In Darkness We Must Abide: The Complete First Season: Episodes 1-5 (6 page)

It was then he realized he was enclosed in some sort of box.

“What the hell?” His voice was a roar in the enclosed space.

Roman pressed his hands up, utilizing every bit of his strength. With a loud crack, the lid flipped open.

Roman scrambled to sit up, his hands grasping the edges of the container he had been trapped within.

His blood ran cold.

He was in a coffin within the mausoleum.

“Dear God in Heaven!” Roman’s voice echoed through the vast chamber.

With great haste, he clambered out of the coffin and stood among his long dead relatives. Incredible waves of fear engulfed him as he trembled in shock.

“What is this?”

A torch wavered above an open coffin several feet into the mausoleum. Roman approached it with trepidation. He recognized the coffin as the one that had been bound in chains. Staring into the empty coffin, he remembered gazing into the face of a demon while being lifted off the ground. His hand flew to his throat, the horror and searing pain of the memory piercing his mind. Instead of the gash that had been torn by long fangs, his hand touched smooth flesh. 

“No, no, this can’t be,” he whispered.

The coffin before him was empty. Old, tattered clothes were shoved into one corner of the large coffin. The old one had risen. Alisha had been right. There had been a vampire. Correction. There
was
a vampire.

“Then I’m-” Roman choked on his words. Running his hands over his face, he could feel no physical difference. All that he felt was fear and horror. “It can’t be. No! No! No, this can’t be happening. I’m dreaming. This is a nightmare. I am Roman Socoli!”

Yet, he was different. The shadows no longer hid secrets. With his new vampire power he could see every little detail of the mausoleum’s burial chamber.

“Oh, God,” he whispered. “Oh, God.”

The fear disappeared and rage engulfed him. Fury like he had never felt before consumed his body and mind and with a tormented cry, Roman lifted a fist above his head. He slammed it down onto the side of the old one’s coffin. The wood split apart beneath the force of his blow.

Roman staggered back in shock, gaping at the damage he’d inflicted so easily.  The sheer physical strength he felt throughout his body and the magnitude of his emotions were overwhelming. He collapsed against a pillar, buried his face in his hands, and wept.

As he sat in the mausoleum, a sorrowful figure sobbing uncontrollably, the power of an unfathomable desire grew deep within him. Roman was far too depressed at first to pay much heed to it, but then it felt as if a fire was spreading from his chest into his limbs. He pulled off his jacket and wiped his tears away. He had to think clearly and make plans. He would have to talk to Alisha and tell her what had happened. That he truly wasn’t dead. Alisha had to understand. She believed in the supernatural.

An incredible pain ripped through his abdomen. In agony, he fell onto his side, writhing.

“The hunger speaks, my son.”

It was that same horrid voice from the previous night. It drifted from the shadows lingering around the heavy doors.

Roman lay curled on the floor, panting and struggling to control the agony churning within him.

A tall, elegant man dressed in one of Roman’s blue suits moved into the torch light. His hair was silver and his eyes were a dark blue under heavy brows. His appearance was that of someone in their sixties and he gazed down at Roman with a wicked smile upon his thin lips.

“You have to feed, Roman. You are now what I am. You must feed as I must,” the vampire said.

“You did this to me!”

“You need not thank me, my son. I give you the Dark Gift with great joy.”

“Gift? It’s a curse!”

The old man tapped Roman’s knees with his foot. “I was so tired of being alone, my son, and now you have joined me. I am happy. It’s been long since I roamed the night. Across the seas I called to you and you answered.”

Roman pressed his hands against his belly, the pain unbearable in its force. “No, no.”

“Yes, I did. With the last of my power, I called to blood and blood answered.”

Horrified that his noble actions could bring such evil into his life and that of his sisters, Roman shook his head adamantly. “No, it’s not true!”

The old man chuckled.  “I have been calling out for so many years, but you were the first to heed me.  I grant you immortality in gratitude.”

Shivering, Roman lashed out at the creature, but the vampire easily avoided him. “The sun has been down for three hours. It is nearing midnight. You have time to feed. Your Uncle and his wife are very snug in their bed, but unfortunately untouchable. Your little sister, Vanora, is also very safe. She is as pale as the moon. She will be a beautiful creature of the night.”

“Don’t hurt them, you bastard!”

The vampire laughed with amusement and leaned against Roman’s coffin. “I have fed. It is you that must feed.”

“Never! I won’t hurt my family!”

“Strange,” the old man said thoughtfully. “I awoke to this life with a hunger so powerful within me, I was quite mad until I fed. My wife was the one who joined me first, but the madness of the hunger never left her. She slew villagers by the dozen. They found her quite quickly and killed her.” The old man fell silent, lost in thought. “Sometimes the madness stays with a vampire after they have fed. If the priest hadn’t killed her, I would have had to in order to protect my other progeny.”

Roman clawed at the pillar, trying to get to his feet. If he could collect one of the splintered pieces of the old coffin, he could end the nightmarish creature before him.

“When I was freed from my coffin this time, the hunger was sheer torture. I tried to feast upon the little glowing one, but she was wearing a damned cross. Your other sister, the one who resembles my dear dead wife, is also very clever. She chased me away with a cross she drew on some paper.” He chuckled with delight. “But even the smartest ones make mistakes. I’m enchanted with her, Roman. She will be a beautiful vampire Bride. She is in your office right now. It was there she confronted me. Lucky for me, the cross had fallen from her necklace. She is there now waiting for you. Go to her. Let her join us.”

“You bastard! I’ll kill you!” Roman grunted with pain.

“I think not.” The vampires smiled at him with dark pleasure. “Soon you will go mad with the hunger. It is inevitable. I already can see the madness in your eyes.”  He leaned toward Roman to stare into his eyes. “Yes, it’s there. Tomorrow you will be more receptive to my words. As for now, I shall wander the streets and see how the world has changed since the hunters trapped me in my coffin.”

Roman watched with hate-filled eyes as the old man’s body melted through the crack between the two doors into the mausoleum and vanished.

“I have to get out of here,” Roman muttered. He had to get away from Alisha and Vanora. He couldn’t hurt them.

Unsteadily, Roman moved toward the doors.  The darkness within him boiled and whispered to him, the predator within rising upwards. His veins burned as he pushed through the pain and found his strength. Without hesitating, passed right through the crack in the doors just his great-great-great-grandfather had.

The house loomed before him, majestic and ominous. He stared up at its darkened windows with longing. This was his home and he would never be able to enter it again.

The hunger hit him again full force. Suddenly the longing was not homesickness. Roman clenched his fists so violently that his nails dug deep into the flesh of his palms.

“No! Never!” he whispered hoarsely.

Swiveling about sharply, he deliberately strode across the darkened lawn and away from the house. As the hunger billowed within him, his steps slowed.

Alisha was in the study, waiting for him.

“No!” Roman forced himself to walk on.

Within a few minutes, he reached the high stone wall that enfolded the estate. Roman lifted his hands and touched the cold stone. Could he scale it? Another wave of the hunger washed over him and the incredible desire to return to the house tore at him. The madness was coming; he could feel it. He swung about and stared at the house barely visible through the grove of trees. The desire to feed was becoming overwhelming.

“I have to control it,” Roman whispered into the darkness. He placed his hands once more on the wall and wedged his fingers between the cracks. With hesitant movements, he climbed the wall. It was far easier than he had ever imagined. Easily reaching the top, he hesitated as the urge to return gripped him once again. With a growl, he leaped off the wall. In the back of his mind, he wanted to break a leg or, better yet, his neck, and end this mad dream. Instead, he landed effortlessly and safely on the sidewalk.

“Damn!”

A quaint, middle-class neighborhood that surrounded the estate emerged and his hunger surged. He had to get away from these people too. He could no longer trust himself . Every fiber of his being yearned for the life-giving warmth of blood.

Roman ran blindly for several minutes, dogs around the neighborhood barking and howling as they detected his presence.

Turning a corner, a majestic church came into view, its steeple rising into the night sky. At once Roman felt white fire licking along his skin, and he came to a halt before the house of God, where an inner light illuminated the stained-glass windows.  This was his church, the church he entered every Sunday.

The hunger was unbearable now, ripping him apart. Clenching his hands, he fought against the desire to return to the estate and feed on his sister.

I have to die!

Roman moved toward the church, fighting the Holy Fire repulsing him. The crosses inset on the doors blazed to life, blinding him. Covering his face, he staggered off into the bushes lining the building. Desperate, he kicked in one of the basement windows and slid inside. Hot invisible fire burned against his flesh.

“Dear God, help me,” he whispered as he moved through the darkened basement. He sat down in a folding chair and hugged himself protectively. “I did not ask for this curse. Have mercy on me, please.”

The discomfort worsened as the minutes ticked by. The holiness of the church and the hunger plunged Roman into a living hell. Hands trembling, he pushed his sweat soaked hair from his brow.

“Kill me, God. Kill me now,” he moaned in anguish.

Then something snapped within him and the beast that was his hunger seized full control.

Desperate to escape the inferno of holy power engulfing him, he threw himself about the basement, furniture splintering. His crazed, glowing red eyes caught sight of the broken window and he leaped easily through it and hurled away from the church.

Rachel Williams slammed the door of her car shut and heaved her grocery bag onto her hip. The pretty young woman with ebony hair and skin hated working so late at the local supermarket, but it was the only way she could attend school. She started to take a step forward, then hesitated.  She never felt safe after dark, but the boarding house where she lived appeared strangely ominous.

Presently, the only people living within the house were the elderly couple that were her landlords.  Lately acts of violence had not been isolated just to ‘bad’ neighborhoods, but were spreading into the suburbs. She’d just read about a young woman her age getting raped in the mall parking lot. All day she had felt nervous and wasn’t exactly sure why, but now, staring at the unlighted house, she felt uneasy.

“Hey, lady, can you spare some change?” a young voice taunted from the shadows.

Rachel stiffened. Slowly, she swiveled about to see a young man, unusually pale and gaunt staring at her.

A junkie! Great!

“No, sorry,” she responded, rapidly walked up the drive to the porch. The fear inside of her rose steadily as the kid paced her.

“Hey, lady, I’m sick. I need medicine. Just a couple of bucks.” The young man wiped his face on his filthy shirt. “Come on, lady, hand some money over. I’m needy.”

The punk stepped in front of her, directly in front of the porch, blocking her way. She stopped in her tracks, her mind racing. She c ould run for the back door but if he were to catch her, things would be far worse.

“Okay, fine. Maybe I do have a few dollars. Let me check,” Rachel said.

Setting her groceries down on the gravel drive, her mind was whirring with possible escape plans. She reached into her purse and fumbled about for her wallet. To her relief her hair spray bottle was in there too. Pulling the money out with one hand, she kept the other in her purse around the hair spray. “Here you go.”

The young man moved forward and took the few bills. His pale face suddenly flushed and his eyes become crazed with anger. “Five dollars! Are you fucking joking? Look, bitch, hand over the rest! This isn’t enough!”

Rachel’s eyes narrowed. The rest of her money was for her tuition and she was not going to turn that over. “That’s all I have. I’m in school and barely making it.”

The junkie’s face contorted with anger. “I need my medicine real bad, lady, and it costs more than five fuckin’ bucks! Give me everything that’s in your purse!” He grabbed her arm, his sweaty face twisted in his desperation.