The Dark Place (#FrightFest2016 Gold Winner)

The Dark Place - Chapter Forty-Six

Chapter Forty-Six

1

All around Tamicka was peaceful, dark and empty. Everything that had happened in the barn was erased from her memory. There was no longer anything outside the comfort of the darkness. No thoughts, no senses, nothing.

2

Annie watched the girl who walked far ahead of her knowing that it was only a matter of time before she had total control of Tamicka's shell, until she could be totally alive again. That girl up ahead was the only thing that stood in her way.

She had been so close last time but it had been too much of a shock. After centuries of drifting in the nothingness of limbo to being dragged up into the vivid sensation of life was so unexpected. It had all happened too quickly, she hadn't been ready. This time everything was under her control and she was in no hurry. She had waited hundreds of years, an hour or two longer to get things right would be time well spent.

It was a good feeling, being so close to her goal and now that Tamicka had completely given up the fight everything would be easy.

3

"Tamicka!"

Tamicka heard the shadow of a whisper from miles away. She didn't want listen. Listening would make her go back toward the light and that was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Tamicka, you have to fight, you have work against her."

She tried to push the voice away, to lose herself further inside the darkness.

"I want to help you but I don't have long. She knows that I'm here."

The voice was closer and much clearer. The more Tamicka tried to blank it out the stronger it became.

4

There was something wrong, Annie could sense it. There was someone else involved, someone even stronger than the woman who had tried to interfere earlier. She would either be forced to draw this whole thing to a close faster than she wanted to or she would have to deal with what was going on inside before she made her move. One way or another she had come too far to fail a second time.

5

Go away! Tamicka knew that just by acknowledging the voice she was slipping towards the murky grey that would lead her back to light.

"I can't go away. Too many people have died tonight."

The image of the man with the knife in his head came back to her. She tried to shut it out but she could not.

"You have to help me to help you."

I don't want to; I just want to stay here.

Her thoughts sounded desperate. She did not want to leave the dark. There was too much pain in the light. Her mother was dead and her father blamed her for it. She deserved that dark place after being the cause of so much unhappiness.

"Your father doesn't blame you for your mother's death," replied the voice. "What little girl wouldn't want her mother back home for Christmas? That is the only thing that you are guilty of and you have punished yourself for it far too long."

Tamicka remembered the pestering phone calls she had made to her mother's hotel room practically begging her to come back home, not giving up until she as good as forced her to promise that she would be home for Christmas.

"You didn't know how dangerous the roads were going to be," the voice reacted again to the little girl's thoughts. "She would most probably have tried to get back even if you hadn't been so insistent about it."

Tamicka knew that even if it was true, even if she could forgive herself her father never would. He had hardly looked at her since she had since the crash. In fact it was only when the one who now controlled her had intervened that things between them had been anything near how they used to be.

"He's not like that because he hates you or blames you for what happened that night. Far from it, he loves every bit of you. Why else would he have brought you all this way with him?" The voice became more focused. It was the voice of the girl who had tried to warn her, always insistent that she should not trust HER. "It only pains him to look at you because you remind him so much of your mother. Everything that has gone wrong between you has only happened since your arrival in Eastlake.

Tamicka remembered their first day at Munford House. I was true. He had been cold toward her but he had never come close to hitting her until that moment. Even back then the one in control had put the wheels of her plan in motion and Tamicka had fallen right into the centre of her trap.

6

Annie watched the girl walk up to the house with the darkened windows and then look around as if to check that she was not being followed. For a moment her eyes seemed to settle on Annie's new form but only for the slightest second. The girl turned the key in the lock and closed the door behind her.

Annie knew that she had to make her move soon. Tamicka was getting stronger again, she could feel it. She had to finish this before Tamicka regained enough strength to stop her.

Author's Note

If you liked this chapter please give it a vote. It's easy to do, you only have to press on the star and that's all there is to it. Your vote will help push The Dark Place up the charts where it will make it easier for people to find and read. Thank you very much. :o)