Running With the Devil (SCP Fanfic)

Chapter 26: Invisible Chains

The lights of the dashboard gleamed in Jame's eyes as he drove. Malo had her head resting against the cold glass of the passenger door. The silent interior became even quieter as the car slowly braked to a halt at a red light.

The red light reflected off the hood of the glossy black car and lit his hands red against the wheel. The light against his hands reminded him of the guilt he was carrying. The blood was on his hands for releasing the Fowler. It saddened him to know he was the last living person in his family, and he had failed at his responsibility that so many before him had succeeded in.

One of the dreams he had came to mind, the one with the knight. It was when he first learned about his family and how to keep the Fowler sealed away.

"That was how it started," James thought, "That knight risked it all and sealed away a demon inside him just for me to let that all go to waste."

The thought of the knight still lingered in his mind. He remembered that he never saw how the Fowler was sealed, just that he blinked and it was over. A strange sword was carried by the knight, one made of what appeared to be obsidian or another solid black glass material. It was odd. The knight carried the book James now carried, but where was that strange sword?

"That must be what sealed the Fowler away," he spoke in his mind again, "If my Grandpa had this book, what's to say he doesn't have that sword. I could make it right," an idea began forming in his head.

"Hey Malo," he spoke as he drove forward, the light dousing them in green light.

"Yeah?" She answered, her held still resting against the glass.

"We're going to make one last stop at my Grandpa's house."

"Why's that?"

"I need to look for something there."

"Ok," is all she said. She was deep in thought. Ever since the train, James had been a little sad. Whenever she looked to his face in the downtime when they weren't talking, it looked solemn, like right now. Whatever he was thinking about was making him sad, and it made her upset that he wouldn't tell her what it was.

"It's too quiet in here," Malo said, tired of listening to her own thoughts.

"How about some music?" Said James before pressing a button on the radio between them.

The radio crackled to life, "Another Halloween gone and done, up next is Thanksgiving -" James turned the knob on the radio, cutting off whoever was speaking.

He landed on another channel he knew, and luckily, it seemed this one was going to play some music.

"For anyone who's up this late," the radio personality warbled in and out, "this one's for you!" The man finished speaking in his staticy radio voice.

An 80's rock band started playing, and they listened along as it filled the interior of the car. Malo gazed out at the darkness on the side of the road. James slowed down and drove up the path they had taken before to get to his grandfather's house.

He drove the car slow up the old roads and into the wooded hills. The darkness was almost impenetrable. Even the headlights could only reach so far in before being lost themselves. It was like they were in the interior of a boat at sea, the black waters hiding unknown creatures inside and a thick fog sealing them off from the sky and boxing them in even further. The darkness was almost threatening, but the company shared by the two of them in the claustrophobic space, and the sealed doors made the interior feel safe and far enough away from the eerie night.

The tires ground to a halt as the dirt and gravel settled underneath them. In the darkness ahead was the large wooden house barely visible and only peeking out a little from the night.