Available Darkness Season 1

of him and reached down to slide him into her, surprised by her own wetness.
    “Wow,” John said, still smiling, “it is a good morning.”
    Suddenly, the sound of their doorbell shattered the intimacy of the moment.
    “What the hell?” Hope said, climbing off of John and cycling through the possible selections in her mind of who could possibly be showing up on their doorstep at this hour.
    John threw on some jeans and darted downstairs.
    He peered through the front door’s peep hole and glanced back at Hope, who stood at the foot of the stairs with the phone in her hand, just in case she needed to call the cops.
    She didn’t need to—they were standing at her doorstep.
    “It’s the cops,” John whispered, confusion on his face.
    He flicked on the porch light and opened the door. Hope, suddenly by his side, wrapped both her arms around his right one.
    “Hi, I’m Detective Avery,” said the tall, hawk-nosed, dark-haired cop with raccoon circles under his eyes. “This is Detective Johnson,” he said, gesturing toward his partner, a thin black man with salt and pepper hair and a receding hair line.
    “We’re wondering if either of you have seen this woman?”
    Avery held out a photo. Hope’s throat closed and her stomach nearly fell through the floorboards. Staring back at her was a glossy image of a red haired woman, a shooting star tattoo leaving a trail of ink across the nape of her neck.

    * * * *

CHAPTER 4 — John

    The officers could have hit John in the head with a sledgehammer and the ringing in his ears wouldn’t have been any different. He stared in disbelief, his senses on fire.
    The photo, it was her, the girl in his dreams. The girl he had murdered and fed from.
    No, it was a dream.
    It can’t be…
    His brain buzzed. His heart pounded at three times the normal beat. His stomach was rocking like a raft on a turbulent sea. John struggled to hide the recognition and horror from the police, hoping they weren’t picking up on his internal reactions. It was a mask of innocence he’d perfected over the years, and one which had saved him countless times. John tried not to stare at the frozen face in the glossy picture, the woman who haunted the blurry frames of his most recent dreams.
    I thought I was cured.
    I thought—
    He felt his mask starting to split at the seams, threatening to reveal the savage monster that lay in wait.
    “Have you seen her?” Detective Avery repeated.
    “Can’t say I have,” John lied, pretending to wipe sleep from his eyes. Hope’s fingernails cut into his flesh as she pulled herself closer to him.
    “Her name is Rebecca Ashby, she lives one street over. Went missing two days ago,” Avery said. “We’re asking around to see if anybody’s seen her.”
    John shook his head, trying not to oversell his ignorance.
    “No,” he turned to Hope, “How about you, honey?”
    Hope’s face was a sheet, John noticed, as though she were the one with something to hide. John’s eyebrows met in confusion, the first honest emotion to crack his mask.
    “No,” Hope shook her head after too long of a pause, “I mean … she looks familiar. Maybe I’ve seen her in the neighborhood, but … no, I don’t think I’ve seen her in the past few days. What happened?”
    Avery’s head tilted slightly, as if he were somehow picking up on and trying to process whatever Hope was hiding. John looked at Detective Johnson and felt a slight chill as the officer met his gaze. John glanced back at Avery, certain that something bad was about to go down. A current of energy began to brew in his fingertips as The Darkness threatened to rise.
    The Darkness he had buried for more than two years, the power he thought he’d managed to lock away for good, was right there, ready to explode from his body and annihilate his enemies.
    No, not now.
    If The Darkness broke free, then nobody was safe. If Hope touched him, she would be reduced to ashes.
    No, no, no, no.
    He closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing.
    Slowly … In and out … Focus.
    “Her roommate reported her missing,” Avery said. “Last time anybody saw her was Wednesday night at Harry’s Pub, where she works as a waitress.”
    “Ah, that’s where I’ve seen her,” Hope said, “but no, I haven’t seen her recently.”
    Avery glanced at her for what seemed an eternity.
    The Darkness swelled beneath John’s skin, begging for release.
    TAKE THEM, TAKE THEM NOW.
    Suddenly, the truth became impossible to