Darkness | ~Danny Gonzalez~

Chapter Twelve

Drew blinked awake to find his face pressed against the car window. The glass was all fogged up from his breath, and the right side of his face was numb.

He sat up straight, squinting at the sunlight that directly hit him through the windshield, and craned his neck back in attempt to uncramp it.

He felt groggy. And at the moment, his memory was too blurry to recall why.

The clock on the car radio read 3:39 PM. He had no recollection of what had happened in the previous hours of the day.

Did he fall asleep while Amanda was at the wheel?

No, wait... She was gone.

Four weeks, and he was still getting used to her being gone.

Well, if it wasn't Amanda, then who was it that drove him? And why weren't they in the car with him?... Come to think of it, whose car was this? It wasn't his.

He looked at his surroundings. Wherever the car was parked, it looked familiar. He'd definitely seen this parking lot before.

Slowly but surely, memories came flowing back to him, one by one. Some were normal memories, like going to the airport, stopping at Danny's place, dropping off Bim Bim. That cleared up some of the questions he had.

But other memories seemed too crazy to be real. Finding a suspicious cave in the middle of a public hiking trail? Hypnotizing Danny? Poisoning PewDiePie? Trying to conquer the world? That stuff couldn't possibly have happened.

Besides. Ancient relics with mystic powers... Evil forces that could bend your will... That stuff didn't exist outside of movies. It couldn't be real.

But on the other hand, it felt too vivid to be a dream.

He shivered, the cold air blasting at him through the vents leaving goosebumps on his arms. He made an effort to turn the air down, but his attempts to extend his arm were cut short, as he discovered his hands were bound behind his back.

Slowly, his fears began to confirm themselves.

It all happened.

All his memories were very real.

Whatever Danny did, he succeeded in getting Dark Drew under control. But how? For so long, Drew was buried under the evil that took over him. There was almost no hope of breaking free. What could've caused that spell to suddenly vanish without a hitch?

Drew gasped as he came to the realization. The orb.

He looked out the window again and suddenly knew exactly where he was. It was that hiking trail. He was back in California.

Danny must've gone into the cave and destroyed the orb.

And considering how powerful the orb was the first time around, there was no knowing what it could do to someone who tried to halt its magic. Danny could be in serious danger.

Drew tugged at his wrists, but the tape wouldn't budge. Frustrated, he navigated his hands toward the button to release his seat belt, then rotated his body so he could use his hands to unlatch the door. Grabbing at things that weren't in his line of sight proved to be harder than he expected, but eventually he was able to get a decent grip on the handle.

As the door swung open behind him, he barely caught himself before he crashed backwards onto the pavement.

With a bit of a struggle to keep his balance, he sped onto the trail leading to the cave, luckily recalling the steps he took last time. Dust and gravel flew behind him as his feet rapidly pounded against the ground.

"Danny!" he called. He picked up his pace, hoping he wasn't too late.

As soon as he encountered the cave, he stumbled in. And the sight before him as he entered was horrific.