A Toiling Darkness (3 page)

I understood fear since that was an emotion
everyone felt when they met me and yet he didn’t feel this. Not
only was he naïve about our world and thick-headed about his
situation, but he was also impervious to what I was capable of and
didn’t even know enough to feel scared. Frustrated and confused, I
filled the air with darkness, engulfing us both.

Then I escaped. I’m sure we were going to meet
again.

The last thing I expected when I came here
was to find a little girl who, in some way, came off as ageless. It
was the best way to describe her. So tiny and young, and old enough
to be called ageless.

I stared at the spot where the little girl
was just standing. Then I stared at the thing I killed. The
vampire. I swallowed past the rock in my throat, my mouth
completely dry. No, vampires couldn’t exist. Could they? I glanced
back at where that little girl stood and glared, hoping pure will
would somehow miraculously make her reappear. Who the hell was
she?

I felt torn. I needed to dispose of the body
and yet I wanted to chase after that little girl, learn more about
her. Get underneath that cold exterior of hers.

She was so small and thin. Her clothes made
her look like she belonged on a shelf in one of those porcelain
doll shops. And her expression…I shuddered. So empty. Her touch
too. Her fingers were so cold, even through my black shirt. I
couldn’t wrap my head around it. A little girl, as empty as the
vast universe we existed in. And the space around her. It was like
she kept a barrier around her. Even though it was clear she had
long blonde curls, and her skin was Snow White white, and she
looked like she should glow in the dark, it ended up being the
exact opposite. The darkness liked her, congealed around her, and
purred when she used it to disappear.

Something in me stirred, bringing my whole
body to discomfort, just like the same feeling I got when she
touched me. I wanted to chase after her, to wrap my hands around
her tiny little neck and then just squeeze until she stopped
kicking and clawing. Obviously that wasn’t going to work though.
How did she just disappear?

Those dark thoughts made me want to punch
something. Where were they coming from?

What have I become?

I fumed, my mind erratic as I tried to get
the slauve out of my head along with the pesky little memories he
conjured up. The only thought keeping me grounded was the fact that
he thought he actually had a chance at killing me and that was
pretty damn funny. As if. My long life taught me enough tricks to
survive, and I wasn’t going to let a man who couldn’t even see past
my appearance ruin that. Besides, I wasn't killable in the first
place. At least no one knows how to kill me, not even me.

My anger guided me through the maze of the
city and to an abandoned warehouse refurnished into a bar
specifically for anyone who wasn’t quite human. Normally, I would
let the pulse of the city calm me with its constant chatter, but
now all I could think about was the impending danger closing in on
me. Someone out there finally made a move against me and I needed
to figure out who. Otherwise, I was going to have pesky bugs
looking for me and I’ve been enjoying the peace I’ve found. I
needed to end this before things escalated.

The bar was the perfect place to start.
Beings came here to be who they are without the scrutiny of human
eyes. They could let go of their human form and just be themselves,
and at this particular place, they could do this without getting
into a fight. Rheems City’s very own Switzerland. No humans
allowed. No conflict either.

If a human approached, they would fall under
the effects of a defensive ward that sends them away. They would
get a sudden urge to want to go the club a couple blocks down the
road and they would too, as long as no beings caught them outside
the bar and they became a late night snack. That’s only happened a
couple of times since I moved into this city.

The bar itself was old fashioned, looking
just like a tavern in the Middle Ages. Everything was made out of
expensive wood like the cherry wood chairs, mahogany tables, and
the bar counter made of teak. All the shelves holding the liquor
were made out of some kind of white wood. Nothing was made out of
metal to avoid allergies. Almost forty percent of the population
was allergic to some kind of metal and the owner made sure they
could come here and not worry about it.

The moment a being came into the bar, they
were expected to conduct themselves properly and respect the
owner’s number one rule of ‘No Fighting.’ If they broke the rule,
they had to deal with the owner who was also the bartender—a wispy
man whose existence was a little questionable. His presence was
strong but sometimes it seemed like he was fading away.

When I walked in, the bar went a couple
shades darker and completely quiet as every patron took in my
presence. The place wasn’t very busy yet with only a few beings
scattered around, all eyes on me as they watched for my mood. I
scowled and everyone looked away except for a leggy blonde who was
sitting with an older gentleman.

Her eyes were big and dark, twinkling with
secrets, and right now were filled with disbelief as she stood up.
Her magic was kept tight around her, the only thing it was telling
me was that she was a witch. The older man who was yanking on her
arm was probably her mentor. The man pulled on her until she sat
back down and whispered something into her ear. A warning if
nothing else. A warning against me.

Everyone here knew me as Darkness, but they
didn’t realize what that really entailed. They just knew I was
something big and badass, despite my size. I went to great lengths
to make sure they thought this way. Only one person in the city
knew who I truly was and Kay was good at keeping his mouth shut. He
owed me at least that much. Others could guess or speculate, maybe
even approach me to try and verify it—at least until I put them in
their place. I wasn’t anyone’s prey.

I ignored their harsh whispers and made my
way to the bar. I don’t tolerate ignorance very well. When I first
moved here a couple months ago, only two days passed before word
got around to not mess around with me and the teasing stopped. A
being who looked like a seven foot tall hairy bison tried to pit
his strength against my powers and now everyone wondered how I made
the three hundred pound man disappear. I guess they never thought
to look in his closet. They would find him hiding in the corner,
his mind broken and his body frozen with fear. It was his fault for
seeing me only as prey. I wasn’t prey, not for anyone.

Little girl, shouldn’t you be suckin’ on
your mama’s tits instead of in a place like this. Hows about you
come play with me, I’ll keep you safe from the big bad meanies.

Sorry, my dad told me to stay away from
pedophiles,
I had told him. Now look where he was. Stuck in a
nightmare and slowly dying in some nasty closet that didn’t show up
on any blueprints for his house. I locked him up with the rest of
his dirty secrets.

Two guys moved away when I approached,
freeing up the seats near where I was going to sit. I smiled and
hopped up onto the stool, turning my attention to the owner. There
were plenty of nasty rumors surrounding him—like turning others
into dust with just a look. I’ve yet to see it but the rumors
circulated enough to make troublemakers second-guess themselves
before they tried to start anything. He was the owner, the
bartender, and the enforcer of his little pub. He’s had plenty of
time to spread rumors about himself. He doesn’t deny any of them
either.

Today, his face seemed a little longer, his
eyes wary. His blonde hair was slicked back into his usual
ponytail, showing off his feminine features. On most days he was
brimming with confidence. Tonight, instead of the straight and
proper posture he normally held, his small shoulders were slumped.
There was a little splash of blood on his long sleeve shirt. He saw
that I spotted the blood and rolled the sleeves up to hide it,
revealing his thin wrists and hairless arms. He seemed especially
distant today, as if just a small breeze was all it was going to
take to blow him away.

Someone must have caused trouble in his bar
tonight and he must have done something heavy duty to make them go
away if he looked like this. He seemed exhausted when he was
usually overflowing with power to back up the rumors he liked to
encourage. His appearance made me wonder what it was exactly that
he could do to instil such good behavior in a bar filled with
beings who liked to eat each other. Even those with extreme
rivalries knew to back off in here.

“Darkness, I thought you said you were
skipping out while Lord Kay ran his tournament?” Baron asked. His
name described his position in the bar perfectly.

Kay was a really powerful and ancient magic
user who basically led the beings in this city. He learned to cheat
death during the Middle Ages and has been avoiding it ever since.
We were both members of the False Immortality club and neither of
us figured out how to kill each other yet. He was also a very old
companion…probably. I do hate him most of the time, so it was hard
to say.

The magic user started an underground
tournament for all beings to enjoy themselves and since it wasn’t
something I was fond of, I was planning to leave tonight. There
were plenty of beings I'd rather not meet and Kay invited most of
them to the city for a few weeks. If they knew who I was, they
would try very hard to kill me and that just wouldn't be a fun
time. I would have made it out tonight if I wasn't so easily
distracted by the view. Then the slauve showed up. I shouldn’t have
stopped to stare at the city lights before I bounced. Shiny things
really do distract me too easily.

Now I needed to find that slauve’s master.
Otherwise the sluave was going to keep finding me like a honing
missile and it’ll never end until I was dead. Or I guess I could
still skip out, let him try to keep up with me. No. Priorities were
important. Right?

“I’ve been delayed,” I replied, not
bothering to expand. “Is Seeker around?

He nodded towards a door at the back of the
bar. It led into a small room used for special guests. “Taking his
dinner right now.”

“Another hooker?”

“No, a drug dealer.”

“More trash,” I mumbled, and waited until
someone disappeared into the room a few minutes later and came back
out carrying a shrivelled carcass. The body was mummified, all
wrinkled skin and bones. The leftovers disappeared out the door
next to the one Seeker was in.

I didn’t dwell on what Seeker had to do to
make the body like that. I already knew the process, even saw it
happen live once. It was disgusting. He has to embrace them, hold
them close while kissing them. Once his lips touched skin, he fed.
And he fed fast. Or if he was in a really bad mood, slowly to
torture his meal. I suppressed a grossed-out shiver. He held an
unfortunate power, one I didn’t envy.

I survived off of human food, and even then,
I only ever ate when I wanted to. I could go days without
sustenance, no problem. My only reliance is sugar—a nice, safe
little addiction that started when I came to the New World with
Eithna, another old acquaintance. She was not part of the False
Immorality club.

Baron nodded, letting me know I could go see
him and so I hopped off, going into the room without hesitation.
Not even his bodyguards could scare me away right now. Not that
they ever could.

The room was only big enough for a small
couch, a fireplace and a side table with a lamp on it. The lamp was
on, the dull light casting dark shadows all around. Seeker sat on
the couch, stretched out with his head back. His hair was pure
white, almost translucent, his skin golden and limbs long and thin.
When he was standing, he pushed eight feet tall.

I stood in front of him, waiting for his
completely white eyes to open and acknowledge me. His eyes were
always unsettling because they had the power to look right through
me. He probably did too—his vision was a lot better than mine. His
eyes were the whole reason he was known as Seeker.

He was a true seeker who not only saw the
everyday things with an eagle’s eye but also information. He
literally saw information. When I first met him, he tried to
explain it to me and I couldn’t grasp the concept. Something about
being bilingual and multicultural, and knowledge being opaque.
Sounded like a bunch of garbage to me, but for him it all made
sense. He was the best of the best after all. Seeker wasn’t just
what he was, it was his name. He owned the name Seeker because he
was the greatest. A lot of beings had ownerships to names, like
Lord Kay being a lord for an example. Or Baron. Even I did too. I
own quite a few names, actually. We were big and powerful, and not
many tried to mess with us.

I inwardly sighed with that thought. Even in
this weak child form I was still big and bad.

While Seeker was the best, he has one rather
very annoying flaw. He has a really bad habit of falling into comas
that would last days at a time. His guards claimed conservation, I
say he’s just lazy. He also had the right to charge a lot for just
the tiniest bit of information. In most cases it was a taste of
life force for information—except me of course. I could get
information for free, only because he fears me. I think he saw his
death the day he met me and I was the cause of it. Not so much
seeing the future, just the knowledge that I was capable of killing
him and it was no skin off my back to do it. I would too. He’s been
kissing my ass since day one.

“Darkness.” The seeker’s voice was raspy as
he enjoyed the high off the life force he had just consumed. He
wasn’t enjoying it as much anymore with my presence however. His
words were slow and careful, a hint of fear in them.