A River In Darkness Novels & Stories

The touch sent a shiver racing down Blue’s spine, but he didn’t pull away. “Come back,” River whispered, the words more command than plea. “Don’t let this darkness swallow you whole.” Blue looked down at their hands—at the thin thread of connection holding him together—and something inside him cracked. He wanted to say yes. He wanted to let go of the chaos and fall into River like he always did. But the ghosts of his past whispered louder. “You don’t understand,” Blue murmured, tears stinging his eyes. “The darkness isn’t swallowing me, River. I am the darkness.”

--- CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE THE RIVER TRADE “Peace is a myth. What we call peace is just the moment before someone reloads.” The river was a snake—long, dark, winding, and always hiding something under its slow-moving surface. It had once been a supply drop site for the old families back before the treaties collapsed. Now it was just a dead stretch of water guarded by dying trees and crumbling concrete, far enough from the city to feel forgotten, but close enough that every sound could still echo back into the streets like a warning. They chose midnight because it was neutral. They chose the river because it wasn’t.

Oshey walked to the window and glanced at the tree. She had the impression the tree was looking back. "I can see why you and I share this insane attraction." Oshey peeked over her shoulder at him. After a heavy such she continued to explain what she had been seeing. "In my visions, I see you and me fighting about the death of our son. Then I see you and me fighting in a different place. Then, again it shifts, I'm in a dark room, and there is a faint green light, like the lumination from a neon sign. Cammie is with me, and she is scared of the darkness. I can barely see through the light, but I know there is someone else with us."

Then, with purpose, I tossed it into the trash can. The sharp, hollow clink of metal hitting the bottom echoed through the quiet night. The wind brushed against me, its chill settling over my skin. I looked out over the night view, where even the dimmest stars held a faint trace of light. Then, I turned and stepped back inside, closing the door behind me. In that moment, I felt a stillness I had never known. Everything in the past had finally fallen with the stars into endless darkness. And ahead of me, there lay countless possibilities that I could explore one by one.

He tugged harder,a high pitched scream left my mouth and I clawed at the hand that caused so much pain to me. "Bastard!" I swore furiously under my breath, spitting out bloodied saliva. Then something hard hit me by the side of my head. I heard a curse of 'bullshit! " A wave of dizziness came flooding in,overwhelming all my senses. Then blackness. *** My eyes fluttered open, then I blinked consciously for a few seconds trying to focus my vision on something, anything.

Hell, a dinosaur could stomp in front of me and I wouldn't notice because of the dark. My legs stopped only after a few final strides. I stopped walking and just stood. The cold air was making my body shiver badly. My head looked at the ground, and I felt a wet pool of thick liquid surrounding my foot. I saw blood, a lot of blood. On the grass, on my hands, on my clothes, and all-around despite the darkness as if a sudden light exposed those parts. The blood made me scream on the inside but my body didn't react. My eyes followed the trail of blood on their own and stopped suddenly. It took me a second to make out the body on the ground and flames suddenly appeared, burning the lifeless corps

He was just a couple of yards away, looking at the surrounding in a defensive stance as if he is expecting an unexpected attack from somewhere. I turned to look at my surrounding. Contrary to its name, River of Flames is nothing like a river. It is a cave, a huge stone cave. Only that, all the things you can see around are on fire, blazing, glowing red. And the path in the middle was made of stones with flowing lava in between the cracks of each stone. I gulped as I looked closer. Looking at it this close made me think how painful it would be to touch it. 'But that will not hurt you, my lady. Any phase of fire will not hurt you in any way. You already know that, right?' Raja interrupted my t

Re. "Remi," I whispered. The red marks flared golden. My mind swirled. The bruises, the running, the bridge, Mila.... the darkness. I remembered it all. Mila was being worn like a suit by the darkness. A cold shiver descended on me. I felt the darkness press in even in the bright restroom. A firefly of light reflected in the mirror. I spun. "Remi," I said to the shadow man leaning against the door.

Gone—bodies, the sinkhole, all of it. “Christ Jesus.” A small reddish shape shot out of the shadows like a fireball, an animal of some kind. It flew from its hiding place so fast he nearly missed it before it was across the baseball field and away. Richard’s vision swam. He blinked his eyes rapidly, refocusing them. Dim lights hovered in the darkness on the other side of the river. Black water mirrored the churning, soot-gray sky above . . . water that would drown without mercy, claiming the living and the dead alike, the currents sucking them down. Take them straight to the river bottom, it would, ramming them against the rocks like so much sunken wreckage.

The shadow-spirit swallows the silver canisters whole, the metal exploding harmlessly inside the void of his darkness, suffocating the chemical fire before a single grain of dust can touch my skin. The wave of boiling water slams into the northern bank, knocking out two of the portable floodlights with a violent hiss of short-circuiting wires. The white light vanishes, replaced by the deep, terrifying amethyst glow of my presence. The northern line collapses in a panic of wet wool and screaming men. The fighters drop their compound bows, scrambling up the muddy ridge to escape the rising, boiling river, while the three elders stumble over their own gold-trimmed robes, rolling into the muck l