Available Darkness Season 2

with some annoyance, that one of his leather-bound first— edition encyclopedias along the top shelf, 15 feet from the ground, had a slightly jutting spine, as if someone had recently drawn the volume from the rest and hadn’t pushed it all the way back into its slot.
    Who’s been in my library?
    Duncan wondered if one of the housekeepers had been dusting and left the book out of line, then made a mental note to talk with Helga, head of housekeeping.
    “I’ve my best men on this now,” Cromwell said. We’ll keep you apprised of the situation.”
    Duncan said, “I expect you will.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    Duncan paused, then said, “You will find John. You will get him back. Right, Bob?”
    “Yes, sir. I promise. We will find John.”
    Duncan hung up the phone, and found his eyes drifting back to the errant volume on his bookcase.
    He glanced at the time on his laptop, 7:12 p.m., and wondered if Helga had left for the evening. He clicked on his computer’s intercom program, then on Helga’s name, and waited for an answer.
    No response.
    He looked up and down the list of his other house help, most likely gone for the day. Security would be the only staff left. One of them could come fix the book.
    He clicked on “Otis” his head of security and waited for a response.
    He heard nothing but silence, even after a minute.
    That’s odd. If Otis is unavailable, the system should patch me through to someone else.
    Duncan clicked on Otis’ name again, waiting.
    An uneasy creep stirred in his gut as Duncan stared at the unresponsive screen, waiting for some sort of response. The feeling was familiar, but because he’d not felt it in a reasonable forever, it took him a moment to recognize it.
    Something was wrong.
    Duncan yanked open his desk drawer, reached inside, pulled a loaded pistol out from inside and wrapped it tight in his palm, a half second before the door burst open to display the last person in the world he wanted to see. The gun stayed in his hand, but fell beneath the desk.
    Jacob was standing in Duncan’s doorway.
    “Well, hello, Mr. Alderman!” Jacob shouted, stepping inside Duncan’s office with the giddy voice of a carnival barker, braying from behind a salesman’s faux smile. He was dressed in an ink-black robe, like a fairytale’s evil magician, with his hands buried inside the folds. Behind him stood a pair of tall, spindly wraiths he’d either created here or brought from the In Between. The dark, naked creatures were almost nothing but legs and arms, with oversized hands and feet which that ended in blunt nubs that curled out into sharp talons. Clawed hands were caked in blood and flesh, likely from Duncan’s security team. The wraiths’ emaciated faces and hollowed sockets stared out at Duncan, likely seeing him through Jacob’s sight, since he was surely connected to and controlling the hellish creatures.
    “What are you doing here?!” Duncan shouted, keeping his gun hidden, and wondering if his weapon was any good against Jacob and his swiftly-moving wraiths.
    Jacob pulled something from his robe’s interior, tossed it to the ground, then smiled while it rolled to the edge of the bookcase on Duncan’s right, stopping three feet from his feet.
    Duncan looked down, swallowing bile as the dead eyes from Otis’ severed head stared back up at him from their glassy hell.
    “I’ve come for the vessels’ names,” Jacob said, stepping from the threshold into Duncan’s office, glancing up and down the walls of books as if admiring the collection, or perhaps searching for the hidden room behind.
    “What vessels?” Duncan asked, trying not to look at the bloody remains of his head of security, but unable to keep his eyes from the frayed skin at what was once Otis’neck, like fabric sheared with dull scissors.
    Are they all dead? If they got Otis, they probably got everyone.
    Jacob smiled, “Tisk, tisk, Mr. Alderman. Do you think I’d return home and not hear of the vessels? All this time I’d been wondering what had happened to the wizard after he helped my mother come here. All this time we thought him dead.” He hissed through his smile. “But you knew better, didn’t you?”
    Duncan shook his head. He had no idea what the vessels were, but anything on Jacob’s wish list was certainly bad for Earth.
    “Oh, my, you don’t know, do you?” Jacob smiled, like an evil child chewing a secret.
    Duncan said nothing, his hand wrapped tightly around the grip and his finger on