Tales From the Dark

Darkness. It takes the average person 5 minutes to adjust to the surrounding darkness after being in a light filled room. 10 minutes later your eyes are fully adjusted to the darkness to take in as much light as possible. In that first 5 minutes however you are vulnerable. Your life is in the hands of the surrounding entity's that choose to stay at bay or reach out a grab you. So, you have to ask yourself. Was that really just an innocent bump in the night? Next time you are in a light filled room and you choose to flip that switch; you may not be as alone as you thought.

"Good night mom." Donald yelled as he went up to his room. Closing the door behind him he removed his dirty clothes from the day and threw them on the floor like he did every day. What did he care, his mom would go through to pick them all up anyway. Well, it's not that he didn't care, he just never gave it a second thought. The laundry just magically got picked up one day and ended up folded or hung up. He was just like every other 15-year-old in the world. All that matters were girls, video games, and his friends.

Donald picked up his XBOX controller and turned his volume all the way down. He was an avid Call of Duty player and was waiting for the rest of his team to jump on. They were decent and had grand ideas of starting their own YouTube channel. First, they had to get good, so they spent about 2 hours every night practicing on private maps. As he watched his character on the screen, he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. He turned off the tv to blacken the whole room and tripped on something on his way to bed. "Fuck, ow." He shouted louder than he meant.

Donald's mother opened the door and flicked on the light. "What was that?" She asked. She looked on as her son was getting up off the floor holding his shin. "Why are you still up, and why the hell is your room a mess? I thought I told you to clean this room up?"

Donald finished getting up and shouted at his mom. "Get out of my room."

"Excuse me, mister? I will not have you take that tone with me. Now get in your bed right now, or your shin will not be the only thing hurting." She sternly said.

"Or what? It's not like you can do anything to me." He blurted back out without thinking.

"So, that's how you want to play it. Wait till your father gets home. Now get to bed now." She shut off the light and closed the door behind her.

Donald looked around his room trying to find something that he might have kicked but the only thing were dirty clothes and his gaming chair. Oh well, he thought to himself when he felt something on the back of his neck. He turned around quickly, but all that was there was darkness. The shadows in the dark room danced around as he squinted but couldn't see anything. He heard his mom going back downstairs and waited there for a couple more minutes. He could hear her on the phone, most likely with his dad. He knew he was going to regret everything he said, but at the moment he only cared about the game. When he turned his tv back on he saw that his friends had yet to log on. What was keeping them he thought to himself. He sat back down in his chair and was suddenly flung backward. He rolled over and hit his head on the ground. He jumped up quickly looking around, but nothing was there. He must have rocked back too far, at least that is what he thought to himself. His phone received a text from John. It let him know that no game tonight. Family issues. "Fuck." Donald said under his breath.

Without John and Mac joining there was no point being on. So, he thought he might as well go to bed. He turned off the XBOX and tv and made his way to his bed. As he crawled in bed and closed his eyes his closet creaked open slightly, but he was too tired to notice.

Donald awoke with a start as he heard a door close. He originally thought his dad came home but he would have heard the bike coming up the drive. His closet was closed when he went to bed. Did his mom put away some laundry? He strained to see if anything was in the dark, but nothing presented itself. He looked over and thought something was on the chair. He looked at the figure just slouched over on his chair staring at him. The hair on the back of his neck stood up and he pulled the covers slightly more over his face like it would shield him. As he stared for a few moments more, his eyes began to adjust, and he realized it was just more clothes piled up. Stupid. He thought to himself. He rolled back over and fell back asleep.

Sometime during the night Donald woke up again, but his body was frozen. He felt as though his body was weighted down and he could barely move. What was worse was the feeling of something staring at him from behind. He wanted nothing more to just turn and protect himself from whatever was there, but his body just would not respond. He could feel it hovering as it swayed back and forth. Everything in his mind told him it was just his imagination, but it felt all too real. He rapidly shifted his eyes to the right hoping to catch a glance at something, but he could only see so far. After a few seconds he was finally able to move his arm a little, but not that fast at all. He slowly started to roll over trying to keep whatever was behind him from noticing him moving. It was painfully slow going. His body still felt as if he couldn't move at all and was like trying to push against a wall to roll over. The longer it took him to roll over the closer the entity felt as if it was getting closer and closer to him. He wanted to shout out to his mom, but nothing came out but a whimper. He was trapped in his own body that he couldn't even control anymore. After what seemed like an eternity to Donald, he broke free from the imprisonment that he felt, but ended up rolling over too fast. He ended up falling down to the floor but was cushioned by the dirty clothes somewhat. He frantically looked up and around finally able to get his eyes adjusted to the dark. Nothing. Was it a dream? Some sort of outer body experience? Was all he can think.

He was about to head back into his bed when he heard his closet door creak. He looked over and it swayed ever so slightly back and forth. Deep into the dark of his closet he could see two dim red eyes in the dark. They were barley there, but he could just make them out. He looked over to his right at the light switch that was only three steps away. He had this overwhelming feeling that the light would be his salvation. He looked back over, and the eyes felt they were closer but still in his closet. He counted to three in his head and made a break for the light. On the second step his foot got caught in some clothes and he fell to the ground. He felt as if something had clawed at his back. "AHHH!" He shouted out. Scrambling to get back to his feet.

His mom opened the door and turned on the light. Donald was up to his feet at this point and frantically looked around his room. Nothing was there. But his closet door was closed now. "What is going on here?" She asked. "Why are you screaming?"

"Something is in here mom." Donald said. "Look it scratched me." He turned and showed his mom what he thought was a deep puncture wound from a claw.

"Nothing is there Donald. Now get to bed. This is not how you gain attention. I know you feel as if your father is working too much, but acting out is not going to change that." She said to him.

Donald stood there dumbfounded. He reached behind his back and there was no blood. "Could it all be a dream? He asked himself.

"Is what a dream?" His mom asked.

"Nothing mom, I am fine. I'll just go to bed. He said as he gave her and innocent smile. Goodnight, and sorry about early." He said to her as he crawled back into bed.

"I know you are, dear. Now get some rest. A big day awaits us tomorrow." She said as she shut off the light and closed the door.

Donald laid there for a few minutes listening to the dark, but nothing moved. Not a flicker of sound but the cars driving down the road. Eventually his eyes got heavy enough and he was out like a light again.

The next time Donald woke his heart was pounding faster than it had ever before. He was sweating for some reason as if the heat was turned all the way up. He rose out of bed and noticed his closet open again. He tried to wipe the sleep out of his eyes but he could not force them to just adjust to the dark. He had this dreadful feeling of something else being in the room with him. He frantically looked about but nothing gave way to he dark. He looked back over and that is when he notices the red eyes had moved to the end of his bed. He pushed himself further back against his headboard too frightened to look away or say anything. He watched as dark shadows of the arms inched towards him. He pushed further back against the headboard till the creaking of the wood stopped and he couldn't go back any further. He was just about to shout out when a powerful hand reached out and covered his nose and mouth. All he could do is stare in horror. He tried to breath but all he managed to take in was the stank of death. The skin felt leathery and tough. As it got closer he could just make out the demon like figure. The red eyes glowed brighter as they got closer to him. The face of the creature was almost bat shaped and had fangs that extended out from its upper lip. The creature puts it's face against his and rubbed against him like a cat leaving his mark.

Donald finally had enough courage to try and fight back against the creature but before he could move it was on top of him. Trapping him under his own blanket. All he could think of was this was it. This was how he would die. The creature looked at him and said something in a language he had never heard before. It's voice was deep and echoed within itself. Donald was about to scream out when the creature forced his mouth open and started to drive it's body down his throat. All Donald could think beside the agonizing pain was he felt like a snake swallowing something that was too big. When the creature was fully inside Donald tried to jump up, but was forced back to the ground. The creature started to talk to him from the inside.

"Do not fight me Donald. I am your salvation. You have been chosen by me to lead a grand life, and you will serve the Almighty from below."

"Get out of my head." Donald shouted as he ripped at his hair. The pain was excruciating. Every cell in his body felt as if it was splitting apart.

"Resistance is futile. You are mine." The creature told Donald as he was overcome with the pain and fell into a dark hole in his head.

1500 miles away a computer blared warnings throughout the building.

"What do we have Sarah." Said Bill to his AI computer.

"Another devil hole opened up in Virginia, Sir. Unsure of the exact location as there was no warnings prior to this one." The computer said as it ran billions of code a calculations trying to pinpoint an exact location.

"Then I will start heading that way. The Underworld is getting smarter. The more people it brings into the fold the more it learns to hide from us." Bill walked away and started to head for the door. "Oh Sarah, call Jean. We might need her for this one." He said to the AI as he headed out the door.

Bill got in his 1970 Dodge Charger and drove down the road he did million times before. 3000 years of keeping the Underworld at bay. In that time it never came this close to breaking the veil. It was only a matters of days now, and he would need a miracle to stop it.