TALES OF THE DARK

Part 26: THE OTHER SIDE

...Where...are...we...?

Damian, who was wearing a sweater as Winter came onto Blackington, sat alone in a coffee shop. Damian had his fair share of encounters, since he was a close friend to Luke and Rose. They had a lot of work going into the dark incidents that have happened here in Blackington. He was on the phone, talking to someone named Sofia, whom she met after an incident related to a theme park. "I swear this girl, she likes me." He thought to himself.

That was true as that Sofia girl was always talking to him. He tried his best to talk to her as well but he seemed so awkward most of the time. Damian put his phone down and took a sip of his coffee, before looking up and seeing someone familiar. A girl with long orange hair, glasses and wearing a red scarf on a green sweater. Damian would approach her and spoke to her "Clara?"

This woman, Clara, looked back to Damian "Oh hello?". Clara was a very calm girl, apparently she had her own encounter. It was related to a Tree. "You're Clara, Luke's Girlfriend?"

"Oh? You know him?" Clara asked him, she seemed interested on how he knew her. "Yeah Luke's my friend, and Luke told me about you." Damian replied, he crossed his arms and looked at her.

Clara chuckled softly "I see, you and Luke are close. Has he told you about-"

"No he didn't, I found out myself." Damian immediately answered Clara's question. It was obviously about the darkness...

"Right, we can talk about this somewhere else. Wanna have a drink together?" Clara asked politely. Damian nodded "Right sure, I want to hear about what you think about this...Incidents we are having.." Damian walked back to his seat and sat down, waiting for Clara to come over. He waited patiently and soon, Clara came over with a cold latte. Strange, it's snowing and she wanted something cold?

Damian ignored that thought and looked straight at her. "So, Clara, you had an encounter that was relate to a tree. I was told by Luke that he was involved."

Clara nodded slowly "Y-Yeah... Apparently it's a monster that made itself into a tree... it wanted me...but instead it took my sister...Claudia..." Clara didn't like recalling it at all, she always felt terrible whenever she remembered that. She hated how it haunted her and took away her sister.

Damian nodded "These things are...not what I expected. I always thought of them as Disturbances or Paranormal Ghosts but no...they're Parasites." Damian thought about it. He was clearly feeling odd about this town and started to question why he's even here. Damian had told Luke and Rose his opinions about the Darkness. Maybe it was a God or maybe it was Summoned by someone? It's all a hypothesis.

Clara nodded "But I want to talk to you about something. It's another incident." Clara pulled out a notebook on what she wrote. Damian, now intrigued on what Clara had, watched her as she held out the notebook. "A man with the name of Patrick Lillard disappeared suddenly after entering an abandoned house in Shady Lane 2 years ago. It was said he entered the house around 6 PM on a Friday. How I found this report was in a Library that had a record of disappearances. This one bugged me because the case has not been solved and plus the disappearance of this man was so instant that not even his foot prints were left."

Damian listened, then he looked at her. "So you think this incident is related to the Darkness?" Damian replied, because to him this was already something that would most likely be caused by the Darkness. "Indeed. Can I ask for your help on this? Since you know about the Darkness more than I have and you have been working with my Boyfriend for a long time now."

Damian nodded "I'm in, just need to go somewhere before we head to see what happened." Damian finished his drink and stood up. "Let's go Clara." He told Clara as she stood up and drank her latte while walking with him. Damian walked across the snowy neighborhood. He put his hands on his pockets as he walked. Clara was right behind him. Clara kicked some snow on the floor, she was bored so that's all she would do. Damian went into a warehouse, there he opened an iron door.