Into the Light

127

He rested his elbows on his knees, then placed his hands together, with fingertips touching. "I told you that the Darkness is a psychopath. She doesn't understand, nor does she feel, human emotions. She held no love for her family, or anyone else that came into her life. There was one man that she spent time with, however; possibly feeling the closest thing to love that she could. His name was John Phillips. He had heard the whispers of the townsfolk, claiming that she was evil, but he didn't believe it. Her beauty had caught his eye and all he saw was a mischievous young woman who liked to play pranks.  He didn't believe that she was a witch or that she held any kind of ill will towards anyone. It was said that, when she spoke of her family to him, she spoke with love. Now, we know that it was all an act, but to John, he believed her. He fell for her hard and wanted to marry her. She agreed and the plans for the wedding began. The townspeople wanted no part of it and shunned John, along with the Darkness. This made her angry. That week, all of the older generation fell sick with a mysterious illness. It seemed to suck the life right out of them, one by one. Then the children. The same thing happened. The townspeople knew that it was she who had caused death to overcome them. So, they came for her. They carried their pitchforks and torches, or whatever they had to use as a weapon. John tried to stop them, claiming that they couldn't blame her for an illness. One mother, grieving the loss of her child, stabbed him in the side with her husband's hunting knife. Lil- sorry, the Darkness watched him fall with no sympathy in her eyes. She threw out her hands towards the townspeople, and as he watched with fading eyes, she struck them down, one after the other. She left one teenager girl alive, frozen on the spot, while she went to John. He thought, that since she did have this power, that she could save him. According to the story, she simply kissed him and sucked his soul straight from his dying lips. The teenage girl was the first of many that would cross the threshold of her supposed school." He became quiet, leaving us wondering what the point of this story was. After a few minutes of him sitting there in silence, staring at his hands, I spoke up. "So, how does this story help us?" I asked, raising my eyebrows questioningly. He lifted his head, met my gaze, and gave me a little smile. "Well, you see, I didn't know this until the other night, but I know why she wants you so badly, Colby. I figured it out," he replied. Again, he fell silent, still giving me that little smile. "Okay, and?" I said, motioning with my hand for him to hurry up and tell me. His smile grew wider, as he stood up. "I think that the Darkness did have a special place in her darkened soul for John Phillips. I think that, while she can't love like we do, perhaps she did love him in her own twisted way." He walked to the old bookcase on the other side of the room, and started running his fingers down the spines of a few of them, muttering to himself. "Ah, here we are," he said, pulling out a particularly moldy looking book. It was thick, with worn edges on its brown cover. He came back to sit down and started to thumb through the pages. "Here!" he said excitedly, pointing his finger at some black and white photo that was in the book. He turned it around so that it was straight for us, and all four of us leaned over to see it. Anna let out a small gasp and covered her mouth with her fingers. "Holy shit," Sam whispered, looking at me, then back to the picture. Kat sat there, speechless. I didn't know what to think. The man in the blurry black and white photo could have been me. Besides the stiff collar of his jacket and the parted on the side haircut, he was my twin. "What the fuck?" I whispered, staring at the picture. "Yes, that's the same sentiment that I had," Ash chuckled, like this was the best news we could have had. I didn't have his same thoughts. This had to be bad. "How is this a good thing?" I asked, sitting back and looking away from the book. It was starting to give me the creeps. I avoided the others gazes and kept my attention on Ash. He slammed the book shut and grinned widely. "Because, Colby," he eagerly replied. "Because, now we know one of her weaknesses. We can exploit it." "I thought that my bond with Sam was her weakness. Human love." He nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, exactly! This is the same thing. While we will be using the bond, because that is our greatest strength, we can also use this." I was scared to ask, but knew that I had too. "How?" I replied, hearing how hoarse my voice was getting. I took a deep swallow of water from my bottle and sighed. This just kept getting more and more complicated. Where were the witch hunters when you needed them? "By grabbing onto that tiny sliver of humanity that she has buried deep inside of her. That feeling that held for John alone. You will woo her, Colby Brock. You will make her think that you love her, that you want to be with her." My throat convulsed in disgust, at the thought. I shook my head. "I can't do that!" I exclaimed. "That's just...no." The smile left his face and he nodded. "You don't have too, of course. We can try it without that. It was just another way to weaken her." "Colby," Sam said softly, nudging me with his shoulder. I looked over and met his blue gaze. "Isn't it a good thing that we can make her weaker? That we can have this little bit more hope of beating her?" "Yeah, Sam, of course it is," I replied, while I drug my hand through my hair. "I just don't know if I can do it. She actually disgusts me. I can't stand to be near her. And, what if she regains control of me? Or hypnotizes me or something? She would be able to use me against you guys. I won't let that happen."