Darkness Falls

Most of the board regulars from "back in the day" remember a vampire-themed story I did featuring members of the board. I never got to finish it because the computer I had back then crashed and I lost the work. So now, years later I want to make up for it. This is the new, revamped version of Dark Corner. (Are you happy Soul, now I'm posting it)

Below is the outline of the story for those not familiar with it. This is for you all to get to know the characters in the story and what their roles are and what it's about.

These's are the main characters by screenname and name.

Shardaye - Sha - The Neteru
Skip2MyLuu - Kenya - The Mother-Seer
LRaine - Leah - Best Friend of the Neteru
RamSOS - Ram - Guardian
Sanchez - Sanchez - Master Vampire
Lil_Soul - Chris - Second Level Vampire
KrystalMeredith1 - Krystal - Second Level Vampire
Locutus 2.0 - Shawn - Guardian
MrFlava - Drew - Guardian
Kai - Dauntae - Guardian
SkaN*gga - Jay - Guardian
IMAX - Chuck - Guardian

and more will be added as the story moves along.


Character Synopsis

The Neteru and her team of Guardian protectors are a non-biological family of unlikely heroes that have come together for a common cause-to thwart evil, specifically, vampiric evil. Each has lived their own private horror, which has razor-honed their special gifts and thrust them into this strange clan of vampire hunters.

The Neteru:

Sha is the vampire huntress. She, like her guardian brothers and sisters, possesses special gifts. Unlike them, she is Omnivoyant which means she possesses all six area of extrasensory perception plus a seventh that is only held by one of her rank as a Neteru.


The Guardians:

Kenya is the seer of the group. She possesses the gift of Second Sight. The resident healer and den mother of the group.

Ram is a Tactical. He feels the unseen. He is the father figure for the Guardian team.

Chuck has the gift of audio sensory. He can hear what the spirits whisper.

Dauntae is the nose of the group. Olfactory senses. He can smell trouble brewing, especially demonic trouble.

Drew possesses the gifts of olfactory and taste and is an expert tracker. He is also Dauntae’s right hand.

Shawn is a Tactical and Ram’s right hand man. The wizard of the group and weapons specialist.

Jay is a Tactical as well. He is the newest member of the Guardian team and a reluctant one.

Leah, though not a Guardian, is the Neteru’s rock. She’s the one that Sha will go to when she need to chill out from her “night job”. Leah keeps her sane.



The Vampires:

Chris is a vampire on edge, caught in the perilous unseen gap between both worlds. He is a master strategist. The way he plays with people is like a chess game....he studies them...studies their moves...and thinks over his own moves before delivering a deadly blow.

Sanchez is evil incarnate, a Master vampire who comes from a long line of predators. Descended from Dracula, beware of his seductive talents. His allure is beyond mortal. He is the deadly type...in your face deadly...he will not hesitate to suck the blood out of you and kill you. Yet he finds an almost childlike humor in baiting his prey before he destroys them. Yes, he will play with your head before he takes it off.

Krystal is the daughter of Kenya. She was turned by Sanchez in his pursuit of the Neteru. She now serves at Sanchez’s right hand and has a deep hatred for her mother and the Neteru.

Both Chris and Krystal are second level vampires. Second levels are some of the strongest vampires around. They are beholden only to the Master vampires that made them. It’s a cycle. Masters beget Second Levels, Second Levels beget Thirds…and as the levels diminish, so does power. Once you get beyond Third Levels, you can’t even bare fangs.

This story is about the never-ending struggle between good and evil. Love plays a major factor in it: The love of humanity, love of family, and loving the world enough to have a commitment to something greater than oneself, and of course this is about the love between one man and one woman. This Guardian team has been ordained by the Light to defend a world shadowed by darkness.



Prologue and Chapter 1 are up next.

shardaye

I can do that..martial art style writing..I was just lazy.

Kai

if you need any help in the Kickboxing or Boxing territory let me know

Lil' Soul

I cannot begin to express how anxiously I’ve been awaiting Chapter 3.. We have to get the preliminaries out of the way so Shar can get to the good parts.. The sex.

skak

Haha, at me being the rookie.... Tactical yes, arm me with a M1A1 Thompson sub machine gun...THE CHOPPA

Maaarf

^Remember when you were just a gardener?

Speak2free

What he said...

Locutus 2.0

Good ish, Shar! Sorry it took me this long to reply. 2nd chapter is best yet.

*thumbs up*

shardaye

Chapter 3 is coming. I've just had a lot of stuff to deal with the past week or so. I'm trying to take my time and make sure the chapters come out the way I want to them to. Don't want to rush and give ya'll something half a*sed.

Locutus 2.0

cool.

shardaye

"A piece of my soul died with you. Why you gotta take us both to hell?"
----Sha

Sitting on a rooftop…


Chris assessed his situation fast. Payback for all he’d done in life was a true b*tch. There was no way out. He was dead. Or more like undead---a vampire. Never in his life would he have pictured himself being something that up until now he didn’t know existed. There were a lot of things he had found out once he died. Heaven and hell were very real. The latter, the one he now belonged to. A b*tch, indeed.

He sat on the rooftop staring down at the alleyway where Sha had been only an hour before. The piles of vampire ash still where she had left them. In his mind he could see the scene of her battle playing. He smiled. Sanchez had called her a Neteru, and then thinking he was ignorant, had attempted to simplify the concept for him by describing her as a slayer. That tripped him out. All he could see was the young girl he protected with his life back in the day. Now, as an adult, she was a vampire huntress who protected the lives of many. Not to mention the fact that she was surrounded by six gun-toting brothers and a mama who could fight. Crazy, but not impossible. He had known all his life that she was something special. Always had been, to him. There was no simplifying Sha. What Sanchez had call her was fitting. To call her anything else would be a clumsy summation of all that she was.

His awareness from Sanchez’s bite gave him a glimpse of all who had hunted vampires in the past. For centuries humans had come for what was now his kind. Shamans, secret societies, good witches, but this one, the huntress was divinely created and specially anointed. Chris drew a hard breath just thinking about her. From what Sanchez had told him, from her womb great empires could be birthed, on the side of light or dark, and she held the key: her choice in the matter---the ultimate power of free will. Even Sanchez had appeared in awe and craved what she had come by as a birthright.

And she is mine…

Or could have been. He and Sha were now immortal and mortal enemies. Her mission was to destroy him and those like him. His mission as explained by Sanchez was to seduce her, get her to let her guard down, and then destroy her.

This was beyond f*cked up.

XXX

“You are grounded, Miss. Thang!” Kenya yelled as soon as Sha walked through the door of the compound at 3 a.m. Sha was surprised to see that everybody was still up this late. However, the looks on their faces told her she was in trouble.

“Grounded? I’m grown. What the h*ll---”

“Don’t speak to me like that!” Outright fury burned in Kenya’s eyes and her voice dropped to a lethal octave as she spoke through her teeth. “What were you thinking, going out solo like that? And in a club full of vampires no less? You could’ve gotten yourself killed.”

“Correct,” Dauntae spoke up. “None of us knew where you were. What if something had happened to you?”

“I handled it, and also dusted a few of them tonight. This was nothing. You guys act like I need my hand held with this slaying stuff. I don’t.” Sha leaned against the wall and stared back at the guardians defiantly.

“No more solo acts. Period. We’re not looking for numbers----we’re looking for the source. No matter how many of those lower-level vamps you kill, their masters will always make more! That’s what you don’t get. These little solo stunts of yours are not going to put a dent in anything.” Kenya glared back at Sha.

Sha rolled her eyes. She respected Kenya but was sick of her telling her what to do. Who died and put her in charge anyway?

“Ken,” Ram warned, “drop it. She was doing what’s natural. Her job. You know that. A vampire huntress’s job is to hunt and that’s what she’s doing."

Ram’s comment made Sha relax a bit as a brief feeling of vindication swept through her, but the way Kenya glared kept her on her guard.

“Her job is to hunt, yes, but her job is also to work within a team. It’s not her job to endanger herself when she’s not ready. Just because she’s smelling herself doesn’t mean she can disrespect----’’

“What!” Sha could not believe Kenya had gone there. To stand there and literally say that knowing she was the Neteru had went to her head, that she was gassed, was an insult.

“That’s right! Smelling yourself. That’s exactly what you are doing. Yeah, you’re the huntress and all, but don’t think for one second that you can do what you’re destined to do without all of us here. We all have roles in this. Know yours and know that your role is entwined with ours.”

“D*mn it, Kenya! It was one f*cking night out. I didn’t die. I kicked some ass, if anything, you should be proud I did that on my own without any of you there. If that doesn’t prove that I can handle myself just fine then I don’t know what does.”

“I want that dagger back. It’s over seven thousand years old, given to me to give to you when I say you’re ready. I say you’re not ready if you have no respect, if you have to go into the weapons room and take what hasn’t been given to you yet.” Kenya’s tone was strong enough to cut.

Sha unsheathed the dagger from her ankle and threw it on the equipment table, the team pulled back, each standing slowly as Kenya circled Sha.

“Ken, she’s young. You don’t have to----”

Kenya’s glare cut off Dauntae’s words.

“This has been brewing for a long time,” Ram said under his breath, moving to a position that was well out of the way.

“You can’t let them go at it in here,” Shawn said fast. “C’mon Ken, we’re family, and this is very uncool. Chill!” His eyes darted between the would-be combatants, worry tensing his expression.

Kenya pointed her finger at Sha as she turned to address Shawn. “You think I will not deal with her in here. Huh! I will not have a mutiny on this team, and whether she knows it or not, she has a few things to learn.” Her attention snapped back at Sha and held her hard stare. “You just try me.”

The challenged ignited a level of defiance in Sha that was nearly intoxicating. But as she looked at Kenya’s stricken expression, seeing fear, hurt, and concern in her eyes, she forced herself to relax. Yeah, she could take Kenya in an all-out one-on-one, but there was indeed this thing called respect. And she did love this woman…even if she was trippin’ hard.

“Look, I’m sorry. I should have told you, all of you, I was going out. I was just going through some things that I couldn’t shake and had to get out of the compound. All this weird stuff that has been happening lately got to me and I felt this strong urge to go out and just let off the frustration. Sorry I had all of you worrying. It won’t happen again.” She watched Kenya lower her arm and steady her breath.

“I’m tired. I’m going to bed.” Sha cast a disparaging look at the team. “Yeah. At night. And no, I’m not afraid of the dark.” She added sarcastically before they could speak and stalked off to her room.

“Okay, that was fun,” Dauntae said after they’d all heard Sha’s bedroom door slam.

“It’s gonna get worse before it gets better.” Ram sighed, finding a stool again. “We’ve got two queen bees in this hive.”

“Oh, brother,” Drew mumbled.

The other guardians sighed, realizing the storm had passed.

“Baby, you know our job is almost over. She’s ready to fly now.”

Kenya allowed her forehead to rest against Ram’s shoulders as he came to hug her. “I know, Ram, but when you nurture something for so long and watch it grow, it’s hard to let go when it’s time to. I’m just worried for her. You haven’t seen the things that I’ve seen in my mind. She will have to go through the ultimate battle soon that will test her mind, body, and spirit. These recent events such as this bloodlust she’s be feeling that drives her insane and makes her want to go out and kill and all these bodily changes are just precursors. Preparing her for it all. The dark side knows that she is coming into her apex and has stepped up their game. They will come for her hard now before she reaches that point. That’s why I worry about her going out at night alone. They’re going to pull out all the stops and as a mother figure and as a mother, I do not want to see my baby girl go down like that----outnumbered and outmatched. I couldn’t protect or save the other one. I can try with all my might to save this one.”

Ram nodded as he tried to sooth Kenya. He knew Kenya was talking about Krystal. Her only child. For all her strengths and powers, she hadn’t been able to protect Krystal from the dark side and now Krystal was one of them.

“Sometimes we just have to let go. And just because we have to let go, doesn’t mean we can still guide. But we’ve got to let her do this on her own or she’ll never be ready to face what’s coming for her.” Ram reasoned. He could understand Kenya’s fears----he had his own, but he realized that it was time to let Sha do her thing. They’d always be there if she fell. They’d always be there to help her back up again, if she couldn’t do it on her own.

“I’d rest easily if lower level vamps were our only problem,“ Kenya sighed. “But they’re not. Sanchez, a master vampire, is on a mission to take out our baby and now he had the strongest weapon on the dark side to do it…Chris Santiago.”


TBC....