This is my entry for the bookmark contest. I really enjoyed writing it.

 

DARKNESS RETURNS

 

   Wife and kids are gone for the weekend. They are staying at my mother's house. I'd have love to gone, but the deadline for this book is soon and I have to finish. A weekend away would have been good. In fact, it would have been heaven. But, no rest for a writer I suppose.
   My newest book Darkness Returns is set to release at the end of the year. My fans have been waiting for this since I wrote Darkness 9 years ago. I can't say I was eager to write this book. In fact I put it off for so long - and the only reason I'm writing it is because there is such a demand for it.
   I sit at my desk, type, type, typing away at the computer key board. Finishing up the last chapter of this dreadful book. I'll be glad to be done and move on to writing other stories. After Darkness I never wanted to write another story like it.
   It reminded me too much of my childhood home, and I suppose that's why I wrote it to begin with. Sometimes true stories make the best stories. My readers, however, think it is only fiction. Oh, if they only knew! Darkness was a bestseller and I'm grateful for the fact I'll never have to work again. But, sometimes I think it wasn't worth it....wasn't worth this silent fear that I have....
   It's silly, but I can't help it. I have a fear of the dark and it all started with my childhood home. My parents never believed me. But, that place...that house....something was there and it wasn't exactly Casper The Friendly Ghost. I'm not even sure if it was the ghost of a human. I'm not sure if it was a ghost at all. Maybe it was some type of creature. I don't know, I'd never really seen it as whatever it was stayed in the shadows.
   But, I still can remember everything. It started when I was around 4, or 5. I kept hearing my name being called when I was in bed at night.
   "Timmy, little Timmy," it had said.
   I never answered. I was too afraid. Then I could see its shadow in my room. It was harmless enough at first. It would just sneak around my room and call to me. I was scared to death, of course - but I would eventually fall sleep. The year I turned 11 years old, the ghost, creature, whatever, began to do more. It came closer to my bed every night and I started to cover my head at night. I remember begging my parents to let me leave the light on. They told me no and that my silly fears had to stop.
   Eventually at night I didn't sleep. Whenever I would sleep I woke up with scratches and I was even lifted into the air a few times. My parents would run in as soon as I would scream and I'd be put down on my bed by the time they arrived at my bedroom door. And the scratches...They thought I was hurting myself, for some reason. I was pushed down the stairs once, or twice too. I stopped sleeping at night and would sleep in school - believe it, or not, but I still managed to get good grades - and I slept at my friend's house a lot.
   I left home at 18 for college and promised to never set foot in that house again. I wouldn't have to because shortly after my leaving, my parents sold the house and moved.
   While in college, I met my wife and it was truly love at first sight - she is amazing. We've struggled so much and when my book Darkness hit it big, I felt like all the struggling had finally paid off. We got this amazing house about 9 years ago. Now we have two beautiful children. I had lived fearless for many years until I began writing Darkness and those same fears and feelings from my childhood returned. After finishing and it was released those feelings faded away again.
   With Darkness Returns it's all come back. But, the feelings are stronger this time, more urgent and I will never sit in the dark anymore. In my writing room I have all the lights on and there is no dark spot in this room. None that I can see anyway. I just need to stay calm and write this chapter - I'm almost finished.
   Typing away and only two more pages left. As much as I'm not fond of writing this, I can say the ending will be a shocker to my fans. They will never guess it will end this way - especially with how the first book went.
   Click-click-click....
   And done! Sweet relief! My agent will be happy to know I've finished. But, I'll wait until the morning to call. It's after 1 AM already and I'm sure he is asleep.
   I sit back in my chair and take a drink of whiskey. It tastes so good going down. Maybe since I've finished earlier than expected I will drive up my mother's house tomorrow and surprise them all! I think that would be good. For now though I want to rest.

*********

   I awoke at 3:30 AM to my writing room door being knocked on repeatedly. I didn't answer and didn't dare move. I'm the only one here and so who would be in my home at my writing room door? I reached for the phone to dial 911, but there was nothing on the line, no dial tone, or any type of sound. It's funny, I didn't hear rain, thunder, or see any lightning. The power couldn't have been knocked out.
   The knocking continues and whoever is doing it never seems to tire. After a moment the knocking ceased and I relaxed a little. My relief was short-lived when something, or someone, slammed into my door.
   "You can't stay in there forever, little Timmy," a malice voice spoke.
   A cackle of laughter rang through the halls and the lights in my writing room all went out. I panicked and shot out of my chair, trying each and every light to turn them on again. It was no use. No use at all! The light bulbs had been blown out, and I had nowhere to run. On the other side of the door sat that creature.
   The same one from my childhood.
   I grabbed the whiskey bottle and threw it at the door with all of my strength. I fell back in my chair, suddenly weak and breathing heavy.
   "What do you want?" I screamed. "This is my home! You have no right to be here!"
   Another cackle of laughter came as the door creaked open. "Oh, Timmy. Don't you know?"
   "Know?! Know what?!"
   "Oh," the voice sounded serious. "I see you truly don't know. This home of yours that you love so dearly...You lived here as a child, don't you remember? Probably not. You've tried to block it all out. Once your family left, it was bought and completely remodeled. But, I stayed. Waiting for you, little Timmy. I always knew you would come back. I was weakened for a while, but I built up my strength to make my return for you."

   "This....this can't be true...How? I don't understand," I said to the creature.
   There was nothing, but silence. I saw a light on the floor and looked up, but it was only the light from my computer screen. The last page of my story was there and I read the ending, realizing what I wrote.
   There Victor sat, unable to believe what the creature revealed. His home, the one he shared with his wife, was the one he ran from and promised to never come back to. This was the home that tortured and scarred him, and somehow without knowing he managed to come back.
   The night Victor left a voice said "You'll be back!" Victor laughed at time, but he wasn't laughing now. The darkness had returned, but instead Victor had returned to it. Victor froze as the creature surrounded him and pulled him into the darkness.
   I realized that all this time I have been writing my own story and didn't even know it. Now my childhood fear had come back, or rather I came back to it. The creature cackled and surrounded me. It pulled me out of my writing room and down the stairs and after that I don't know where. I didn't scream, or beg it to stop. I let it take me into the darkness.

**********

   Tim's wife came back to find him missing. All that was found was a broken whiskey bottle and his computer still on. The police searched for weeks, but found no clues as to where Tim had gone. His wife had sent his agent the book he had been working on. She knew that's what he'd want.
   Later that year Darkness Returns became a bestseller, in fact it sold even better than the original. Tim's wife and kids eventually moved. They couldn't stand being in the house because it reminded them so much of him. It wasn't just that though. Strange things began to happen a few weeks after Tim's disappearance. The family's names were being whispered and on the walls they would find the words "I am still here" written. Tim's wife told no one of these incidents.
   The day they left for their new home, his wife and kids both could swear they heard a man crying. They tried to pay it no mind and finish loading the moving truck. Until this day Tim's wife still thinks of that house and wonders what happened to her husband. If only she made him come with them that weekend...Maybe he would still be here.