Darkness

The earth was going mad, that was the only way to explain what was going on in the world, or rather in Lake Grimstone. All that people talked about lately were the murders of powered people and while Daniel of course was worried, but he didn’t want his life to turn in to some sort of horror movie. Luckily he had someone in his life that helped him remember that life was still good.

Daniel walked up behind Elizabeth with a smile on his face until he heard the words that left her lips. His arms wrapped around her and he pressed a soft kiss on her forehead. “You would think that.” He said softly. “But it will all be fine, we just have to be extra careful when we go out.” The last thing that Daniel wanted was for this to cause them to just stop living.

Daniel didn’t seem to be too worried about the recent murders but she wondered if they should be. One of them could easily be targeted. Especially if it’s true, where the person was killing powered people. “So we’re still going out?” She asked him, a little surprised. She didn’t want to freeze their life because of this, but she had also assumed they wouldn’t really be going out during the evening times. 

“I guess I could just cause a little earthquake if someone tries to come at us.” She chuckled nervously and then shrugged her shoulders. Going out together was better than going alone. That much she knew. “And you could easily teleport us somewhere else.” She said with a smile as she leaned into him. She loved when he used his power around her. “So where are we going tonight then?” She glanced up at him with a smile.

“I was thinking that we could go have a nice dinner and then maybe a bar or we can go to dinner and then the movies. Whatever my love wants is okay with me.” Daniel placed his hands on her hips and pulled her towards him. “Or should we just stay in?” He asked with a devilish smirk that grew to a grin before he pressed his lips against hers.

The news had spread like wild fire. Another death. How many had there been already? Honestly, Elizabeth had lost count. She tried not to pay attention to what the news was saying, but she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t a little frightened by the person that was murdering powered people. Anyone could be next. 

Elizabeth held the mug in her hands as she stared out the window to her house. Tea always seemed to calm her down. At least, she had thought so before that evening. She glanced over her shoulder, noticing a familiar face behind her. The worried creases in her face relaxed when she saw her boyfriend, Daniel, appear. “It happened again.” She announced to him. “You’d think that with all the power we had, that we’d be able to figure out who’s doing this.” 

Daniel walked up behind Elizabeth with a smile on his face until he heard the words that left her lips. His arms wrapped around her and he pressed a soft kiss on her forehead. “You would think that.” He said softly. “But it will all be fine, we just have to be extra careful when we go out.” The last thing that Daniel wanted was for this to cause them to just stop living.

Daniel looked up at the lights and shook his head before replying to the blonde. “Only if someone is messing with them with their powers and that someone would usually be me.” He said with a shrug knowing full well that this had not been his doing. Daniel tried not to laugh at her reaction to her coffee but he couldn’t help it, it was cute. That was until a buzzing sound followed by a loud pop was heard. Out of instincts and with everything that had occurred in the last months, Daniel pulled the girl towards him and shielded her with his body. His ears were ringing and flashbacks of the take over flashed before him which caused the lights to flicker and the shadows around them to move as if shielding them from any possible attack. After a few seconds he came to and pulled away slowly. “Are you okay?”

Powers, right….Dahlia told herself. It had only been a few years now that the younger sister really understood what “powers” others had been referring to in the outside world that people actually had them. Personally, Dahlia would have preferred to stay in the dark about it all. “Really? And what power mig-” Dahlia had been caught off guard from Daniel’s actions and gave a small yell in confusion and fear. Shutting her eyes tightly, nervousness and fear began to creep in but the woman was more curious to know what was going on. Keeping her head down but close to Daniel’s chest, she looked up and around them suddenly seeing dark clouds, shadows more like, surround them and people scrambling under the ables. Pulling away also, Dahlia frowned confused and even more scared as people began to mumble something about their sight. “I can’t see!” “Help!” “Can anyone see anything?” All this made Dahlia panic even further and caused her hands to tremble. The poor sister had no idea her own emotions were causing this bright light to skew people’s eyesight. “What the hell was going on!” Turning to face Daniel again, she stuttered, “C-c-can you see?”

“N-no, can you? It’s all so bright.” He said as he called for more shadows.

It didn’t take much to see that Rosalie was not fine. Daniel shook his head and sat down next to the girl. “You’re not fine so please don’t pretend to be.” He would had to be been blind not to see just how bad her cough really was. His gaze went to her sleeve that was now covered in blood and all Danny could think about doing at that moment was helping her feel better. He placed his hand on her back and began to move it in a soothing circular motion. “Please tell me what’s wrong. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s going on. Do I need to get you to the hospital?” He asked. already looking around to see what shadows to take to teleport them to the hospital. 

Rosalie didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t exactly talk in full sentences but she also didn’t want to go to the hospital quite yet. “I-I just need space from her okay….” Another cough came up and this time a stronger one that made her bend forward and groan in pain. Suddenly Rosalie heard a familiar voice and understood exactly why her coughs were growing stronger. “Rosalie! Where are you dear? Please, can we talk about this?” Kathy semi-yelled looking side to side for her daughter and no doubt had her little sister following behind somewhere near. “Shit!” Rosalie yelled and quickly got up, not even feeling Daniel’s hand drop. “I need to keep moving.” She managed to say in-between her coughs and without a second thought shifted into her shadow form and traveled as far as she could to her go-to-spot in Lake Grimstone, The Grotto. Once she was there, Rosalie shifted back and stayed on all fours trying to catch her breath.

In the few seconds that it took Daniel to look up at who was calling out for Rosalie the shadow manipulator disappeared. “Damn it.” He muttered and looked around to try to see where the woman might have disappeared to. It took him a few seconds to realize where she would have gone.

Traveling through the shadows he finally arrived at the grotto and came up to a scene that he was not expecting. “Okay, I don’t care what yo--” And that’s when it hit him like a ton of bricks, a conversation that Daniel and Rosalie had a while ago. “Rosalie, Rose... is this how you get when... shit. Rosalie what can I do to help you?” He made the place darker hoping that somehow that would help her.

A coffee sounded good, he was going to need a lot of caffeine if he wanted to get through this week. It wasn’t that he had family to show around, but there were a lot of visitors and that wasn’t always a good thing. The darkness manipulator stood waiting for his coffee when a young blonde girl walked past him. Daniel felt what he could only describe as a surge of electricity flow through him when she did. “Like wha-” his words were cut short when the lights flickered and he wondered if he had done it, he had not. “I’m Daniel Black, a resident.” He said to the girl. 

Dahlia turned and looked at the attractive stranger who had a very familiar name. Daniel, Daniel, where have I heard that name before, she wondered. The sister then assumed she might have seen it on one of the many letters her older sister sent her when she had first arrived at Lake Grimstone. Either way it didn’t matter now. “Ah, Mr. Black huh?” She titled her head a little and also frowned at the light that was flickering. “Well since you’re a resident and all, is your electricity always failing like this?” Then her order was ready and the girl simply picked it up and took a sip. Her jaw tightened a little angry and regretted telling the employee to pick her drink. “This is disgusting…oh well.” She mumbled and heard not one but two lights make a buzzing sound before popping and shattered glass on the ground.

As soon as Family and Friends Week was announced, Daniel knew that he would be spending that week alone. His parents where not going to show up and frankly he didn’t want them to, he was better off not having to deal with them. Danny was making his way to the grill for some food when he spotted Rosalie, his eyes narrowed and he rushed to her, he knew her well enough to know that she was not okay and sure enough as soon as he got close enough he heard her. “Rosalie, what’s going on?” He had never seen that look on her face, or the lack of color on her cheeks. 

As each breath seemed to come a little easier it backfired with another strong cough filled with blood rise in her throat. Come on Rosalie, get it together, she demanded to herself. Closing her eyes and placing her head down a bit, Rosalie tried to get her damn coughs under control. Maybe I need more distance? Her emotions weren’t helping her maintain control of her shadows either. Just then she heard a voice, a familiar one and one that she didn’t want seeing her like this, approach. Oh man, she mumbled in her mind and looked up to meet Daniel’s hazel eyes. Slowly placing a forced smile on her face, the shadow mimicker began to answer, “I’m fine Da-” but was unable to finish as she turned to look away from him and coughed into her blood stained sleeve.

His power was going haywire and Daniel knew very well why that was. As much control as the darkness manipulator had over his power, it still acted up whenever he was too overwhelmed with emotions or too tired, and at that moment he was. TRP was now in charge of the only home he had ever really known, the only place he had ever felt like he could be himself. And while he understood what TRP wanted, he didn’t think that the way they went about it was the right way. 

“I’m sorry about the blackouts, I’m working on getting it under control.” He said when he heard footsteps behind him. He could only imagine that people were as irritated with his power as he was. Frankly, this was the first time that his power had been this out of control for such a long period of time. “If you know how to make it stop, be my guest.” 

Oliver was already somewhat near Daniel when he noticed the quick flashes of blackness covering him and everything around him. He continued to approach, curious to see what Daniel was doing and why he was doing it. As if he was in Oliver’s mind, he gave an answer. “You don’t need to apologize to me about not being in control of your powers.” He gave a short laugh. “I get it.”

Elizabeth was probably one of the few people that he could bear to see at the moment, not that his power felt the same way seeing how the lights around them began to flicker and the shadows around him began to move on their own. ‘That’s a good thing.” He said while he tried to control the shadows and was finally able to keep them down. 

“Is there such a place?” It seemed like there was destruction all around them and everywhere he looked he saw people devastated or celebrating. 

Elizabeth knew of one place, one that she frequented often. Although, the woods weren’t for everyone. Elizabeth nodded and offered him an even wider smile, trying to help him feel better. She, herself, wasn’t doing very good. Especially not after the encounter with Kristen and Miles. But, she wanted to help Daniel, just as he had helped her before. 

“There’s parts of the forest that weren’t touched.” She explained to him. “They were more worried about the buildings and Town Hall, it seemed.” Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders and took a step back towards the trees. “It could help, if you want to try it out for a few minutes? If not, then we’ll find another place.”

“The forest.” He said looking over in the direction of the woods. Daniel nodded and walked towards her. “I think that the forest might be a good idea.” Daniel would try anything, all he wanted was to regain control of his power. “Um how are you?” He asked as they began to walk towards the woods.

Daniel knew of Theodore, but he didn’t know him and at the moment he had no idea who he could trust. People that he thought were friends and on the same side as he was were coming out to be with TRP and he couldn’t afford to let his guard down. “Figure what out?” He asked with a raised brow. Daniel looked over at the shadows next to him and with one swift move of the hand he made them disappear. “We are fine.” He replied, there was some blood on him and frankly he didn’t know if it was his or the other guys. “Are you hurt?”

Theodore was very good at masking his reactions to powers. In many ways, he’d learned not to show his surprise at the things the residents could do. So when the shadow-ghost-people disappeared, Theodore barely flinched. He did tilt his head to the side, wishing perversely that he could ask Danny to the research center to take some data on his abilities. Maybe he would ask him to come by–assuming there was still a science department when all this was said and done. “Figure out what to do now. I’m not exactly in a position to fight anyone.” He shook his head at the other question. “Not particularly. A sprained wrist, and some bruises, but I’m more agile than I look. Whose blood is on your face?”

“Well then it seems like we are both in the clear and not here to fight.” He said with a chuckle. He was glad that it had been Harley the one that had appeared because while he still had some fight in him, he would much rather take a break.

His smile disappeared and his brow furrowed at Harley’s words. “I’m sorry to hear that, I know how much Zane means to you.” He said with a slight shrug. “This is the hardest part, realizing that your friends have different ideals than you do.” He offered, not that it was any consolation. No matter the outcome relationships would be ruined after this. “Guns? So, guards are in on it too?” He scoffed. “Well, that’s just great. I can’t sit back and do nothing though… guns or no guns I have to fight for our home.”

Harley shrugged at his words, but it was hard to hide his emotions. He sighed, wiping the blood from his arm with his t-shirt, where Zane had succeeded in making his thoughts plunge back into the dark depths. “Meant.” The immortal corrected, but even he knew that was a lie. Zane still meant something to him. It was just all confused now.

“I know, neither can I. It’s the only home I’ve known in a long time. We used to make a pretty good team, why don’t we stick together? Take down as many as we can.” Harley suggested, brow raised as he seemed to look past Danny. "Do me a favour? Step about three steps to your left.” If Daniel did what he said, a member of The Rising Power would come tumbling straight through where Danny used to be, and Harley would throw a blow that landed on the side of the attackers head, knocking him to the ground. 

Daniel nodded agreeing with the immortal, they had always made a great team and this time wouldn’t be the exception. “I think that’s a great idea, the more we can take down the sooner all of this will be ov--” he did as Harley asked and stepped to the side without a second thought, he trusted Harley.

The shadows that he had created and solidified moved to stand next to him when he heard footsteps approaching him. “Please tell me that you are not here to fight.” He said as he turned towards the person that had walked up to him, while he had hoped they weren’t there to fight, he was prepared to do it.

Michael responded softly to the boy who had also seemed very tired to him. He couldn’t blame him–everyone here either looked like they wanted to fight or they were defeated. He couldn’t really find one middle of the road blase expression among anyone. “I’m not here to fight,” he told him reassuringly with a shake of his head. “I just wanted to know if you needed anything.”

“How are things over there?” He said looking passed Michael to where he could see smoke and fire. “This is crazy.” He muttered as he prepared to go deeper in to town to help as much as he could.