And Soon Comes the Darkness

by Angelique Archer

  He was shaken from his reverie when the truck pulled behind what appeared to be the only gas station in town. When he got close enough to make out the details of the structure, he noticed that blinking colorful lights lined the little windows at the front of the gas station, fitting perfectly with the small-town Christmas motif;

  Roger found it surprisingly annoying. Moving closer, he saw telltale red brake lights reflecting off of the snow at the rear of the building, presumably some kind of garage.

  Relieved, Roger’s shoulders relaxed. The tow truck driver could fit them with a new tire, and they’d be on their way in no time.

  Disappointed that Evangeline hadn’t appeared around the corner yet, he walked toward the garage. But as he continued, he felt the cold seep into his bones once more, and he shivered. He wrapped his arms around himself and shook his head, chastising himself, knowing that as soon as he saw Evangeline, everything would be fine.

  Chapter VI

  THE TOWN IN THE MOUNTAIN

  E vangeline’s eyelids opened to slits, but she closed them again almost immediately.

  Her head was throbbing, and although it was dark outside, the glare from the small oil lamp in the room was enough to send waves of excruciating pain shooting into her skull.

  She instinctively attempted to touch her face and massage the pain away, but her hands wouldn’t obey the commands her brain was giving them. She scowled and felt something sticky tighten above her left eyebrow.

  She tried again to move her hands, this time opening her eyes in alarm when she felt stiff and scratchy material against her wrists.

  What the hell?

  Her hands were bound behind her, ropes slithered tightly around the back of a wooden chair. Surrounding her was a dark red circle on the floor.

  Evangeline started panting, her chest heaving as she gasped for air.

  Something terrible was going to happen. Someone was going to hurt her, torture her, and the quick and merciful end to the pain would never come.

  She was going to die here in this horrible old cabin with its faded curtains and dusty floors. Her body would be chopped up, carelessly dismembered, and her remains would be scattered through the mountains.

  Maybe someone would find a bone here or there, maybe clumps of old hair, dragged miles away by a hungry animal.

  But no one would know it was her.

  No one would ever find her, not the police, not Roger, no one. Her children would never know what happened to her, and there would be no closure.

  Hell no.

  She wasn’t going out that way.

  No, she was going to fight; she was going to make it out of here. She was going to see her children graduate from college and start families of their own; she was going to grow old with Roger.

  Roger.

  She hoped he was safe, that he had found help.

  She struggled against her restraints, but her mind spun, and she felt weak and disjointed, like her body was separated from her head. Her fingers were numb, and she wiggled them in desperation. Pulling against the ropes, she winced as her raw skin tore layer by delicate layer.

  Something outside jarred her from the task at hand.

  Evangeline scoured the room for something sharp, but she didn’t have much to work with in the sparsely filled cabin.

  It was then that a dark shadow crossed behind the faded curtains above the sink. The shadow was so large that it consumed the window, the moonlight completely eclipsed by its presence.

  Evangeline wondered if it was just a trick of the mind, or maybe the moon had simply slipped behind the clouds for a moment.

  But then she heard the heavy thuds on the porch near the massive front door, and she knew the shadow hadn’t been a figment of her imagination.

  The front door was not an option, not now, not while whatever unholy inhabitant intent on doing her harm trod along the porch.

  But there was another door, one that represented hope and a second chance, and it was only a few feet from where she sat.

  Evangeline rose to her feet as much as she could, but like her wrists, her ankles were securely fastened to the front two legs of the chair. She sank back down angrily and then hopped up again just as quickly. She didn’t have much time.

  The chair clumsily shifted several inches forward. Each thump that landed on the wood floors sounded so loud, so painfully loud.

  Only a couple more feet, and she would be in front of the door handle. She would be outside, free of the dangers that were surely awaiting her within the old wooden prison that held her captive now if she didn’t escape.

  The shadow passed by the kitchen window again, and Evangeline moved even faster. She collided against the door, her chin scraping past the metal handle as she landed.

  The door swung backward then, and Evangeline imagined the smell of pine, the scent of freshly fallen snow.

  But there was only the sour stench of rot, of mildew, and then nothingness, a dark abyss rising up to meet her as she plummeted down the stairs of the basement to the concrete floor below.

  She was lucky. The chair hit the cement before she did, cushioning her fall in the most excruciating way possible. Her head smacked the ground, but not as hard had she landed head first instead. Had that been the case, her skull would have burst open like an overripe pumpkin, her brain splattering onto the floor, ropey cords of gray matter sliding across the unforgiving cement.

  But the chair had suffered the brunt of the impact, its structure fragmented and damaged.

  Evangeline shifted her weight so that she could feel the yielding bits of wood. She slid her bleeding hands down… down… down until finally the splintered ends of the back of the chair greeted her broken fingers.

  She had just finished freeing herself from the ropes when she heard stomping above her head. It was odd and displaced, not like a man’s footsteps that she had imagined. It sounded like…

  Hooves?

  Like two heavy hooves.

  Evangeline didn’t think twice. She scrambled toward a small window above a metal shelving unit and climbed until she reached the top. Her fingertips wedged under the old wood window, she pushed it upward until a blast of cold air swept over her face.

  She squirmed her body through the narrow window, her hip bones grinding against the space between captivity and freedom, not caring when skin sloughed off in her efforts or her broken ribs protested at the pressure.

  An enraged roar bellowed from inside the house.

  Evangeline stopped writhing, her hands flying up to her ears to shield them from the thunderous noise.

  It was not human.

  It was not of this world.

  She didn’t have time to process what she had just heard, knowing only that whatever it was wanted to kill her, and that this was her one and only shot at survival.

  She flailed to free herself, even if it meant she needed to cut something off to fit through that space.

  She didn’t stop fighting until she could feel the softness of the earth beneath her feet. Then she ran and ran, not knowing where she was going, just knowing she had to run.

  The unearthly howl followed her, cutting through the quiet of the night ominously, hungrily… a dark, primal calling.

  Evangeline ran as fast as she could in her suede heeled boots, struggling through the snow.

  A door slammed behind her.

  She tried to fight the urge to turn around, knowing it was a terrible idea that would only slow her down.

  But she couldn’t resist. She had to know.

  At the entrance of the cabin, she could make out the silhouette of a creature standing upright on massive legs that tapered down into hooves.

  It was impossibly tall, arms too long for its body, with two giant horns spreading out from its skull.

  Evangeline had no other desire than to put as much distance as possible between herself and the creature. She climbed higher and higher into the mountains. Sweat broke out along her neck and back. Fat snowflakes smacked her face
and melted against her warm skin.

  Shoving aside low-hanging branches, she continued climbing until her muscles felt like they’d explode.

  Evangeline staggered ahead a few more steps then collapsed in the snow, completely spent, her breath coming in raggedly. She tried to calm herself, to steady her breathing.

  Her ears strained for even the slightest tremor in the snow, the subtlest movement of branches. But there was nothing.

  Crawling forward on her hands and knees, using every last bit of energy she could muster, Evangeline finally looked up.

  Before her was an opening, a large, cavernous hole in the side of the mountain.

  No trees grew here, no foliage of any kind.

  She reached out to it, hesitant yet hopeful, thinking it could be a place to hide for the night until morning.

  But she sensed something, and it made her shrink back in horror.

  Despicable, violent things had happened here, and suddenly, she felt all of it, all of the pain all of the suffering.

  Tears streamed down her face uncontrollably, and she slunk away, back toward the forest, preferring to face whatever evil lurked out there than to hide in a place where the trapped souls of so many would stay unburied, tormented in unrest forever.

  Chapter VII

  THE TOWN IN THE MOUNTAIN

  T he location of the gas station was on the outskirts of Cherryton, set to the east side of the entrance, which was why Roger didn’t notice it on his first time through.

  Steadily he trudged through the snow, rounding the back side of the gas station. The Honda came into view, and he had never been so happy to see it. The poor car looked so helpless though.

  “I’ll get you fixed up fast, old girl,” he said quietly. He cupped his hands and blew warm air into them to regain some feeling.

  Eventually he made it to the entrance of the garage, two cars wide and deep enough for the tow truck. There was a single overhanging light bulb, dimly revealing different parts of the garage as it swung back and forth.

  Roger could see a lone silhouetted figure moving about so he quickly went inside the garage.

  “Eve!” Roger called out in a cracked voice. He was cold and tired, but he was thoroughly looking forward to seeing his wife.

  It was dark in the room, but his vision quickly adjusted, compensating for the brightness emitting from the Christmas lights outside to which he had become accustomed.

  Roger immediately stopped in his tracks when he realized that this individual was not Evangeline. Chills running down his spine, he saw that he was standing no more than fifteen feet away from a stranger wearing a hooded robe similar to the ones he had seen before.

  “Wha-what? Where is... where is Eve?” he stuttered while backing up.

  The words barely escaped his lips before the stranger pounced on him. He was around the same height as Roger, but he felt stronger, and at the very least, he had the element of surprise.

  Roger toppled backward hard and fast, thumping the back of his head on the cold concrete. For a second, his vision blurred, but he regained his senses once he felt the man on top of him. The stranger was close, face to face, and even in the hazy lighting, Roger was easily able to make out the man’s distinctive facial features that included a cleft palate.

  “You aren’t supposed to be here!” the stranger spat. “You were supposed to be with the car. With her.”

  Roger’s emotions ranged from rage to distress to misunderstanding; he was hardly able to process the new information.

  Struggling underneath the overbearing weight, rolling from side to side, Roger tried to think back to the numerous self-defense classes that he had convinced Evangeline to go to by going himself.

  Destabilize, positive contact, position of advantage, he repeated in his mind.

  Putting his lessons into action, he thrust his hips outward in a hard, fluid motion, causing the hooded stranger to fall forward with a loud yelp. Roger instantly grabbed his opponent’s head, simultaneously wrapping his leg around the stranger’s and using his newfound leverage to roll the man over.

  Surprised at how well his tactics worked, Roger promised himself he’d write a glowing Yelp review for the course if he ever made it out of this town alive. He’d figured he wouldn’t get anything out of the classes that he didn’t already know, at least nothing practical. He had never been happier to be proven wrong.

  Raising his fist, Roger brought it down with all of his might, cracking it against the newcomer’s jaw. Seeing that the man was clearly discombobulated, Roger used what little moments he had to search the counters in the garage for something that he could use as bindings.

  His fingers skimmed over an orange extension cord, and he snatched it up and went to work.

  Propping the man up against the tire of the tow truck, Roger began to tie him to the bottom half of the tire, looping the cord around the tire base and the axle.

  Each action he took felt so far out of character. Evangeline had always said he was too predictable and bland. He didn’t even know what move was coming next; it was as though someone else had taken over his body and was controlling him now.

  Roger grabbed the jaw of the stranger and rattled it back and forth, something he had seen on TV. The stranger started to open his eyes, and he lapped up the drool that ran through the gap in his upper lip.

  “Where is she?” Roger yelled.

  “You was supposed to be with her… You was supposed to!” the man screamed back, uttering each word slowly and with difficulty. “It don’t matter now. It’s too late for her,” he muttered, shifting his gaze to the ceiling.

  “Answer my question!” Roger punched the side of the truck, next to the man’s head. “What’s going on here?”

  The stranger’s wide eyes met Roger’s. “It… it comes once at the end of the year to feed. Each year, we get to pick someone.” The man grinned, but it was sinister and unfriendly. “We picked you.”

  Picked you…

  The man began to thrash around, fighting his restraints. “I got to go! They waiting for me at the center of town!”

  “Who is waiting for you? What comes every year?” Roger’s patience was wearing thin. “Damn it, man, where the hell is she?!”

  All of a sudden, there was an animalistic roar in the distance, loud enough to place the puzzle pieces floating around in Roger’s mind in their correct spaces.

  “Oh, no...”

  It all made sense. Evangeline was the one who should have been sitting in that chair.

  The stranger began to laugh. “I told ya… It’s too late.”

  Roger recognized the direction from where the howl had come.

  The cabin.

  He stood up from his kneeling position and ran out of the garage into the snowy terrain. The fading laugh of the stranger carried on the wind as the distance between them grew.

  In spite of his depleted energy, Roger’s pace matched his high school track days.

  Eve is in trouble, and she needs me, he thought as he barreled through the snow. He didn’t care from what animal that sound had come. It might have been a bear of enormous proportions, but that didn’t matter now. Nothing else mattered.

  He retraced his steps, easily maneuvering through the sidewalks of the town until he eventually arrived at the hauntingly familiar wooden structure.

  Roger would have to be cautious. The hooded figures were a proven threat, coupled with the fact that there was some kind of demon-animal they were feeding also out there.

  He stealthily moved toward the same window at the front of the cabin, fervently praying that he would find Evangeline there, but that she would be unharmed.

  Nothing.

  He pressed both of his hands against the window, confused. Without warning, two arms reached around and grabbed him, one covering his mouth and the other encircling his chest.

  It’s over.

  Chapter VIII

  THE TOWN IN THE MOUNTAIN

  “E ve,” Roger breathed when the hand fel
l from his mouth. He closed his eyes in relief, knowing it was his wife before he even saw her.

  She moved in front of him, holding a finger to her lips.

  When he nodded in understanding, she threw her arms around him, her body shaking in silent sobs. He held her tightly, clutching her small frame to his, enveloping her, burying his face in her hair.

  “I never thought I’d see you again,” she whispered, then pulled away so that she could see him fully. Her stare was fearful and urgent.

  Roger saw the dried blood on her forehead and grabbed both of her arms in alarm. “Eve, what the hell happened?”

  “Some… someone was watching me,” she stammered. “They took me and left me for… for… for it.” Looking about nervously, she added, “Did you see it?”

  Roger shook his head.

  “It’s huge, Roger.” She gestured with her hands. “Bigger than anything I’ve ever seen. I don’t know what it was; I could only see its shadow. But it had horns. I don’t think it was human.” They started walking at a brisk pace.

  “I didn’t see it, but I heard it. We have to get out of here, Evie. This town… it’s bad. The people are up to something.” He pointed behind them, back toward Cherryton. “I know where the car is, but we need to leave now.” He took a deep breath, trying to steady the shakiness in his voice.

  “Nothing makes sense, but at the same time, everything does. The flat tire… I found metal spikes under the snow. It was intentional. I woke up in that cabin, tied to a chair, a circle of blood around me. That thing was outside, trying to get in.” Evangeline shut her eyes in disgust. “I think they’re feeding it, sacrificing people passing through, people like us.”

  Roger nodded. “I ran into someone, and he told me things. He said something about it coming to feed every year. I didn’t think anything of it until I heard that roar.”