When Night Falls

by Kayla Krantz

  Enemies and Allies

  “How many survivors?” I demanded, clenching my fists at my side as I faced him. A shadow fell across his face as he looked at the floor. “Not as many as we had hoped.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  “What we do best—fight,” he replied, setting his jaw. “You won’t go it alone.” He called out a sharp order and a figure approached us.

  I dropped my sword as I took a step backwards, feeling my heart sink to my stomach.

  “No. Not you. Anyone but you.”

  Sanctuary

  From outside, the building seemed like a safe haven—a place to rest from the horrors of the street. As soon as I stepped into the building, my mistake became clear. A ring of humans sprung from the shadows, surrounding me on all sides. By the glint in their eyes, I guessed they weren’t friendly.

  Swallowing hard, I emptied my clip into the nearest one. He didn’t flinch as the bullets pierced through his skin. Instead, he glanced down at the devastated flesh before smiling at me.

  “Was that supposed to hurt, darling?”

  The Bridge

  Iron-black against the twinkling sapphire of the evening sky, the bridge was beautiful as it overlooked the river. I lived my life in awe of it—of the beauty it held—though I didn’t know what lay on the other side. Physically, I had an idea, but emotionally? That was up to the Gods to decide. The other side of the bridge could take me away—to a new life, a new beginning. It could give me the fresh start that I’ve always dreamed of.

  If only I could muster the courage to walk across it.

  Unknown

  When I opened my eyes, I was aware of the pounding pain in the back of my skull. I wasn’t at home. My fingers dug into the dirt before I sat straight up; looking around the cemetery I had somehow ended up in. I gulped, trying to remember how I had gotten here. Stumbling to my feet, I walked through the row of ugly gray stones, each of which read “Unknown.” Scuffling sounds caused me to turn, and I froze as I caught the outline of someone else through the fog.

  “That one’s yours right there.”

  Not a Man

  I paced the outside of the cave, chewing my nails. I tried to decide between calling the police, or going in after my brother. I peered into the opening of the cave—the “No Return Cavern”—feeling both angry and worried.

  I was sure he was dead.

  “Fuck it,” I muttered, pulling out my phone. I heard scuffling behind me and turned to see my brother at the mouth of the cave.

  “I can’t believe you made it—no man has ever come back.”

  He smiled and a flash of yellow lighted his eyes.

  “Turns out I’m not a man.”

  Revenge Shot

  “It didn’t have to be this way,” the man said, pacing the room with a knife between his fingers. Clara looked up at him, tears streaming down her face as she held her sister’s body in her arms.

  The man had no control over his actions. She knew the demon within him had grown too powerful to be kept at bay, but that didn’t stop the rage from coming.

  “You’re right, it didn’t,” she said, pulling a gun from her pocket. She lifted it and pulled the trigger.

  The echo of his body resonated with the sound of her crying.

  Six of Us…

  Six of us roamed this street after the tragedy—we took care of one another, like the members of a wolf pack would. We thought we had found refuge in one another…until we began to disappear as well. After the first one went missing, a year went by. But the time between each consequential disappearance grew shorter and shorter.

  Now, I was the only one left.

  I lifted the bottle, chugging the alcohol as I stared at the ceiling.

  If my calculations were correct, whatever it was would come for me tonight.

  Light Behind Your Eyes

  At that moment, the light left the depths of her beautiful blue eyes. She wasn’t dead, though, she must’ve wished she was.

  I don’t love you.

  Emotionally destroyed by the swift justice of four powerful words wasn’t what she had expected from this meeting.

  And it wasn’t what she wanted.

  Yet, it was something I craved.

  The pain on her face was delicious, giving me the ability to

  ignore my own—if only for a little while. Tears streamed down her face, and she struggled to speak. But I had nothing left to say.

  A clean break would be easier to heal.

  Missing You

  Long periods of time would pass, seemingly without incident.

  I loved my life, and it was kind to me.

  It would hit me out of nowhere—she wasn’t here, the love of my life. I’d suddenly find myself missing her all over again, as if the years of moving on hadn’t happened. Some days, I’d lock myself in my apartment, pining away for her. I’d think about taking a chance and going to visit her—to get rid of my nagging emptiness once and for all. If only I could remember where I hid her body.

  True Danger

  Cameron waited by the door for Clarissa to return.

  He was prepared for a fight, knowing she’d be determined to flee the moment she realized he was in her home. She didn’t understand that his intentions weren’t to harm her but to protect her.

  The glimpse she had of the other side, the underbelly of Hell, was too much for her to take.

  Instead of accepting it, she denied it—and him as well.

  What she didn’t understand was that Cameron wasn’t the one she needed to fear—they were.

  Murderer

  He had dedicated the better portion of his life to me—buying me dinner, offering me gifts, and spending every waking moment he could at my house. It was obvious what he felt for me, but what was even more obvious was what he expected from me.

  He wanted me to love him. There was just one thing he didn’t seem to understand—I could never love the person who kidnapped me—who trapped me and made me live out the rest of my days in a dungeon. I could never love the person who murdered my entire family in cold blood.

  Wake Up

  It was like chaos the way the world swirled around me—much like a tropical storm. I knew the dream was coming to an end, and I could only wish it would go faster. The colors brightened, and I strained my eyes so much that I clamped them shut just to ease the pain.

  “Wake up! Wake up now!” a voice hissed in my ear.

  My eyes shot open to stare at my white ceiling. I felt someone’s presence nearby. I sat up to look around the room, then remembered that I lived alone.

  Storm

  The shutters rattled outside as the wind berated the house. I shivered. The power had shut off, submerging me and my sister, Annabelle, in darkness. The only light filtered in from the lightning outside. As the house shook in the storm, roaring with fury, we faced God’s very wrath. The flickering lights made it hard to gauge the distance between Annabelle and I as we scrambled to get our belongings in order. Fingers gripped the back of my neck as the thunder rumbled outside.

  “Come with me,” a voice whispered in my ear.

  Trinket

  The amulet was rusted and dirty—obviously old, yet, still beautiful. She squinted in confusion, tugging it from her jewelry box. She wore jewelry every day, yet had never seen it before in her life. The silver chain rattled as it slunk across the wood. Callie lifted it to her eye and gasped at the flash of light that seemed to greet her. In the depths of her house, from a secret room in the basement, a creature began to stir, woken by the light that tried to warn her.

  Humming

  Every night, around two in the morning, Cassandra would hear it—the humming. It sounded like an electrical appliance. Problem was, she lived in the middle of nowhere. The only electronics here were her own—she’d know if any of them sounded like that.

  “Shh! Listen! There it is again,” she hissed, grabbing her husband’s arm. He rolled his eyes. “It’s just the toads.”

  Ca
ssandra heard the frogs too, but that wasn’t the sound that concerned her. She climbed out of bed and went outside into the darkness. Lights flooded her vision as a spotlight trained on her.

  Ink Blots

  I tried to warn them.

  I really did.

  The ink blots told me they would come.

  When the psychiatrist held up her shiny white cards, I wasn’t prepared for what I’d see in the ink. I tried to tell them the beasts were coming—beasts that would rip them apart and burn the building to the ground.

  Nobody believes someone who’s insane.

  Now, I’m standing alone, among the mutilated corpses and burned rubble of the mental health ward, wondering why they had spared me and me alone.

  When would they come back to finish the job?

  Cleansed

  I found peace in the rain; an eerie calmness that somehow didn’t exist under the harsh brightness of the sun. I relaxed against the battleground, feeling icy drops of water washing away the blood from my multiple wounds. Having passed beyond the point of pain, they brought me comfort. It was a relief to know that the last few minutes of my life wouldn’t be riddled in the agony of my demise.

  I still felt the range of sensations as I lay there, waiting for the sweet embrace of death to take me away from it all.

  One Bad Thing

  I had to do one bad thing to tip the scales back in our favor.

  One last resort—a thing I never thought of doing, before today.

  It had to be done.

  To win the war, there had to be casualties.

  They didn’t see it that way.

  My good intentions were overlooked; the one evil deed that I had to do became the story of my life. No one remembered the hundreds of good things I had done before that, and all the lives I had saved.

  My one bad act outweighed every good thing I had ever done.

  Left

  My vision comes to. It’s hazy. I take a deep breath and look around at the brittle bed of yellowed grass around me. In the distance, I spot the outline of a mountain in the gray sky. A container touches my lips, cool liquid gushing into my mouth. I sit up, spluttering as I spit it out.

  “Relax, it’s just water,” Tyler mutters from beside me.

  I look at him, holding a hand to my head as I suddenly remember—the battle. Tyler notices the look in my eyes.

  “We’re all that’s left.”

  Windows

  When our dog died, my sister was the one who found him. The buzzards, of course, had paid their visit before we were even aware of his condition. I was saddened, too, by his passing, but nowhere near as distressed as my sister was.

  “They took his eyes,” she murmured one day, as she stared out the window.

  “That's what buzzards do.”

  She turned to me with a haunted look. “Eyes are the windows to the soul.” She paused for a minute, scrunching her face as if she were suddenly in pain. “If they took his eyes, then where's his soul?”

  Shadows

  There were monsters in the shadows. Or so I had been told. The stories started when I was a kid. Most parents tell their children that monsters aren’t real, that there’s nothing to fear in the dark. But my parents were different. These beasts in the shadows could harm me if I wasn’t careful, they warned on multiple occasions.

  Yeah, okay.

  I rolled over in bed, my room cloaked in complete darkness—against my parents’ wishes. I was nearly asleep when the voices started, and my eyes shot wide open.

  “The panic, it dances in your eyes. Why so afraid?”

  Get Out

  Abigail lugged the giant typewriter to my room and plopped it onto my desk. I didn’t know what to think. Raising an eyebrow, I watched as a tiny spider ran from its home between the large keys.

  “What’d you bring that for?” I asked, pulling clothes out of a box on my bed.

  “I found it upstairs,” she replied, poking at a key. “It still works!”

  I shook my head, resuming my work when the clacking started again. I turned to tell Abigail to stop, when I realized it was typing by itself.

  “Get out. You’ve been warned.”

  Ruby Red

  The paints on my pallet are a variety of colors—blue, green, yellow—and I use them all in spades.

  But red—that’s my favorite.

  Of all the colors, it’s the hardest to obtain. I look at the empty spot on my pallet and sigh, my attention diverting to the body in the corner of the room. I pick up the shallow pan beside it, smiling at the crimson liquid sloshing inside. I dip my brush into it, running a line of the thin ruby red onto my canvas.

  “Beautiful,” I murmur, as I watch it run.

  The Picture

  The thing was as black as coal, with yellow eyes that reminded me of a werewolf. It stared at me, ready to devour me whole. My fear paralyzed me at the worst time possible. A voice seemed to tell me that light could beat the thing—whatever it was. I struggled to pull my phone from my pocket. Lifting it to the creature, I snapped a photo, defeating it with the flash. My eyes shot open, and I glanced at the open phone beside me. The picture of the coal-black monster glared back at me.

  Traveling Circus

  The music played again. It was the middle of the night. I wasn’t crazy, like my husband insisted. Grabbing a baseball bat in case I ran into trouble, I slipped outside. The music grew louder—the kind heard in a circus. I crept along the edge of my house, and peered into the backyard. In the shadows, I saw various outlines: a Ferris wheel, carnival games…and people? My heart sped up as I glanced over my shoulder and fiddled for my flashlight. When I shone the light, the shadows had vanished…along with the music.

  Peace

  They called me weird, but they didn’t understand.

  I found comfort in the cemetery that I found nowhere else.

  When I stepped beyond boundary of the gate, I could feel it—the peace on the other side. I don’t know if it comes from Heaven or from simple nothingness, but I’m sure death brings a kind of bliss unknown in life.

  Year after year, I would allot time to visit the mass of forgotten graves—to reach out to the souls buried there. And to hope that one day, I would join them in the peace of the other side.

  A Note from the Author

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to pick my book out of the millions upon billions on the market. And thank you even more for finishing it to the end.

  If you’ve enjoyed my book, I’d truly appreciate if you’d spend one more minute of your time on me and leave a review. To us authors, reviews are life and death since they help us to get better exposure so other readers like you can find us in the vast sea of literature <3

  Thank you again!

  About The Author

  Kayla Krantz is the proud author of many dark fantasy novels, fascinated by the dark and macabre. Stephen King is her all-time inspiration mixed in with a little bit of Eminem and some faint remnants of the works of Edgar Allen Poe. When she began writing, she started in horror but somehow drifted into thriller and fantasy. She loves the 1988 movie Heathers. Kayla was born and raised in Michigan but traveled across the country to where she currently resides in Texas with her husband and son.

  She has ideas for books in many genres which she hopes to write and publish in the future.

  facebook.com/kaylakrantzwriter

  authorkaylakrantz.wordpress.com

  twitter.com/kaylathewriter9

  Other Works By This Author

  Blood Moon

  (The Blood Moon Trilogy Book One)

  Trapped.

  What could be a worse feeling than that?

  After 18-year-old Sam gets an invitation for a free vacation in the mail, she hops on the opportunity despite her mother's pleas not to go. With the realization that her best friends have all been invited as well, she's sure she made the right choice. Once they board the fancy cruise ship however, things aren
't as luxurious as they had seemed.

  Passengers start to disappear and once the ship lands on a deserted island, Sam and her friends are left on their own to figure out why. Faced with a deadly predicament, they have to learn to survive amid a mass of nightmare creatures all out for the taste of her blood. With the help of a handsome yet suspicious island native, Sam must figure out how to get back to the mainland before she's trapped on the island forever.

  Dead by Morning

  (Rituals of the Night Book One)

  Obsession is deadly.

  No one learns that better than Luna Ketz, a pessimistic high school senior. Caught between the intentions of her Muslim father and business-minded mother, boys are the last thing on Luna’s mind, but this fact doesn’t detour mysterious bad boy Chance Welfrey from trying to gain her affection.