From Darkness It Comes

Ghostly Apparition

The two of them lie there naked in each other's arms, enjoying the afterglow. Fingers occasionally caressing up and down random body parts. They are both having moments of silent bliss.

"I could stay like this forever." Darrin says.

"Liar. You'd want food eventually."

"We could order in."

"But we'd have to get up to open the door."

"Bah, we could leave it unlocked and have them bring it to us."

"And let them see us like this?"

"Sure, it'd a thrill for them and a story to share back at the shop."

Lisa pinches his side playfully. "I'm not for others to see, only you."

"Fine, we can throw a blanket over us."

Lisa never gets the chance to reply.

The room suddenly becomes cold and a shiver goes up both their spines. The light seems to dim and air grows thick with an unseen fog that seems to only exist just outside of normal vision. The two of them stop playing but instinctually hold each other closer, while trying to slide the blanket over themselves.

"What's going on?" Lisa's voice is small and distant.

"I don't..." Darrin doesn't even finish his reply.

Out of the growing darkness filling the room a strange blue-white glow seems to emanate from somewhere deep within it and shining up into nothing. Slowly a strange ethereal form start to grow within the glow, faint and wispy at first but growing more solid by the second. The two of them, now wrapped in a blanket with just their heads peeing out over the top, stare up at it in a combination of fear and confusion.

All sound drops out of the room as this form continues to grow brighter in the silence. The squeak of the bed seems to fade away into oblivion, despite the slight shaking of fear the duo cuddled there causes. Even the distant sounds of life outside the room seems to have gone away into the growing darkness.

As the shape begins to take form they can make out the basic shape of a head and soon a face, on top of a thin body with what looks like smoky wings behind it. The face is not normal though. The mouth seem abnormally thin but is gaping open far more than it should be able to, creating a large moaning maw. It's eyes are deep and sunken into the thin face and the wispy white hair on it's head appears to be blowing in an nonexistent breeze.

Darrin feels like all the air has been sucked out of the room and they are somehow no living in a vacuum as this thing appears before them. They cuddle closer under the meager protection of the blanket. Then, the sound and air seems to rush at them like a sonic boom inside their heads. From nothing to this makes the horrendous raspy voice seem a thousand times more ominous and powerful than anything he has ever heard before.

The glowing white creature with leans toward them, long bony arms outstretched and gangly fingers slowly wiggling. "Creature of warm meat and bone who dare oppose Kalrathnaktae, you have been warned. Kakkoaou watches from the shadow and sees all. You know not the forces you tamper with and the old one will be unable to save you when we the Dark Lords rise. Leave it be now or he shall set Malrintae upon you and damnation to the Shadowlands for you and all around will forever be your curse."

The figure retracts from them with a low wheeze and starts to fade and sink back into its darkness and blue glow. Soon it fades and leaves only the slowly pulsating glow emanating from the darkness, before the glow too fades into the darkness. The darkness lingers a while, leaving the two of them to cower naked under the blanket on the bed, unable to speak for the moment.

In a growing hiss the sounds of the world around them begins to rush slowly in and the darkness retreats to the corners where it belongs. Darrin, with his arms still wrapped around Lisa and flesh pressed against flesh, swallows loudly and is pleased to be able to make a sound again.

Lisa turns her head to look at Darrin. Her eyes are like saucers and all blood has drained from her face, leaving it pale and ghostly. Her voice stammers through the words. "It's real. The things he talked about. All of it. The evil. The dark. It's all real"

Darrin struggles to speak and nods back at her with face nearly as pale. "It sure looks like it. I was hoping he was crazy."

"Me too. I thought he was."

"I was hoping it was all some made up fantasy, but I felt it was real in my bones. Now I know and can't live the fantasy it might not be any more."

Darrin pulls the blanket off them and they slip off the bed to find their clothing. Just like Adam and Eve after eating the apple, they realize their nakedness and no longer seem fine with it. They slowly talk it out as they scramble slowly to dress.

Looking up from the floor, where she is pulling on her pants, Lisa says, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm not sure. But we can't just sit here and do nothing. We can't let it get free."

"Do you know what those things it was talking about are? Kal Wrathinky and Malrinkly or whatever he said?"

"No. I've never heard of Kal Wrath-nak-tay, Cock-cow-ow, or Mal-rin-tay before. He called them the Dark Lords though and said something about Shadow Lands. None of it sounds good."

"Yeah, no good. So what are you going to do?"

Darrin sits on the edge of the bed, now dressed, and thinks about it for a moment. Lisa watches him, with her arms wrapped tightly around her as if afraid she might disappear if she let go. It's time he actually tried to find out what is really going on.