The Darkness in You (The Darkness Series Book 2)

by Diane Ashley Nortje

  “Weyland.” I shout out, I don’t know where he has been lately, but this is not the fucking time to go off on his own missions.

  I feel the anger build up inside me, I feel the beast stirring. He heard what that puppy said. And I want to know why she is remembering, why the fuck she is returning when it’s not safe for her to do so. Could she for once, just fucking follow my orders!

  “I thought you said it was done.” I ask the beast inside me.

  “It is done.” He simply states.

  “Well it fucking can’t be, because she is on her way back here.”

  “It is done. She is ours, will always be ours. Always.” He says to me and returns to his slumber I disturbed, that fucker.

  “You called.” Weyland says to me before materializing before me. “Well more like bellowed, you are being one cranky fucker lately.”

  Once he materialises before me, I take him in, he looks like shit. He has been helping me vent some anger since the fuckers in the pit are too afraid to challenge me now. His body has taken the brunt of most of my anger, thank fuck he heals fast.

  “You look like shit.” I say to him.

  “That’s because my insides are bruised along with most of my body.”

  I look at him and look away. “I’m sorry.” I mumble out to him. I’m never sorry. But this isn’t his fault.

  “Don’t go fucking soft on us now. What did you want?”

  “She is on her way back, why?” I can’t even mention her name without a pain shooting down my body, not that I would ever admit it.

  “That’s not possible. The bond was broken, I didn’t even smell you on her the last time I saw her.”

  “You fucking smelled her?” I shout at him while slamming my hands on the desk, the solid wood cracking beneath the blow. What the hell is he doing smelling her?

  “I thought you didn’t care?”

  “I don’t, she must be gone. What kind of queen will she be if she can’t even stay fucking gone?” I bite out. Temper flaring to its maximum.

  “The best fucking one since sliced bread I’m guessing.” He says to me dryly.

  “I need a well behaved one, not one like her.”

  “You don’t want well behaved, Jacin.” Weyland argues with me.

  “What the fuck do you know about what I want?” I grumble out.

  “I know exactly what you want, you want the chaos that runs through her, you want the destruction she causes, you want the woman that challenges you, goes against your orders, you want the fucking storm that is that woman, you fucking want her, just fucking admit it.”

  “I do not want that woman; do you understand me. Now get rid of her!”

  I watch him disappear, shaking his head at me. He is lucky I’m hanging onto the little will I have left and not rip him from his fade and strangle him to death. He has been with me too fucking long. She has been gone too fucking long. And he is right, in every way. I want the fucking storm that is Natalie. More than I want anything else in this world. And I will protect her no matter what. Even if I must deny myself, over and over again.

  Chapter Two

  “I drowned in my own fear, I was too afraid to swim” – Natalie

  ~Natalie~

  When you have lived in a place your entire life, directions, sights, familiar sounds come back to you, and slowly. Familiarity tugs at your memories and slowly you remember where it is you came from. But it comes back to me like a house of bricks hitting me. I drive on auto pilot towards my parents’ house that I supposedly haven’t been back in years.

  I pull up to the driveway and turn off my car. I take in my surroundings. Everything looks the same, nothing has really changed in the few years that I have been gone, other than a few new flowers in the newly dug out flower beds that run the length of the driveway to the entrance to the same old door I used to barge in through after school or visiting Faith.

  Memories of a time that feels like decades ago come crashing through me and I can’t help the tears that I let fall from everything I lost, from everything I ran from. My fear back then gripping onto me like a leech, not allowing me to live with what I couldn’t deal with back then. What if had just stayed? Fought the fear. What if I stayed and faced this monster myself?

  “Baby, where did you go? You just ran off. What happened?” My mothers’ voice pierces the other side of my phone.

  “Mom- mom, he’s here, I can’t- I can’t mom. He found me.” I sob on the other side of the phone.

  “Sweetheart, he is just a nightmare, come home, I’m worried about you.”

  “No- no. He will find me.” I whispered into the phone.

  “Oh. Baby. He isn’t real. You don’t even remember him when you wake up. He is just a figment of your imagination. Come home before something happens to you.”

  “No mom, he is real, he was there in that house, I felt him mom. I felt him, it’s like he latched onto my soul or something. I can’t shake this feeling like I’m being followed.”

  “Natalie, baby, where are you, we will come and fetch you. We will figure this out.”

  “I went to see her mom. You can’t follow me. What if I put you in danger?”

  “Another one of your imaginations coming to life sweetheart, there is no witch that lives in those woods, we have searched it many times.”

  “She is real mom, and so is he. You need to believe me.” I beg her.

  “I believe you sweetheart, I believe there is something wrong, please come home. We will figure it out.”

  “No, I’ve phoned Aunt Nicky, she says I can come stay there for a while. She understands. I think it’s for the best mom, just for a while.” I whisper to her.

  “Baby, don’t run away like this, what about us, your friends, your dreams?”

  “I can’t mom, I’ve already packed my bags, I’m at the bus stop. I’ll call you when I get there.”

  “Oh baby, don’t.” My mother begs.

  “I’m sorry, it’s for the best. I love you.” I whisper into the phone.

  Tears cloud my eyes at the memories that still haunt me, everything haunts me, all because of green eyes that won’t stop following me. I wonder if I just took the leap, jumped into hell itself, would he have let me be, or would he have followed me to the deepest darkest parts?

  I shift my car back into reverse, because I can’t, I can’t do this. Being here, it means he will find me for sure. At least, I was hidden in the city, thousands upon thousands of people to cover my tracks with. Here, it’s a small town, rumours spread like wildfires and I know, if he is here, he will soon hear about my arrival.

  I look up once more at my childhood home and memorise it, because clearly this is the nearest I will be to be getting inside it once again. The movement of a curtain catches my attention. Like those spying old ladies, that have nothing better to do with their days other than too look out at the world around them, finding fault with all those around them. I see my father.

  Confusion written on his face, I doubt he recognises the car, or can he make out who is sitting in the driver’s seat, crying their eyes out. The front door slams open, and I watch my mother rush down the porches steps, to only stop a few steps on the garden path. Like a deer stuck in headlights, I’m not sure what to do. Get out? Hit the gas and get the hell out of here? My body makes the decision for me.

  I feel myself turning off the ignition and opening the car door. The sun beats down on my face as I step out of the car. I see the relief that washes over my mothers’ face. I never told them I was coming and no matter how many times she begged me to come home, I refused. But now I’m here, sitting here in my car crying my eyes out.

  “Natalie?” My mother calls out to me, fear laces her words.

  “Mom.” I breathe out, I doubt she heard me, but I finally let out the breath I didn’t realise I was holding in.

  “Natalie, baby, is that really you?” She says to me, while making her way over to me once more.

  Once she is close enough, she grabs my arms
and pulls me into a tight embrace. I’m slow to return her hug, as I’m still shaken up from all the confusion that is going on in my brain. Once my body acknowledges her embrace, my arms grab her waist and hug her back tightly.

  “Mom, something happened. Something isn’t right.” I whisper into her neck as I try hold back the tears.

  “Baby, everything will be okay, you are home now, we will figure it out. Come let’s get inside.” My mother reassures me while rubbing my back, giving me some sort of comfort, I didn’t think my body craved.

  I slowly make my way inside, one foot after the other, while my mother is guiding me onwards. When I look up, I find my father standing in the doorway, concern showing clearly on his face.

  “Dad.” I whisper out and that’s all the encouragement he needs to come too and wrap me up in my arms, hugging both me and my mother tightly.

  “Who broke your heart, baby girl?” My father asks me.

  “It’s not that dad, but something happened.” I say to him, tears falling down my face.

  “Come, let’s get inside. We are here for you sweetheart.” My mother says, while pushing us both back inside.

  Once inside my old home, I take it all in. It smells just like I remember it. Memories come flooding back to me. Me, Faith and Beth running through the halls after school. My mother shouting at us to slow down and do our homework. My dad coming home from a long day at work, shucking off his shoes and falling onto the couch and switching on the TV. I didn’t have everything in the world growing up, but what I had was enough.

  I look down the hall, all my childhood photographs still hang in the same place as they did before I ran away. The hallway has been given a new coat of paint recently, and from where I’m standing I can see new couches in the living room. But it still feels the same, it’s still home.

  “Come baby, come sit, tell me what happened.” My mother says to me, knocking me from my thoughts.

  “Mom, that’s the thing, I don’t even know what’s happened.” I say to her while sitting at the kitchen table. My father busies himself with the cooking while my mother rushes about pouring me some Pepsi.

  Once she places the ice-cold glass in front of me and sits down beside me and reaches for my hands.

  “Tell me what you know. Tell me why you rushed back here, not like me and your father aren’t happy you are home, but coming home in such a state, you are making me worry. Let’s figure this out together.” She says to me, while giving my hands a reassuring squeeze.

  “I remember nothing, absolutely nothing.”

  The blank stare she gives me, gives me a push to continue to explain myself. “I remember nothing that has happened before four days ago. Over five weeks have gone by according to my diary and I remember nothing mom.” I choke out.

  “Baby, how is that even possible?” My mother asks me in disbelief.

  “There’s more mom, so much more, I can’t even begin to explain it to you, I don’t think you would even believe me.”

  “Try us baby girl.” My father says from over by the stove, he is listening intently to our conversation.

  I take a deep breath, here goes nothing.

  “That day I left, something really did happen to me, Mom. It started at that house.”

  “Baby not this again.” She says to me. I know she doesn’t believe me when I speak about the house, so I’ve just stopped talking about it to her.

  “Mom, you said you would try.” I say to her. Oh no you don’t, you said you would try, and I haven’t seen any trying coming from your side. I hear a whisper coming from somewhere from the back of my mind. It’s my mother’s voice, but I can’t place it other than that.

  I shake the whisper of the memory and concentrate back on my mother.

  “Yes, I’m sorry darling, why don’t you explain everything before we try figure this out. Start at the beginning.”

  “Okay.” I pause and take a big breath in. Here goes nothing. “Six years ago, that house turned up overnight, no one noticed, and no one believed me. When we were made to attend that event, something happened, before I could put my foot inside it, someone’s magic latched onto me, pulling me inside, it invaded me, my thoughts, my body, god, I felt it in my soul. I ran mom, I ran from that house and the man that was inside that house. I’ve always had this feeling that I was being hunted or something and on occasion I felt myself dream of the impossible, but since that house, I’ve dreamt of him, every single night.”

  I look to my mother, she is just nodding her head, taking it all in, so I continue.

  “He is a monster Mom, he does things to people, creatures, whoever he can get his hands on. I’ve seen him rip hearts out of peoples chests before.” I pause at my mother’s shocked gasp that escapes her. “I’m afraid of him, Mom. I’m afraid of what he will do to me once he finally finds me, so I ran from here.”

  I take another pause, take another deep breath in. “I know it’s true, I know it’s hard to take in, but- but Mom, ever since then, shadows speak to me, they whisper to me. They told me I needed to return here again, I- I think I came home already. And he found me and did something to me. The shadows told me he needs me and that I had to return home.” I choke out once again to my parents.

  I hear the clatter of the steel spoon my father was using to stir the food with, and I look up to watch my mother sobbing silently.

  “Oh god baby, I thought if I kept denying it, he wouldn’t come for you, that he would leave you alone, that if I made you think this wasn’t real that you would think it was just nightmares.” She sobs out to me.

  “Mom. What are you saying?” I ask her.

  “Baby, there is so much you don’t know, but I think it’s time you know the truth, the whole truth.” She says to me, tears streaming down her face and I watch as my mother looks over to my father who is shaking his head slowly.

  “She must be told Ben; we can’t hide it any longer.”

  “I know I’m adopted.” I say out quickly. Let’s just rip the band-aid off now.

  My mother’s sobbing is the only confirmation that I need. I knew I was, for years now. I know I’m not a witch, both of my parents are, but I’m not. I’m so much more, so much darker.

  “Oh baby, how did you find out.”

  “I’m not a witch, I thought I was for years, but my powers were too developed, too advanced. And-.” I pause, because this is just one lie after the next being unraveled.

  “And what baby?”

  “I’m not a librarian, Mom. I actually run my own business. I acquire things for people. I found out on one trip gone horribly wrong that I wasn’t a witch, but something more.”

  “Acquire things?” My mother asks me.

  “Now is not the time, Mom. What is it you are hiding from me?”

  “Right, right.” She sobs and I watch her take in a deep breath before she continues to talk. “I could never have kids of my own, we tried for years, but it seems it was never in the cards for us. Treatment after failed treatment, praying, trying, we did everything, and nothing. But I wanted a child, so we opted for adoption. I wanted to raise a child, even if I couldn’t carry my own. So, when your birth parents knocked on our door one afternoon, we jumped at the chance.”

  I sit by quietly listening to the truth, the tears that fill my eyes fall freely down my face. I can’t stop them, even if I wanted to. I feel relieved for the first time in a long time, hopefully if I can get all the puzzle pieces together, then maybe I can slowly start putting my life together.

  “When your birth parents offered us their baby, we were beyond happy. You were so beautiful, so small, but you looked so perfect. But once I took my eyes from you, I saw how broken your birth parents were. I had to know why they were doing this.”

  “What- why did they say they did it?” I ask my mother.

  “Your biological father said they are hunted, after your biological mother gave birth to you, a prophecy of over a thousand years old was somehow linked to you. That you were destined for great, g
reat things and that they needed to hide you. Because once it got out who you were destined for, they would come for you, you weren’t safe. So, they hid you.”

  Have you heard of the Prophecy of Danté, Natalie? This time, I hear a man’s voice whisper in the back of my mind, his voice is as smooth as silk as it runs through my memories. But once again I can’t place it.

  “The Prophecy of Danté.” I whisper out to my parents.

  “Yes, how did you know?” My father confirms this time.

  “I didn’t know, but I’ve heard of it before somewhere, I think. What is the prophecy about? What does it say?”

  “It’s the same prophecy that has been haunting this coven, but I wish I could tell you more baby, the library burnt down on some freak electrical accident, everything was lost.”

  “Oh great, just my luck.” I grumble out.

  “Don’t worry dear, we will figure this out.” My mother assures me. “Why don’t you and your father go get your stuff from the car and I’ll make a phone call quickly.”

  “Okay, it’s not much, I can manage myself.” I say to her while hoping off my chair. “Just one more thing. What happened to them, my birth parents?”

  My father clears his voice before he answers, this can’t be good then. “The last we heard, they came for you, baby and they refused to give them your whereabouts, they- they didn’t make it.”

  Hurt, I didn’t think I would feel those feelings run through my body, but I do. I think a small part of me was hoping that one day I would meet them eventually and ask why they gave me up. At least I now know why I was given up. But it hurts none the less, that a silly part of myself was hanging onto this dream.

  I just nod my head in acknowledgement. I’ll place all these feelings in a box, until I get my old self back.

  “I’ll be right back.” I say to them.

  “Let me help you baby.” My father says to me and starts to follow me out the door.

  ~Jacin~

  I materialize in front of Natalie’s parents’ house. It’s not her home, no, her home is with me. Her stuff from before is still scattered about the house and what was left in her room has been moved into my room. She is mine.