Available Darkness Season 1

mom’s bicycle; the time she lost her cat, Fluffy, and cried for days blaming herself for the cat’s disappearance; the night of her first high school dance, going alone, hoping some boy, any boy, would ask her to dance, but nobody did; acing her college exams; her first real paycheck, and helping pay off her parents’ house; meeting Caleb and marrying him.
    The boy looked down at the ashen remains, confused. Only he was no longer a boy and the ashes were not those of his father.

    **
    Caleb woke staring wide-eyed, jaw stretched open wanting to scream, cry, or anything other than the animal whimper that leaked from his throat as he stared at Julia’s charred remains.
    He fell to Julia’s side, trying to revive her, but as his hand touched her chest, it caved in beneath him, charred ashes.
    He cried out, backing away from the bed, staring down at his hands as his world caved in around him and swallowed him whole.
    What have I done?

    * * * *

CHAPTER 9 — John and Caleb

    2:14 a.m.

    As Larry drove Hope to her new location—a location which had to remain a secret kept from John—Adam prepared John for his reversion.
    Once Larry returned, Adam would wipe the past few hours from Larry’s mind, just enough to bury Hope’s location from his memory. Now the only people who knew where Hope was were insulated enough from both John and Larry to protect her from being discovered even if Jacob found them both.
    The spell to turn John back to his normal self involved being buried for 48 hours, and a partial mind wipe. This would be a reboot of John’s primal self, allowing the parasite to once again flourish. While he maintained some of his magickal abilities now, he would need everything to go against Jacob. He would need the parasite’s strength. He would have to be a merciless killer.
    Fortunately, he and Larry were prepared for battle. John had spent nearly 10 years gathering artifacts, mostly weaponized, with magickal properties which could be used to injure and kill creatures from Otherworld. While John had been avoiding this war for a lifetime, the thought of losing Hope, of having to sacrifice his relationship with her, having to wipe away her entire lifetime of memories, sent him into a white-hot rage.
    And he would vent his fury on anyone who stood in the way of his bringing Jacob down.
    Adam recited some spells, while John drank a beer and swallowed a couple of sleeping pills, to prepare, and maybe numb the pain he’d felt in Hope’s absence.
    He began to drift, embracing the daze, when he heard a distant scream.
    He jumped off the couch, spinning around, searching for the source. Adam was still reciting spells, and looked up, “What is it?”
    “Did you hear that?”
    Adam turned around, confused. “Hear what?”
    Again, the sound pierced his mind, now accompanied by a vision—of Caleb screaming, standing over a dead body. Not just any body, but his wife’s.
    It’s happening. Caleb is changed.
    John hopped up and threw his keys at Adam, “I need you to drive.”
    He reached into his pocket, grabbed the contact card which Caleb had given Hope, and handed it to Adam. “Can you track this?”
    Adam closed his eyes a moment, and then looked at John. “Oh yeah, his signal is strong.”
    “Good. We need to find him. Now.”

    **

    Caleb

    Caleb shuddered in the corner, staring at the bed where his wife lay dead, closing and opening his eyes as if he might wake himself from some terrible nightmare.
    More of Julia’s memories fluttered through his mind, an unraveling reel, never stopping long enough for sense. Snippets of conversations, thoughts, laughter, sobbing. It all spun faster as memories blended, fogging the distance between his remberances and hers.
    Caleb crawled along the floor toward his pants which were crumpled beside the bed. He reached into his pants pocket and fished for his phone. He had to call someone, but who? What would he say?
    He was about to dial Wu when his stomach made an impromptu somersault. He scrambled on all fours to the bathroom, collapsed onto the cool, clean porcelain toilet, and vomited a torrent of thick ebony liquid, that seemed to somehow sparkle despite its tar.
    What the fuck?
    Caleb clutched the toilet, staring at the phone, poised to dial, while trying to think of what he’d say.
    Nothing made sense. He tried to figure out how he had killed Julia, how he had drained the life from her, how her body had wound up exactly like the victims of the killer he was