Darkness Rises
Prologue
The night is exceptionally dark this night. Thick clouds covering the entire sky, not even a single star can be seen. A thick fog also rises up above the ground. The cemetery is quiet...extremely quiet. No crickets chirping, nor the wind blowing, everything is still, almost frozen even.
Mike and Vinny are patroling in the cemetery ready to fight any evil that may arise. Mike is wearing his blue jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt. He also is wearing boots with steel toe and he carries a stake in his right hand ready for a brawl.
Vinny stands to his left and is wearing black pants, a grey shirt, and a leather jacket. He too, carries a stake in his right hand. "So, do you think we'll find anything out here tonite?" Vinny asks.
"I'm not sure. But I hope we do, my adrenaline is pumping right now. I want to fight," he says with enthusiasm. "Do you sense anything yet? There's gotta be something out here."
"No, I don't sense anything yet."
All of a sudden they see a shadow move about in a tomb. They walk closer too it and they hear footsteps inside. Vinny then concentrates his powers to sense what the creature was. He closes his eyes and stands there in a frozen manner. "Well, You're in luck, it's not human." Vinny says.
"Awesome," he calls out, "I'm ready!" They both then walk closer to the tomb. The tomb looked very raffish and it seemes as if it were actually decaying. "Wierd," Mike commented. "This thing is all molded up, It's pretty disgusting!"
As they approach it still, Vinny gasps for air, "Do you smell that?" he asks as they are confronted with a redolence of rotting corpses. "Damn, that smells fucking gross! It smells like there are rotting bodies in here!"
"Well, yea. This is a Tomb. This is where they tend to put dead decaying bodies," Mike sarcastically says.
Inside they hear a heavy breathing. Then a sudden growl. "Was that a wolf?" Vinny says a bit nervous. "What was that?"
"Sounded like one."
Vinny steps in through the door way and hears the breathing and growling even louder. The stench also got worse. The smell is what bothered them most. The tomb is dark with only a small amount of light shining through the doorway.
There is a stone sarcofogus in the center of the room, and at the back, there seems to be another opening. It is a very narrow opening and it has a flight of stairs going down deeper into the cemetery. They start to walk towards it and the growling gets even louder and it sounded alot angrier. Then suddenly, a wolf-like creature jumps out of the hallway and knocks Vinny about eight feet away.
Mikr yells out in surprise, "Oh shit! Vinny are you ok? That looked like it hurt!"
"Well yea it did, alot." They both turn to the wolf standing behind them. The wolf then begins to shape-shift into a human form. But was smart enough and quick enough to manage to get away as he changed. But, Vinny got a quick glance at him and might be able to recognize him next time.
Chapter 4
The day is very cloudy and it seems as if it is about to rain. Then it starts to drizzle. There is no sunlight shining whatsover due to the thick layer of dark grey clouds. As the groups sits in their classes, the rain begins to come down harder.
Mike is in his Italian class, spacing out, with a blank stare in his eyes. He's half asleep, half awake, and just about to drop to his desk. Paolo, Matt, and Christina are sitting in math with the old man standing up front and center solving a problem on the board. Vinny and Tom are in Economics with a substitute just sitting there as all the students converse with each other.
Finally, the bell rings to signal the end of the period. The hallways are filled with students, mostly with three foot demons, the seventh graders. They are all running trying not to be late for class. But the older kids are taking it slow, as to not crush them with one step.
"We have physics now right, Matt?" Paolo asks with uncertainty.
"Yeah, I just gotta go to my locker to get my books and I'll meet you there."
Christina and Vinny are also on their way to get their books for physics class, as well as Mike and Tom. They're all in the same class with a new teacher from Russia. They all get into the classroom and take their seats. The class wasn't a very big class. It consisted of the group, Megan, Kristen, two Chinese girls who always sat together in every class they had with each other, Cara, and John, Tom's football friend.
"Do we have two periods of this today?" Mike asks Vinny.
"I think so, but we have a new teacher so the period will probably be full of introductions and talk...blah blah blah."
Then the second bell rings to signal the end of the four minute break and time to resume classes. The noise dies down in the classroom, and all they hear are the sounds of the papers, Mr. Koltunov is digging through and the sound of the rain against the windows.
"Hey, Paolo," Mike says in a soft voice. "How's Kate doing? You gonna go see her?"
"Yeah, I'm going today after school. She's doing better though," Paolo says with optimism.
"Oh that's cool," Mike replies. "So are you guys gonna go out when she goes home?"
"I'm not sure, I'll probably let her rest for a while at her house first. Let her heal. She's been through alot. She should be where she feels at home."
Meanwhile, Matt is sitting over by Cara exchanging words, and flirtatious vibes. Their flirting is so obvious that Christina and John just sat there talking to each other about them. Their conversation about Cara and Matt's flirting also lead them to do some flirting of their own. John is turned around facing Christina and they just sit there and talk.
"Are you busy this Saturday?" Matt asks Cara with great confidence. "My friends and I are having a surprise party for Mike. Would you like to go with me?"
"I don't know what I'm going to be doing yet, but, I'm sure I can make it. What time does it start?"
"Great. I'll pick you up at your house around 7 Saturday night. Ok?"
"That would be great!"
Kristen and Vinny are also talking. They are sitting next to each other in the left side of the room, behind Paolo and Mike. They're doing they're own series of flirtations. Then Vinny feels a strange presence around him. He even hears something calling out to him, as if they're playing hide and seek. "I'm coming for you..." he hears. But everyone else doesn't seem to hear anything, they just go about they're business.
All of a sudden, a new student walks into the room. He's tall, with black hair brushed forwards, wearing a black shirt with the words "Pretty Boy" written across the chest, and plack jeans. He wore black leather boots and had a lot of silver jewelry on as well as chains that hung from his pants.
He walks up to the teacher and hands him a piece of paper. "Ok, thank you. Take a seat anywhere you please," the teacher says directing him to the empty seats near Mike and Tom on the other side of the room. He walks down the aisle by Tom and takes a seat directly beside him.
Tom quickly glances at him then turns back to talk to John. But Dan just sits there staring straight ahead, just staring at empty space. His face is blank with expression, just very pale. He seemed very concentrated and focused, like nothing could distract him. Finally, the Mr. Koltunov decides to take attendance, but seems that he has no idea what he's doing. "Do you want me to do that for you," Mike asks sincerely. "I'll show you how it works."
Mike gets up and walks to the teacher and takes the folder from him. He shows what he's supposed to mark and who's present. Mike looks at the class and accounts for everyone. "Ok, there ya go," he says to Mr. Koltunov as he hands him the folder. Then he walks back to his seat and sits.
Paolo turns back around and his arm brushes against Vinny's hands which are on the back of his seat. All of a sudden, Vinny freezes and is shocked by a flash of light and sees Paolo and Tom being tied up to a pillar as he is being held back by a seven foot demon. This demon had four horns on his head but the tips are curved towards the center of his skull, almost like a crown. His skin is a brownish dirty color that was very tough and difficult to penetrate. His fingernails are sharp steel-like knives 4 inches long.
He watches as Paolo and Tom struggle to break free as other demons of are tying them up. The other two creatures are wearing heavy brown robes and it was too difficult to see what they were.
Then, one of the robed creatures takes off his hood and takes out a ritual dagger from his robe. It was a human, warlock actually. The dagger that he hels was meant to steal other supernaturals' powers. He then lunges towards Tom...
Vinny comes back from the dream-like trance to class where Paolo, Mike and Kristen are staring at him. "Are you Ok?" Kristen asks.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it. I just have a headache," he replies with a tone of uncertainty, and confusion. The bell rings and he just sits there holding his head as if in pain and sorrow.
"What happened, Vin. What did you see?" Paolo asks in concern.
"I saw a demon and two warlocks trying to steal your powers as well as Tom's." he explained. He gave all the details to them and they walked out of the classroom and met up with the others.
Than night, Matt, Tom, and Mike went to Eternity, a new club in the area. When they entered, the place was packed. The music was blasting and everyone seemed to have a good time. Many of the girls were dressed in mini-skirts and tube tops and other skin-tight clothing. Tom and Matt were amazed and looked at each other in shock.
"This place is awesome already!" Tom exclaims.
"Really nice choice dude." Matt replies.
Mike walks around the club and attempts to find someone. "Amy!" he calls out. He walks up to her and kisses her. "Hey, How are you?"
"I'm fine. You wanna dance?"
"Yea, sure! Let's go," as he leads her to the center of the club where they start to dance. As they dance, Mike just stares at her magnificence. Her hair shined under the dim lights as did her eyes, they spakled like the stars in the sky. She moved so gracefully, Mike was put under a trance.
Matt and Tom approached two girls sitting at the bar, "Hey, I'm Tom. This is my friend Matt," he introduced.
"Hi, I'm Ursula and this is my friend Katie."
From there a conversation commenced between Ursula and Tom, and Matt and Katie. They laughed and talked then, "Do you guys want to dance?" the girls offered.
"C'mon Matt," Katie insisted.
With that the guys agreed and were led to the center of the room by the girls. They ended up dancing beside Mike and Amy. They all laughed and danced. Everyone was having a great time and were very energetic.
Mean while, back at the Manor, Vinny and Christina are setting up for Mike's surprise party for tomorrow night. They put all the party items they bought in the basement as well as the decorations. They just cleaned up. Then they both plop down onto the recliners and watch some T.V. "What do you want to watch?" Christina asks, controlling the remote control.
Vinny then struggles to get the remote from her reaching over her and for the remote. "Let me see it," he says. She pulls it away furhter from his reach and gives off an evil laugh. She looks at him as if he looked really asinine. He finally realizes that he did look pretty stupid. Then relaxes himself and sits still.
Christina then feeling that she had won that battle, makes herself comfortable and relaxes on the chair. Vinny then unsuspectingly grabs the remote right out of her hand. "Damnit," she yelled. And both started to laugh afterwards.
All of a sudden the doorbell rings. Christina gets up, "I'll get it."
"Good cause I ain't getting up."
"You lazy ass. Whatever." the doorbell rings again, "I'm coming! Geez." She opens the door and sees a man standing before her, wearing all black garments and silver jewelry on his wrists and neck. One ring stood out from the rest. It was a ring with a giant sapphire. It glowed a brilliant dark blue. Christina looks up at his face and sees his eyes, they seemed really empty as if he had no soul.
He suddenly sheathed his sword and christina gave out a loud gasp. He grabbed her and she fell back as she tried to run away. As she fell she hit the side table near the door and it made a loud thump. All was quiet then. Vinny heard the noise and jumped up out of the chair. He picks up an iron poker from the fireplace and quietly goes to check up on Chris.
He crept up around the corner to see the front door closed. He lowered the poker and walked slowly up to the door. Put his hand on the knob and slowly opened it. He saw nothing. "Shit, Where the fuck did she go. You better not be messing around Chris!"
He stepped out and to his right there stood Christina in front of a man holding a sword to her neck. "Put down your weapon," he commands Vinny. "Put it down or Chris here is going to have some new holes put into her."
"Ok, ok." Slowly he lowered the poker. Another man jumped behind him and knocked him out cold.
Paolo went over to the hospital to visit Kate. She was lying down on the bed with an IV going into her arm. She was doing just fine. "Hey, the doctor says I'll be out of here in a week. So we can hang again! I can't wait."
"Yea, but I think when you get home, you should rest and get acquainted with your old surroundings. I don't want you putting out too much energy."
"You worry too much, I'll be fine, I'm telling you. I can do everything the same way as I did before."
"We'll see. First you get some rest. I'll come back tomorrow ok? And I'll bring you some Wendy's." he said followed by a playful laugh.
"That would be great, I miss having Wendy's. Thanks. I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?"
"Yes, I'll be back same time. With food in hand."
"Awesome," and with that, she pulled him closer and kissed him. "You better be back."
"I promise, I'll be here. Bye."
He then left the room and checked out. He went to the parking lot to find his car, but when he looked at the parking spot his car was in, it was empty. No signs of breaks, there was no glass on the floor. Then he sees two men in black trenchcoats standing at the other end of the parking lot in the shadows. The parking lot is poorly lit and the darkness of the stormy night didn't help either.
The fog grew thicker, and he could see their eyes glowing a bright green in the distance. They are just staring at him, enjoying watching him struggle to figure out where his BMW went. They just kept staring and finally raised their hand pointing to him as if to taunt him. "Where's my fucking car you assholes?"
They started to laugh and mock him, tanalizing him with his car. "If you can catch us you can get your car back," one of the vampires said. With that said, they rose up above the clouds. And just vanished.
"Shit," he looked around to see if there was anyone who would see him use his magick. No one in sight. He closed his eyes and the gust of wind carried him up to the sky. When he got above the clouds he saw them both floating in the air. They looked at him. "Give me my car, Now," he said angrily.
"Come and get it," they split up. Paolo did not know who had the key so he chased after one of them. He flew to the right and chased after the bigger demon. Faster and faster he flew. Finally caught up with him, but he turned around and sent a powerful punch right to Paolo's stomach.
He let out a cry of pain and terror as he gasped for air. "Ha, you can't defeat us. You're too weak. You're nothing compared to our powers."
Paolo, still knocked down with the punch, he looked up at him. His eyes became cloudy and turned as grey as the clouds below them. Shadows began to emanate from his fingertips and bind the vampire. Just then the other came up behind him and hit him on his back which sent him flying towards the other vampire who just caught him. Paolo blacked out from the powerful blows and they carried him away.
Back at the club Tom and Matt stopped dancing with Katie and Ursula. They went back to the bar to get a couple of drinks. Katie and Ursula then wrote down their numbers and gave it to the guys. "Here's our number. Call us sometime."
"Of course we will," Matt replied with a flirtatious tone.
"Definitely," Tom replied in the same manner.
The girls then left as Matt and Tom just stared in awe as they walked away and out the doors. "Dude, those girls were hot!" Tom commented.
"Yes, they were. Let's get Mike and Amy, we gotta go." Matt said.
"You go get them, I need to go to the bathroom."
"Fine, I got them," Matt said. "Hurry up though, I want to leave like now. Im dead tired."
"Ok, ok. I'll be right there."
They both went in opposite directions and they both disappeared into the crowds. Matt caught up with Mike and Amy. "Guys we're gonna go now. You guys getting a ride with us?"
"Yea, of course. We gotta give Amy a ride home though." Mike explains.
"Sure, we just gotta wait for Tom, he went to the bathroom."
"Ok, we can wait," Amy says.
In the bathroom, it was empty and disgustingly dirty. There were tissues on the floor, everything looked grimy and dirty, and the stench was just horrible. Tom hears something behind him in one of the stalls. No one is around him so se conjures up a stake. He kicks one door open, empty.
Second door, empty. Finally the last door, he opens and finds it empty as well. He turns back around and finds a vampire standing before him. He swings a punch at Tom, but He evades it and throws one of his own. 'Crack' right on his jaw. "Ow!" Tom cries out. The vampire just stands there, unmoved by Tom's powerful blow. He picks Tom up by the shoulders and throws him acroos the room.
Tom hits the wall and managed to put a whole through the tiles. A little weakened, he gets up with the stake in his hand and charges at him. "Yes, got you."
The vampire gives out a roar. Smiles and whispers in Tom's ear. "You missed, your supposed to go for the heart." He brings his arm back and throws a punch that lands right onto Tom's jaw. Tom gets knocked out cold.
"Where is this kid." Matt complains.
"Maybe he fell in," Amy comments. Both Mike and Amy began to laugh.
"I'm gonna go check up on him. I'll be back in a sec." Matt says.
He begins to walk away and is stopped by someone. He looks around and sees Dan standing beside him. "Hey! What the...oh. Aren't you in my physics class?"
"Yea, but that's not important now. Your friend is not in there. He's been captured by a group of demons and vamps. And so have your other friends."
Matt turns to look for Mike and Amy. When he turns he feels a gentle breeze and turns back around to see that he just disappeared. "Damnit, why does that always happen to me. I meet the wierdest people."
He runs back to Amy and Mike and says, "We have to go. Like right now Mike."
"Ok, I'll get my car. Then take Amy home."
They start to speed down the back roads and take Amy home. When they arrive there, she kisses Mike, "I'll see you later then. Bye!" She walks up to her door and Mike just watches her. She waves goodbye as she enters the house. Then Matt speeds off from the back to take shotgun. They drive off back to the Tolentine.
When they got home, Matt ran up to Paolo's room and found a spell book. He tried to find the demon that Vinny described earlier, in the book, to find how they can defeat it. Then, he hears a knocking and a thud in the next room. He puts down the book and goes over to check it out. He walks up to Christina's bedroom, and the door is locked. "Christina? You there?" he asks.
At first silence then a sudden burst of grumbling and a series of pounding. He tried to open the door, still locked. He then rams the door open breaking the lock. Christina falls down before him at his feet tied up and gagged. She's mumbling for him to unbind her.
He unties her and takes off the gag. "What happened?" Matt asks, "I heard that everyone was kidnapped or something!"
"They were," she confirms.
Mike hurries to the basement and collects a few weapons. He picks up the two handcrafted daggers that he and Paolo usually equip themselves with and a couple of stakes, as well as a small lightweight axe. Then he runs back up the stairs and into the living room, standing right before the steps to the second floor. "Matt, Let's go!" he yells out.
"We're coming, I found Chris tied up in her room. And we're on our way down. Chris knows where they are." He replies to him. They get into Mike's car and drive off to the cemetery.
Meanwhile, below the cemetery, Paolo, Tom, and Vinny are being held captive. There were two men both dressed in heavy brown robes with ritual daggers tied onto their robes. On the walls, hung iron chains and burning candles. In the center of the room lay a stone altar with many occult symbols as well as vines carved into the pillars that held it.
Paolo and Tom struggle to get free from their bindings. They were tied to a pillar by the far wall. Vinny is being held by an enormous demon with brown skin and the long fingernails he saw from his premonition.
Paolo and Tom have gags on their mouths to disable their speech. Paolo could not use his magick without his voice nor his hands, and Tom could not conjure anything either. Vinny stood helpless as he watched the warlocks beat and torture his friends. Both Paolo and Tom were covered with bruises and cuts. Blood dripped down from the cut on Paolo's cheek down onto his white shirt.
"No! Stop it, leave them alone. Stop hurting them," he yelled angrily as tears rolled down his eyes as he watched the pain his friends were going through. "What do you want from us?" he asked crying.
Then one of the Warlocks spoke with a deep voice that seemed so dark. "We want your powers. Your magick, as well as the Tolentine Grimoire. That book holds many ancient and powerful magicks. That's what we want," he said as he took off his hood to reveal a pale face, short black hair, and eyes of black. Vinny looked into his eyes and studies them. He had no soul. He was empty, his eyes were so empty. He held no emotions, nor did he have any trace of goodness in him.
The Warlock turned around swinging his arms into Paolo's face. This angered Vinny even more. "STOP!" he cried out.
"What are you gonna do? Read my mind? Premonition me to death? Very unlikely." then he laughed the deepest darkest laugh filled with sarcasm as if to make fun of his words.
Vinny started to get furious. The demon that held him, held much tighter. Vinny turned his head to look at the demon. His eyes filled with rage, and they looked like they were on fire. He was furious at how they were beating his friends. He just stared at the demon. Then it flew across the room, and right into the wall. A large crack on the wall resulted and a dent from the impact.
Suddenly, the wooden door at the top of the steps was knocked down. The would turned into splinters. Then Matt runs to Tom and unties him from the binding, but Tom was too weak from the beatings and just collapsed. Matt picked him up and lay him by Christina.
Mike throws a dagger towards Paolo, cutting him loose. Paolo also collapses and hits his head on the pillar knocking him out even more. Mike then runs up to Paolo to pick him up. One of the warlocks raises his hand with a small ball of light floating on his palm. He sends it flying towards Mike and hits him directly on the chest which sends him to the ground and sliding into the wall.
Vinny sees this then turns to that warlock and using his new power throwing him into the other warlock. Mike shrugs off the dust and rises. He tries to get Paolo again and get him to be healed.
The other Warlock then reveals his face. His face was darker yet the eyes seemed the same, empty and dark. He uses the teleporting power "blinking" to stand in between Mike and Paolo. He pulls out an amazing sword, beautifully crafted with a shining steel blade and golden handles. He directs it at Mike as if to say 'on guard.'
Mike then takes out his dagger and his axe. They begin to melee.
Then two vampires fly down into the tomb catching everyone off guard. Both Matt and Christina were knocked down by them. Matt gets up and reveals his Stake. Matt and the vampire both start to brawl throwing punches and kicks. Although, the vampire took most of the beating because Matt was definitely quicker than he was. He then stabs the stake right into its heart, turning it to dust.
Christina gets up to heal Tom and looks up. She sees the vampire standing before her staring down at her. She gets up and puts her hand behind her back slowly and stealthily. She sends out a roundhouse kick right into the vampires jaw, then side sweeps him, causing him to fall. She jumps on him about to stake it and it grabs a hold of her even before she could stake him.
It slowly picks her up by the arms and the Vampire suddenly looks terrified. He turns into dust, dropping Christina down to the ground. Behind the dust, she sees a familiar face standing before her. But it is still too cloudy to see who it is.
Matt runs to Paolo picking him up and trying to bring him back to Chris. But then he was shot by the same ball of force. Sending Paolo right to the feet of the Demon. "Shit," he calls out.
As Mike and the warlock melee against each other, Mike finds a clean shot and swings the axe right to his neck..."Wait!" a deep schoing voice shouted. The axe paused about 3 inches from his neck, and Mike turned to find Paolo in the arms of the Demon. "If he dies, so does your friend here," the demon said with a great serious tone.
Mike then lowers the axe, "Ok, ok. I'm putting down my weapon," as he does slowly to the ground. Vinny pries Paolo out of the demon's hand with his mind, and, all of a sudden Matt charges right to the demon and punctures the demon's abdomen with the stake and manages to get Paolo and escape.
Mike turns viciously swing the axe all around him and nailing the warlock right in the neck, decapitating it. It then bursts into flames and is gone. The other warlock has disappeared as well as the demon, the Warlock blinked out of the vicinity, and The demon used the power to shimmer to also escape.
Christina looks up at the dust and says, "Who are you?" but then he just disappeared. She did not get a good look, nor did she know who it was.
Paolo and Tom were still unconcious but both were healed by Christina. Mike picks Paolo up and Vinny helps Matt carry Tom into the car. They all leave the cemetery, but before they do, Mike returns to the crypt after carrying Paolo to the car. He picks up the sword left by the vanquished warlock, "This sword is so awesome, its mine."
Onward To:
Chapter V
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