Tales of the Dark - 4. Chapter 4

Eric stared blankly at the book. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on edge and goosebumps riddled his body. Slowly he closed the old tome and noticed his hands were shaking. That story wasn’t written like the others. It was like someone’s diary, as if a real person had written it, had lived through that horror. It chilled him. There was something else too, something that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Maybe it had to do with shadowy figures and hauntings. It seemed almost too real, too familiar. He shook his head and tried to get back to his reality. What was he thinking? It was just a story. Still, Eric couldn’t shake his feeling of unease.

“Eric?” Danny’s whisper caressed his ear.

“I-I’m okay. Boy, that one was-” Eric didn’t know exactly how to finish that sentence. There in the darkness of the attic the shadows seemed to dance and shift about him.

“Eric, what’s the matter?”

“I don’t know, it’s just-well, maybe this time I’m more scared than you are.” Eric looked down at the book dejectedly. He knew it was only stories but the three of them had thoroughly creeped him out. Carefully he got up, feeling Danny slip off gently, and placed the book back in its box. He wasn’t so sure that he’d be back up here for it. Looking down at the worn leather-bound cover, disheveled and decaying, pages yellowed and ripped with the rot of age, it seemed far more malevolent now than ever.

“Maybe we’ll just watch a movie next time.” Eric sighed.

“Eric, it’s okay to be afraid.” Danny’s voice, sweet and tender, was comforting, “These stories, they’re just collections of times past. Their characters are foul and full of malice, it’s only natural to be frightened.”

Eric felt arms wrap around his stomach from behind and a head snuggling into his neck. The touch sent shivers down his spine and butterflies throughout his entire body.

“But now you don’t have to be afraid” Danny’s voice continued, “I would never let any of those cretins get to you. You are mine.”

Instantly he forgot all about the stories and how much they bothered him. His heartbeat was going crazy. Years and years of pent up, secret emotions that Eric held so furtively inside were bubbling up like never before. He didn’t expected things to go this well and now with everything that was happening the desperate urge, the need to tell Danny how he felt was overwhelming. This was his chance. After moments of silent embrace Eric finally mustered up the courage to speak.

“Danny?” he whispered hesitantly.

“Yeah?”

“Danny, I wanted to tell you-I wanted to say that-” The words were getting stuck in his throat and he was shaking like a leaf. Something that’s been kept so closely guarded for that long does not easily find its way out and Eric was fighting his own body to do so. After a deep breath he mustered all of his will together finally said, “Danny, I really like you.”

The moments following were timeless. Fear coursed through his body, numbing him, dulling his senses. Even though his pulse was racing each heartbeat now seemed to stretch out for ages. What if Danny didn’t feel the same? What if he was disgusted? What if he lost Danny forever?

“Eric?”

“Yeah?” Eric breathed, his voice barely audible.

“I really like you too.”

“Really?” Eric shuddered with infinite joy. He had been holding onto that secret for so long, and to think that Danny felt the same. A rush of emotion poured forth as if a dam had broken, swirling and coursing through his veins like a drug. Tears began to well up in his eyes and he grasped the hands clutching his stomach with all the tenderness he could muster. “There’s just one problem.” Danny whispered gravely.

“What? W-what is it?” Eric was shocked out of his bliss.

“Your dad. He’d never let us be together."

The joy in his heart turned into fear again. It ran deep down to his core. He felt as if he were losing all of what he just achieved. He was losing Danny. “But, Danny, I love you.” Tears began to tumble down his cheeks.

“I love you too, Eric, but your dad would never allow it. You know that.”

“You’re right, that bastard!” Eric spat, “He’s such an ass!”

Eric was irate. Both of them knew his father so well. That pig was always on Eric’s case lately about everything. He wouldn’t let him do much of anything, much less be together with a boy. Eric loved Danny with all his heart and yet his dad would never understand that. How could someone be so cruel? How could he be so heartless? The more Eric thought about it, the more furious and frantic he became. He couldn’t let his father take Danny away.

“He’s going to do everything he can to stop us from being together.” Danny said.

“No! I won’t let him! I won’t let anything come between us!” Eric was crying both in desperate fear and in anger.

“Eric, I love you so much. Please don’t let him keep us apart. If I couldn’t be with you I-I don’t know what I’d do.” Danny’s sorrowful words tore at Eric’s heart. Eric vowed silently that nothing would ever stop him from being with Danny.

“Eric?”

“I’ll-I’ll take care of him.” Eric said grimly.

“And what if you’re mom-”

“Then I’ll take care of her too!” Eric was shaking, no longer with fear, but with fierce, wild wrath. Nothing would ever keep them apart, not his father, not his mother, no one. They were monsters, horrible and disgusting, but Eric wasn’t afraid. He would give his life for Danny, for his love. He would take life too.

“Eric!” suddenly his mother’s voiced called out from below.

“Eric, you get down here this instant!” It was his father. He could feel Danny begin to shift.

Danny whispered worriedly, “It’s your dad, isn’t it? What are you going to do?”

Eric squeezed the hand of his love tightly and began to head towards the ladder leading back downstairs, his fury blazing white hot. “I’m going to do whatever I need to.”

At the bottom of the ladder he found his parents waiting for him. His mother looked strained with worry and clutched her husband’s arm tightly. Eric’s father had a stern look on his face. As the boy turned to him he said, “Son, how many times do I have to tell you not to fool around up there?”

Eric glowered at them and his mother let out a small gasp.

“What in the world were you doing in that attic anyway?” his father continued. Eric ignored him and began walking to his room.

“Young man, don’t you dare turn your back on me! You get back here this instant!” Eric’s father was livid and his mother was covering her mouth, tears beginning to fall from her eyes. Eric reached his room.

“Eric!” his father shouted.

“Rot in Hell!” Eric’s voice roared so violently it shook the entire house. His parents were stunned into silence and Eric slammed the door to his room shut with a crash.

In the hall his mother broke down into her husband’s shoulder. Eric had been changing for a while, growing more aggressive and impatient. She had tried to chalk it up to the hormone swings of puberty but now she was certain normal kids didn’t act this way. There was something wrong with her child. Eric’s father shook his head and tried his best to comfort his wife.

“There, there, Margaret. It’ll be okay” He said, stroking her hair. Suddenly she pulled back, eyes wide.

“Okay?” she screeched, “Okay? He’s changing, Richard! I’ve tried talking to him and being kind to him, but nothing’s working! My baby is becoming a monster and you-you’re never here to help! I-I can’t stand it anymore!”

Her husband wiped away the tears and saw the dark, heavy bags under her eyes. In truth he had been spending much more time at work, finding any excuse he could to stay away from home and the turbulence that was now tearing their family apart. It seemed like every moment in this house led to another argument both with his wife and his now estranged son. He sighed.

“I’ll call a doctor in the morning.” He said dejectedly, “Maybe they figure things out.” With that Eric’s mother only nodded weakly in response and sniffled into her husband’s shoulder. He sighed again and together they moved off down the hall. “Maybe-maybe he’s just become sick. Sick in the head.”

“But why?” asked his wife, “What could have made him this way?

“You don’t think-” Eric’s father began, “You don’t think it’s because after all this time he’s still broken up about-”

His wife cut him off. “No, it can’t be, that was too long ago. We all know Danny’s been dead for three years.”

They heard the click of metal and turned around. Eric’s eyes were bloodshot and red with tears. The intense insanity that their son glared at them with burrowed into their skulls and struck hem at their core. Eric’s father recognized the revolver he always kept hidden in his desk and in the back of his mind he wondered when his son had discovered it and how long ago he had decided to take it. His wife let out a frail, frightened cry and clutched him. Mind racing, he reached out to his son hesitantly.

“Eric” he stammered, “Now, s-son just hold on-”

The sound of the gunshot exploded through the air in a deafening bang. After the initial recoil Eric’s mother slowly looked up to see her husband with a large, gaping hole where his eye used to be, now a bloody, empty chasm filled with bits of what was left. His body teetered for a moment and collapsed in a heap. A scream welled up in her chest before another gunshot tore it from her and she fell to the ground next to him.

Eric walked over to his parents. The revolver hung in his hand like a lead weight until he raised it once more. His mother had a hole in the middle of her chest. Her body was twitching and in small spasms and she looked at her boy with eyes wide with fear and disbelief. Her mouth was moving, trying to form words but there was only a soft gurgling. Eric fired for the third time and his mother’s head whipped backwards with a fresh new hole in the middle of her forehead. Her twitching stopped.

Eric’s hand began to shake and the gun dropped to the ground with a dead thud. His breathing was fast and heavy and slowly he began to realize the gravity of what he’d just done. He collapsed to his knees, tears running in torrents down his face, and began sobbing heavily. His parents were dead. He killed them. He raised a gun to them and blew their brains out. He killed his own parents.

“Oh God! W-What have I done!” Eric screamed. Memories of them as a family, loving and cherished, only worked to deepen the horror he felt for the atrocity he had just committed. His body writhed in grief-stricken waves. As he cried the hallway darkened and he could feel someone approach him from behind. A soft hand caressed his head and he was gently led up onto his feet. “Eric, it’s ok. Shhh.” Danny’s voice was soothing, “You had to do it. They were going to keep us apart, remember?” Eric’s sobs gradually reduced to sniffles. Tenderly he was embraced and a light kiss graced the top of his head.

“You took care of them for me. You love me, don’t you?” Eric nodded solemnly. The caring affection seemed to slowly erase all the pain away. He loved Danny. It had to be done. Eric would do anything to be with him. A numbness crept its way into his heart. Danny’s voice continued on, reminding him of their love and how they had to look out for each other. Eventually Eric stopped his crying altogether. The pain and sorrow left him completely. The distress of performing deeds as immoral as he had done dissipated and all that was left was Danny. Danny was all that mattered. His parents were now nothing more than two bloody meat piles littering the hall.

“Eric” Danny’s voice called.

“Yes, love.” He answered in a dead tone.

“You know, other people will come looking. When they find out your parents are dead, if they ever found out what you’ve done, they’ll come after us.” Danny’s voice seemed to swirl about him, igniting again an inner rage. Eric began to breath heavily again.

“I’ll take care of it.” Eric said. His voice became harsh and grave. He bent down and picked up the revolver. He knew that his father kept a relatively ample stash of ammunition poorly hidden in one of his cabinets.

“No one will understand, Eric. Everyone will try to come between us. Please don’t let them take me away!”

“I’ll take care of all of them.” Eric looked down at the limp bodies of his parents Instead of regret he was only filled with disgust and hatred. Malice had found its way into his soul and began to fester. Eric stepped over them and began to head downstairs, Danny’s voice trailing him all the way.

“Where do I start?” Eric asked as he descended.

“Just do what I say and we can be together, forever.”

There was no turning back now. Eric was lost, no longer the innocent teenager he once was. As he stepped out into the cold night of a typical summer no one knew of what had just transpired. No one would discover the bodies until a few days later. No one would see Eric coming until it was too late. No one would see the shadow that constantly whispered into his ear, its eyes glowing red like coals.