Available Darkness Season 1

child, so what could she do?
    The funny thing was, when she’d first gone home with Randy and Sherry, she thought her life might actually improve if Frank never came back to get her. The couple seemed kind and attentive, the kind of people that had been waiting for a child to enter their lives.
    And they had been, but for the wrong reasons.
    Randy had showered Abigail with attention, let her play video games, ordered pizza and let her drink all the soda she wanted. Sherry was on the quiet side, which in reflection, Abigail figured was because she knew what was about to happen. Sure enough, the first night Abigail stayed with Randy, she realized that Uncle Frank had been on the nicer side of evil.
    They were sitting on the couch watching movies when Randy began tickling her. The tickles started normal, but then his hands started to touch her in places they shouldn’t. As she squirmed, his tickles grew rougher, and then he tried to get her to touch him.
    When she jumped from the couch in a cry, he followed, smacking her hard across the face. And then again in the head.
    When she woke, he was on top of her.
    That was the prelude to her hell. Soon, Randy told her with grinning delight, that she was his property , bought and paid for. Sold by dear Uncle Frank.
    Abigail squeezed her bear tighter, trying to think good thoughts.
    It was almost as if some dark alien was probing her memories, giddy in the blackest of spaces. Perhaps it was the parasite in her. The thought of something else existing in her skin made her shudder. She wondered if the parasite were large and insect-like or small, like germs?
    Panic started to pump through her and she fought an overwhelming urge to jump from the trunk and into the street, where she could rip herself apart and tear out whatever was inside her.
    Good thoughts, good thoughts.
    She thought of John — hugging him tight and telling him that she loved him.
    He was the first person she’d felt this way about since her parents. The first person who made her feel special — to care for her, to protect her. His caring was the good kind, like her parents had shown, not the creepy kind. Despite everything happening around them, she felt … safe.
    She smiled, hugging her bear. Though he’d only held it for a moment, the bear smelled of John. She closed her eyes, thinking good thoughts.
    “How you doing back there?” Larry called from the front. His voice was muffled, but she could hear him through the seats.
    “Okay,” she said. “We almost there, yet? I need to pee.”
    “Almost,” Larry said, “I’ll try to avoid potholes.”
    Abigail giggled.
    Then she heard the blurting of a siren.
    Oh God, no.
    “Looks like we’ve got a cop,” Larry said to her from the front seat. “Just stay quiet, and leave the rest to me.”
    The car slowed down as Larry pulled over. Abigail’s heart was a jackhammer of fear and claustrophobia.
    The car squealed to a gentle stop.
    Abigail froze, trying to sense the world outside the trunk’s tomb. She could just barely hear another vehicle’s engine over the sound of rain falling on the trunk. She thought of the cop who pulled her over and how he’d been shot right in front of her right before her memory had momentarily disappeared.
    “Turn your car off and step out of the car,” a man’s voice boomed over a loudspeaker.
    “Oh fuck,” Larry said as he killed the car’s engine, and the talk radio with it. “Keep calm, okay, Abi? Don’t answer me, just keep quiet and calm.”
    Abigail squeezed her legs together, her bladder screaming.
    “Get out of the car, hands in the air!” the loudspeaker squelched again.
    “Okay, okay,” Larry opened the door. The car moved down and then up as his feet hit the concrete.
    Abigail was frozen. She heard a police officer walking towards the Toyota, boots splashing in the puddles on the side of the road.
    “Hands on the back of your head,” the officer said.
    “What’s this all about, officer? Was I speeding?” Larry asked in his friendliest voice.
    Abigail’s heart pounded harder, so loud she was sure it echoed throughout the trunk. She prayed that the cop wouldn’t hear her over the rain. Suddenly, she felt a sneeze rising in her throat.
    Oh no, oh no, oh no.
    She held hear breath trying to stifle the sneeze as the officer’s footsteps drew closer.
    Oh God, oh God, oh God.
    “Wait a sec—” Larry said, but his voice was cut off by a gunshot, followed by another.
    Abigail screamed before she