by E R Landron
Epilogue
HANNAH
Kokolite starts sprinting towards Ripa and Mieke follows. Oh, stupid pig! what are you doing? Kokolite hits him. He only threw him down. The cop will not do anything if she meets him! I sprint like a maniac. Ripa throws Kokolite. Mieke gets to him. She pins him to the window. She shoots him quickly in the chest, thighs. Ripa grabs her and throws her with so much force. Oh shit, she is going to hit me! I change as a flying Mieke comes my way in slow motion. I struggle to get out of my cloth as my paws begin contact with Mieke. I run all over her body. I leap with all the force I can gather and transformed back hitting Ripa. I make contact with Ripa. We both land on the crystal. I’m naked. The sound of the cracked window doesn’t even let me think. We are outside of the building with a glass that is barely holding on. Ripa's demeanor is of full rage as he met my eyes. I pull the lever of my glove. He was going to say something but the glass caves in and brakes.
The glass shatters we’re on a free fall. Sunlight hits both of us. Smoke starts to come from us. More on him, because of the clan that he is from, that part of the clan is more susceptible to fire and sunlight. The pain comes scorching through my body like a million fire ants biting nonstop. Ripa is screaming in pain and doing his best to curse at me. Ripa continues to fall while trying to use his powers to hold to the building, but the sun keeps diming his shadow manipulations. A pile of clothing and smoke continues to free fall from the building.
A tug. My arm janks out of my shoulder. I feel a “pop”. The lever caught on to something, and I’m swinging. I hear from below, “Fucking cunt!” My body swing to a window and the hits take out all the air from lungs. Window breaks. I roll over smashing my body to an office. I hit desks, computers and other office supplies making a mess and dripping blood all over the place. My skin is severely burned. I’m trembling. My voice fails me. I don’t know how to be comfortable. Everything aches. Everything hurts. A vague sound comes from my mouth that even I can’t tell what it is. A man hiding in a desk nearby stands. My vision is blurry now. I’m panicking. Hyperventilating. I don’t know who is he. Some cleaning equipment is beside him. Janitor maybe. Hope so. I can’t stand. He is getting closer. The pain is too much. I try to get in defense mode before… everything blacks out.
Mumbling voices run on and off. Faded footsteps ran in and out. “Hannah!” a woman’s voice calls out. “He found us!”, the voice continues. My eyes open slowly. Everything is blurry, where am I? A commotion. Another fight going on? I manage to open my eyes. Too tired though. Need rest. Ezequiel, Kokolite, and Mieke are defending me. Who is that? Oh shit! Ripa all burned up. With tentacle arms fighting them. Kokolite sprints to the left and extended his staff to hit him, but a huge spike catches him and slams him to a wall. The spike keeps growing, and Kokolite screams in agony as his life quickly fades away. “Nooo”, I scream. Ezequiel leaps towards Ripa. Ripa grabs him in mid-air with a huge shadow hand. He squeezes his throat without remorse. Ezequiel extends his arm to me as he struggles to say my name, “Hann…ah”. “Stop, stop it!”, I scream again. I can’t get up. I’m frozen. I’m petrified. The pain is still all over my body. Why I haven’t healed? The sun… the sun. Mieke runs to me and starts to shake me, “You need to get up! Hannah, you need to get up!” On the background, a lifeless Ezequiel drops to the floor. Mieke’s face is of total fear. I can’t move, I can’t move, I say with tears escaping. Blood splatters on my face. Mieke’s eyes roll to the back as Ripa changes his spike to a hook and tosses Mieke away. Ripa grabs me by the throat with his bare hands. "Now you cat!”, he yells. He looks more or less like a version of Two-Face with half his face burned. “First you, then your family…one… by… one!”, he continues. I scream. Panic. Air. I can’t breathe. He grabs me by the shoulders and starts shaking me back and forth as I try to fight him off. "Hannah" he calls. I keep fighting, kicking and screaming. "Hannah!" he screams once more. I yell, and another "Hannah" comes back louder. The voice isn’t Ripa's. I open my eyes slowly. Mom? I’m in her apartment? What I’m I doing here?
“Hannah, are you all right?”, she asks.
My eyes open widely. I’m petrified. I move little by little out of the sofa and bed sheets. I back away into a wall dropping some picture frames. I’m hyperventilating. The woman, the family I used to look from time to time from the window and had no contact since almost three years ago. They’re in front of me. My brothers scared looking back at me. Their hands full of cotton swabs, alcohol, and other first aid things. I’m confused. How I got here? I’m fighting a knot in my throat. Just a mumble came out. I wanted to see them before but couldn't bare at what would of happen if I did. The room is dark, with the curtains shut. Duct-taped all over. Tiny parts of sunbeam try to break in but aren’t successful. The room with the lamps turned on all. The lights create shadows all over the place. Mom reaches out. Her arm wrapped with some blood stains.
“Sweetie...come to the sofa, please. Let us attend your wounds.”, mom says.
I flinch. My hands and feet. Patches of deep burned skin.
“How did I get here?”, I ask.
Mom looks at the other side of the room. A silhouette. No! A shadow emerges from the light. My heart stops for a moment. The silhouette comes closer with its head low. My stepfather reveals himself as the light hits him from another angle. I sigh in relief for a moment. Then anger strikes me. My blood boils. He limps little by little like a dog with its head down asking for forgiveness after you caught him breaking the sofa pillows. He hesitates. My body is tense. I’m looking for an action to react. His hands are also wrapped.
“I... I brought you here Hannah.”, he says.
I keep my focus on him. My stare can draw a hole in anything. I clench my fist, but the pain is so much that I can’t close the whole hand. I squint but remain serious at him.
“He said, your skin grew smoke every time the sun touched it. He wrapped you in his work cloth and brought you back here.”, mom says.
“How ...?”, I ask.
Stan looks with shame.
“The only place they accepted me working, was as a custodian. They reassign me to a new place. I've been in that building over a month. Weird things happened, but I kept quiet. They made me stay quiet. Three days ago I heard some gunshots, lots of them. So I hid in an office... and I thought the painkillers were making me hallucinate when I saw you crashing through the window…”
“Wait…Three days?”, I ask.
I remember the fight with Ripa and falling from his office. Stan got closer to mom that reaches out to me. Mom crosses her fingers with his as he sits down beside her. My eyebrow rises. I pay attention to all the surroundings, all I adored, all the memories come back. My nose flies elsewhere. It seems mom is cooking some chicken on the kitchen. I bet it is her arroz con pollo. My mouth salivates remembering the juiciness of the chicken.
“I deserved what you did to me. It took me a long time to admit it. You can ask Lourdes, I have changed. I was an asshole.”
Mom hits Stan with her backhand he squints. The kids chuckle.
“Sorry, kids. But is true. I was a trash of a man, and I treated your mom, your brothers and you Hannah... I treated all of you like crap. And I wanted to say thank you. Thank you because you changed the man I was before. I may not walk well ever, but deep inside I am a better man. I'm happy. And I've tried to better my wrongs with everybody.”
My little sister who is a toddler comes walking and hands me a plush tiger. I mouth a “thank you” and a smile. She goes to the bros giggling and hugs Hiram. I’m in rough shape. Now I feel conscious about it. Mom noticed and nods to Stan.
“Kids, can you go to your room, please? And take the munchkin too.”, he says.
JD and Hiram nod and go to their room and slightly waive their hands. Two sweet shyish "byes" come from them. I force a smile. I turn back at Stan and mom as the sound of a door closing fills the room. My eyes tear a bit. So many emotions.
“Darling... Stan told me about y
our teeth and also that your skin changes sometimes. Even your hands turned into paws.”, mom says.
I do not answer just stood silent. Now I understand the patched arms. I must of scratched them unconsciously. Stan looks at me, and so did mom. Stan looks up and swallows looking for what to say.
“I don't... we don't care what you are. If you are in a cult or whatever. Your mom missed you like hell. You are free to stay if you don't have a place. You won't have problems with me I swear. And if you need to go... to whatever, the door or the window will always be open.”
For a moment I feel embarrassed. Yet my face gives a smile that forces my fangs to show. The thought of being with mom. My family. Is everything I wanted. The resentment towards Stan dissolves. Mom's eyes tear up yet weird out at my teeth at the same time.
“I'm sorry I got to get used to it.”, she says.
We all smile to each other. I gasped trying to force something to come out. Both Stan and mom wait patiently. This is crazy, I’m on mom’s house again, and I can stay with them? That’s great but, what happened to Ripa? Is he dead? Mieke? K and Zeek? If I stay... they’ll be in danger and if a leave now they’ll still be in danger as well. As soon as I can, I would get up and see what’s going on and what’s the word on the street. Three days since we attacked the building and I still look like shit. Man! At least I’m alive. If I leave, that will kill mom, I mean look at her eyes, they look like they are seeing Jesús resucitado caminando. I will stay, heal, and I will be ready for what’s to come from this. I will protect my family!
“I would really love that. I will stay.”
Acknowledgments
First of all, thank you for reading Reign of Darkness. Hope you enjoy the story as much as I did writing it. All these characters have been with me since high school, and now I’m taking them out to the public. I also want to thank some people that were close to the project when it was a mere idea and saw it blossom to the finished product it is now — Daniel “Day” Saldaña and Lilly Martinez for your suggestions and feedback. Susan Sewell from Reader’s Favorite. I needed that review to grow as a writer, and I’m thankful for it. Your feedback gave the story more depth and the proper TLC it needed. Wilfredo López from WLC Arts, for giving my characters, life for others to see what I have in my mind. Luis Angel “The Watcher” and the Guys from Cultura Secuencial for giving me an opportunity to expose my talents to the world. Mohammad Hassan for whom besides being my best friend and listen to me whine, fight, laugh through life; because you had heard countless of times what this story was going to be about and never let me fall to the ground when things got tough. I did say I wanted to dedicate this to my wife, Verónica Pujols. You mean the world to me and always have approved of my projects, crazy imagination, and weird ways — the guys from Eight Little Pages for formatting the book and giving it the finishing touches so it would get to the hands of readers everywhere. These guys are awesome. Contact them. Book them. Let them amaze you.
The other person I want to say thanks is to Stan Lee. I know now more than ever; he is never going to read this. Yet, I feel like I need to write this. For many years comics were my escape from life. Him, Jack Kirby and others from Marvel helped me through tough times in life. Comics. Superheroes. The ability to see that nothing is impossible and that things can get better as a combination to mold me into doing my best in life. For that and many more reasons… Excelsior.
Also, to my mom. She had a significant burden on her back with three kids. My mom is a warrior in this game called life. However, never gave up. She raised us the right way without taking shortcuts. I do love you so much. Always teaching me that hard work always pays off.
Again I want to thank you for picking the book up. Hope I can entertain you and even inspire you in anyway. There is more to come from me. If you wish to follow me on social media, you can look for me as ER Landron or on the links below.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erlandron/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erlandron
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kokolite
Or look for writing tips at erlandron.com
Glossary intended to the story
Characters
Laim (Japanese)
Majo = witch
Taro = Tiger
Damare = shut up
Neko = Cat
Saya = sheath for a sword
Keisatsu = detective
Baka = idiot
Ninjato = ninja short sword
Watashi wa anata o watashi no meinu ni shimasu = I will make you my bitch
Ezequiel (Arab)
Limadha la tade almar’at tadhhab? = why don’t you let the woman go?
'ana sawf tajealuk alkulbat baladi. = I'll make you my bitch.
kan aljarm alssamawi huna. hal tamtalukh? 'aw yanbaghi li'an 'aetabir dhlk? = The orb was here. Do you have it? or do I need to take it?
Kunt albashri. Alnnawe alkhass la ymkn 'an yadurr li hatta law 'aradt. = You are human. Your kind can't harm me even if you wanted.
la 'astatie 'an yataearraduu lil'adhaa = I can't be harmed
djinn = Genie
Mau = Cat
Habibi = my dear/ my darling
Al’abalah? = idiot
Sharmuta = Son of a bitch
'ana sawf takhudh alsyf w shawf ealah min khilal alhimar alkhabasi bik = I’ll take the sword and shove it through your ass.
Akhuy = my brother
Madha? = what
La ymkn ‘an yakun = it can’t be
Ya ‘iilhi = oh my god
Nikolay Lazovsky (Russian)
Zdravstvuyte = hello/ greetings
Sucka = bitch
Comrade = fellow member of an organization
Chto eto = what is that
Claude (French)
Imbécil = imbecil
Drake (Arab)
'akhbarnaa. = tell me
Kokolite (Latin)
In nomine Patris et Fili et Spiritus Sancti= In the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit
Herman (German)
Schnucki = sweetie
Lourdes (Spanish)
hay clases mañana chicos = There is school tomorrow boys
arroz con pollo. = chicken and rice
Jesús resucitado caminando = Walking resuscitated Jesus
Hannah (Spanish)
Round número dos canto de loco = Round two, crazy person
Martinez (Spanish)
Pendejo = asshole
Y que fuse la más rica! = Like she was the hottest bitch.
Lucas ese = that Lucas
Gustav Smirnoff (Russian)
der’mo = shit
klub = club
Vampire
Ahket = Clan. Shapeshifters. They turn into animals. Their physical form adopts parts of the animal they can become.
Vegetarian = vampire who does not drink blood from humans.
Seelish = Clan. This clan possess psychic abilities. Usually you will see telepathy as the main developed power. They are referred as the nut jobs or crazies in the vampiric world. They mostly look like homeless person or hipsters.
Kumori = Clan. Shadow manipulators. They are more susceptible to light than other clans. They try to blend in their usual black, grey and white clothing.
Newborn = Vampire that has 10 or less years since born into darkness.
Spakr = Clan. Quiets. They manipulate sounds. All their vampires have green eyes.
Alsaahir almayit = another word for the clan Ratsach Tsalmaveth
ratsach = slayer, murderer. tslamaveth = Shadow of death. Clan. Necromancers. They can lift the dead as well as take life.
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