Darkness Within (The Darkness Series Book 1)

by Candis Vargo

  Before Mike left, Father John gathered up some sage. “Some say it is an old wives tale, but prior to becoming a priest I had many great outcomes with this.”

  He told Mike to burn the sage throughout his house, making sure to cover all of the doorways and windows. He insisted that the sage would help with the darkness, and would help them feel comfortable in their house.

  Before Mike exited through the large wooden doors, he looked back and called to Father John. “How do you know Kris Roseburg?”

  The Father smiled. “I have known her for quite a few years. Just like I am helping you, I have helped her too.”

  Chapter 16

  Mike had spent more time at the church than he had realized. By the time he left it was nearing midnight. He checked his phone to see if he had missed any calls from Mia, but there wasn’t a single missed call from anyone.

  Not wanting to waste any more time or risk embarrassment, especially if Mia showed up, he told himself that he had to do it that night. Even if it was all in his head, maybe it would at least help him sleep again and hopefully help Mia with Eli.

  As he walked inside the house he let out a sigh of relief. Mia was still at her moms. He didn’t want to have to explain why he'd been out until two in the morning.

  Closing the door behind him, he felt an indescribable heaviness. It was like an invisible force of weight engulfed him. He found it hard to breathe…to even move. Each step he took felt like he was trying to run in water. He pushed through it; trying to ignore the strange sensations he was feeling, telling himself that it was all in his head. This was his home, a place of happy memories not a place of darkness.

  Mike did exactly as Father John instructed him to do and lit the strands of sage that were bound together by twine, and blew the flame out so the gathered sage could smolder.

  He felt ridiculous walking around waving the smoke from the sage all over the house, but he did it anyway…even if it was halfheartedly. He was sure to get every doorway and every window, just like Father John had said. He waved the smoke into the corners and surrounded himself with it.

  Be gone, evil demon from hell, he mocked in his head, daring not say it out loud.

  Glass from the broken knickknacks cracked underneath his feet as he walked down the hall to continue with the sage. The denseness of the air only increased. He slowed when he got to the closed door of Eli’s room. As he came to a stop he felt a push against his back, like his own body weight was catching up with him. Leaving his hand on the doorknob for a moment he mentally prepared himself. He had saved this room for last, not knowing why. A loud thud came from within the room and he felt the entirety of the door vibrate, only it hadn’t moved.

  His nerves shook as he wondered what was in store for him behind that closed door. It was that brief moment of not knowing that bothered him, wondering if this darkness would be there waiting for him when he opened that door. Slowly, he turned the doorknob and the door creaked open. To his relief there was nothing other than his own memories beyond the door. He proceeded to waft the sage around Eli’s room. As he put the smoke around the windows edges he felt a sight tickling on the back of his neck. He shrugged his shoulder against his neck like he was trying to rub an insect off of him.

  He proceeded in the corner where he had previously seen this dark being, and the tickling became more of a slight sting. Again, he rubbed his shoulder against his neck, trying to rid of whatever was causing it.

  When he nearly finished he grabbed the back of his neck, wincing in pain. It had escalated to a full burning sensation.

  He continued on, not wanting to think of what was happening.

  He waved the sage over the bed and walked over the closet door. I’m done after this, he told himself.

  As he wafted the smoke over the door a scratching sound came from the wall beside him. He glanced in the direction of the sound, hoping that just by looking in the direction that it would stop.

  The scratching continued sending shivers down his spine. It sounded like fingernails scraping across a chalkboard, and he realized the sound was coming from within the wall. His eyes moved across the wall as though he could watch the sound as it came slid closer to where he was standing.

  All became silent when it reached the closet door.

  Mike started waving the sage faster; he just wanted to get this over with.

  Starting at the top of the closet door, he quickly made his way towards the bottom. The door began to shake ferociously, vibrating the pictures that hung on the walls around it.

  Mike hurried through his last steps, nearly dropping the sage out of fear.

  His neck no longer burned and the vibration stopped.

  He walked outside at steady pace and butted the sage out on the front step as one would put out a cigarette and wondered if it had worked.

  “Yeah. I don’t see why it wouldn’t, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” he said out loud, as a way to reassure no one but himself.

  Walking into the bathroom, he grabbed a hand mirror out of the vanity drawer. He turned his back to the mirror that was hanging on the wall above the white vanity and looked in the one he held, trying to find any sign of the burn he had felt on his neck. There were no marks to be found, not even the slightest red tint to his skin.

  The next day passed without Mia saying anything about seeing the darkness, so Mike had assumed that like him, she hadn’t. However, things were back to normal as far as Eli went. Mike had to go back to telling ‘Eli’ to eat and messing up the plate when Mia wasn’t looking.

  That Thursday night, Mia did her nightly routine of tucking ‘Eli’ into bed. They sat in the living room for a little while watching television. Mike’s stomach was starting to turn as he became nauseous. He took a swig of Pepto out of the bottle and went back to sit down in the living room, hoping that he would be feeling better soon. He lay in the recliner, watching TV for a while longer, his core shook as a chill swept over him.

  He asked Mia if she would hand him the blanket that sat on the back of the couch. She tossed it over to him. “You feeling okay,” she asked.

  “Yeah, just think I might be coming down with something.”

  Mike hardly ever got sick, but when he did, he was bedridden for days. That was the last thing that he needed. He couldn’t afford to lose any hours at work right now. They were just getting caught up on bills from when Mike didn’t get any hours at work.

  Nearly an hour passed before Mike realized the Pepto wasn’t helping any. He told Mia that he was feeling sick to his stomach so he was going to lay down in bed. Mia followed him and placed the trash can from the bathroom on his side of the bed. Mike turned on the TV and they lay in bed, watching it until they could fall asleep.

  Mia took no time at all to fall asleep. As Mike lay there watching Batman, his head began to hurt and thanks to the sudden stench of rotting trash, his nausea became worse. With feeling like he was going to vomit at any given moment, he did a breathing technique that he did every time he felt like he was going to puke, to hopefully prevent himself from doing so.

  In an instant he was fighting to keep his eyes open. Just moments ago he wasn’t tired and it wasn’t even nine at night yet. He lay there, fighting off exhaustion as his head started to pound. Mike grabbed the remote and turned the volume on the television all the way down to zero, hoping that would help. But as he lay there the humming coming from the TV was worse than the voices coming from it before he turned it down. So he just turned the TV off all together.

  Mike lay there in the dim light of the night lamp on Mia’s side of the bed and he heard a crashing come from the room across the hall. Eli’s room.

  Mike looked next to him to make sure that he didn’t somehow miss Mia getting up but she still lay right there in the bed next to him, silent and sleeping. A coldness grew over him and he pulled the blankets tighter around himself and the odor became more vibrant. He brushed it off, old houses tended to make a lot of noise. That was nothing new. He had ju
st closed his eyes to sleep when the echo of a door creaking grabbed his attention. Instinctively, he knew it was the door to Eli’s room…directly across from his room. Mike looked out through his open bedroom door and watched as Eli’s door slowly opened, creaking the entire time. When the door opened all of the way, he saw the darkness on the other side of it. It didn’t move, it didn’t make a sound. It just stayed there, stretching from the floor to the ceiling. The darkness crept out of the room and into the hallway as if it knew he saw it. Mike lay there, frozen, and watched as the door closed behind it. The echo of the door clasping shut behind it was a sound that was sure to haunt Mike for eternity.

  This was really happening, he thought. This was really happening.

  The darkness now stood in the doorway to Mike’s room, no face, no sound, no smell…just an ominous force.

  Frozen in fear, Mike could only stare.

  His heart pounded like it was trying to break free from his chest.

  In the blink of an eye, the darkness shifted from the doorway to the ceiling, hovering above Mike while he lay there with his back on the mattress. The whispers sounded in his head again. They were still all muffled together, not making any coherent words.

  Mike was consumed with the feeling that he was dreaming but yet he was completely conscious and unable to move. He felt like he was trapped in that helpless state REM sleep and needed to pry himself out of it, to wake up.

  He was helpless.

  Completely helpless.

  His fear evaporated into anger when he came to the realization that this darkness was preventing him from moving. He began muttering words directed at the darkness. He was explicit and to the point, yelling for it to get off of him. Over and over again he yelled, but no sound was made. He couldn’t even be sure his mouth was even moving. It was not helping his dilemma but instead it was working him into frenzy.

  The darkness crept lower and the whispers grew louder. It came to a stop just above him and though it wasn’t touching him, Mike could feel the weight of it on his chest and his breathing became restricted. Heaviness grew upon his chest; the only thing Mike could do was to close his eyes and scream as loud as he possibly could.

  But his screams were just as muffled as his threats towards the darkness.

  Almost as quickly as he became frozen he managed to snap out of it and his voice finally passed beyond his lips.

  Finally, he was able to hear his own screams ricochet off of the empty hallway walls and he jerked his eyes open.

  It was finally gone.

  Mia jerked up in the bed. “Mike, Mike what’s wrong?” She was frantic.

  It’s gone, Mike thought. He lay there, catching his breath.

  “Just a bad dream,” he said between deep breaths. “Go back to sleep, babe.”

  Mia was hesitant but she lay back down. Mike lay there for a while, trying to slow his heart as he brought his breathing back to normal. If his overwhelming exhaustion hadn’t won out, Mike probably would have run out of the house, pulling Mia along behind him. But instead he laid his head back down, fighting to stay awake but his eyes weren’t letting him.

  Once his eyes closed he heard the haunting click of the bedroom door to Eli’s room open back up but he passed out before he got the chance to look.

  Chapter 17

  First thing that morning Mike called into work claiming an illness. He needed to pay the bills but he needed his sanity even more. After he was off the phone with Johnson called Kris and told her he had a meeting with the father. He canceled their meeting for that night and asked if she wouldn’t mind getting with Cammie and getting Mia out of the house for a while—that she could use the interaction. Kris had no problem with it and agreed instantly.

  Even though he really didn’t have a meeting with Father John, it wasn’t going to keep him from trying. He just needed Mia out of the house. Kris had said that she would pick Mia up around ten, so Mike was going to make sure he was out of the house when they came. The last time he saw his sister it had turned into an argument and he was a stubborn man so he wanted to avoid any contact with her, at least for now.

  Mike dialed Father John’s number and once he answered he proceeded to tell him how things have become worse. Without hesitation, Father John said that he would go to Mike’s house to perform a simple cleansing for him. Strange, he always thought things like that would take more time or approval, but he was grateful it would be done so soon.

  “Um, don’t I need to be a member of your church or something? I thought that stuff was only done for Catholics who went to the church they were asking help from?”

  “Some churches, yes,” Father John replied. “But I am merely a man who works for God and when someone requests my help, who am I to deny them? Truth be told, my church really isn’t overflowing with members these days.”

  Mike hated having such a feeble old man drive two hours and to do the cleansing, but Father John insisted and said that he would have his subordinate drive him.

  As it neared a quarter to ten, Mike told Mia that he would be going to the post office to mail out some bills. When he arrived home he was thankful when things went according to plan and Mia was no longer there and that Kris had come through for him.

  Mike paced around the living room, constantly looking back and forth between the window that overlooked the driveway and the clock that hung on the wall above the television. He gnawed on his fingernails, impatiently waiting for Father John to arrive. It was a two hour drive and he called three hours ago, he didn’t know how much longer he could handle waiting.

  With every creak and moan their old house would make, he would nearly jump as he looked over his shoulders. With every passing second he grew more uncomfortable with being in that house. He pondered the thought of moving out…just packing up what could fit in the car and take off. Mia would never do that though, even if she didn’t have this illusion of Eli being alive. She would never just pack up and leave because she was one who never liked change.

  Finally, a little after one, Mike heard a vehicle pull into his driveway. He checked out the window making sure it wasn’t Kris and Mia, and to his relief it was Father John. Mike held the door open before Father John had even made it to the porch. When he had arrived at the doorway, Father John paused for a moment, looking around at the inside of the house. He smiled and continued his way inside.

  Mike apologized for having him come all the way out there, but Father John brushed it off.

  “I truly don’t mind, my son,” Father John said. “My life's fulfillment is all about helping those in need.”

  Even with Father John’s reassurance, Mike still felt horrible. He really didn’t think there was anything the father could say that would make him feel any different.

  Father John set his briefcase on the living room table. Mike didn’t even realize the Father was carrying one until he set it down, otherwise he would have offered to take it for him. Father John proceeded to open the briefcase.

  Inside of it lay a crucifix of pure silver. On both sides of the crucifix sat two glass bottles with a screw on cap filled with holy water. Laying across the top of the briefcase were some rosary beads with a smaller version of the crucifix attached to it.

  It took Mike a moment to realize that this must have been a custom made briefcase, because each item inside was held in by its own carved out spot and covered in red satin, identical to the curtains at the church.

  Father John grabbed the rosary beads and kissed them before he wrapped them around his right hand. Grabbing one of the bottles that held the holy water, he opened it and placed that inside of his hand that was wrapped in the rosary beads. He took out the silver crucifix, kissing it the same, and placed that in his left.

  Mike watched as Father John began speaking in a different language, Latin, he assumed, and walked from wall to wall, window to window, splattering some holy water and moving the crucifix in the symbolic motion for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

  As Father
John moved in and out of the rooms, Mike followed him quietly, unable to make out any of the words that the father was saying. Once in a while Father John would pause and look around and up into corners. Mike's gaze followed wherever Father John’s head turned, wondering and worrying that the darkness was there.

  It never was.

  Father John kept repeating phrases in Latin and Mike assumed he had to be reciting verses from the bible. When Father John had finished blessing the house he carefully placed everything back into the briefcase.

  “That’s it,” Mike asked. “That will work? Because the sage didn’t do anything.”

  Father John placed the rosary beads in the briefcase last. As he shut the briefcase he glanced to his right. He walked over to the corner of the living room and picked up a lonesome picture frame off of the shelf. The dust had outlined the exact spot the frame was sitting in. He slid his thumb along the black, wooden frame, admiring the picture of Mike's small family.

  “That was taken just a few weeks before the accident,” Mike said as he walked over and took the picture out of Father John’s hands and placed in back on the shelf. He paused for a moment, looking at the picture. A small smile played on his face and his eyes built up with tears. They had been so happy when that picture was taken…they had no idea what was about to become of them. The strings of his heart were tugged by the memories of Eli. God, how he missed his son.

  “We have all known loneliness, suffering, and fear,” he said. “And it is in those times that we come to a great moment of trial…a hardship we must face. I have done what I am able to do. The rest, my son, is up to you.