, every subatomic particle of his being was awash in ecstasy beyond human comprehension. He felt as if he had become One with all existence, that he was fucking and being fucked by all creation. He was both God and God’s lover. He was all, he was nothing, he was everything. Life and death, good and evil, pleasure and pain … he was all these things and so much more. He was the most unstable particle that winks out of existence nanoseconds after its creation, and he was eternal. And though the immensity of the experience threatened to obliterate his individual self, somehow he still remained Aaron Rittinger.

  Once again, Aaron felt the Overshadow reaching outward, trying to connect to him mind to mind, soul to soul … Strange, alien concepts flashed though his consciousness. Twisted shapes, distorted sounds, dark hungers for which humanity had no words … It hurt to experience them, as if the hardware of his brain wasn’t designed to process these inhuman thoughts. In his mind’s eye, he saw himself standing inside the Overshadow’s circle, though there was no sign of the shadow-creature itself. He saw himself take a step toward the circle’s perimeter, pause, and then step over the line etched into the concrete floor. It seemed so real, felt so real, as if he were that Aaron instead of the one whose body he currently inhabited.

  And then the vision ended.

  Aaron feel to his knees, heart pounding, lungs heaving, sweat pouring off his body. He looked at the others, saw that Spencer was lying on his back gasping for air, saw Gillian with her hand shoved down her pants, frantically masturbating. Trevor and Shari sat on the floor, Shari sitting in her husband’s lap, Trevor with his arms around her, both with their eyes closed and content, dreamy smiles on their faces. Wyatt stood with his hands clenched at his sides, legs trembling, taking deep breaths as if he w
ere trying to ride out the last of the sensations granted by the Overshadow. Caroline and Phillip stood as well, holding hands and smiling contentedly at one another.

  Caroline turned to Aaron.

  “Now you truly are one of us,” she said.

  Aaron looked at the dried husk that had once been a loud-mouthed asshole named Bryan, and his mouth slowly stretched into a lopsided smile.

  “Great.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Aaron sat behind the wheel of his Lexus, engine idling, the motor’s vibrations sending tiny ripples of pleasure throughout his body. He hated to admit it but the others had been right: the sensations the Overshadow provided in thanks for a rabbit’s life were nothing compared to what he had experienced — was still experiencing — tonight.

  Aaron stared through his windshield, still not used to the change that had occurred to his vision. Instead of blacks and dark blues, the nightworld was painted in varying shades of gray. He couldn’t see as well as he could in full daylight, but it was damned close. He wondered if this was what it was like to be a cat or owl … a creature more at home in the darkness than the light.

  He’d parked behind the strip mall, outside a featureless door that, according to Caroline, led to the Overshadow’s chamber. Aaron hoped he’d parked by the right one. He was still buzzing from the Overshadow’s touch and had a bit of trouble maneuvering his car back here, and it didn’t help that this door didn’t have fuckle or its equivalent scratched into the paint to identify it. Now that Aaron was alone and in his car, he knew he could take off if he wanted to. But he had several reasons for sticking around. The most important was that he was still awash in the afterglow of the Overshadow’s touch, and he didn’t trust himself to operate his vehicle safely over any distance — not without someone riding shotgun, anyway.

  “So what’s wrong with me? I’ll watch the road for you.”

  Aaron looked at the rearview mirror and saw his father’s face reflected in the glass. As usual, Martin Rittinger was scowling.