Immortal Darkness

by David Falchi

  I wondered if, for all this time, I have been close to the source of those same weird phenomena that he, himself, said the he had witnessed.

  That would have been possible only if the presence inside of him had decided to remain momentarily dormant. It wasn’t such a far-flung theory; in fact, I had perceived some sort of blackness from the moment that he got close to me. I realized I had to keep an open mind.

  I approached the porch, where the shirt was still waving. Once I reached the stairs I opened the suitcase and I pulled out the holy crucifix that I used to store on the side.

  It was a present from a priest for whom I had solved a very peculiar haunting case: a poltergeist had targeted the church altar, therefore celebrating mass had become quite impossible. In fact, every time that the priest placed an item on the marble surface this would immediately start to float and attack the people around it.

  Those days Lerner had the time of his life, until a goblet almost broke the mirror and with it my assistant pale reflected life.

  I put the holy necklace on, and I immediately felt safer. Its effect couldn’t last more than a few minutes, but it actually was the exact amount of time that I needed to leave the house in case of danger. So, I pulled out the box that contained Lerner’s mirror, and then I grabbed the decorated brass handle and I looked at the surface. I don’t think my assistant liked the lawn; In fact, the garden reflected in the mirror was only made of few leaves of grass, and they were all black, just like the soil below. The gate was rusted and Mr. Guidi’s car didn’t look that different: the car body was wrecked and dented, as if it had been struck by a hailstorm. Behind the dirty windshield there seem to be a skeleton.

  «We are finally back to work», said Lerner, peeping out from the left side of the frame. «I like this new work pace, Master. Work, work, work».

  He had dropped the hostess uniform and now he was wearing civilian clothes. He had a long dark coat covered in what seemed like ash traces. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, and his skeletal hands were wrapped in white gloves. His face pointed at the house that was in front of us.

  «We might be in the wrong place». Now that we were alone I could allow myself the luxury of speaking in a loud voice. «I’m not getting any vibes from these walls».

  «I agree» commented Lerner, sniffing the air like a hound dog.

  «And yet, I’m sure something’s here. I can hardly sense it, but I know it’s here. Maybe it’s hiding from us».

  «Or maybe these are just the remains that the man in the car left in the house. Could he be the cause of this whole thing? »

  «He’s too clumsy to be truly possessed. I bet everything I have on the house».

  I nodded. It was good to have a friend to talk to, even though he was just a ghost who was incapable of doing anything in the real world; but it wasn’t just a matter of talking to someone. In fact, communicating with Lerner had a peculiar effect on me: whenever I talked to him my thoughts became crystal clear, and that helped me to express them with extreme accuracy. Besides, my assistant was provided with an astral sight that was way better than mine. After all, the afterlife was a subject that touched him closely.

  «Are you sure that you don’t want to bring a weapon? »

  I already had a small four-barrel shotgun in my coat’s pocket. It was loaded with silver bullets, which had been blessed by a bishop. This would have given a hard time to any spiritual manifestation who had dared to pop up in the physical world. But a good deal of my arsenal was still in my suitcase. I didn’t know what I was going to face, so choosing a tool randomly would have been pointless. And the same thing applied to the formula: any spell would have just been a waste of energies.

  «For the moment, this is all we can do. Are you ready? »

  «Work, work, work», repeated Lerner.

  The front door was made of wood and much to my surprise it looked less ruined than the façade. I put my hand on the knob, hoping that the couple had left the door unlocked. Otherwise, I would have had to go back to the car. At this point, it would have been pretty annoying. I found out that the two spouses had been in such a hurry when they escaped from the house that they left everything opened. I only had to apply a gentle pressure and the door opened wide. The daylight coming from the outside showed me an unexpected well-kept living room. There was an old TV on a cabinet at the bottom of the room, not very far from it there was a fireplace with some semi-scorched piece of wood in the middle. In front of the TV there was a sofa covered by a floral blanket and a small mahogany inlaid table.

  Near the sofa there was an armchair. The left wall was occupied by a display cabinet with different objects and potteries. The living room was connected to another room, which was on the same side. On the right, there were some stairs that led to the upper floor. Right after the first flight of stairs there was another one that went down in the basement. According to Mr. Guidi, that was the point in which the spirit had revealed its presence. I took a step in that direction.

  «He’s crouching low like a jungle cat who’s about to jump on its prey», whispered Lerner. «I’d be careful if I were you, Master».

  I didn’t waste any time looking into the mirror for I had the same feeling. The apparent calm that I perceived outside wasn’t natural; it was just a trick that had the purpose of hiding the presence inside the mansion.

  What I was experiencing was just the calm before the storm. I thought I might as well force the hand and go upstairs, where the spirit seemed to be stronger. Once I reached the stairs I was immediately hit by and intense and disgusting smell, and it was just like my customer had described it.

  «You’ve never thought about putting a gas mask into your suitcase, haven’t you? » asked my assistant in an amused voice. «We should add one to the inventory».

  There was no way that he could smell it.

  He must have perceived something through my thoughts. I instinctively covered my nose with the crook of my arm, but that couldn’t stop that noxious exhalation. For a little while, I stood still, and then I smiled. There was no mask that would have spared me from breathing that smell: the influence of the spirit inside the house was affecting my brain nerve center. Suddenly, it was as if the smell had originated right inside my head. There was nothing that I could do about it, except casting out the creature who was causing it.

  «Tricks like these don’t work on me», I said, breaking the silence. «You won’t get rid of me that easily».

  «You could have used the plural», complained Lerner. «After all he should be more scared of me instead of your stupid gun».

  In other circumstances I would have shut my assistant up. But thanks to his friendly voice the shivers that I was getting down my spine stopped. Besides, he might have been right. That mirror was a trap for any incorporeal creature. In fact, once a spirit passed the reflected surface, there was no way that it could survive in Lerner’s world. In the supernatural world my assistant was a carnivore, therefore he was at the top of the food chain. The only problem that he had consisted in the fact that he had to rely on me to obtain the nourishment that could set him free. That’s why we lived symbiotically.

  The stink became more intense, and it made me cough. I had tears in my eyes and, even though I kept repeating myself that this was all in my head, I couldn’t stop the process. If, according to my brain that smell was real, then the same thing applied to my body.

  I realized that something was dragging its feet upstairs, so I forced myself to raise my head. I couldn’t see very well in the darkness: the light from the entrance wasn’t able to illuminate the aisle on the upper floor. Mr. Guidi’s description had been quite accurate. I knew I shouldn’t have let a disgusting creature scare me, but my instincts were telling me to go away. In fact, even though I had a certain background, I felt like I couldn’t fight my sense of self-preservation. It was a continuous struggle that I couldn’t escape from.

  I kept hearing the steps: they were slow, as if who was taking them wa
s lame or wounded. I tried to keep my mind clear, and not to think about Mr. Guidi’s story: I didn’t want that the power of my memories could give reinforce the presence’s image.

  I kept my eyes on the flight before me, and then I left the mirror on the floor; with a hand I searched inside the suitcase and I grabbed a small flashlight. I was expecting to hear a comment from Lerner but he stood still instead. Like me, he was studying the environment, and maybe he had already drawn his own conclusions. I was sure that later they would have come in handy. But now I just needed to keep in mind that soon I would have been back in the daylight. No matter what was going to happen.

  I pointed the light beam upward. For a moment, I saw a mist but then it thinned out as the presence got closer. With my left hand I held the crucifix tight. This would have protected me for a few more minutes from whatever spirit was inside the house. I had to remember that I was safe.

  And then I saw it. The steps stopped and the presence appeared on top of the stairs. Seeing the human intruder who had just invaded his habitat, its head tilted. It looked different from Mr. Guidi’s description: it was worse. The flesh in its body resembled a corpse that had been forgotten out in the sun for too long. It was rotting, and on its surface I could see insects and larvae. The head was a mass of putrid red matter. Its eyes were made of two tiny holes, while a bigger one represented his mouth, which in that moment was wide open.

  There was no trace of its nose and ears, assuming that it ever had them. At the sight of that dreadful creature my heartbeat accelerated. In most cases, spirits were confused and incapable of recognizing their spot in the universe. One would usually feel pity for them. They couldn’t be condemned because they only needed that someone showed them the way. In this case the situation was completely different. That putrefying mass had an evil scent, and I immediately smelled it. His wickedness couldn’t be compared to the one that a trapped animal would normally feel. Its color came from a creature born in the darkness and grown among pain and sorrow.

  I lowered the left hand, where I was holding the crucifix, while my mind was taking note of every sensation or change in the air. Much to my surprise, the stench that I’ve been smelling wasn’t that intense now. It couldn’t hurt me. I kept repeating this like a mantra. It didn’t matter how dangerous that presence was, because it couldn’t hurt me now. So, I lowered the flashlight and I grabbed the gun. I didn’t know whether it could serve the purpose, but somehow holding it in my hand made me feel safe.

  «What are you? » I asked.

  It felt like my voice had been swallowed in the darkness, but I was sure that the creature had heard me. It tilted its head in my direction, and in doing so, it assumed such an unnatural position that no one, among the livings, could have ever reproduced. Then it opened its mouth wide. A piercing cry hit me, forcing me to cover my ears with the hands. The gun fell on the floor and then bounced on the stairs that I suppose led to the basement. It must have felt somewhere in the darkness. My eyes were fixed on the monstrous presence that stood before me, so I didn’t follow its movements.

  «It’s time to fly the coop», whispered Lerner in my mind. He might as well shouted, for as much as I knew. The creature’s cry never was endless and it continued to get louder and louder. I was about to lose my mind. Occult forces could do nothing against that loud assault. It was as if my brain was about to blow for the pressure. I quickly grabbed the flashlight and the mirror and I put them back into the suitcase. I completely ignored Lerner’s complaints, and I thought that I would have put it in its box once I was out of there. I left the gun where it was, thinking that I would have retrieved it in another moment. With a huge effort I took my eyes off that screaming creature, I picked up my suitcase and I ran away. The mountain breeze and its silence have never been such welcomed guests.

  3

  I was walking toward the car and I had forced myself to control my lower limbs. My joints were trembling and I could still hear that scream whistling in my auditory canals. I knew that I was under broad daylight now, and that I had nothing to be afraid of, but the truth was that fear is a feeling that can’t just be rationalized. It’s a force that clings to your heart with the same despair of a castaway who’s about to drown: shaking it off might be one of the most difficult things to do.

  I don’t even know how I managed to lock the gate behind me. My fingers were trembling. My instinct was telling me to find another way to seal the property; that little lock wasn’t going to stop anyone from climbing over the gate.

  Then I realized that I had to come back soon for a second inspection, therefore it would have been pointless to close the access permanently.

  Mr. Guidi was no longer sitting in the car: I guessed he wanted to give me a warm welcome. He asked me something, but the echo of that supernatural scream had made me deaf and I couldn’t hear anything else at the moment. Anyway, I recognized the fear in his face. He must have noticed that something had changed in me.

  «You saw it too, haven’t you? » His voice was so low that I had to read his lips to interpret his words.

  I nodded and I invited him to get back in the car. I understood his curiosity but I had no intention to continue that conversation near that building. Besides, I needed some extra time to retrieve the memories of what I just saw and to find a way to make sense of it.

  Mr. Guidi did as I said so I sat on the passenger seat.

  «I know you want to talk about what happened inside», I declared while the man was turning the vehicle toward the village. «But I’d rather have a strong drink first. I need to clear my head first »

  * * *

  The hotel was a hole of sad and grey memories. I didn’t dare taking off the gloves: I didn’t want to be hit by the muddle of images engraved on the objects and on the walls of that building. In that moment, the restaurant was empty. Mr. Guidi and I were the only ones inside, although every table was perfectly set and ready to welcome any other customer. In that time of the year the hotel didn’t have many guests: it wasn’t the right time to go skiing, and it wasn’t even the right moment to enjoy a warm summer day.

  There was a half-full glass of whisky in front of me. The liquor had burned my esophagus, spreading a feeling of warmth throughout my body and it was making me feel much better. It was 6 p.m.: the night was coming. I was already starting to think that I was wasting time, but this was a good thing, because it meant that I was coming back to my senses. My interlocutor was sitting in front of me, with a glass that looked just like mine, except that his glass was still full.

  «So? » he asked.

  He made me sit, and he ordered a glass of whisky; then he took off, presumably to keep his wife up to date on what just happened, and to inform her that I had survived the first encounter with the house. I realized I should have thrown him a bone - just like I was used to do whenever I had to reassure a client – and in the meantime I would have tried to answer my questions. That’s how I worked: when I was immersed in an intervention the rest of the world disappeared. There was just me and the entity that I was forced to fight with. And Lerner, of course. Besides, in this case, the gauntlet that I had been thrown had slapped me so hard that I couldn’t ignore it.

  Before I answered his questions I took another sip of the liquor. «I met the same presence that you described. I’m not sure yet but I don’t think that we’re dealing with a banshee, as the creature would like me to think. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence, I don’t know for sure».

  «A...what? »

  «To put it briefly, they are spirits that use sounds as a means to attack their victims. You didn’t tell me anything about it, am I right? »

  «No, but it did try to talk».

  I added that detail to my mental notes.

  «In any case I don’t think that’s the point. It’s a real spiritual manifestation. It’s physical. And it always looks the same, even though I might have influenced it with my memories»

  «I’m not sure I’m following».

  «It l
ooks just like you described it in your story», I explained. «You gave me a blow by blow description of the creature. I’m not surprised that it looked like that. It might have just dug into my memories and found those features. It’s not easy for them to take a corporeal form, therefore they always need to find a catalytic force. The human mind is provided with everything that the spirit needs. Did you get the picture now? »

  «Not quite yet. Do you think that the spirit could be Cristina’s grandfather? »

  «No», I said sharply. «I have many doubts, but this is the only certainty that I’ve got. That presence is not a man, and it never even was one. The shape that it took proves it: it’s the way that the entity sees a man».

  «And what would that be? »

  «A casual mix of flesh, blood and muscles. Maybe it can’t even understand a word we say, therefore with that garbled scream the creature must have tried to reproduce our communication system. I don’t know. This is just a theory. I need to do some research to be sure about it, but I’d rule out the ghost theory: it’s not a dead person’s soul. That creature definitely wasn’t human».

  My words seemed to have calmed him, and I didn’t understand the reason. My job would have been a lot easier if it only consisted in showing the spirits a way to leave the purgatory they were in. Unfortunately, in cases like this, things tended to get more complicated.

  «So... is it some sort of demon? »