Cover of Darkness
By: Silena Buckelew
Cover designed and illustrated by: Silena Buckelew
Copyright 2010 Silena Buckelew
This is a work of fiction. Any similarities with real life persons or events are purely coincidental.
https://ladymulti.livejournal.com/
Preface from the Author
This story is different than many others I work on. It is set in a more modern world unlike my other works that are based on fantasy worlds. The story was a fluke of creation but I grew to really like the idea, which was the beginning scene in Chapter 1. I used this story and the “Earth” that the characters live in to pull events that make my typical subject of fantasy “magic” into “science”.
The universe of “Cover of Darkness” is simple. Not so much unlike our own only having something, like the events in this story and possible sequels, to occur.
Sequels? Continuations would be a better term. Some ends were left open, unintentionally at first, but with a simple spark of inspiration there are outlines detailing the two that would be continuations. The open-ends never really affected the story at all, but it allowed me to keep with characters I enjoy using.
“Cover of Darkness” was written in a short period of time, for my standards. It was a pleasure to challenge myself and it is my pleasure to share this with you, despite how odd it may sometimes be.
I really enjoy the world of “Cover of Darkness” and love the characters that I have created to inhabit it. I hope that you can do the same.
Chapter 1: “Alison”
It was a calm Friday night. It was the night of a school party. A girl walked down the sidewalk. It was a dark night, except for the dim streetlights and the moon. The girl’s name was Alison. She had her blond curls pulled behind her head with a black ribbon to stop the long strands from falling into her ocean blue eyes.
Alison attended the party wearing long purple dress. She was ready to get home, so that she could take off the make-up and take a shower. Alison really didn’t enjoy parties, nor did she enjoy the shoes she wore to them.
The temperature was perfect, not cold, and not hot. It was a calm spring night—nearly perfect for a party. There wasn’t any traffic on the street, so Alison decided to walk in the street. The only sound she could hear was her shoes tapping on the pavement.
Alison walked this path often. It was only a ten-minute walk from her house to her friend Carol’s, where she had attended the party. She attended the only high school in the county—Central High. It was a relatively small school in a relatively small town.
Alison yawned from boredom as she listened to her slight footsteps on the black pavement. Soon her footsteps where interrupted by another sound other than her feet. She stopped to listen but no other sounds occurred. She shrugged believing that she imagined it.
As she continued walking she heard a metal lid of a garbage can fall. She stopped and looked around. “Must have been a cat.” She said. She began to walk again. For a while she believed that she was paranoid, but then she heard footsteps other than her own. The footsteps where coming from behind her. Alison sped up to hurry and get home, but the other footsteps began to speed up as well.
Alison began to get annoyed and scared, but she just kept walking. She then turned around as fast as she could and stopped.
No one was there.
An eerie chill went up her spine when a shadow appeared in front of her. There was someone behind her. She turned her head quickly and saw a figure of a man, but the light kept her from seeing the face.
Overwhelming pain ached from her back. She couldn’t stand it and slowly fell over down to the road in a cover of darkness.
“Did you hear?” A girl asked. Her name was Amber. Her eyes were emerald green, and she had amber hair, which was cut short, barely caressing her neck.
“Yeah her mom called me last night and asked if she was at my house.” Another girl said. Her name was Carol; she was Alison’s best friend since kindergarten. She had long straight blond hair, in which hung into her unusual purple eyes. “I told her mom that she had left two hours earlier and it worried her sick.”
“That’s unusual.” A third girl said. Her name was Litanya. She was the brown-haired, brown-eyed, tomboy. “From your house to her house is only a ten minute walk.”
“Tommy offered to drive her home last night, but I heard that she decided to walk.” Amber said as she waved her right index finger at Carol.
Carol gasped. “Hey, do you think that Tommy did something?”
“No impossible.” Amber said. She calmly shook her head. “I saw him in the convenience store on my way home.”
“Well, you never know.” Carol said. “He could have cut her up into small pieces and scattered them.”
“Sure.” Amber said sarcastically.
Litanya smiled. “Well, let’s forget about it and go shopping for things!”
“Yeah.” The other two said in unison.
On the way out of Amber’s apartment, Carol bumped into a man causing him to drop everything.
“I’m sorry, sir.” Carol apologized.
The man bent over and started to pick up all the things. “Watch where you are going, brat.” He spoke in a dark, deep, yet serene voice.
“Well, sorry for existing!” Carol said sarcastically.
The man finished picking up his things and stood. He was much taller than the girls. The man had long black hair, which he had pulled behind his head. It hung far below his shoulders. He kept his eyes closed. He opened up his eyes to show that they were green. The green was similar to the color a cat’s eyes glow when reflecting light.
The man’s eyes sent a shiver down Carol’s spine, since he was staring directly at her. Carol made eye contact with him, until he swept a few strands of black hair out of his eyes causing her to look away.
“You’ll eventually watch where you are going.” He calmly stated. “You will, or one day you’ll get hurt.” He calmly walked around the girls and walked out of sight.
The girls shook off the strange encounter and walked outside to Carol’s car. They hopped in and drove to the downtown “Central City Shops.” While they drove, the girls talked about the strange man and their missing friend Alison.
They parked near the main shops, and proceeded to get out of the car. Carol and the others walked down the street and saw Tommy—a tall, slim, white-dyed hair, green-eyed boy—and his punk friend Jason—a short, chubby, red-haired, girl-crazy annoyance, but in general a sweetheart—standing near a store. Mike, Tommy’s younger brother came out of the video store to join the two guys. Mike was fourteen, only two years younger than his brother. He had short black hair and his brother’s green eyes.
Mike noticed the girls walking towards them. “Hey!” He seemed too cheerful almost all the time, as the girls had found out.
“What’d you buy?” Tommy asked.
“Anime tapes, and you care?” Mike cheerfully annoyed his brother.
Tommy shook his head.
The girls stopped to talk to the guys. “Hey.” Litanya said. The other two girls waved or nodded.
“I heard about Alison.” Mike said. “A lot of people think my brother did something.” He looked at Tommy. “I know you’re crazy, but I know you better than anyone, and I know that you wouldn’t do something like that.”
“Yeah, Tommy’s not THAT psycho.” Jason said.
Tommy looked at Jason. “Do you really think I’m bad?”
“I don’t think you did anything.” Carol said. “You’re just a target.”
“Really?” Tommy looked at Carol. “Why might that be?”
The three girls just looked at Tommy.<
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Jason laughed. “Well, I wonder.”
Mike looked at the two groups. “I better get home.”
“Later, Mike.” Jason said. He waved as Mike walked off.
The five talked a few minutes, but then split to let the girls shop as the guys left. The girls walked into many of the shops along the street. They shopped for around two hours.
“I should buy my prom dress.” Litanya said.
“You haven’t yet?” Carol asked. “It is in two weeks.”
Amber looked at the movie theater. “Hey, let’s watch a movie! I heard that there are a few cool movies own this week!” She pointed at the movie theater.
Carol looked ahead. “That would be cool. Let’s go.”
They started walking toward the movie theater, but stopped when they saw a girl standing a few feet in front of them. The girl was wearing a purple dress, and looked similar to Alison.
“Alison?” Carol asked.
A crowd walked between the girl and Carol, Amber, and Litanya. When the crowd walked past, the girl was gone.
The girls were puzzled. They wondered if anyone else saw the girl besides them, or if they were imagining the girl. They were absolutely confused at what had just occurred. Carol thought that she was hallucinating, but Amber and Litanya said they saw her to. All three decided that they should leave.
Carol led them silently to the car. She drove her two friends home then went down to Alison’s house. She turned off the car and walked up to the door. When, she knocked on the door no one answered. She looked over and saw that the kitchen window was broken.
Carol knelt down and pulled a wooden panel aside to pull out a key. Alison and her parents knew Carol well, so they left a key for her to come in when she wanted to. She stood back up and unlocked the door.
“Hello.” Carol called. She slowly walked into the hallway. She walked into the kitchen, where everything seemed to be in order. Someone had to be home because all the lights were own and the car was outside in the driveway. “Mr. Hagen? Mrs. Hagen? Are you home?”
Carol left the kitchen and walked into the hall the bedrooms were on. “Are you there?” She was beginning to become nervous. She turned to go down the main hallway and began walking toward the living room.
The lights were off in the living room and it seemed that one of the hall’s lights were busted. Carol continued down the hall slowly but stopped to look at the floor. A puddle of blood was at the entrance to the living room.
“Mrs. Hagen?” Carol looked up. She was beginning to be worried. Carol stepped over the pool of blood into the dark living room. She flipped the light switch to turn the lights on, but it didn’t work. “Hello?”
There was a lamp on a desk. Carol knew where it was so she slowly walked over to the desk. She hit the switch then turned to the couch. Alison’s parents were on the couch—dead. Carol screamed then ran out of the house.
She ran to her car, but fell before she reached it. One of the neighbors came out of the house next door. The woman was wearing a robe and house shoes. “What’s wrong?” The woman asked.
“The Hagens.” Carol could barely speak. “Alison’s parents….”
The woman went into her house and called the police. The woman came back out and sat with Carol on the sidewalk.
The police arrived a few minutes later. They went into the house and began investigating. One officer said that it looked like whatever did the crime wasn’t human. Countless claw marks were found over the room. Three parallel claw marks, so a human couldn’t have done such a thing.
An officer escorted Carol home and explained what had happened to Carol’s parents. They were shocked by the news. The families were close since Alison and Carol met when they were children.
Carol went into her room and laid face down on her bed.
“Carol, honey?” Her mom walked into the room. “Are you all right?”
Carol didn’t say anything. Her mom slowly turned and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her.
Two days had passed. The town held the funeral for Alison’s parents, with no sign of Alison anywhere. The police said the Hagen’s estimated time of death was 7:30 p.m. If Carol remembered correctly that was when she, Amber, and Litanya were at the mall, and that girl that looked like Alison appeared.
Was that a sign? Carol remembered feeling a strange force at the mall in that instant and she felt it in Alison’s house too in the moment she saw the Hagen couple dead in the living room.
On Tuesday, Carol went to school as normal to find most of the people feeling sorry for her. Carol and her friends were beginning to get worried about Alison, who seemed to have disappeared, beginning it all.
After school the group planned to follow Alison’s path she took the night of her disappearance. They agreed to meet at nine o’clock.
That night they met outside of Carol’s house. They slowly began walking the path to Alison’s house searching every inch of the road and sidewalk. Somewhere between the two houses in the road Carol found something.
“Hey, come here and look.” Carol called to the others. The others gathered around her.
Tommy looked at the dark red spot in the road. “It’s blood.”
“Look there.” Amber pointed at a purple spot in the road.
“Alison had a purple marker she used to make the poster last week.” Litanya said.
“She stuck it in her purse.” Jason added. He walked over to the purple spot.
Glass broke from a nearby house causing the group to scatter. They headed onto their houses so that they wouldn’t be blamed for anything. Before they left, they agreed not to tell anyone of the blood spot on the road.
Carol walked quietly into her room, trying not to wake her parents. She changed into her pajamas and sat at her desk. She took out a piece of paper and a pen and began to write something.
There was a tapping on her window. Carol stood up and walked slowly to the curtain. There was another tapping. She flung the curtains open to see nothing. “Man I’m jumpy….”
Carol shook her head and pulled the curtains to. On the way to her bed she turned a fan on and turned the light off.