Available Darkness Season 2

alone. Jacob’s scream was just as loud, an echo of his pain.
    Behind the scream Duncan felt the monster withdraw from his mind.
    “What the hell?” Jacob yelled, reaching out and grabbing Duncan around the neck. “You think you can hurt me? You think you can hurt ME? ” The monster picked Duncan up by the throat, and stared at him with burning eyes.
    “Where is she?”
    “I don’t know,” Duncan said, burying the secret in hurried layers of thought, bracing his mind before Jacob entered again.
    Jacob scowled and threw Duncan across the room, slamming him into the wall beside the bed. “Do you think you’re the only one with information? Do you think there is anyone in your organization I can’t reach?”
    Jacob grabbed the laptop and left the room, locking the door from outside. His anger seemed to soften on the other side, and when he spoke he was back to his sickeningly sweet voice. “You know, I’m starting to think I should find a new second-in-charge if you’re going to pull stunts like that, Mr. Alderman. I’d think long and hard about your attitude.”
    Duncan glared at the door, yanked the pencil from his hand, dropped it to the ground, and watched as the wound began to heal itself. Pain receded and brought his resolve into bloom.
    Duncan now knew what he had to do, though he didn’t dare to think it while Jacob was still in the house.

    * * * *

CHAPTER 2 — Larry

    Larry was rudely torn from his pizza coma as sirens screamed outside his house.
    He reached up, fixed the glasses askew on his face, hopped from couch to floor, threw his Xbox controller aside, then ran to the window and parted the thick curtains. Flashing lights split the darkness to a garish rainbow blur as a mile-long fire truck drifted in front of the house. Larry grabbed his gun, slid it into the waistband of his jeans, then stepped out into the cool night air.
    He stood on his porch, staring at the house down the street as it was licked by walls of curling fire. The scent of gasoline permeated the air, but seemed too close to be coming from the burning house. Another fire truck, this one shorter, was followed by a pair of police cars and a lone ambulance.
    “What the hell?”
    Larry was about to step back inside and let Abi know what was happening when he heard the soft sound of nearby crying. He looked down and saw Abi crouched in a ball behind the thick row of shrubs beneath their living room window. She was staring up at him as if something unimaginably horrible had just happened.
    Larry swallowed. The flickering in Abi’s eyes made him weak in the knees, but he managed to hold himself steady. “What’s wrong, Honey?”
    “I did it,” she said.
    “Did what?” Larry said, dreading the answer as Abi slowly lifted her arm and extended a shaking finger at the house with the fire trucks in front.
    “Come inside, Abi,” he said, waving his arm and wishing he could hug her. She looked like she needed one. Yet, so far as he knew, he was only safe from John’s touch, not other feeders’. She slowly stood, and as her body rose above the bushes, Larry could see her pajamas were soaking wet. The pungent scent of gasoline wafted from Abi’s body and into his nostrils.
    What the hell happened to her?
    Abi stepped inside the house, her eyes holding the floor like a scared, or ashamed, animal.
    Larry closed the door, locked it, and looked at Abigail, shuddering in front of him as if awaiting trial. “What happened?”
    “I don’t know,” she cried. “I woke up in their house after I killed their son. I think I was about to kill them, too.”
    “Killed? You mean fed?”
    “Yeah,” she nodded, her voice cracked and fragile. “The parents saw what I did, and the mom was going to call the police. I tried getting the phone, but we touched …” Abi sniffed back her tears and swiped at her eyes. “Then the dad shot me, and tried to choke me or something. Then he touched me. Pretty soon, everyone was … dead.”
    “So, how the hell did the house burn down?”
    “I didn’t know what to do!” Abigail cried. “I didn’t want the bad men to come and take me again. So, I started a fire. I thought maybe the police would think someone burned them with gas.”
    “Jesus,” Larry said, sighing as he removed his glasses and pinched his nose at the bridge as he set his glasses on the dining room table.
    “What are we going to do?” Abigail asked, with enough fear in her voice to keep Larry from daring to yell.
    He