Darkness Follows: Prologue, Chapters 1-5

Rough draft, some chapter notes included

 

 

 

 

 

 

               

 

 

 

Darkness Follows

By Stephen Tysinger

 

 

 

Prologue

           

            Jonathan Shaw threw on the closest pair of jeans he could find and the one shirt on his bedroom floor that didn’t smell of the gym’s locker room.  By now he had twenty-two minutes to make it to class on time.                   

            He groaned as he stumped his big right toe on the door-frame of his bedroom.  No time to stop and soothe the pain, he had to go now.  Outside his room he quickly turned, broke into a furious sprint down the hallway, stumbled down the stairs as he called out for his parents, no reply.  They must have left early, he thought.

            He ran out the front door and got into his crimson 1969 Mustang, a gift from his dad for his 17th birthday almost a year ago. He pulled out of the driveway, barely missing the two trashcans at the end of the driveway.

            As he was moving down the street towards Stone Ridge High, he noticed that there were'nt as many people on the sidewalks today. He got the feeling that something might be wrong, but he casually shrugged it off, he had his own issues to worry about right now.               

                                     

ONE

          The bell sounded just as he passed through the doorway of the classroom.  Math was always his least favorite subject, but he managed to make average grades, just enough to keep him on the school’s soccer team.

            “Glad you could join us Mr. Shaw” said Mr. Gerrard with a tone of irritation, “Now could you please take your seat so that we may start class?”

            “Yes sir.” said Jonathan indignantly, and without making eye contact with anyone else quickly made his way to his desk. 

            Class moved on very slowly after that.  Jonathan began to drift off to sleep halfway through Mr. Gerrard’s lecture on the quadratic equation. 

            Bang!  Jonathan was quickly pulled out of his mid-class slumber by Mr. Gerrard who Jonathan assumed had slammed his Algebra book on the floor beside his desk. 

            “Mr. Shaw” said Mr. Gerrard who, with his raised eyebrow and apparent scowl on his face, was very annoyed, “ Ill be seeing you in detention this afternoon.”

            “But Mr. Gerrard, I have a soccer game tonight” 

            “Well, you should have thought about that before you fell asleep in my class.” He replied scornfully.

            “Maybe if your class wasn’t so dull and boring maybe I wouldn’t fall asleep in your class.” said Jonathan in an almost sarcastic tone, which he immediately regretted as the words left his lips.

            At this point all eyes were on Jonathan and Mr. Gerrard.  Watching, waiting to see what would happen next.  Mr. Gerrard was the first to speak next. He was annoyed before but he was angry now.

            “ Contrary to your beliefs the world does not revolve around you, Mr. Shaw.  For that remark I think I’ll add another day to your punishment.”  Said the teacher in such an angry tone that Jonathan thought Mr. Gerrard was going to have a heart attack. 

            From that moment, Jonathan knew that today was only going to get worse.

          

            By the time school had finally let out and the others students were making their way outside, Jonathan was on his way back to Mr. Gerrards classroom.  The only thing he hated more than detention was detention on a Friday.  Jonathan walked as slow as possible in an attempt to delay his punishment.   He arrived five minutes late.

            “Well, well, Mr. Shaw, I was unsure if you were going to join us.”  said Mr. Gerrard just as Jonathan walked through the doorway.

            “Sorry, I er, forgot” replied Jonathan, warily.

            “Well your tardiness just earned you another day.”  said Mr. Gerrard, who by now was apparently enjoying himself.

            “But that’s not fair”

            “NO, what isn’t fair is that you continue to disrespect me.” said Mr. Gerrard with the same scowling face he had earlier that morning,  “Now take your seat, get out your work, and I don’t want to hear another word out of you.”

            As Jonathan turned around he noticed the others, the rest of Mr. Gerrard’s victims.  There were two girls sitting in the rear of the classroom, a blonde, with caked-on makeup, chewing ferociously on gum and a brunette, both seemed oblivious to the fact they were in detention.  Jonathan smirked as he was reminded of a joke he heard earlier in the week.  

The blonde attempted to pass a note to the brunette but it was quickly intercepted by Mr. Gerrard and after a minute or so of yelling he ripped the note in two and threw it away, and made the blonde spit out her gum. The room was a little quieter now at least.

            There were three other people in the class room.  Two guys, sitting on opposite sides of the room, were scowling at each other as if ready to strike.  Jonathan assumed that they had been fighting. The other person, a girl, was sitting near the center of the room, about four desks back.  He couldn’t see her face, it was buried in her arms.  She had the blackest hair Jonathan had ever seen.

            Jonathan made his way to his desk.  He was sitting two desks up from the girl with jet-black hair.  He pulled out the homework assigned to him in his third period Biology class and began to work.  Biology was his second least favorite class. 

            Jonathan felt like a prisoner of the school now more than ever.  He couldn’t speak, couldn’t do anything except school work, and most important to him, he couldn’t play soccer.  In fact the team was probably own their way to the game now.  He couldn’t help but think that today’s game could have been THE game for him.  That this game could have earned him the scholarship he had so longed for, for so long.  Yet, here he was, surrounded by other people he didn’t know, nor would he want to, and there wasn’t a thing he could do.

            All of a sudden Jonathan heard a loud thud.  The thud came from behind him so he turned around to find the source.  The girl with the jet-black hair who was asleep behind him had fallen out of her desk.  She was appeared dumbstruck by what had just happened.  This was the first time Jonathan had seen her face, well what wasn’t covered by her sloppy misplaced hair, apparently from the way she slept with her face in her arms.  For a moment, Jonathan thought she seemed familiar, but he couldn’t place it.

            She eventually became aware of what had happened and realized that everyone was laughing at her, except Jonathan who found no humor in this situation.  She quickly jumped to her feet and sat back in her desk.  She looked up as their eyes met, they were the darkest shade of green eyes Jonathan, had ever seen.  They were old eyes, and for a second he got lost in them.  She quickly looked way.  Jonathan thought he saw a little smile before she buried her face in her arms again, but he quickly shrugged it off as a figment of his imagination and turned back around and continued working on his biology assignment. 

            By the time detention was finally over Jonathan had accomplished to doodle all over his Biology homework.  How was he expected to work when something so important to him was taken away from him in one fail swoop.  He wished he could find a way to get back at Mr. Gerrard but he quickly dismissed that thought from his head. 

           

TWO

As Jonathan made his way to the door he felt a slight touch on his shoulder.  It was the redhead girl that was sitting behind him in detention. She spoke first.

            “I wanted to thank you for not laughing earlier.” she replied.

            “er, yeh no problem, you okay?” Jonathan was caught off guard, she was much more prettier up close, and her hair was neat and completely straight.  It had a distinct shine under the hallway fluorescent lights.

            “Yeah, I’m fine thanks for asking.” she said, smiling.

            The two began making their way out of the classroom, mid-conversation.  The girl was so mysterious to Jonathan.  Here he was talking to a girl he didn’t even know yet he didn’t care.

            “You know that is the reason I was even in detention.” she said after a short pause.

            “For falling out of your seat?” he replied.

            “No, for sleeping in class.” she said  “I have had a pretty stressful week.  By the way my name is Alaina Darko.”
            “My name is ..”

            “Jonathan Shaw, I know, you play for the school’s soccer team.” she said before Jonathan could finish his introduction.

            “Yeah, that‘s right”. He said

            “I play for the girls soccer team and I have heard about you.  You’re somewhat of a soccer pro for our class.” she said.

            Jonathan started to blush.  He knew he was probably the best player on the team but he had never been praised like this before for his skills, at least not from a stranger.

            “Yep, that’s me” he said a joking, trying to hide the arrogance.

            “Didn’t you have a game tonight?” she asked

            “Yeah, I did!” he replied with a bit a resentment in his voice, “But Mr. Gerrard is so unfair.”

            “And cruel, I know,” she replied understandingly “I know how he can be.  I have had him only a month but I already dislike him and his stupid class.”
            Jonathan stopped in the hallway as he realized why she was familiar  

            “You’re in my math class, aren’t you?” he realized.

            “I was wondering when you were going to remember.” she replied.

            Jonathan was embarrassed now.  How had he forgotten this girl, she had been in his class for the past month. 

            “Sorry, I tend to drift off in math, I hate it,” he said.

            “Completely understandable, I keep to myself in my corner in the back of the room, so I never get called on,” she said still smiling. “Math is such a bore!”

            “Tell me about it.”

At this point he was trying to keep this conversation going as long as possible, he had the oddest urge to know as much about this girl as possible, in a curious, non-stalker kind of way. 

            “So you’re a new student then?” He said trying to prolong the conversation.

            “Yep, I moved here from Eastland High,” she said simply, “but fitting in at a rival school is proving to be a little hard.”

            “I can only imagine,” he said “You must feel a little out of place.”

            “Yeah, but I’m getting used to the school and the teachers.” she replied.

            Jonathan was actually enjoying this conversation.  After everything that had happened today this was calming. Sitting on the picnic tables next to the school parking lot they swapped their Mr. Gerrard horror stories, talked about the soccer teams, and about the town of Stone Ridge.  It was weird how they had so much in common, yet still he felt there was something mysterious about Alaina that he couldn’t place.

 

 He could talk like this for hours on end, but he knew that he needed to get home.  He looked at his watch.

            “Man, its already six o’clock.  We’ve been talking for over a an hour.” he said as he looked up from his watch.  He could feel the lingering disappointment.

            “Really, gosh I guess we lost track of time”, she replied simply “Do you need to go?’

            He really didn’t want to but he knew that he had to get home before his parents did, if it wasn’t too late already.

            “Yeah, I suppose so.” he told her “But maybe we can hang out after class again one day next week.”

            “I’d like that,” she said cheerfully. “I hope we can be friends”

            “Sure.  Well I‘ll see ya later.” he replied very simply and turned to leave.  He hoped she didn’t notice the huge dopey smile on his face as she said that. 

            As Jonathan was walking to his car, he came to a realization.  This day started bad, than it got worse and worse, than in just an hour it all changed.  He made a friend.  I guess today wasn’t that bad after all, he thought as he reached out to open the door of his Mustang.  Standing behind the door he stopped and looked up at the sky.  It was a beautiful night, very clear and bright, there was full moon out. 

 

He got in and started the car and as he was about to slam the door shut, he looked over near the picnic table he was just sitting at. Alaina was still standing there staring up at the sky as if in a trance. 

 

Standing there bathed in the light from the headlights of his car, she looked like a different person.  The smile she had held on her face for the last hour was gone, replaced with look of disgust. Eventually she broke out of her trance, and looked over toward Jonathan. He immediately noticed her eyes again, they seemed different now somehow.  Then suddenly she turned and ran off out of the parking lot and around the corner of the school.

 

For the rest of the day, Jonathan could think of nothing else.  Anyone else probably would have been creeped out, but Jonathan couldn’t stop thinking about her eyes, those green alluring eyes.

 

THREE (Dream, newspaper headlines, wolf sightings)

            The following day Jonathan slept till noon.  When he woke up felt like doing something productive but he really didn’t want to be alone all day.  He called some friends to see if they wanted to hang out.  He had all weekend to make up for the day before. Things were not starting out well, however, half the people he called weren’t home or had their cell phones turned off and the rest either had other plans or had to work. 

            Two hours passed.  He had already done his laundry and cleaned up his room, something he usually would have procrastinated doing.  Finally, he decided to get out of the house and go for a walk.  He  put on the clothes from  day before and slipped on his sneakers, picked up his house keys and Ipod and walked out the door. 

            As he was walking down the sidewalk of his street, he started to think about Alaina, and the day before.  How being with her made her lifted his spirit’s a little.  He couldn’t understand it but he enjoyed her company. Now, walking into town, he was beginning to feel depressed again..  He really wished that at least one of his friends had picked up the phone.  He walked into the café and sat at the nearest open table to rest.

            “Can I get you anything?” asked the lady behind the counter.

            “Small coffee.” he replied unenthusiastically.

            The lady walked back behind the counter, picked up a clean mug that was sitting upside down on the counter, and began pouring Jonathan’s coffee into it.

            Jonathan found himself staring out the window, watching the people pass by the café.  He tried to think of a way to cheer himself up.  He thought long and hard but that only gave him a headache. 

            The lady walked over to his table and set his coffee on the table.

            “That’ll be $1.10” she told him.

            Jonathan stood up and pulled his wallet out from his back pocket and pulled out  two wrinkled one dollar bills.  He handed them to the woman.

            “You can keep the change.” he told her.

            “Thank you, have a nice day” she replied.

            Jonathan didn’t hear her.  He had already gone back to staring out the window, contemplating some fun ideas.  He took a sip of his coffee, it burnt his tongue a little.  He looked around the café.  Nobody in the whole building was sitting alone, except for him.  He turned back to the window, watching the happy people of Stone Ridge go by.

            He broke from his trance, got up and threw his half drunk coffee in the trash and walked out the door. 

            He began walking down the sidewalks looking for something to do.  He went into several stores.  He went into the book store first and then the sports collectibles store second.  He found nothing in the stores he couldn’t live without.

            He finally ended up at the music store.  He entered and walked straight to the rock section of the store.  He was halfway down the aisle browsing the various titles, when he ran into someone, knocking them to the floor.  The several CD’s the person was holding slid across the tile floor.

            “Oh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t…” he stopped right there.  He had run into Alaina.

            Alaina was down on the floor retrieving her CD”s that she had dropped.  She looked up when Jonathan had stopped talking.

            “Hey!” she said excitedly “Funny bumping into you here.”

            “Are you okay, I am so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”

            “Yeh,, yeh, it takes more than that to hurt me.” she said tapping herself on the head with her fist.

            “Are you sure.” he replied, she was oddly cheerful.

            “YES, now enough with the pity, whats up!”

            “Not much“, he couldn’t have been more honest. “So, what are you doing here?”

            “Oh, I work here” she told him as she stood up. “I love it ‘cuz I get to listen to music whenever I want to.”

            “That’s cool” he said. 

            As they talked, Jonathan couldn’t help but think that this was perfect timing.  He was beginning to feel a little better now that he had someone to talk to.  He really needed this distraction.

            “Hey what time do you get off work?” he asked her.

            “Three,” she said “Why, what do you have in mind.”

            “Oh, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out.” he told her, although he didn’t reveal the reasons for asking.

            “Yeah, sounds cool” she replied. “Where do you want to meet?”

            Jonathan thought hard about this one, he hadn’t had the chance to think this all the way through yet.

            “How ‘bout we meet at the old theatre.” he asked “I hear they are showing some classic movies tonight.”
            “Awesome, I love old movies” she told him.

            “Great, the movies start at six, but I’m sure you’re gonna want to eat before we go.” he said to her, but he couldn’t help feeling like he was asking her out on a date. 

            “Definitely I havent had anything since breakfast.  So, what time?” she asked him.

            “Um, around five I guess.” he told her. 

            “Great, it’s a date.” she said

            Jonathan walked out of the music store and put his MP3 player’s ear buds in his ear and turned to his favorite band and turned up the volume.  Suddenly Jonathan was starting to feel his usual self.  This was the second time in the past thirty one hours he actually felt good.  And both times it was when he was with Alaina. 

 

FOUR (Mom and Dad are scientists at University in closest city)

            Jonathan walked into his driveway a half an hour later.  He jogged up to the front door.  He reached out to open the door but is was locked. It shouldn’t have been since his parents usually get home around two-thirty on weekends and it was almost three now.  He reached into his pocket and pulled out his key.  He found the key, unlocked the door and walked through the doorway into the foyer. 

            “Mom, Dad, anybody home” he yelled out as he walked from the foyer into the living room, but there was no answer.  “Hello, is anyone here!” he yelled out again.  As he walked towards the kitchen he realized that he had not seen his parents at all in the past two days.

            Jonathan walked into the kitchen and noticed a light blinking on the answering machine  He walked over to the machine, picked up the phone, dialed the number his family used to check messages.  It beeped twice before the message began.

            “Jonathan, if you get this message don’t talk to anyone, don’t trust anyone.” it was his father’s voice, but he was having a hard time understanding what he was listening to.  “Your mother and I are okay but we can’t come home for a while, so please don’t worry about us.  We have some business to take care of before we can return to Stone Ridge.  I’m sure you’re a little confused, but all I can tell you now is that there are people looking for us and we had to get out of town as fast as we could.  Son, please understand that your life could be in danger, so please be careful, well call back the next chance we get.  Take care, I love you son.” 

            The machine beeped a few times.  Jonathan still had the phone pressed against his ear.  His father was right, he was confused.  He dialed the number and listened to the message again, he had to be sure he heard the message right.  What kind of trouble was his parents in and why were their lives in danger?  Why was his life in danger? 

            He sat down at the kitchen table trying to figure out was his father meant.  He said they had business to take care of. What kind of business?  Why did they have to leave Stone Ridge?  And who was after them?  None of this was making any since to him.

            Jonathan began pacing back and forth in the living room, trying to figure out what to make of his situation.  He kept looking at his watch, knowing he had to meet Alaina at four, but now he wasn’t sure if he should go or not.  His dad told him not to trust anyone or to talk to anyone. 

            “That’s it” he yelled,  “I’m going to go meet Alaina, if anything happens to me it happens.”  But he still had the feeling he was making big mistake.  He ran up to his room to change, he had been wearing his clothes from the day before when he ran into Alaina at the music store.  He put on a black button-up shirt with a tan t-shirt underneath and a clean pair of jeans.  He ran back down stairs put his tennis shoes back on and walked out of the house.  As he got into his car he realized that the outcome of this decision could be an undesirable one.   He had only met Alaina yesterday, could he really trust her, especially after listening to the message his dad had left.  He sat in his car for five minutes before starting it and leaving the driveway.  He looked down at the clock on his car radio, it read 3:35.

            It seemed that nothing could take his mind off of that message.  He kept replaying it over  and over in his head trying to think of what to do.  He had already gone against his dad’s wishes just going to meet Alaina, but he couldn’t just not show up.  Possibly, going to meet Alaina would help him take his mind of the unsettling news he had just received, hopefully.  Jonathan quickly jerked as he heard a siren blaring.  He looked in his rearview mirror, there was a police car right behind him.  He had even realized he had been speeding.  He pulled over the side of the road rolled his window down and waited patiently for the policeman.

            “License and registration.” said the policeman with a gritty voice.

            “Yes officer,” he replied

            “Do you know why I pulled you over son?” he asked him

            “Yes, officer, umm, I‘m in a hurry, can’t you just give me a ticket and let me go on?” he told the officer.

            “Sorry son, you just stay here while I check these.”   The officer walked away from Jonathan’s car toward his own.  Jonathan sat impatiently in his car.  It seemed nothing was going his way lately. Between detention, that message, his parents leaving Stone Ridge, and now on top of everything else, getting pulled for speeding.  He felt there was some force holding him back, relentlessly trying to keep me from being happy, and it was succeeding.

            The officer returned to the driver’s side of Jonathan’s Mustang, advised him to keep the car under 50 miles per hour, and then it was over.  He was lucky this time.

 

FIVE

            Jonathan didn’t drive off right away.  He stayed put for several minutes, long after the officer sped off in his cruiser.  He had so many thoughts running through his head, nothing he could logically analyze, and it was driving him crazy.  Finally he started the car and drove off, now paying more attention to his driving, but it seemed nothing could keep him from thinking about his parents and Alaina.  More questions popped into his head. .  Where are they?  Who is after them?   Are they still alive?  Are they going to come after me next? 

            He immediately wished he hadn’t thought that last question.  The thought sent shivers over his whole body.  It seemed that with every minute that ticked by, Jonathan was getting  deeper into something he wouldn’t be able to get himself out of, that he had no choice in the mater and no matter what he did things just kept getting worse and worse.  

 

            Twenty minutes later Jonathan was in town.  He found a parking spot near the entrance of the theatre and turned the car off and with keys in hand got out of the car.  He leaned up against the driver’s side door, quickly glancing at his watch, he was thirty minutes early.  He got back into the drivers seat leaving the door open.  He began running through the many random thoughts in his head.  Trying to find an answer to any of the  questions in his head, but with no avail. 

            He turned the car radio on, turning the volume up as loud as his ears could stand, shut the car door and reclined his seat back.  He needed some distraction before he met Alaina.  He really didn’t want to her to think anything was wrong, and even more, he really didn’t want to deal with any questions she may have. 

 

SIX

 

 

NOTES:

Parents working on project with wolves,

 

Alaina is natural werewolf, older than she looks

Author's Note

Keep in mind I started this almost 7 years ago in High School, and I had to stop working on it when I went to college, so I know that I need to correct grammar, form, and probably style/structure. But I welcome good/constructive criticism and reviews for the chapters I have finished. I know that things need to be changed to fix this more for 2012-future