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

Prologue

Sha’s Journal

Journal…it’s me again. Yeah, and about the same old yang, too. Something has got to be wrong with me! Every night----thinking about this stuff? It’s not normal to be fixated on some “one thing” is it? Kenya and the gang swear I’m some superhero----and yet, I’m crazy about some guy from my past, who, might I add, is no good. That happens to everyday sisters so I’m not special in that regard. They said I’m supposed to be on the side of The Light----yeah, right! But let me tell you----if I didn’t have all those big brothers and a mama who can fight…I can’t even began to explain this mess to anybody.

The dreams are getting worse than when I was with him and we were kids. I haven’t been near this guy in a long time, and he’s got me trippin’ in the shower…calling him by name in my dreams, writing about him, and whatnot. Stupid. I’m over the top----out of control, probably need a therapist. But they don’t make therapy for this sh*t. I’m sitting here writing and crying and laughing. I’m rocking just thinking about it. But I tell you no lie, it’s almost as though I can feel him. Need to feel him….see, here I go again with that crazy bullsh*t. Just the thought of being with him makes me get wet. I’m supposed to be trying to kill this guy! I am about a millisecond away from breaking camp to go look for what I know is trouble on two legs. Just for one night…one indescribable night, then I’ll come back. I keep asking myself, what if…I keep wondering what being with him would be like…

Listen to me, Journal. This is wrong. I know it and you know it, but this is also unfinished business that I should have finished a long time ago. I’m trying to be cool about it but if I go out and run into homeboy----all he’d have to do was blow on me from twenty-feet away, and I’d be done. Sh*t, what am I talking about, I’m done now.

This is serious. I can’t even talk to my team about it. Kenya would have a heart attack, and then get so mad that she might though down some serious JuJu that might compromise her. Ram will have a natural heart failure then get up shooting----no cool whatsoever. Dauntae will go to jail for flat-blasting a brother in the streets. Chuck might blow up hombre’s house with a damned shoulder cannon. Shawn, Jay, and Drew will be roaming the streets on the hunt for a sure take down. I probably need to stay inside tonight. It ain’t worth all that but daaaayum…

Maybe I need to ask Kenya, in a round-about-sorta way, if she has anything herbal to remedy this problem. Dauntae would say the only thing “herbal” that I need is a blunt. But I don’t smoke. I wonder how I should phrase the question to my mother-seer. Just say, ‘’Yo Ken, I’m horny as hell for this man. Do you have something to take the edge off?” Never. Now I know I’m crazy. No offense, Journal, but you know one day soon you’re going to have to hit the fireplace, right? I can’t have all this stuff being revealed. I have a reputation to uphold. Okay, this is enough wining. I gotta go handle my business. Or at least try…

Because all I know is there’s this brother from the dark side that has my nose wide open!

shardaye

Chapter 1


3 weeks earlier


Driving deeper into a more secluded area of the mountains, Chris Santiago turned his car off the winding, single-lane road and into a clearing in the woods at four a.m. in the morning. Yes, this was a perfect place to finish a kill. He loved the woods, even more so than the beach because it offered the cloistered environment of secrecy. He was going to meet the people that called him to tell him that they had caught the men who had killed his family a week earlier. He briefly glanced over at his Magnum that lay on the seat next to him. Somebody was going to die tonight, of that, he was sure.

When Chris got to the clearing he spotted five black Mercedes parked next to each other. A long stretch Mercedes made up the sixth vehicle. Five men dressed in black stood behind two men who were bound. He wondered if it was all a setup. He would find out soon enough. He grabbed his Magnum, tucked it in the waistband of his pants, and stepped out of the car.

The door to the limo opened and a voice called out to Chris.

“I have what’s you’re looking for, Santiago,” the voice said as a tall, brown skinned man stepped from the limo. Chris walked toward him.

“I don’t know you. Who are you?”

“I am known by many names but you may call me Sanchez----and these men here,” he gestured to the five men standing in a circle around him, ‘’are my associates, my brethren----and yours.”

Chris nodded, but kept his hand close to his side where his weapon was.

“We are all here to form an alliance with you, Chris. Your cause is our cause. We heard your call to arms and decided to come to your aid the way family should.” Sanchez walked closer to Chris and smiled when Chris bristled. Chris appraised the men who had spoken to him in a smooth, controlled voice. His vibe was one of pure confidence, arrogance. He liked the man’s style. The man named Sanchez smiled as though reading his mind, and a brilliant flash of white escaped his lips and caught the moonlight.

“I am unarmed. Let’s get down to business,’’ Sanchez crooned as he came closer. “I’ll come close enough to hear you, but not close enough to make you draw your weapon, si?”

Chris was shocked. How’d the man know he had a weapon on him? It was deeply concealed under his clothes. He tried to relax and pass it off as a lucky guess and common sense. Everyone knew he wouldn’t go anywhere without being strapped. That’s all.

“Okay, cool. Now about these two guys, they the ones that did my fam?” Chris nodded to the two whimpering guys kneeling on the ground.

“Yes, but business first. In exchange for your revenge against these men, we’d like you to become one of us.” Sanchez spoke in an even tone.

“One of you?” Chris asked.

“Yes, as a part of our family. We need someone like you to handle business for us. You are perfect. You will gain power beyond your wildest imagination. You’ll be invincible.”

The men behind Sanchez nodded, agreeing with him. They were all smiling. Maybe it was just the moonlight playing tricks on him but their teeth looked whiter and longer than normal to Chris.

“What are you guys?” Chris asked. He had a feeling in his gut that was giving off warning bells.

“We,’’ Sanchez smiled as stepped even closer to Chris, “We are something that you cannot even begin to imagine. Join us, and you can off these men.”

“We didn’t do your people, I swear to you, Santiago,” one of the crying men wailed. “We were trying to get made too, but they turned on us. Do not accept their offer!”

Sanchez’s fine leather shoe connected with the man’s cheek, splitting it. The man howled in pain as blood oozed from the gash. The others standing behind the man licked their lips. Chris found that to be strange as hell. Then he heard a growl come from the limo.

“What the f*ck?” Chris asked as he looked toward the limo and back to Sanchez. Sanchez only smiled.

“The perfect weapon and she’s beautiful too. They used her on your people. Say the word, say that you’ll join us and you can turn their own weapon against them.”

Fury took Chris’s reason as he thought about his friends’ bodies, how they were practically maimed. Those had been his boys. He had to avenge that. “I want them to die the same way my boys did.”

“Is that your choice?” Sanchez smiled.

“Yes.”

“Come, Krystal,” Sanchez called toward the limo.

“F*ck!” Chris backed up two huge spaces and pulled his gun from his pants, preparing to fire as a large black panther jumped down from the limo, snarled at him, and then loped toward the two screaming men on the ground. The animal sniffed the first man, and Chris fought not to cringe as the man lost his bowels. His eyes were shut tight, tears streaming down his face as the panther licked his neck and cheek. He whimpered and just as suddenly, his throat was gone. The other man tried to scramble away but Sanchez’s men held him. Chris stared in horror at the gaping, bloody hole. He wanted to wretch as the panther tore open the man’s chest cavity and began to eat all that was inside. When she was done, she sat back on her hunches, licked her paws clean, began to purr, and stood again, circling Sanchez’s legs like a big house cat. Chris couldn’t believe it, the animal had been so ferocious toward the other man and was now purring like a kitten as Sanchez pet her.

The remaining man vomited at the sight of all the blood surrounding his partner’s body. The panther trained her eyes toward him and started walking his way.

“No, Krystal,” Sanchez yelled. “He’s for our guest!” Chris could only looked stunned as the creature backed away and came back to sit at Sanchez’s side like a well-trained house pet. “Chris, this is power. Having an animal like this at your beck and call. She is good at what she does and she does it so well. If you want her to handle the other one, just tell her. She’ll do it.”

“Nah, just kill this one clean. Execution style. Two shots to the back of the head. The panther is over the top, hombre---even for me.”

“You want this man killed clean?” Sanchez walked over to the remaining man and stood him up. “You don’t want to kill him yourself?”

“Just do it or--” Chris did not finish his sentence. Sanchez had reached into the man’s back with his bare hand. A bloodcurdling scream came from the victim, and the sounds of bones and ligaments tearing echoed past the trees as Sanchez’s hand came away with the man’s entire spinal column. Chris was paralyzed by the sight. Sanchez let the dead man’s twitching body drop as he threw sections of the spinal column to his henchmen. Chris watched as they gathered around the man’s body and lowered their heads. He turned his head from the sight, only slurping sounds could be heard and listening to it was worse than seeing it.

“What the f*ck?” These men were into cannibalism? F*ck it, this was too ill. He was out. He’d never seen no bullsh*t like this in his f*cking life! He couldn’t move even though he wanted to. To get out, he’d have to mow down the big cat, and wasn’t sure he’d be able to. Then what? These motherf*ckers might eat him!

“Calm yourself!” Sanchez commanded. “No one is going to lay a finger on you. We have much bigger plans for you, I assure you. Now, I assume you have no illusions about the kind of power we hold. You want to be apart of it, then we seal this deal like men.”

“F*ck you. Lock the damn panther up first.” Chris wasn’t going to do a damn thing with that panther around. Sanchez laughed.

“Yes, she is daunting, even for me sometimes. She is so good----even in bed.” He turned to the panther. “Krystal, my dear, won’t you return to the limo for a second?”

The panther snarled then walked back to the limo. Chris didn’t step forward until she was safely locked back inside. Sanchez stepped toward him.

“You are going to know a pleasure so profound, a power so vast that it will make your d*ck hard,” Sanchez whispered as he grabbed onto Chris’s face. Chris saw it in slow motion----massive teeth replaced the ones that had gleamed in darkness, a black tongue licked a trail of slime against his neck. His neck was forced to been and expose itself, pushed by a cheek that felt like it was packed with steel. Searing pain made his whole body convulse and twitch. His collarbone snapped and flesh tore away from his neck. Then, Sanchez quickly released his body and spat out blood.

“The bastard died with the Neteru’s prayer in his heart. He was one of hers! I could taste it in his blood. No matter, we still had a deal. He’s one of us now.”

Chris lay on the ground, body convulsing. A gaping hole in his neck. Then slowly the flesh started closing up. His body stopped twitching and consciousness returned to him. He reached up at his neck and was surprised to come away with no blood. No pain. He sat up. A burn filled his mouth. He yelled as his teeth began to rip through his gums and fill his mouth.

“Painful, I know,” Sanchez smiled. “You’ll get over it. Being one of us will give you a rush. I’m sure you will adjust just fine. You may not be fully aware of what you are now, but you will be.”

He looked up toward the sky. The dark blue sky was becoming lighter. He nodded to his henchmen. “Get him back to the lair. I don’t need my new investment baking in the early morning sun before I get the chance to use him.”


TBC.....

Dayumnuttinleft

Damm Shar... I have to say that you have a mind on you, good writing to, enjoyable.... Do continue, I'm sure the General will love his part...

Lil' Soul

Wild..

I’m partial to wolves, eagles and tigers though.. Do my shapeshifting up right baby..

Speak2free

Sha' please save your work on disc everytime you type it! I almost got ill thinking about you losing all your hard work...

This is too awsome to lose, and not to mention, get published....which I hope you plan on doing...keep up the good work, ma...

shardaye

Yeah, I learned my lesson. I got a laptop to replace that computer. Now I know to save my stuff on a disc in case this laptop wants to crash on me.

Speak2free

....good!!!

shardaye

You'll find out soon enough...lol

MrFlava

Expert in taste huh....


Nice start. Shar I love your writings


but dammit i hate bein left hanging for 2.5 years