From Darkness It Comes

Unwanted Answers and Connections

"Why was I plucked out of the thousands of students here to be the one involved in this?" Darrin says with a sense of exasperation. "Why me? I want to be a photographer. I didn't come here for this."

"Are you sure about that?" Madame Laveau spoke, looking very serious.

"Of course I am sure. You think I looked into all this voodoo crap before I chose my school? I came here because it had both what my dad wanted and good photography classes."

"But there are many schools that could have been chosen. You were drawn to this one, weren't you? Think deeply Darrin. There was something else that drew you to this place, wasn't there? Something you didn't identify back then, but think about it now. There was something, wasn't there?"

Darrin starts to say something, but then just screws up his face with pained concentration. Wrinkles forming on his forehead as he draws back deeper into his mind. His eyes glazing over as he stares into nothingness across the room.

Lisa is focused on the old woman and doesn't notice Darrin's vacant expression. "Are you saying this place called him here? That he had no choice?"

Madame Laveau says nothing, but looks over at Darrin. Lisa tracks her look and turns to face Darrin as well, seeing the lost expression on his face for the first time. Her eyes dart back to Madame Laveau and back, hoping to get some answer.

"That's exactly what she's saying." His voice is small and distant. "I was called here. I think. There were other places that would have been better, but we convinced ourselves that this place the best choice."

"Are you sure? How did you do that?"

"It was closer," He replied. "That was out main reasoning. Even though it was still too far away to get home for the weekends or something, we said it was better because it was closer. Doesn't make sense now. There are no flights out of here, so it's actually longer to get home from here than some of the others. It makes no sense now, but it was so clear then."

Madame Laveau nods. Darrin looks up from his daze and stares at her. Lisa shifts her gaze tentatively from him to the old woman as well. There is a moment where none of them speak.

"It called you here." She says and Darrin nods slowly. "You couldn't resist the call."

"But why me?" Darrin's voice is even smaller and more distant than before.

"You have something special about you. Something ancient that you have the ability to tap into. Something that gives you great power, if you allow yourself to tap into and learn how to control. But something very dangerous if you don't control it but allow it to flow through you. That is something the darkness here would want."

"So it was the evil that called him here?" Lisa blurts out. Her eyes large and scared.

"Yes, in way." Madame Laveau turns her gave to the frightened girl, trying to comfort her with a kind expression. "But not to worry. It was his deeper calling to stop the darkness that called him here. It only pulled once it felt his gaze already upon this place and wanted the power brought here, not knowing or caring why he was looking here to begin with. Not knowing it was calling the one who could stop it."

"So," Darrin finally speaks up in a voice of growing strength. "I have no say in any of this? I have to get involved and do what I can to stop this because I am meant to? My life and destiny are not my own?"

"Not true." Madame Laveau says, "You always have the choices you can make. Your life is all yours. Things will simply try and convince you to do what they want or need, but you always have the final say. Yes, there was a pull to come here, but you made the choice. Now there are larger things happening, but you can always choose to not get involved. You can choose to let the darkness here grow in strength and surface. You can choose to pack your things and leave. The choice if always yours. But it's all a matter of what you can live with once you made your choices."

Darrin nods, his face screwed up in concentration again. He thinks about all that has happened and all he has learned. It doesn't exactly seem like he has a fair choice to make. He doesn't feel he knows enough to make it. But he has to do something, one way or the other.