Available Darkness Season 1

it.”
    She must be special if I gave up immortality .
    “Are there others?” John asked.
    “Other what?” Larry asked.
    “People from Otherworld? Feeders?”
    “There are Others, but not many. And not everyone from there is a feeder,” Larry explained. “The feeding thing is like a disease that exists on the other side and was brought over here. There’s very few people like you here.”
    “How did we meet?” John asked.
    “I was a P.I. and we met about 16 years ago when you needed me to look into a … personal matter. Soon enough, you hired me on full-time to take care of various things and help you get out of all the jams your condition sometimes got you into. In return, you taught me some magick from time to time. In addition to a nice paycheck, of course.”
    “Which is why you’re immune to my touch?” John asked.
    “Not exactly,” Larry said, “it’s a long story, but suffice it to say, I’m the only human I know of who is immune. So, anyway, two weeks ago, you came to me in a panic. You were a lot more secretive than usual, didn’t want me to know what was going on, saying it could put me in danger. More danger than usual.”
    “I need to know everything you know,” John said.
    Larry leaned forward, the smile gone from his face and his cheeks.
    “There are some things you told me not to tell you, no matter how much you begged or threatened. Otherwise, you said, things could get dangerous for everyone. Hope you understand.”
    John glared, wondering if his use of the word ’Hope’ was intentional.
    “You have to tell me,” John said.
    “And you have to trust me,” Larry said, “or at least trust yourself and the instructions you gave me.”
    “Can you at least tell me who is after me?” John asked, “because I don’t think I was able to…”
    Suddenly, John heard footsteps approaching in the next room.
    Larry leaped from his seat and grabbed the gun from his waistband — so he did get the gun — with surprising agility, especially for a fat guy. He ran into the room, gun drawn. As John followed, he saw the target, Abigail, standing in room, confused, eyes wide as Larry descended on her with his gun.
    “No,” John screamed. He meant to scream, “she’s with me,” but all that came out was an incoherent yelp, his mouth betraying his brain. He reached out desperately to grab Larry’s shoulder and pull him back, but Larry was too far ahead, gun drawing down on Abigail too quickly for him to do anything but be a helpless witness.
    A sharp pain shot through John’s brain, spine, and then his extended arm as a bolt of blinding energy shot forth from his hand and slammed Larry forward with the rolling force of an ocean wave.
    Larry flew forward into a pile of boxes as his gun bounced on the floor and skidded toward Abigail. She quickly grabbed it and handed it to John, who was shaking, frightened and on his knees, suddenly exhausted.
    Larry sat up, rubbing his head, “What the hell?”
    John aimed the gun at Larry, finger tight on the trigger, the gun wobbly in his hand, “She’s with me.”
    Larry looked at him, then up for a moment, “Ah, she’s the girl on the TV, the one you kidnapped.”
    “Whoa,” Abigail said to John as she stepped cautiously towards him, “I didn’t know you could do that.”
    John looked up and smiled. “Yeah, me either.”
    Then John noticed that the gun, still trained on Larry, was shaking violently.
    “Dude, you might want to sit down,” Larry said as he started to move towards John.
    “Wha…?” John said before the world spun black and fell in around him.

    * * * *

CHAPTER 10 — Abigail

    Abigail reached out to grab John as his limbs betrayed him and he started his collapse to the floor.
    “Whoa, there,” the pudgy man said, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her back. “You don’t wanna’ touch him.”
    Abigail took a tentative step back, then dipped down and grabbed the gun. The man felt John’s neck for a pulse, shook his head, then dragged him across the floor and propped him against the wall.
    “You … you can touch him?” Abigail asked, surprised.
    “Yeah,” the man said, standing up and rubbing his forehead which was already turning a bright shade of red from being knocked to the ground. “John and I go way back. My name is Larry.”
    He offered his hand out to shake. Abigail ignored it.
    “It’s okay,” Larry said, “I’m not one of them.”
    He waited a moment before withdrawing his