Now Playing: The Darkness
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The Darkness 1
Episode Four
concluded with:
The
bedroom door opened slowly and Bart immediately recognized the man that stepped
inside. It was Adrian Monahan.
A trickle of red ran down the middle
of Adrian’s head, as if dividing it in two.“Help me!” Monahan
shouted. “Justice! I won’t rest until I get justice!”
Adrian reached into his suit coat
and brought out a large knife. “I will claim the head of the man who killed
me!”
Adrian stepped back out of the room and
closed the door. Bart could hear his footsteps moving down the hall.
McRae grabbed his boots and hastily
put them on. He was leaving this place and leaving fast. He tossed his Bible
back into the valise, closed it up and stepped quickly toward the bedroom door.
It was locked.
“Let me out of here!” He began
pounding furiously on the door.
Bart suddenly stopped. He dropped
the valise, made both of his hands into fists and took a deep breath. “I need
to think,” he whispered to himself. “Think calmly.”
A loud scream filled the house.
McRae froze, not moving a muscle until a second scream sounded.
Episode Five
Bart abandoned any efforts at calm
thoughts. He began to kick at the heavy door. On the fourth effort the door
flew open with splinters of wood forming a prickly cloud that scattered to the
floor.
Darkness
awaited Bart McRae in the hallway.
Forgetting about the valise, McRae stepped into the cave like
environment and walked carefully toward the stairway. Grabbing onto the
banister he descended slowly. The stairway was wide and, like the rest of the
house, uncarpeted.
As he
reached the bottom floor, McRae could see a thin blade of light coming from the
partially closed door of the study. Jesse slept there. He had to be awake now.
Maybe he…
No. Bart
had been in the Monahan Residence long enough. He was getting out forever.
McRae ran for the front door, only to trip over something, stumble and fall
head first.
Red lights
popped in front of McRae as he struggled back onto his feet. He stared at a
side wall and watched the red blobs be consumed by the darkness that flooded
the hallway. Feeling a bit more steady, Bart looked around and saw what he had
tripped over.
It was the
body of Jesse Monahan, lying in the hallway outside the office.
“Jesse!”
McCrae crouched over the fallen gambler. There was a silly smile on Jesse’s
face as if he were trying to amuse a child. For a moment, Bart wondered if he
might be the victim of an elaborate joke.
But only
for a moment. He placed two fingers on Jesse Monahan’s neck, feeling for a
pulse that wasn’t there. As he withdrew his hand, he noticed blood on the
sleeve of his shirt. His arm had brushed the gambler’s chest where a large
knife protruded.
A rattling
sound came from inside the office. The door moved outward a few inches and the
black cat slithered into the hallway. The animal’s body rose into a hunched
position and the cat hissed; its eyes seemed to flame at the man crouched over
the corpse.
Bart dashed
from the house in a panicked frenzy. He ran into town, passed a saloon and
headed directly for the sheriff’s office, which was locked. For the second time
in less than an hour, he pounded on a door.
“Okay,
okay, I’m coming.”
Sheriff
Buford Miley opened the door in sock feet. His eyes gleamed with surprise.
“Bart McRae. Heard you’d been released.”
McRae stood
immobile, unable to speak.
“What’s
wrong with you?” the sheriff asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Tomorrow: Episode Six
of The Darkness