A Toiling Darkness (27 page)

The door led into a hallway. A small light
spilled from underneath a door on the right side at the other end
of the hall. It left a splash of light on the dark dusty wood.

I stayed behind Kalen as he walked
carefully, testing the floor for creakiness. I wanted to tell him
it was already too late to save some of them, but if he stayed at
this pace, it would be too late to save any of them. I thought
urgent thoughts, hoping he would pick up on them. You know, things
like: Hurry. Walk faster. Kids are dying right now. Thoughts like
those.

He sped up.

Would you look at that? He has ESP too. As
if.

He must have realized what I already figured
out because when we got to the door, he didn’t pause, just burst
through the room. The door flung back, bouncing against the wall
and then coming to a stop by Kalen’s hand.

The room was the size of a small classroom.
Devon stood in the middle, wearing ceremonial robes the color of
angry storm clouds. When Kalen burst through the door, he kept
chanting, not even caring that someone was here to crash his party.
He kept speaking in a language I recognized as ancient—ancient
enough that I could only make out a couple of the words. Words
like: summon, come, live, feed, blood, innocence. You know, the
usual.

His speech picked up, the words spilling out
faster and faster, until they came to a halt when I made myself
seen.

The complete surprise on his face made him
perfect for a cartoon. His jaw dropped, eyes bugging out and he
stepped back. I was the last person he was expecting to crash his
party.

I simply stood in the doorway, staring at
him while Kalen took in the rest of the scene. When his power
turned furious, I knew it wasn’t good. I tore my eyes from Devon,
curious as to what got Kalen all worked up.

And what a site it was.

Torches mounted the walls, giving the room a
soft yellow glow. Four children lay dead on the floor around the
room, their bodies tossed to the side like garbage. Three more were
shackled to the wall farthest from us with just enough slack for
the kids to move positions and that was it. Tears streamed down
their dirty little faces and they huddled as close together as they
could get, looking tired, scared, and hungry.

Devon was not taking care of these kids
before their sacrifice. They were simply sacrifices, nothing more
and nothing less. Why waste resources taking care of them when they
were only going to die. The smell was enough to tell me just how
badly he mistreated them. It smelled worse than an outhouse, with
blood and death mixing in with the stench of their bodies and
excrement.

A middle-aged man who looked like he was
more comfortable in a suite with an office job rather than jeans
and a shirt was clutching the same girl from the park to his body.
The man seemed horrified by everything and yet determined to do his
job. The little girl was crying, a nice size bruise on her face.
She was just as dirty as the other kids, her brown hair in tangles
and her clothes with holes in them. Her eyes were huge and bursting
with fear, but there was also determination in there too, around
the edges. She was barely holding together with death looming over
her only a couple feet away. The man had her arm twisted behind her
back and he controlled her movements as he tried to herd her to
Devon.

When Kalen finally came back from his shock,
he didn’t say anything, just attacked.

“Wait, Kalen,” I called out, already too
late.

When he got within five feet of Devon, he
fell to his knees, body straining to move forward. His muscles
bulged and veins popped as he worked hard to move forward. His face
was twisted with all the rage and disgust he held towards
Devon.

Devon simply laughed. The laugh rolled
around the room, high on magic. Kalen reached out to try and touch
the loc again and was stopped by the invisible wall. His arm jerked
back as if burnt by it.

“Level four barrier,” I said, walking up to
a couple feet behind Kalen. Kalen wasn’t going to be able to get
passed it, but I could. Devon’s smile dripped away as he realized
the same thing. He knew who I really was now, that I wasn’t just a
little shrimp playing around. I was the manifestation of mankind’s
fear of the night. Not just of the beings that lived in it though
that was an extra bonus, but of darkness itself. The thing that
came everyday and seeped the warmth out of bodies, stole bodies
without leaving a trace. Darkness was more than just a blanket to
hide those that wished to be hidden. I was Darkness. If I wanted
something, I got it. And right now, I wanted to kill Devon.

The loc stared at me as I slowly approached
his little barrier. He no longer felt safe in there and for a good
reason. He wasn’t. When I reached Kalen, I touched his shoulder
lightly, like a feather. He seemed to draw strength from it, his
body relaxing. He slowly got to his feet, aware of the barrier now
inches away from him.

“You won’t be able to touch him,” I
said.

Kalen glared at me. “Then what am I supposed
to do?”

“Take care of the human. I’ll deal with
Devon.” I said all this while staring right at Devon with a
satisfied smile. Devon paled. I looked over at the human man and he
stepped back, finally realizing how much shit he really stepped
into.

Kalen nodded and turned all his anger on to
the human. If humans were more sensitive to beings and the power
they held, then this human would really know how much trouble he
was in. He might have tried to run away too. But since humans can
be insensitive bastards, the man did not run away. He stood his
ground, determined to get that little girl to the circle. I ignored
them, trusting Kalen to do what I told him.

I cocked my head to the side, taking a
moment to think about that. Trust. Not something I gave out freely
or at all really. Well, why don’t you look at that. I trusted Kalen
at least to a certain degree.

I shook my head and turned back to Devon
with a small smile.

“To think you were capable of doing
something like this.” I talked as I reached out to the barrier. It
was a well-designed one, allowing only humans to pass back and
forth. Anything with even a tinge of power would be denied. It
wrapped around him with a five-foot radius, with the only sign of
its existence being the shimmering in the air.

“You can’t break this.” His words said one
thing, his tone another. He was scared. When I could feel the
barrier against the palm of my hand, I stopped and just felt it. It
was warm and electrical. “You aren’t strong enough, not like
this.”

“You seem so sure of that,” I whispered,
closing my eyes and pushing a little of my power against the
barrier. Nothing happened.

“You don’t have the power. You’re weak,
nothing but a child right now.”

I pushed harder, my power banging up against
the barrier. I heard a grunt and then something fall to the ground.
I glanced over to see the man on the ground unconscious. Kalen
couldn’t even kill him. Kalen was now checking over the girl as he
gently pulled her over to the other kids.

I turned back to Devon, my smile widening.
“It’s surprising how much you’ve underestimated me.” I pulled all
the power inside of me and into my hands. The shadows in the room
darkened and reached out to me, my power calling them. When they
reached me, I let out a grunt, pushing as much power as I could out
against the barrier. The barrier thrummed before it shattered,
sounding like crumpling plastic to my ears.

The push of power forced Devon to fall
backwards. I walked towards him slowly as he crab crawled
backwards, until he bumped into the wall. His pudgy little face was
white with fear. A wheezing noise came out as he tried to breath.
Devon was about to have a panic attack right in the middle of the
fight. Truly a gazelle.

I bent down in front of him, wrapping my
arms around my knees. “You tried to play with the big leagues and
now you’ll pay.” I made the darkness around him liquid and
touchable. So palpable that he started to choke on it. I could feel
his suffering. He couldn’t draw a single breath, his lungs
contracted, screaming for air and I refused him that breath of life
he was seeking. I felt nothing.

Nothing.

You’re pathetic. I bet if you had children
and they were killed, you wouldn’t even shed a tear.

Good thing I can’t have children,
I
had replied to Eithna. I guess I’m still incapable of shedding that
tear she wanted to exist.

Even after Devon turned all blue and stopped
struggling, I kept the shadows around him. Hands pulled at my
shoulder and I still didn’t stop. Finally strong arms wrapped
around me and tugged me up into the air.

Kalen pulled me away, back to the other side
of the room before setting me down and kneeling in front of me. His
mouth kept moving, but it was soundless. As if someone put him on
mute. He shook me lightly and made my ears pop.

“Darkness, are you okay? Hey, focus,” he
said.

“I’m focused,” I whispered and glanced back
at Devon. His body was motionless, eyes wide and bloodshot and he
had a perpetual scream carved into his face. He was no longer going
to sacrifice children for his own little hobby.

“How could you do that?” Kalen asked.

I glanced at him and then at the human he
knocked out. “How could you not kill the human after what he
did?”

He shook his head. “He’s only a human—”

“Who kidnapped a bunch of children to
sacrifice for a greater demon,” I interrupted.

“It isn’t—”

“Kalen,” I interrupted once again. “That man
killed four children. He got what was coming for him. You should be
happy.”

“You shouldn’t have killed him.”

“Say that again, but this time with the same
expression as those kids.” We glanced over at the children. They
were still huddled together in the corner, minus the shackles. Each
one of them looked at me with horror in their eyes. “See how they
see me. That’s how you should look too. Horrified at what I just
did.”

Kalen patted my hair as if I was truly
child. Somehow I managed to draw comfort from the simple touch. “I
don’t see you that way because that isn’t you.”

I let out a tiny laugh and stepped away, no
longer wanting the comfort he was so easily willing to give me. We
heard one of the children scream and turned to watch as the man
rose slowly to his feet.

“What have you done?” he whispered and began
to look around at all the shadows.

“What have we done?” Kalen said with a level
of rage I have yet to see. “What have you done? What made you even
think that killing children was okay?”

The man shook his head and inched his way
around the room, farther away from us and closer to the door.
“They’ll get me now. Oh, God. Why did you have to meddle?” Tears
filled up his eyes, making him look more like a wild animal.

I felt something familiar push against my
shadows, trying to get through. It scratched at them, trying to
tear them apart with its claws. “Oh...” I trailed off
understanding.

“What?” Kalen asked, not taking his eyes off
the human.

“He made a deal with a demon.” The pressure
was building up as I prevented access to the little hounds. “And
now the demon is collecting.”

The man stared at me and probably saw some
kind of possibility. “You can do it. You can protect me.” He fell
to his knees and crawled towards me, begging. Pathetic.

I snarled in disgust at his attitude. “You
made the deal, now it’s time to pay them back.”

The man shook his head. “Devon could have
protected me, why did you kill him? He could have protected me. You
owe it to me to protect me now.”

My anger flared at the man’s audacity. “Who
the fuck do you think you are, human? Telling me that I owe you.” I
snorted. “I owe you nothing. You’ve done nothing to give you the
right to demand for my protection.” I stepped towards him, my power
whipping out at him. He cowered on the floor with his arms over his
head.

“Please, please. Please don’t let them take
me.”

“Why did you even do it?” I asked. “For
money? Fame? Sex? What got you to give up your soul?”

The man looked up at me, probably hoping for
hope. Something I just couldn’t give him. They wanted him and I
wasn’t going to put myself through unnecessary pain because of some
scum.

“To save my business. I was going bankrupt,
hundreds of people were going to lose their job. I wanted to save
them.”

I felt the lie press up against me, hoping
for acceptance. I shook my head and growled. The noise in my throat
was unnatural, nearly beastly.

“What the hell is going on?” Kalen asked,
standing in front of the children now and looked back and forth at
us.

“This human sold his soul for money. Now he
wants to go back on his word.” I laughed, the sound angry and
disgusted. I stared at him, unblinking and he paled even more when
he realized he wasn’t getting any help from me. They were coming.
Soon they were going to break through my shadows. “Humans always do
that. They promise something and the moment it doesn’t benefit them
anymore, they go back on their word. Try to find ways to save
themselves. No matter the cost to those around them.”

“And you think you’re any different?” the
human said. The man had a backbone now. Of course his bravery was
only made out of desperation and fear. “You think you’re better
than everyone and so you just push us around to do your bidding,
using us only when we suite your needs and then toss us away.”

I laughed again. “Says the man who tried to
use a loc to back out of a deal he, himself, made.”

“You can stop them!” he screamed in
desperation, spittle spraying out of his mouth. “Your capable of
helping me.”

Why won’t you help me? You can. You know you
can, and it won’t cost you anything. Just help me with this.