Afraid of the Dark

Chapter Twenty-Six

"Well, that's that then," Mark's imposter said cheerfully, breaking the handshake with a low chuckle as he glanced to his side to check the youngest American man's reaction to the situation. He seemed rather uncomfortable, but didn't say a word. Neither did the eldest of the group as he retracted his hand slowly, eyeing Dark with caution as if he expected that any moment the horrific fear which both Ethan and him and felt was going to build inside him once more, thanks to the fact he had touched him. However, true to the entity's word, that did not happen. With a nod of satisfaction, Dark walked away.

"Where are you going?" Tyler questioned.

"No point in any delay, is there? You've been saying all this time that we need a camera. Well, there's one in the hallway, isn't there? I suppose we must have completed all of the requirements to receive it. Now, what are we supposed to do with it?"

"You need to make it flash at walls until we find the correct trail to follow. It'll lead us to a door which can get us into the outside section," Ethan explained as he felt Tyler grab onto his wrist and begin to walk him around the house. The realisation that he had been letting Dark lead him around this place for what felt like an hour deeply troubled him. But there wasn't anything which he could do about that now, except be thankful that it was Tyler and not Dark who was helping him now.

'Mark' didn't stroll too far, simply approaching the start of a corridor which led to different areas in the basement, poking his head around the corner to view an old polaroid camera periodically flashing on the floor. Looking in the direction which became illuminated by bright light, he saw what looked like child's drawings scrawled across them. Interestingly, you could only see the drawings when the flash appeared, meaning that they were most likely made with some sort of semi-invisible ink instead of wax crayons. Dark picked up the camera, the flash ceasing as soon as he did so, and began to turn it around in his hands curiously. As Tyler and Ethan walked up to him, he held up the simple device as if to confirm that yes, they had found a camera.

"We will find the correct door shortly. First, we are going to make the injections. Tyler, you said that you found needles on the upper floor, yes?" Tyler nodded. "Let's head upstairs then. Try not to make too much noise, I'd rather not have another run in with him again; not until we are ready."

"Jeeze, someone's bossy..." Ethan muttered with annoyance.

"My 'bossiness' is what's going to keep us alive, so I'd stop complaining if I were you," Dark said with equal annoyance. Ethan fell silent, unsure as to how he had been heard while he had spoken so quietly. The group of three carefully traversed through the house, confusing Tyler as they walked up a set of stairs which he thought led to a locked door. His realisation that he could have simply escaped up these steps earlier was a little shocking, and very infuriating considering he could have skipped the entire ordeal with nearly freezing and/or suffocating, along with Dark's illusions. Nevertheless, they emerged at the ground floor, inside of the kitchen, holding their breaths as they smelt the burning and melting plastic handles from the knives which had been shoved into the oven. Hopefully they wouldn't start a fire.

Cautiously looking around as they made their way into the lobby to ensure that they would not run into any unwanted assailants, the three American men quickly made their way up to the upper floor and entered the bathroom. "Wow, you weren't lying when you said that there was a lot of blood," Dark mused as he glanced towards the now congealing puddle of red that had settled across the tiles. Tyler couldn't bring himself to say anything. Now that he knew exactly how that much blood had been lost, he couldn't help but feel distraught that he had not been there for Mark when he had needed it the most. The eldest man looked towards Dark with a sense of loss, searching his red and blue eyes for any trace of the man that he knew lay behind them. But there was nothing. In a strange sense, it was like looking into Ethan's eyes; they seemed dead, even though you knew that their owner was well and truly alive. He's not gone, Tyler reminded himself, looking away before Dark realised what he was doing. He's still in there. Deep down, he's still Mark. And deep down, Seán's still there too. You'll get them back. Both of them.