THE DARLING DARKLINGS.

The Darling Darklings

by

Gregory Barone

My life wasn't always so dark and dreary, I come from a long line of mages that are known thought

out all the known realms, at the start of my life I have lived in the family's ancestral mansion, there

was great gardens with all manner of plants and creatures roaming the grounds like unicorns and

fairies.

Each member of the family had a home close to the great mansion on a hill in a vast valley, I

have been told that the family have done great things in all the realms and have been very well

rewarded with great treasures through the many years but later on in my life did I know what the

family did to be so wealthy.

My father the next head of the family and my mother was from another well-known mage family and the both of them were married and soon had me and my twin brother, it was said that we were born under a good sign, right now I doubt we were.

I've been put up against my twin brother since we could cast spells.

We were trained in many of the different kinds of magical arts and would have to show how well we could perform them, some times I could outdo him, and he would have to go and retrain and do the test again, we were being trained to be the best mages and live up to the reputation of the family.

Most of the time it was because I would spend most of my time in the mansions library reading some of the old spell books as my brother would go out and about the land exploring it wasn't till later as to why he would go out and wander the grounds and the land.

On the night that it happened; I was around six and me and my brother were about to go to sleep, our

home was attacked by some horrible creatures. it's as if they came from the very night itself, they

where a multitude of sizes to them and they appeared like black twisted silhouetted beings with

crimson eyes and white sharp teeth.

As they attacked; they killed off members of my family one by one, I can still hear their cries in my head. soon they were at the mansion and they came through the windows and doors but the one me and my brother left from that was near one of the gardens, I was running with all my mite with me in the lead and my brother right behind me.

Then out of nowhere one of the creatures attacked my brother; he screamed with such pain that I could feel it, I was so scared that I just kept running and I heard him scream my name as I ran.

Word went out through all the known realms that this had happened and the creatures appeared in those realms as well, it was so bad that the pathways to the other realms had to be closed.

But I was able to get to a realm that wasn't very knowledgeable about magic but technology.

I was able to live off mostly from the generosity of the place of worship they had there but soon things went dark. At my young age; I developed an ability to read people whoever I meet and could see their wants and needs but mostly, all I could see in them is the darkness inside themselves no matter who they are.

And it seems like they all want to get me and do horror able things to me it's as if their spirit speaks wicked things at me.

I sometimes start to see this little creature follow me wherever I go, it's a small creature, with long

bunny ears or antenna, a very short dark shadowy silhouette, and it's very like a stuffed toy like a few

I had back in the family mansion, with red eyes and white teeth.

It was hard to tell if it had bone structure at all because as it would walk, it would flop and wobble as it walked and at times I could see what I could swear were nails or small claws at the points of its small fingers.

It got so bad that I would scream when I would turn a corner, I would mistake people for it and being that I did it so much that I nearly lost my sense of self.

So then I was put in a place they called an asylum, after a few days there I meet a man who knew who I was and my family, he was sent here from another realm as a punishment for life. He told me that to get more wealth and power, members of my family had summoned these same dark creatures so they could beat them back as to fake saving some realm or kingdom from the creatures.

A few days after meeting him, he was found dead in his room, the gruesome manner of how he died hunted me for all the time I was there, I have spent some time in the asylum, but even there the creature would peek around a corner and smile and I could see its sharp white teeth, It had the face of that creature that I thought had killed my brother that night so long ago.

Every time I would see it; I start losing myself and just start screaming, they would drug me up and it would come up to me and grin an evil grin.

One night when they put me in the padded chamber; I pretended to be asleep and waited for the creature to come in, I jumped onto the creature and got my hands around its neck and started to choke it.

And I told it that I wasn't going to die without a fight and while I was choking it, It spoke my name not in the voice I thought it would speak, it spoke in my brother's voice.

"do you think that you can kill me so easily" it said with a soft hissing laugh

"Wait! What! How are you" "I found out about the family secret when I was in the library when I had to restudy a spell, I hid myself in a corner and someone slipped out about how they do it and what book the spell was in and I was able to find it and I studied the spell, it was a very big black leather book and one day, when I was free, I went to an old building that was on the edge of our land and got all the items that were needed I cast that spell, it was an easy spell.

I was able to summon a small darkling but by feeding it; it grew, soon it would spawn off small versions of itself.

I then found a cave, a great big cave to keep it in.

When I was able to bring some food for the darlings and sometimes find a creature to feed them too.

When they became numerous I gave them the order to kill everyone that night except me.

To my surprise, you were able to get away, and over the years I was able to get stronger with my magic and I also bonded with the darkling's and I am much more powerful which made me able to track you down and I had a lot of fun scaring you to see if you would break but the people here made that impossible so now I'm inviting you to come back to the house" "Why!" "so we can see who is the best one now or should I go and kill all the friends you made herein this realm" there was a stab in my chest when he said that "how do you expect me to leave here and all the portals are closed" "in a few days a storm will come and all the lights will go out, there will be a mass confusion and you'll go down into the cellar and in a corner you'll find a small portal back" I couldn't believe what it said to me and my eye while tearing up I looked away for a moment and was about to say something back and it was gone.

A few days pass without me seeing the Darkling and one day, just like he said a storm came and all the things happened just like he said; it was total chaos in the asylum, I was able to go down the stairs without anyone seeing me, and when my eyes adjusted to the low light of the cellar I saw faint red light that made a small square in the wall not far from the stairs.

The last few days after the darkling stopped showing up I have asked myself "I know I cannot deal with him alone, just how am I going to beat him" then I remembered something from long ago back in the mansion and at that moment I knew how I would beat him.

I stood by at the small square in the wall, the wall was made of brick as I could see when I bent over and got my fingers in between the brick and mortar, the faint red light showed through.

It opened quite simply and as I opened it, crimson red light shown from the small tunnel that was big enough for me to crawl through.

So I started to crawl and it wasn't long till I felt and smelled the familiar smell of dirt and earth when

I crawled in the small tunnel; I reached the end and everything was in a multitude of purple hues to it

and a mist in the far distance it seemed it was night here?, the trees, the grass, everything.

I made my way to a clearing in a field of tall grass and I looked up in the sky and was shocked to see the black sun and crimson red sky.

What was this place that I was brought to, out of nowhere I heard a voice shout out to me "fellow the path" I jumped as I looked around I saw on one, but saw a path made in the tall grass and walk down the path for what seemed like a brief moment and found myself on a brick road "thisss way to massster" was a voice I heard and my eyes looked upon a darkling pointing up the brick road "come, come, masster isss waiting" it said to me; it took me a while to get my nerve to want to follow it and as I followed the darkling I saw a few buildings along the way, they were all wrecked and ruined but as I went along the way I realized that they were the buildings and homes of the family, I was home in the once beautiful valley but now looked nothing like what I remember.

As I walked along with the darkling that was guiding me, I would sometimes see red shining eyes stare at me in the tall grass and seeing what was once lush green trees were now black shadowed twisted forms reaching up into the blood-red sky.

As we walked I would see a bone of some poor creature on the brick road but when I saw the skull of one of the family, I let out a quick scream, and tears started to well up in my eyes and go down my cheeks "Letsss go, masssster issues waiting for you" the darkling told me and we continued. Soon we came upon the mansion, we passed the front gate with tall grass on both sides of the cobblestone road and between the stones, that I remembered that it went to the front of the mansion and it went around a big water fountain I would play in on the hot days of this once beautiful valley.

As I got closer I could see the mansion was in a great state of decay and rune; most if not all the glass windows were smashed out and some of the scattered shards were among the cobblestones and when the light from the red sky shined on the shards, like a million eyes, were looking at me as I walked over them to the front door of the mansion.

When we got to the steps that lead up to the front door of the mansion, I saw the big front door and

the door frame was covered with what looked like deep claw and cut marks, the small darkling

knocked on the door and the sound echoed through the mansion and then the sound of the door

opening with creaks and groans as it slid over the marble floor of this once beautiful mansion that was

once my home, a tall darkling came out of the darkness of the doorway and it had the look of a

female from the curvy but crooked form she had if it was a she, "thisssss issss masssterssss

sssissster, bring her to massster" the little darkling told the tall one and she took a few steps towards

me and put one of her feet on the second step from the top and bent over as to get a better look at

me, when it did so I could see one very tiny red eye appear on its head it was a few moments till it

wrapped one of its arms around most of mine and I felt a strange sensation from its touch, numbing

yet it was like it was hot and cold at the same time, and it quickly pulled me into the mansion.

I couldn't resist as it pulled me along, I could see at some intervals when the light shown through the

windows I could see bits and parts of the wood stands that would hold a statue or a vase with flowers

in it littered the hallway as I was being pulled by the darkling and I remember the paintings that were

hanging on the wall where nothing but tattered, torn, and even crushed wreaks of themselves as I

passed them and the walls had claws and cut marks on them.

It took me down the grand staircase to the lower levels of the mansion, and at the bottom of the stairs the lights that would lite the lower levels were a dim red light, and much like the rest of the mansion the hallway was wrecked as well.

The darkling pulled me till we came to a door and opened it and we rushed in and a single white light

was on a table and most of the room was dark and then I heard my brother's voice "Ah, welcome my

dear sister" it came from the darkness as I stood there "leave us" the tall darkling nodded its head

and in a flash, it disappeared and the door slammed shut. there was a moment of silence and then he

spoke "It has been a very long time dear sister" and from the darkest part of the room he stepped into

the light and I saw that his face was a pale white and his eyes shined red like hot embers in a fire and

his hair seemed long but as he got closer his hair it looked as if his hair was a part of his body, he

was tall and thin and the rest of his body was black like the darklings.

With each step, he seemed to get taller and taller till he was towering over me "There's no point in running dear sister, there's nowhere for you to hide and the darkling will bring you back here if you do" He knew what I wanted to do "Do you know what room we're in right now! we're in the testing room when we had to test our magic ability, this is the only room I left intact in this whole mansion" that realization hit me like I was stabbed in the chest with a long hot dagger "This is where it all started and where it will end" he grinned and I saw all his teeth were sharp and pointed and in that moment he made a red magic circle and binding circles appeared around my arms and legs and I couldn't move "Now you'll know the pain I've felt all those years" he grinned "like hell I will" "WHAT?" "I've felt more pain than you have felt over the years I've been away and you may have read from that black book but I have read from a white book and in that book it had the ultimate spell" "WHAT!!!!" and I started to say the incantation, the binding circles broke off me and a great white magic circle formed around me and my brother, a bright light filled the room and there was not a single shadow to be seen then the circle became a portal and the very air that was in the room started to get sucked into it, the door of the room opened and the mist as well as the darkling's flew through the air and went down the portal and disappeared, many of them did.

In a moment everything went white and the last thing I heard was that of my brother crying out "NNNOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo....", I awoke laying on the floor and the room was dark and it took some time for me to see some light coming from the hallway, I crawled to the doorway and I pulled myself up and I could see some dim light coming from the top of the stairs and I leaned on the wall to the stairs and went up them and through the great hall to the front doorway and I saw the twin moons high in the sky and all the brilliant stars.

I stepped down the stone stairs to the cobblestones and I was overcome with so much emotion and weak that I fell to my knees and had my head to the ground and I started to cry and weal that it was some time before I started to see light even with my eye closed and stopped and lifted my head and seeing through my watery eyes, I saw small balls of light on the ground, and brushing away my tears I saw that the small balls of light where actual glowing white flowers and they were the most beautiful things I have seen in all my many years of suffering, pain, and anguish. I touched one of them and it glowed brighter; I do not know as to how or why but I think it's because of the power that was inside me for all those years just finally broke loose and I ended it all by destroying my brother along with my misery, and all the pain I had inside me all those years was gone leaving a void I think I can fill.

I sat by the stone stair railing; the stone was cold but I didn't let it bother me and stared up in the night sky with the nebula, the stars and the twin moons and with my eyes still somewhat watery I looked down at the small glowing flowers that came from my tears of pain and sadness, I was content with myself and gave a little laugh " My darlings, my beautiful little darlings" and I stared at them and at that moment I was happy, after a long time, I was finally happy.

THE END