The Darklights

1 Alika closed her eyes peacefully for the last time. Laying on the same bed as Sean, his head on her shoulders she felt a strange sense of completeness. Like everything she had searched for her entire life, from her youth to her young adult life, had finally been accomplished in this motel room. She couldn't wait. In the morning she would drive to New Haven to see her sister, talk to her, after three years. She would finally be able to tell her the truth and their family could be together again. Everything was perfect and in the dim motel room, as the world around her slept unaware, Alika closed her eyes. Sleeping peacefully, for the last time. It drew closer, in a foreign world, it drew closer. A dark cloud hidden in the illusion of the night sky. It was conscious, sentient, and aware of its actions and after seven hundred years it would finally accomplish its main goal. It arrived at the motel sensing the power radiating from the building, like a light in the darkness, a signal of the end times. Alika had awaked to a similar light in the darkness, from the edge of the room they had lit up, not like a light bulb or her bed side lamp but literally. They had both lit up. The fire spread across the white curtains and was slowly surrounding the room. She shook Sean awake and in a few second he surveyed the situation and immediately grabbed the two pieces. The fire on them stopped but the room kept burning. He put one into his coat pocket and handed the other to Alika as he saw it against the window.  The darkness, the cloud, had pressed itself up against the window of Sean and Alikas room. It watched them awake, it watched them argue and it watched them grab the pieces and soon it grew restless. It needed what they had immediately and it would do anything to get it. Alika heard Sean’s words over the crackling of the fire and spoke an immediate but true involuntary response.  “NO” She screamed. “Not gain, we fight together.” He spoke again to her and her heart slowly cracked with every word. She knew he was right. She knew it was the only way but it was still the worst possible thing he could say. “I’m sorry” She said. He spoke again and she knew she had to leave quickly. She spoke three final words and then rushed out the door as the room was flooded with darkness.  For the last time in her life Alika had seen Sean, she accepted that fact as she got into her car and took the highway out of Missouri. There were a couple more stops to make before she fulfilled her final promise to him.  2 On the night that alika entered New Haven I was unaware of the events that would take place or the ones that had already taken place. If I checked all the facts then this was the night it started for me. Although I'm left to wonder whether what I see as my beginning was really my beginning or if I was a part of the beginning of those who came before me. Sean, Alika, Calvary. Maybe even the darkness itself, Still it didn't matter because the night it began for me was the night of the end. My journey would be the last in a two thousand year old relay race. That night, two weeks after the fire in the motel, Alika drove across the borders of New Haven with two objectives two achieve. Being on the run since the fire she had found that it was hard to hide from the darkness. Still She knew it was her own fault, Her own mission and she had accepted it with Seans dying words. She had promised to stay true to the plan, find the final piece and end this for good, She had outsmarted the darkness at every step, She had found the real trick. The strings, it was all in the strings and her strings were only regret. Regret that she didn't want to make up for. With her strings out of its hands she had bought enough time, the past two weeks. She had made final amends and tried her best to inform others. Unfortunately She couldn't run forever and there was only one way left to hide the secrets She had, but before she did she had to treat herself to one more guilty pleasure. She made her way to the Violet Hill boarding school and broke through the locked front door as she had done so many times before, getting into the girls dormitory she knew her way around and just where to go, the second floor, room number nineteen. She wished she had come here under better circumstances but she hadn’t and she had to make do with the time she had. She used a nail file to pick the lock. Slowly she inched the door opened until the lights of the hallway cut through the darkness of the room completely illuminating it. She watched the figure on the bed sleep peacefully. Black hair and cream skin peaked out as the rest was under a pink blanket. Alika said nothing, she just watched for a while, closed the door and walked away, from the last good memory she had.  3 Far away from the coast of Missouri inside forest borders lay the elite and isolated town of New Haven. The town itself isn't what many people would think of it, you see most of the people from the world outside the town would refer to it as a relic with one high point.  If you looked at the city you would say that the high point people referred to was the clock tower, it was twice the size of the other highest building in New Haven and could be seen when the city had completely faded to people who were driving away although most people who came to New Haven stayed as long as possible, the beauty of the town draws people towards it. Over time though the cities near Victorian architecture seamlessly blended with its high tech facilities and the clock tower slowly reminded people that they were visitors in this reflection of heaven and so was I, I was here for the real high point. Violet Hill Boarding school, it runs for five thousand acres across the Southern border of New Haven. It is the most prestigious school in the northern hemisphere and even though I felt like a guest in New Haven I felt right at home in Violet Hill. I had friends and memories here, and that one person, that one perfect person I wouldn't trade for the world, Skyler. The perfect friend, the perfect memory, the perfect future. Of course I was too scared to say any of this to her.  As I turned the door handle and stepped out into the hallway the realization that I had overslept really hit me. It was empty. Everyone else was probably already in class, so I took of in a run towards the stairs, I leaped of the edge and then jumped two stairs at a time until reached the red carpeted students lounge where I skidded to a stop in front of the large mirror to look over my appearance. The black hair falling over my left eye was too untidy to be anything but Goth,  that I was okay with me,  I always felt like I had a little bit of Goth in me.  The black jeans and shirt along with the coal slip on shoes I was wearing further complimented the Gothic look even though it wasn't what I was initially going for. I was grateful to look like anything and anyway even if I wanted to I couldn't change, so I resigned to it and two seconds after stopping I slammed through the large double doors and into the renovation yard without adding another thought to it.  4 Across the city from the predicament I was in Alika was ready to take her final bow to the world. Around her snow fell layering the ground as the various shop windows frosted and blurred the view from the outside, the city was freezing. Most passersby’s had wrapped themselves in large winter coats.  Alika slowly pushed opened the doors to the large red brick clock tower, the oldest building in New Haven. Originally put there to stand as a beacon of freedom from s*****y during the Civil War.  Inside was a spiral staircase attached to the circular inner walls of the tower. Alika looked up, seven stories above her she saw that the staircase led to a gear room and then to the entrance to the roof.  The first step was the hardest, as Alika slowly lifted her foot of solid ground and onto the concrete, she started to truly acknowledge the fate she gave herself. What she was actually doing, and she was hit by a flood, all the memories from the past two weeks hit her with the force of a tsunami, at that moment she wanted to stop herself, turn around and head back to the exit/ entrance of the building, but she couldn't. These memories, the memories she wanted to save herself for were the same memories compelling her to end it.  She knew, completely that there was only one way she would be exiting this tower. But, the memories were powerful,  gnawing at her mind,  at her emotions and at the same time convincing her that they had to be kept away from the Entity,  for the safety off.....  She didn't even know anymore. She knew the stakes were high she just didn't know what they were anymore, what was she fighting to protect?  Was it family? The same family that she had ran from.  Was it love?  The very same love that was trying its hardest to compel her to live or was it bigger then her, bigger then her past. Was she fighting for the world?. The world outside the clock tower. The one that went on with their lives ignorant of the monster they fuelled.  All these causes, these things worth saving. Saving them was the complete opposite of the person she was, the things she stood for but still she was willing to end it all for them.  It was an unfair, unclear and utterly confusing life; a life lived for the purpose of death.  Halfway up the stairs her own life lingered out of her mind and her sisters, Skyler, came in. Last night she had seen her again after so long, she had grown so much in the past three years or at least Alika hoped she had. The next few days would be hell for Skyler, Alika wished she could stay with her, talk to her and guide her.  Be the sister that she always longed to be, but she couldn't. The risk of The Entity finding her was too high.  She hoped Skyler was ready for what was about to happen but that hope was a far fall.  Finally reaching the top of the stairs she opened the metal door to the roof. The floor was made of concrete of course but all Alika could see was the white, thick snow layering the floor. Slowly, cutting through the tension in the air she made her way to the edge and stepped onto it, the wind this high was threatening her balance.  The last view Alika got was perfect, almost too perfect. A city covered in snow, buildings growing out of pure whiteness. A relic alive, she stood for a moment taking it in and then stepped of the edge.  Her body hung still in the air, as the ground rushed up to meet her. 5 She was on her knees crying. Her right hand tightly clutching her cell phone, so hard that if she even flexed a finger it would be crushed. I could see her face burn as hot tears ate into her skin.  I put my arms around her, wrapping her whole body with them as she buried her face into her chest and just repeated my name, "Alex". Skyler awoke early that morning and swung her feet over the side of the bed. Her mind was still trying to collect itself, she was in her dorm room, her feet slowly being tickled by the cotton carpet beneath her.  She lifted her body of the bed and crossed her mostly pink room to the bathroom and turned on the shower. A sense of urgency rushed over her along with the water as she soaped up her hair. She wasn't late for anything, the alarm hadn't rung just yet and even though she hadn't looked at the watch beside her bed she trusted her always accurate body clock. There was no way it could let her down. So what was it, why did she feel like she was late for an important event?  She wasn't, she dismissed the thought and let water fall over her body, burning into her pores as it fully awoke her from her sleep. Later she had dried off and pulled on a strapless pink dress with frills close to the bottom when, finally, the alarm clock rang out at six a.m. It was on time, she was early but the nagging feeling that she was late still bit at her conscious.  An hour later I had awoken and upon realizing I was late, showered and ran towards the lecture hall. Skyler and I normally sat next to each other but on this day two things would occur to stop that from happening. So I wouldn't be there for her when she found out.  The first was that I was late.  Skyler left her room at the girl’s dormitory and slowly strolled towards the temporary anthropology lab which was less then six hundred meters away.  The Anthropology rooms were switched due to a system of renovations and rebuildings done to the old lecture theatres. The boys dormitories were closer to the old buildings which, even though I was often late, allowed me to arrive at the same time as Skyler. However now she was closer. Which leads me to the second thing, I had to cross through the renovation site which contained thousands of concrete bricks and few trucks before I could get to the lecture hall.  As I ran there Skyler entered the Theatre through the front entrance and sat in the third row, not really our assigned seats but both Skyler and I enjoyed them. It was close enough to the front for us to learn but far enough to take a nap without being seen if we so pleased. As I continued to make my way to the hall Skyler felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Not being the type of person to take calls in the classroom she let it go and continued to wait for the teacher. Eventually her phone stopped and she started to wonder where I was and if it was me that was calling.  I continued on my sprint across the renovation yard, across half built walls and narrowly built hallways and narrowly avoiding a head on collision with a parked truck.  Again Skyler felt her phone start to vibrate, the feeling of being late welling up in her stomach, seconds before the teacher had walked in, Skyler walked out and answered the call.  As I turned the corner towards the lecture hall I found her, on her knees with tears rolling down her cheeks, I wrapped her in my arms,  her head on my chest. She just kept repeating my name and then "My sisters dead" 6 A phone call had come in to Skyler from the New Haven police department. A girl carrying her sisters identification and with her as the next of kin had, as far as they could understand, jumped from the top of the New Haven clock tower.  As far as I could figure, there next step was to call Skyler down to the morgue and confirm that the deceased was her sister Alika. I don't know where her parents are, and I didn't ask, I just held her in my arms as she fell apart. I tried to tell her that everything would be okay. But how do you tell a person that. Her sister was dead, nothing would be okay and she knew that and even though I wished I could, I wouldn't be able to lie to her. I could feel something wrong, something dark hanging over us, the taste of death and I knew in my mind that today wouldn't be good. , But still it was up to me to comfort her. I got Skyler to stop crying a few minutes later then took her up to her room to get some of her stuff together. It was hard to leave her alone but I had to as I made my way across the large campus to retrieve my car from the underground storage. I opened the door of the black Lexus and put the key into the ignition, it had been two months since the last time I started her up but I turned the key and she purred to life, her reliability proving itself. As I drove out of the garage through a large concrete ramp and back into the Grey light of the morning I tried to understand the situation, because up until this point it hadn't fully hit me yet, Skyler’s sister, Alika, had committed suicide in New Haven. Her parents most probably hadn't been contacted yet. Would Skyler call them? Of course she would, there daughter was dead but I wondered, would she really, how bad had there falling out really been.  7 As Skyler and I walked into the cold metal room I evaluated the place, my arm around her we stood in front of a large metal freezer that looked like some sort of filing cupboard. The dead were being filed until there loved ones came to pick them up. An old doctor, around fifty led us to a cupboard and pulled on the handle. It made a screeching sound as it opened and a n***d girl with a gash in her head and covered by a plastic tarp came into view. After one glance Skyler closed her eyes and once again buried her head in my shoulder, crying, until someone called out her name from across the room.  Skyler had had a falling out with her parents when she was thirteen, the circumstances that led two grown adults, parents, to let their teen daughter leave home was beyond me but I knew that they hadn’t spoken for three years which made me worry about the situation and its effects on Skyler.  Skyler took her head off my shoulder and faced her mother; her mother rushed up to her and grabbed her into her arms hugging her. Her father just stood behind them not saying a word and I did the same. A few minutes later Skyler introduced me to her parents and I shook their hands. I said goodbye to her and she left with her parents. They were heading to Jericho city, Alikas body would be transferred there later and Skyler would call me soon with information on the funeral.  Back in my car driving towards Violet Hill I thought about how terrible today had gone and it was still only eleven am. Skyler would now be with her parents on the main highway en route to Jericho, they would be talking, reminiscing on the past few years and how they had miss each other or they would be sitting in silence as the car sped along the tar road. Either way they would have a lot to deal with, Skyler would have a lot to deal with and I hoped she could. I hoped that soon she would be okay and I wished that I could shake this deep feeling that she was in trouble. None of my hopes would breach reality, in the next few days things would get much worse.  8 Hours later as the sun set in New Haven Skyler arrived in Jericho. Immediately she tried to settle into the generic guest bedroom of her parent’s house, her childhood home, which had changed so immensely since she left. It didn't matter, the only place she truly considered home was New Haven and the faster she got back there the better she would feel.  After she put the phone down she, as slowly and quietly as she could, made her way outside to the back yard. Her family owned a large piece of land that they hadn't used and it was filled with oak trees. Alika and Skyler both spent most of their young lives in the trees, an escape from lives filled with pain and tragedy. There father eventually, after years, noticed how much they loved the woods and had built a tree house for them about a kilometer in. Skyler wanted to go there now, spend some time alone but looking into the woods memories of Alika came flooding back, she turned around and headed back into the guest room. She slowly settled onto the soft bed, which was a welcome compared to the day she just had. On the brighter side, if she could bring herself to find one, Alex would be with her tomorrow, although she wished he was with her now.  Laying next to her, telling her everything would be okay, even though she knew it wouldn't. Further then that she wished Alika was still alive, or that she had spent at least a little time with her before she died. But as her sleep took her she knew that her wishes were just that, wishes and she fell completely into her dreams.  Skyler opened her eyes as light broke through them, was it morning already, it couldn't be, it was too quick. As her mind evaluated what was happening she found herself vertical, standing on the highest roof overlooking the modern relic she had come to know as home, New Haven city. The rooftop around her was layered in white, she realized she wasn't wearing any shoes as the snow soaked into her socks. She knew she was dreaming but she still felt every sensation as the cold bit at her skin and she tried to wrap herself in her arms. She was about to turn around completely and head for the exit when she felt a strong presence. Close to the edge of the roof a figure was appearing, breaching visibility. A human figure and as specific features started to appear Skyler's heart skipped a beat. She could recognize the figure. It was Alika and emotions flooded back as she stared at her sister standing at the edge of the building. She was watching her sister’s suicide. Her body started to freeze, cold started to seep into her skin, colder then the snow beneath her feet as her sister turned around and blankly stared at her, Skyler  just wanted to wake up. But the nightmare wasn't over.  Another figure slowly started to breach reality, appearing next to Alika. It was a smaller girl and as distinguishable figures started to appear Skyler noticed that she was only about nine years old.  She had black hair and blue jeans along with a t shirt advertising a show that Skyler vaguely remembered.  Both Alika and the child held hands and smiled at Skyler. A gash started to open up in Alikas head.  No blood flowed but her head started to split from the nose up to the top of the hairline. In unison to Alikas wound appearing the child started to choke and grab onto her neck as water flowed out of her mouth.  The child grabbed onto Alikas hand again as her skin turned powder white. They both once again smiled at Alika and stepped off the edge of the building. Sending Skyler falling to her body