Darkness Within (The Darkness Series Book 1)

by Candis Vargo

  “You must find the strength within yourself. Find your way out of this great time of distress. I will pray for you, my child,” Father John picked up his briefcase.

  Mike was confused. “What exactly does that mean? Is this thing gone now?”

  “Cleansings have known to help significantly, depending on the severity of the case. I have done all that I can, all that is within my power. But you must listen to yourself. Do not deny what your guide is trying to do to help you.”

  “Help? I haven’t seen any signs of help, other than you,” Mike protested.

  “But you have, you just have not noticed. There is something much deeper than darkness here, there is some good within this house too.” Father John looked around the room. “You must seek it.”

  “Well, what if it isn’t gone,” Mikes mind was rattled; he just wanted to be sure this thing was out of his home. “What if it comes back and tries to hurt my wife again?”

  Father John stood by the door and Mike opened it for him, escorting him out. “What I have done here today can help you, you just have to let it.”

  Mike thanked Father John as he walked him to his car. He had tried to offer payment for his time and services, but Father John refused.

  “It is my gift to you,” Father John smiled as Mike opened the car door for him.

  He was more than grateful for what Father John had done, he couldn’t express that enough, but with all of the Fathers ‘cryptic talk’ it left him with more questions.

  What exactly was this thing that kept showing up? Saying it was a battle he needed to face wasn’t enough for him, he needed more. He needed answers.

  For all he knew Father John could just be some quack.

  Chapter 18

  Mike fought with himself on whether or not he should do some digging into what this thing could be, search the internet. People had always said that if you ignored something like that, something that haunts you…it would eventually fade, eventually go away.

  Maybe that was the best option; maybe what he had done with the sage just made this thing say “Hey, here I am! Over here!” He only hoped that the cleansing was successful because if it wasn’t, he didn’t know what else he could do.

  When Mike's cell phone rang it broke his thoughts. Kris called and said that she was on her way back with Mia. When they arrived Mike watched through the window as Mia and Kris walked side by side. Mia’s arm was down at a slight angle and her hand was partially folded, like she was holding someone else’s hand.

  Eli’s hand.

  Mike held the door open for them and asked Mia if she had a nice day out, she stated that she did but that she was now exhausted and was going to sit on the couch and watch cartoons with Eli.

  Kris, who still stood in the doorway, whispered to Mike asking if she could talk to him privately for a moment.

  “Bye, guys,” she said to Mia, and he could only assume to ‘Eli’ too.

  “Everything all right?” Mike asked. He was hoping that Mia hadn't had any breakdowns and that they didn’t go anywhere that was too crowded so Mia didn’t embarrass Kris with the whole Eli thing. He should have warned her about that.

  “Oh, yeah. Everything’s fine,” Kris insisted. “How did your meeting with Father John go?”

  “All right, I guess. It was what it was, but does he always talk in cryptic crap?”

  Kris laughed, “Yes. He does have a tendency to do that.

  “Listen, Mike, I was just thinking…have you talked to Mia about the accident at all? I was wondering what, if anything, she remembered about it.”

  Mike paused for a moment. He hadn’t thought about talking about the accident to Mia. He told Kris as much, and she suggested that he did. That maybe her thinking back would help jolt something in her memory.

  Hesitantly, Mike agreed, but he wondered if that was really the best thing for him to do. For a moment he thought it could cause more problems, but he started to wonder himself. How much of it did she actually know?

  When Mike walked back inside, he noticed that the television was no longer on cartoons but instead a rerun of NCIS.

  “What happened to the cartoons,” Mike asked.

  “Eh, Eli said he’d rather go play with his monster trucks,” Mia shrugged her shoulders. “Guess you know you’re raising them right when they’d rather play with toys and use their imagination than watch TV.”

  “And you’re not going to play with him,” he raised an eyebrow.

  “Nah, he’ll be all right for a few minutes…gives him some independent time. He has to be exhausted too. Kris kept us busy today, but let me tell you, she sure knows how to have a fun time. I really like her. I hope we get to hang out again sometime soon.”

  Mike sat down on the couch. “Come here for a minute,” he said. “I’d like to ask you something.”

  Mia’s eyebrows narrowed. “Okay…”

  Mia removed herself from the recliner and as she walked over to sit down on the couch next to him and the same familiar smell of sweet jasmine washed over him. When Mia sat down next to him he noticed that no dust rose up in the air to dance in the sunlight. She had finally dusted, he thought. Maybe she was starting to feel better, after all.

  “Do you remember a few months back,” he started, slowly, not sure if he really wanted to open a can of worms. “It was the end of February and we had that crazy snow storm?”

  “You’re talking about the accident, right?”

  Mike nodded.

  “How could I forget,” she said. “We nearly died that day. I couldn’t see anything and that truck came out of nowhere. Thank God he honked his horn or I probably wouldn’t have ever gotten out of the way. Poor guy, he probably had a heart attack when his truck flipped over.”

  Mike simply nodded again. He didn’t know what to say because she didn’t remember anything. Maybe it was better off that way. Maybe she wasn’t meant to remember. But then again, if she did, she would finally stop thinking she’s seeing Eli.

  “What about it?”

  “Nothing,” he replied. He didn’t know if he had the emotional energy to get into it right now so he thought it best to just leave it alone. “I was just thinking about it today. And I’m just grateful that you’re here.”

  Mike kissed Mia and for the first time in a long time, it was an actual, real kiss. He couldn’t remember the last time they had kissed like that. Hell, he couldn’t even remember the last time they made love.

  It was like for some reason since the accident they were both emotionally separated. Even if at times things seemed to be good, great even, there was something there that forced their emotions to separate like two magnets trying to be forced together. Even their ‘I love yous’ had a hollowness in them.

  “Me, too,” she replied. “You know, I swear, as crazy as it may sound, there was something with me that day. I don’t know what it was, but you know that feeling you get before something bad is about to happen? It was like a shiver slid down my spine before I even heard that horn.”

  Her words sent a shiver of their own down his spine. For an instant he found it hard to breathe, her words seemed to wrap themselves around his chest and constrict him. Thoughts took flight in his head, he wondered if this darkness had been there the whole time…if it could have caused the accident.

  He narrowed his eyes as he thought back to the dream he had when he fell asleep in Eli’s room. He knew the dream was about the accident, but the darkness had been there in his dream. Instinct told him that something other than just seeing an intangible shadow was going on. There was something more to this mass that had been causing them so many problems.

  He told Mia that he needed to go look something up and kissed her again before standing up. Everything seemed to burn inside of him and his overwhelming curiosity for this darkness finally won.

  The extra room in the house was used as a sort of office, though they never needed one. They just found it convenient to keep the computer and printer in there. It kept the clutter down in t
he rest of the house and they were able to store things away in there.

  Mike walked down the hall and grabbed the golden door knob to the computer room, but paused as he looked at the door to the room right beside it, Eli's door. He tried not to think about the door opening and closing on its own, but the sound of the doorknob clicking still haunted him.

  He continued on with what he was doing and opened the door to the computer room. He clicked the door shut behind him as a way to prevent Mia from seeing what he was looking up. He walked over to the computer desk which sat underneath a window directly across from the door.

  He sat down in the wooden chair and turned the large white computer monitor on his other hand reached down to turn on the tower that sat underneath the desk. He always referred to his computer as a dinosaur because it was ancient in terms of technology, but he didn’t see the point in buying a laptop…even if his computer was as slow as it was old. It would just be wasting money to him, he would much rather either save the money or pay the bills with it.

  After what neared five minutes, the computer finally loaded. Mike pulled out the drawer that held the keyboard and mouse, and started searching the web. He tried typing in and searching dark blob, darkness, smoky ghost, and dark entity. All of which led him to nothing but dead ends.

  He typed ‘being haunted by a shapeless dark mass’ into the search bar and scrolled through several results that mentioned something about ‘shadow people’ until result in particular caught his attention.

  ‘Satanists force demonic entity on victims…’

  Chapter 19

  He clicked on the link and of course it wasn’t from any real news article but instead a blog called ‘Truths Unknown’. It was filled with nothing but what they claimed were stories avoided by media and had everything from virgin sacrifices to buildings where so called Satan worshipers gathered.

  Mike scrolled through until he found the blog post that had what he was looking for. As he read through he compared what he had seen to the thing written about in the post. There were only minor differences.

  The one that was written about was said to have had eyes and occasionally would take the form of a face. It stated that it would also move things around, causing disturbances throughout the house, causing the haunted to believe they were victims of poltergeist.

  Mike was beginning to think that what he had seen couldn’t be what was in this blog, but before he clicked off of the page the sound of Eli’s door closing rang in his memory. He continued to read.

  ‘A demonic haunting will start off as a small, simple haunting. Things that you can push aside as a figment of your imagination. But over time, the haunting will intensify as the demon starts to make its presence almost unbearable. Often foul and unpleasant odors will be present throughout the house or may be secluded in one particular area.

  An extreme sudden onset of nausea or fatigue can also be attributed to a demonic presence, as well as severe migraines. Often times people will have a Priest come bless the house in hopes to get rid of the demonic entity. However, it has come to be known that at times when it works is when the demon is there by their own choosing. Many times if the demon is under control, it will fail to work.

  Satanists have long experimented with the control of demons, and over time have seemed to perfect their methods used. Unfortunately, there are no known cases of people overcoming the type of demonic haunting so no one has yet to come forward with an explanation on how to overcome it.

  Ultimately, any demonic haunting ends with the all of the demons wanting the same thing…to possess its prey.’

  Maybe it was the same thing after all…the odor, becoming more frequent making its presence known. But a demon? Why would it be a demon?

  Mike skimmed through the rest of the page, reading something about how demons often came in the form of young children or someone you love, whether alive or dead. That use deception to gain entry into someone’s mind, and eventually their body.

  The blog post also stated that someone who was in danger of becoming possessed would exhibit behavior that was extremely uncharacteristic for the individual, and could present irrational anger or extreme strength.

  Mike leaned back in his seat, worried about Mia. There were times when she would yell at him for what seemed like absolutely no reason or would suddenly be okay with any given situation. He also recalled the blank stare she had given him in Eli’s room.

  This thing had physically attacked her, why would she be okay with being left alone? Her actions didn’t make much sense to him but he’d be damned before he let something take his wife from him too.

  His chair shook underneath him and he caught his footing, realizing that he must have leaned too far back. To avoid adding injury to insult, he leaned forward, placing his elbows on the desk and resting his head in the palm of his hands.

  He didn’t know what to take from what he had just read. All he knew was that for the first time in a long time, he prayed. He prayed that the cleansing Father John preformed on his house worked and that whatever was written about on this blog was a bunch of bullshit some frat boys made up on a night they tripped on acid.

  Looking back up he scrolled down the screen farther and the page became covered with pictures of weird symbols which were painted in red. He realized that whoever wrote those symbols obviously wanted people to think they were made in blood. That just gave him further reason not to read too much into the blog.

  It was just like the stories of the UFO’s and Abductions that were scattered throughout the internet…nothing but a bunch of crap someone wrote in hopes to get their fifteen minutes of fame.

  His chair shook underneath him again, causing a jolt in his body. He sat straight up and looked at the screen. Narrowing his eyes, he made out a reflection of a figure on the right side of the screen. He focused on the reflection trying to make out what it was, finally able to make out Mia’s features.

  “I didn’t hear the door open, babe.” He clicked off of the pages he was on, hoping she hadn’t seen what he was reading.

  Turning to look at her, his eyes floated down to what was beside her. There was a small figure standing there. Its height neared just above her waist, a figure he could swear was Eli. Startled, Mike flipped back in his chair and his eyes were forced shut as his head slammed against the carpet.

  He looked up again to where he had thought he saw Eli only to see he had been replaced by the darkness. He stood up and reached for Mia, trying to move her out of the way. Mia avoided his grip as he yelled to her that it wasn’t their son.

  “That’s not Eli,” he yelled. “That’s not our son.”

  As the darkness grew with every word Mike said, so did an overwhelming coldness that descended upon him. Mike finally managed to grab Mia, but he was unable to move her. As hard as he pulled on her she just stood there like she was cemented into the foundation. Mia turned her head, almost robotically, to look at him.

  “Mia, Mia, look, that’s not our son!”

  She glared at Mike with disgust, coming out of her trance. “What the hell are you talking about Mike? What’s gotten into you?”

  Before Mike could say or do anything else, the darkness flung toward him like a dart flying toward the bulls’ eye. He lost grip of Mia as he slammed his back against the closed wooden door. The hollowness of the door caved in underneath his weight and the darkness stopped just before it smacked into his face.

  He was overcome by a pure sinful feeling that shook him to his core and the darkness vanished like a puff of smoke into the outside air.

  Chapter 20

  “Mike, what the hell is wrong with you,” Mia‘s voice spat with disgust.

  She didn’t see it, he realized. How could she not see the damn thing?

  He continued telling her that it wasn’t Eli, that it was a demon. She didn’t want to hear a word of what he was saying and chastised him for suggesting that their son was a demon.

  “How in the hell could you say that, Mike? I don�
��t know what the hell your deal is but Eli wasn’t even in here! He’s in the damn bath tub!”

  Mike shook his head in confusion and threw the door open. He made his way to the bathroom where the yanked the shower curtain open to find a bathtub full of rippling water. He looked around, heart pounding, expecting to see the darkness.

  There was nothing.

  Mia stomped her way into the bathroom and grabbed a towel out of the linen closet. “I’m calling my mom,” she said. “And I’m taking Eli, and we’re going there for the weekend. Maybe by the time we come back you’ll be sane and hate yourself for calling,” she toned her voice down into a whisper as though she didn’t want to say the next words in front of Eli, “our son a damn demon. And you might want to have that damn door fixed too.”

  “Mia, listen to me,” Mike took a hold of her arms, grasping them firmly. “It is not our son. Our son is dead, damn it. We buried him months ago! Think about it, Mia. Think back to the accident.”

  Mia tried to shake free from his grip, “Mike, stop it. Stop it, Mike. Just stop it.” She started in a whisper but ended up yelling.

  “Listen to me,” he shook her. “Eli is gone, Mia. What you’re seeing, what you’ve been seeing…it’s not Eli.”

  Finally freeing an arm, Mia slapped him. “I don’t know what the hell you problem is. You’re acting like a damn lunatic and you need to go get yourself some damn help!”

  Of course she wouldn’t listen to him, just like every other time. But he needed her to, whatever this thing was wasn’t their son and she needed to realize that.

  He felt the heat rise in his face, letting her go he pushed his way out of the bathroom and ran into the kitchen, grabbing his key off of the counter.

  “Where in the hell are you going?” Mia chased after him, towel still in hand.

  “To get a damn door. And maybe you should go to your moms, it might be safer for you there.”