TIME: Beginning of the year SETTING: Wicked's Rest, Gatlin Fields, Robertson Family Homestead WARNINGS: Implied murder SUMMARY: A tall, dark, and mysterious stranger visits a man involved with the 'mining accident'. They want answers.
Midnight.
Darkness engulfed corridor after corridor. The house wasn’t large by any means, but it was comfortable. Windows littered each floor, although the curtains were drawn to keep privacy in - they also kept moonlight from getting in. Those living within its walls were fast asleep. From what was gathered, there were four of them, but the head of the household was the target.
The night after that shocking accident in the mines was a quiet one. Sure, the cleanup was ongoing but it was a wonder the homeowner was able to rest easy that night. While they weren’t physically down with the rest of the bumbling crew, it seemed they were partly responsible for it to begin with. They managed to escape such a grizzly demise, one that so perfectly fit the crime. They and the rest of them were responsible for the death that started to pour from the very earth itself. The death that caused absolute ruin to the kingdom beneath.
Like the rest of the house, the master bedroom was silent. Its main door opened freely, revealing the pitch dark hallway beyond. A heaviness settled into the air which alerted the family dog. Bark after bark came to no avail, even as the creature stepped out from the shadows. It looked like any other man, though tall and thin and wore a dark suit upon its body. Black, shoulder length hair was tied back with a black, silk ribbon. Atop its long, straight nose sat a pair of heavily tinted sunglasses.
Well, the humans were certainly awake now.
Amidst the protests and gasps, the creature made no expression, but procured from within its jacket pocket a dirty, crumpled piece of yellowed paper that looked as if it’d been trampled. An order slip relating to the last job in the mines, the most recent death wish, with his name on it. It hadn’t been difficult to locate such a man or to get into his house.
It wouldn’t be difficult to kill him, either.
“Henry.. Robertson,” came the rich voice. It made no move towards the man and wife, though it continued to hold out the paper at arms’ length.
“Y-yeah? What the fuck do you want? How the hell did you get in my home?,” came the questions. They were all the same, weren’t they? Humans. They thought they owned everything, that they were the top predators. They had no idea that the darkness was there first, before even the creation of life on the planet itself. The shadows were primordial and they would be eternal.
Long fingers tensed around the piece of paper slightly but it still made no move. The couple had moved to one side, keeping the mattress between them and the intruder. Smart in certain situations, useless in this one.
“What happened in the mines?” The question fell elongated from the creature’s lips; it sounded like a whisper but it fell heavily onto the wood flooring. “Do you know what is down there?” It asked stiffly before it stole a step forward. “Did you know what they would find? What you would take from me?” The voice, though even in volume, seemed to fill the entire bedroom.
The man sputtered in defense as his woman clung to his side. “N-no! No I don’t! They didn’t tell us a damn thing. You need to leave before I call the fucking cops!” His protests fell upon unbothered ears. It was completely possible that this buffoon didn’t have any idea as to what was down there or what would befall his men. It was completely possible that he was merely following orders. But those caverns and stretches of tunnel that they called home? Gone. They were all gone. Granted they were held captive for the last few decades until the tragic demise — but that wasn’t the point. Everything below the earth was theirs. It belonged to them.
“I didn’t know what would happen!”
White teeth suddenly showed through the pale darkness.
“Is that right, children? Did your father truly not know?” The creature didn’t need to turn around to notice that both children were now awake and in the bedroom doorway, looking on with horror in their wide eyes.
“Leave them alone! Don’t you dare touch them!” The overlapping cries from both parents and the canine were a bit too much - and then came the squeak from a smaller voice. “He didn’t know! Honest!”
The creature gave the younger humans an inquisitive look over its shoulder before it turned back to the adults in the room. Hidden behind its sunglasses sat the horror. Its brilliantly glowing eyes could procure madness in any living creature beyond its own ilk. It was a solid defense mechanism to scare those from the depths of its cave, or even to lure them in, but for now it would help exact revenge.
It lifted a free hand and pinched a corner of its glasses. “Useless, then.. Pity.” The room was then bathed in an eerie light as the heavily tinted sunglasses were pulled away completely from its long, straight nose.
