Eternal Darkness - Book One ✔

Chapter One

Got to get away, got to get away, I kept chanting these words as I fled down the rows of evenly-placed houses, running as fast as my legs could carry me. The sun had just descended behind the mountains in the background taking with it not only the light, but also its warmth, leaving me with goosebumps prickling on my chilled skin.

My sides were in stitches, but I kept on running. My breathing was ragged, but I didn't let that stop me. If I halted for just a second it was all over. I didn't even risk a glance back as I jumped over the remains of a once white picket fence. The color on the wood was chipped off in several places and parts of the fence just lay on the ground, abandoned to rot.

The neighborhood had once been a nice one; two story houses lined neatly side by side with each their own little front yard, decorated variously with plants and bushes and fountains.

But now, even that couldn't cover up the eerie feeling of absolute abandonment.

With the sun sinking, everything around me darkened rapidly. I was afraid that more would come, now that they didn't have to fear the rays of light anymore.

A turned-over trashcan nearly ended me. My foot caught on the lid as I skirted around it, but after a short stumble I was back on track.

But it had been enough for them to gain on me.

I heard the hissing in my ears, almost feeling the cold touch of their fingers on my neck.

I pushed myself, faster, faster.

I tripped and fell face first onto the pavement, panic rose in my body as I scrambled to get back on my feet.

The cold grasp of death engulfed me and as I felt the teeth graze my exposed neck I let out a blood-curling scream..

My eyes broke free from the nightmare and I stared up at the ceiling, letting out a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding in.

This particular nightmare was almost a relief to be in since the alternative was about my parents, and how they weren't with me any more.

The early morning sunlight seeped through the cloth covered windows, the heat of the rays caressing my face. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, my body still sleep-deprived after weeks on end of late nights and early mornings. But it was what I had to do to protect the ones that I cared about, by all means necessary.

I pushed myself off the mat on which I spent the few hours every night sleeping on, and stretched my aching body. A yawn escaped my lips and a low and all too familiar rumble emerged from my stomach.

"Yeah, I hope you get something to eat today too," I muttered, slowly walking across the small square room that used to serve as a classroom, now stripped bare of any usable furniture, and continued into the long hallway.

I could hear murmured voices coming from a room further down.

"Morning, sunshine," Dennis greeted me when I stepped inside the room. He always said such nice things whenever I looked like crap. I flipped him the middle finger and went to sit down in one of the wooden chairs that hadn't collapsed yet from rot.

With his fuzzy brown hair and inviting green eyes, Dennis smiled and settled back in his chair. His t-shirt and jeans were as worn-out as mine and at least just as filthy.

"Where's Johan?" I asked, noticing the absence of the third member in our little group. Our family, as we also called it.

We were all each other had, and it had been that way for years. My mind wandered back to a time when my parents had been present in my life, laughing and making me feel safe. But they were gone, and I immediately pushed the memory to the back of my mind; I didn't like thinking about them after just waking up. It was hard enough having to dream about them almost every night; constantly seeing my mother's face, ashen with defeat before she took her last breath as the illness victoriously claimed her life, knowing that there wasn't anything I could possibly have done to save her.