Encountering Darkness: The Great Pursuit (Book One)

Chapter Six

Pete was walking around his house staring at the floor. There was this horrible musty aroma that surrounded him throughout the whole house.

As he thought about it, the odor was much worse than before. Like the last times, the smell was so bad it made him sick and stagger. He reached a room where it was dark, and without knowing it, he was in the kitchen.

The kitchen had, by far, the worst of the scent. The smell not only surround him, but engulfed and reached deep inside him. He fell to the floor and laid there. Pete wanted to yell, but his insides wouldn't let him.

After a few moments, he stood up, but he realized there was something else in the room.

Startled, he looked around for what he feared and saw something in the corner. It was the thing he noticed before in white! It looked like its clothing was floating off the ground; the red stains around its neck was glowing deep red. He looked into the eyes of the thing, but could only see blackness like before.

Although this thing was creeping towards him and growling, Pete was frozen in his place, not being able to move a muscle. Continuing to crept closer, Pete, who was sweating profusely, would have yelled if possible.

As the creature drew near, at first, it did nothing. Then it breathed a horrible stink on him, and soon the creature laughed at him, first soft, and then loud. The spit of the animal came upon the face and mouth of Pete and burned deep into his eyes and skin. It was at this moment he could turn away and run out of the kitchen. The thing was still laughing like before, but this time the sound was not only coming from the kitchen, it seemed to come from everywhere.

Pete's face was burning and he ran to the couch where he was sleeping to wake himself up. He saw himself sleeping, but when he tried to speak to wake himself up, his mouth wouldn't open. In a panic he touched his own face, but couldn't find his mouth. Instead he found what seemed like blisters lining his mouth. Touching one, it popped and the pus ran down his face. Although, when he looked at his hands, he caught sight of blood all over them. Startled, he ripped his mouth open in confusion.

***

Pete awoke screaming and checked himself for any damage that may have come upon him. He found nothing wrong and calmed himself down by breathing slowly. He got up to check the time and it stated 6 p.m. It surprised him that he slept for so long, but he got up to make sure he wouldn't go back to sleep.

As he was moving around his house, he took a deep breath to determine if the air smelled strange. Pete was thankful that the air seemed fine to him, so he relaxed.

He moved to the table to get a pen and paper and wrote out what he would say the next day. The day for his speech at the festival was arriving. He crafted, "Ladies and gentleman, you know where I stand, I am not here to become friends with any of you, you know full well. I hope you understand why I must press so hard for this action, as I am here for the better of my constituency. You know of my track record; I have nothing to hide. I ask that you look into your heart to change your course of action because I have a better one. I understand you are tired of me coming before you every year, but I feel that nothing would be accomplished if I didn't push you. Remember in the past when I would push for things and you wouldn't get it? I still continued to drive forward, not for me, but for the betterment of the town. This is all I have to say, but I ask that you would consider strongly what I am proposing."

After he wrote this all down, and was satisfied, he left his speech there on the table and proceeded to bed.