Dark Places of the Soul: Dark Soul Trilogy - Book 1 (12 page)

“
To defeat it,” Abner
said, “you must first acknowledge what it seeks. It needs what you
hold secret inside yourselves. It will tear it from you.

“
When I first confronted
it, I brought the small army it… had chosen. What did I bring? I
brought abuse, I brought hate and I brought fear. I stood immersed
in the sin of pride. I was proud of my knowledge of God, though I
know now he held no pride for me. It broke me; it tried to break us
all. There is no weapon patented to defeat this thing. A broken
cross, one driven by my own hand, it was not enough to remove this
evil from the world.

“
My folly is that we
sought to defeat what cannot be defeated, hold in bonds that which
cannot be bound. I am also guilty of not confessing my pride, of
not standing before this entity and my God and begging for
forgiveness. I gave it strength… just as Lonnie gave it
flesh.

“
I could not convince
myself that I had been called by this… dark soul… and not by my
God. Do you understand… how I celebrated the fact of being chosen…
being called to glory by my creator? I saw myself worthy and one
thing is certain… as we stand here today… we are not worthy of any
honor from our God.”

“
Abner,” Stephanie called
from across the room, “It waits for us.”

“
James… wait,” Keri pulled
on the back of his arm. He was driven to face the demon. The others
were with Stephanie, in the hotel lobby. They watched the world
outside where darkness battled a thick fog off the Atlantic Ocean.
The weather forecasters would develop some explanation for the
abrupt change in condition, but these six individuals knew the
actual cause.

Keri’s blue eyes couldn’t mask her fear.
“Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” she said as James turn toward her. “I
want to go back to last night. I have never felt so much security…
and now I’m frightened. Why can’t we just leave, not face this
thing… start a life…”

The last phrase slipped across her lips
without completion. His hand reached up and stroked her cheek with
the same gentleness she felt in his embrace last night.

“
Start a life… together?”
He finished her statement as a question, giving her the opportunity
to agree to future terms.

She nodded and whispered, “Yes.”

“
How could we build a
relationship, knowing we were brought together by something evil,
knowing the evil strives because we turned away? Keri… last night,”
she heard the words and felt the pause, she prepared herself for a
some form of sentimental rejection, “I want last night… to be a
part of our lives… present, future… and not simply one night buried
in the past, but I cannot be tormented by these dreams while living
in passion with you. If we are to be, we will stand together after
this thing is defeated… I promise.”

‘
I love you,’ the words
were inside her heart, but she didn’t speak them. She had uttered
their sound last night, in answer to him, when they were together,
naked, one body swimming in ecstasy. In reality he might have taken
her proclamation of love as an expression of sheer lust. He
probably gave little credence to her uttered emotion, three words,
spoken to a lover by her lips at the peak of mutual orgasm, three
words she wanted her heart to speak with clarity.

A whisper slipped over her lips, tiny and
unheard as Abner burst out of the room into the hallway. In his
fist he held a broken crucifix; his aged grip squeezed the cross at
the intersection of the two beams. “I almost forgot… a weapon,” he
announced.

***

The Jeep pulled beside an abandoned
warehouse along the docks, a home for rodents, dust and the
forgotten freight of some long bankrupt company. Stephanie’s white
Firebird stopped alongside the vehicle once belonging to Zachary
Wells.

“
Well I guess we’re not
taking the scenic route,” Candice offered her opinion of their
surroundings from the Jeep’s back seat.

Noah, riding shotgun, turned to face the
actress and the sullen young blond. “I think its kinda fitting
after all… don’t you… James?” The driver didn’t respond. “The
impending storm, the thick fog moving in across the water… if we’ve
come here to be slaughtered I can’t think of a better setting.”

“
Stop that,” Keri said,
breaking her self imposed silence.

“
Darlin’ we’re here,” Noah
commented, turning back around in his seat, “and I don’t think
there is anything we could’ve done t’ change it.”

James opened his door and got out. Keri sat
in the seat behind him and he held her door open as she stepped out
into the thickening fog.

“
You okay?” He asked
quietly.

“
Ask me again tomorrow
morning,” she answered, forcing a small smile to spread across her
lips.

Both doors of the Firebird closed. Stephanie
walked around to the passenger’s side as Abner willed his muscles
to stretch back into recognizable form. Given the choice a Pontiac
Firebird would not be his intended mode of transportation, but his
discomfort mattered little given the circumstances. He needed a
last moment alone with Stephanie to ensure her understanding of the
situation they faced. She would be the crux on which possible
success balanced.

“
Are we ready?” Abner
asked the other five.

“
Question,” Keri stated,
“why is it so… impossible for us to just turn away?”

“
Cause you know,” Abner
answered, “the evil has touched you… touched your depths. You can
never escape the vile essence of it as long as it lives. Each time
it seeks strength and steals life from an unfortunate soul… you
will taste it. We are all sinners, but death… murder is not
something our own hands are capable of. That’s why you’re called
by… it. You do not have the capacity to murder… not as individuals,
but as a group… you must pray for that strength.”

***

Stephanie felt the caress of cold fingers
against her flesh. She shivered and attempted to hide her
discomfort from the others. The sensation spread over her body,
lingering within her private areas, arousing her despite the
cold.

Dozens of windows along the face of the
warehouse were shattered. Shards of glass grabbed onto what little
light the night offered through the fog. Stephanie noticed one
broken window in particular, vapor danced at the open wound, the
evil essence waited for them.

She heard Abner speaking to the group about
sin and prayer. She murmured an ‘Our Father’ to herself, but didn’t
feel the words with any depth.

‘
I have you,’ she felt the
words tingling through her head, ‘and he does not.’

“
Stephanie,” Abner’s voice
broke her trance, “are you alright?”

The one she knew to be a minister supported
the old man’s weight against him as they moved toward the building.
Stephanie realized she had lagged behind.

“
You okay?” One of the
women asked.

“
It’s here… waiting for
us.” The words slipped from her mouth reluctantly.

“
Come,” Abner stepped away
from Noah’s support, finding strength on his own, “none of the
lambs will die tonight.”

A strange statement, from a man she’d know
all her life. No lambs would die tonight, but did the shepherd plan
to sacrifice his ancient existence in their place?

‘
Why would I want an old
man?’ The thing in her head whispered, ‘I can have so much
more.’

***

A heavy steel door opened with more ease
than expected. James found his way into the dusty dark chamber
before the others. Keri pulled at the back of his shirt again,
enticing him to slow his pace.

Long shadows stole substance from the
darkness. The fog off the Atlantic coast transgressed through the
shattered windows, entering the belly of the beast with caution.
The group gathered inside the opened door, pawns in a game they
didn’t control.

A jolt from behind startled James, Stephanie
walked past, her form barely visible among the darkness in the
short black dress she wore. James noticed the vapor before her, a
beckoning vine of indulgence, calling them to be one with its
master, to seek pleasure in the bosom of sin. She followed, and
without hesitation James pursued her. The others took stride behind
him, Keri close, as if in the umbrella of his protection, Noah,
Candice and Abner a few feet back.

Ahead, another door, another room, this
guardian of some inner cavity yawned as they neared. Stephanie
hadn’t touched the cold steel; the hinges were independent of any
action on her part. James felt Keri behind him; she gripped his
arm, just above the elbow, in a firm vice of frightened
fingers.

“
It’s here,” she whispered
beside him, “isn’t it?”

“
It will show itself when
it’s ready,” Stephanie said, turning back to those who followed.
“Your fear is an appetizer.”

James knew the voice flowing from
Stephanie’s lips did not belong to the young woman. The demon
staked out its warning. The thing that had brought them here filled
Stephanie’s mouth with its venom.

“
I know who you are,”
Abner spoke from behind James and Keri. “Leave the girl and be bold
enough to show yourself.”

“
Old friend, when I bid
you the honor, you will wish to have remained innocent of all your
curious endeavors.”

Abruptly, shadows sucking the final embers
of light from the room. James lost sight. Keri fell against him
with a startled cry.

“
I come to form in
absolute darkness,” the voice, which had spoken through Stephanie,
said. James knew the words no longer flowed from the girl. “For I
am the darkness.” It bellowed.

A scream, Keri’s screech of horror came from
beside him. James reached for the girl, whose life he had saved, in
his blindness. He felt her trembling hand against him at the moment
her scream formed solid words. “It’s touching me… don’t let it
touch me.”

Abner’s heart skipped a few required beats.
The pain escalading through his chest intensified. He slumped
against the cold concrete wall. Around him the others had either
lost consciousness or were being held in check by some unseen force
of darkness.

“
This place,” the voice of
Lonnie Wilkerson said to the old man, “has been a place of worship.
Those who idolize darkness gathered here in secret. They drank the
blood of animals… did you know that Abner? They would have been
tormented by the likes of you… by your holy sickness, if they
gathered in public… if they were to share their sacred drink before
the open eye. Satan called them in his weakness. He needs constant
worship… I only need to take your flesh and its sinfulness. Still
my ego will be well satisfied by the adoration of these in the
moments before I quench my hunger.”

Abner tried to move, but as he shifted his
weight the pain in his chest dug deeper. Death was coming. He
wanted a few more minutes. He became aware of light beginning to
sift through the darkness again. The adversary wished to be
seen.

Stephanie stirred, slowly beginning to come
back into the present world. The one named James sat up against the
wall to his right. The younger man had regained consciousness, but
at the moment his concern was with Keri’s well-being, rather than
the evil entity before them. Abner wondered about their
attachment.

“
I offer… myself,” Abner
said between short breaths, “release these… for the sake of God…
let these… go.”

“
And you will thus be able
to recite to God, ‘I have not lost any of your sheep.’ These are
mine. I am the closest thing they will ever know to god. You will
return to your maker as a failure.”

To Abner’s left, the minister named Noah
moved for the first time since being knocked unconscious by a force
unseen. Abner felt for the broken piece of crucifix in his pocket.
His heart raced, the hammer pounding in his chest reminded him that
death neared with vengeance. He did not want to fail in his last
hour.

“
You are old. You are the
remains of flesh having no purpose. What good would your puny
carcass be to me, Abner? You have not tainted your soul with sin in
years. What a boring web you weaved.”

“
Do not…” A coughing
seizure raged through Abner’s body. He spit phlegm on the floor and
noticed traces of blood in the substance.

“
Death will not be easy on
you Abner. It will most definitely not come with any haste. You
will witness these give their lives for my purpose, then I will
allow you to go to your maker, on his terms, not mine.”

Stephanie began to slowly crawl toward a
dark void in the room’s center. Her short black dress clung to her
thighs with electricity.

“
Stef…” Abner called with
what little voice remained, “get back… do not… go near him… the
thing. It will make you…” Abner grabbed at his chest in a futile
effort to squeeze another beat from the ancient pump beneath his
rib cage. He laid his head against the floor, watching, as the girl
entrusted to his care slowly positioned herself to pay homage
before pure evil.

***

Stephanie knelt in submission. The evil
force in Lonnie Wilkerson’s dead body absorbed the shadows unto
itself and allowed the time worn flesh of its host to become
visible. The stench of decay filled the room. Then, as if the dark
soul controlled even smell, the perverse odor of death flowed back
into his shape. He moved toward Stephanie, to touch her, to defile
her with probing fingers of dead sin.