A Nameless Dark

Chapter 1

Samuel had murder in his footsteps.

His boots hammered the broken trailer-park road, beating its lifeless bones. I forced my shorter legs to match his stride. At eighteen, Samuel was just one year older than me, but he'd inherited our father's height and broad shouldered strength, while I remained small and lean, more like our mother. Samuel's current warpath was not a rare occurrence. He often favored brute force to bulldoze his way through the world, leaving me to clean up after him. Our Father had always said that between strength of arm and strength of mind, the latter was more important. I only hoped that this time, my mind would be quick enough to prevent my brother from creating a mess I couldn't fix.

    "Samuel, wait." My voice shook in a half whisper. "You can't do this, man!"

    "Watch me."

    He stalked ahead, shouldering through the November chill as it clung to our clothing and showed our breath.

    "Come on! Lara's my sister too. I want this guy dead as much as you do, but you know what this will do to us."

    "Don't care."

    The sound of our voices disappeared into the vacant night, seeking distance from the coming confrontation. The moon and stars hid themselves as well. Stale lamplight filtered through the windows of the sagging mobile homes around us, offering only a hint of the road's cracked surface. Samuel didn't seem to mind the dark. His feet never faltered as he charged ahead to cause our family's doom.

    I hunched my shoulders, burying my chin deeper in my dark blue hoodie and folding my arms against the chill. The cold never was my friend. I'd spent my entire life in the Northern Midwest, shivering my way through brutal winters. Samuel, like our Father, had always seemed right at home in the cold, the two of them happy to traipse off into the wilderness, hunting some poor creature or climbing some natural landmark that may just as well have been left alone. I, on the other hand, have always preferred a cozy seat next to a warm fire, curled up with a good book and a hot drink. The fact that I was out in the cold at all was a good indicator of the seriousness of our predicament.

    My brother had to be stopped.

    "We should just go to the police," I tried, "let them handle it. I'm sure Trent already has a record. If we just let the authorities do their job —"

    "There are higher authorities than the police, Jonas. Trent is not getting off with a slap on the wrist from a juvenile court. Not after what he did to our sister."

    "Okay, but if Dad were here —"

    "Dad's not here!"

    His cool blue eyes lit up with a brutal fury, burning behind the dark, almost black hair that hung in thin waves from his head. He faced me, large hands gripping my shoulders. I'd gotten him to stop, but now his attention drilled into me.

     I liked it better when he was pointed at Trent.

    "Dad would say the safety of our family comes first." I worked to keep the panic out of my voice. "We fight together, we run together —"

    "We survive together." Samuel finished. "I know. You want to talk to me about safety? How safe was Lara when that animal was beating her with fists?"

    I saw it again in that part of my mind where horrors hide: Lara, bloodied and ashamed, limping through the front door. Anger rose from my gut. My head filled with clouds of hate and my hands clenched into fists at my sides.

    The asphalt vibrated beneath my feet, dirt and pebbles bouncing against my shoes. The air around us crackled with power as it rose from within me and rushed from my body in time with my pounding heartbeat.