The night had already fallen over the small town, when the first one of them was found.
An old poor woman, only known to the town’s people as Mrs Mapple, came running down the road.
She had always been calm and collected, but now her face was pale and she looked older than ever, thanks to the fear emitting from her eyes.
She ran down the small town centre, and stop in front of the police station. Everyone she had woken up, flocking around to find out what it was.
Among the curious people, two young boys watched. One of them was really just another boring everyday kind of boy, that no one would grant a second sight.
He had long raven black hair, which covered most of his face. His clothes were dull and boring, the kind every mother’s boy was forced into wearing. Poor little Mikal.
But his friend was a completely different story. He had short blond hair, that he always used the best kind of hair gel to keep away from his face, that he wanted glorified over all others. He had a handsome face, which made all the girls in town giggle madly when he passed. And if his deep green eyes lay their gaze on them, his most devoted fan girls would pass out right away.
His name was Tiron, and he and Mikal were half brothers. Not many knew, since Mikal was a bastard child of their father, who had had a relationship with a woman who lives in the forest, the witch of Hind.
“So... what do you think she has done now?” Tiron laugh mockingly, and look over at some of his fan girls. Who gasped breath taken, before Tiron turn against Mikal again.
Mikal seemed more worried than curious thou, maybe he was afraid for his mother? She had been offered to live in the castle, but she hadn’t wanted people to believe she had ensnared the Count just to get into his household. But she had gladly let her young son move in, not wanting him to live as poor and pathetic as herself.
“I don’t think she has done anything, this time.” Mikal whisper, and smile to his big brother, who just laughed. When Mikal thought something, he was always right. He might look uninterested and unknowing, but he was a better people knower than all the people Tiron knew. When Mikal said someone hadn’t done anything, they hadn’t done a thing at all, not even thinking about it. “Just look at her, she is terrified, if she had done anything like the last few times. She ran off and hid, but now she comes running to say what she has seen to the constable, it means something really has happened.”
“Point. But hey, you know the town bums better than me.” Tiron laughs, to others it might have sounded like a terrible insult to a servant, but Mikal knew that it was just Tiron’s way of praising him. “Let’s move closer. I want to see what she is crying about to Monthy.”
“I don’t think we should be here now.” Mikal whisper, but Tiron was already passing through the crowd, so he follows him quick. Since he was the smartest of them, he had been ordered by their father to take good care of Tiron, who was a thoughtless piece of hunk. “Tiron, wait, you know father and mother will be angry if you get into a new mess again.”
“Yeah, come on.” Tiron chuckle, and push some more farmers away, and they look right at Mrs Mapple, and Monthy, who were trying to calm the terrified woman.
“Relax Miriam, what did you see this time?” He asks, trying to sound caring, but that damned woman was trying his patient. She made no sense at all! “Ok! Everyone, go home, there is nothing more to see here!”
“A demon.” She sobs, and turns against the town’s people, who all draw terrified away as she screamed it out one more time. “A demon!!! He held her down, putting her into a grave. An angel like demon! He killed her, little Lucy.”
Everyone start talking in shock, a wave of talking spreading trough the town square.
Little Lucy was the mayors eighteen year old daughter, and she was loved by everyone in the town.
The poor constable finally understands the urgency, and collects a few men, before he order the poor woman to show them the way. Some people followed, while some didn’t dare to search for any demon.
“Cool, let’s follow, whatever she has gotten into her system this time, it has to be strong. The last time, it was your mother’s home made witch booze that made her see demons. That was a really special moment.” Tiron laugh amused, and pull the complaining Mikal with him. Mikal didn’t have a good feeling about this. Tiron would always get them into so many problems. The last time they had almost gotten killed by one of the local nut heads. “Don’t be so afraid Mikal, you’ll have no fun in your life then.”
“I’m only sixteen. I want to live until I can have my life really start. You’ll get me killed long before that.” Mikal sob, and sigh relieved as Tiron stop. But then he looks around them, the graveyard? Oh yeah, Mrs Mapple had said something about a grave. Then the demon had probably been in the graveyard.
The town of Hind had just one graveyard, and all the people who died there, were carefully placed in their graves. The people there were of Christian believe, and in the faith that if people got buried, they wouldn’t return as demons.
But the graveyard had an eerie aura at night. Even the angelic statues of the wealthy families looked hideous, as the night mist sealed all beauty away in an illuminated darkness.
“This place is so cool at night time.” Tiron chuckle amused, and walk into the mist. Mikal give a sigh, before he follow after him. His brother was at it again, giving them both troubles to last for a life time. It was too predictable. “The people are there, it looks like they are looking for the demon and little Lucy.”
Mikal sigh weary and stop to take a breath, his brother could be so hyper sometimes, forgetting about Mikal’s health condition.
He had a weak body, which was one of the reasons why he wasn’t allowed to leave the house, he could get easy sick, and he could get breathing problems if he was too tired.
The raven haired boy was about to follow his brother again, when he stumbled over something, and fell hard to the ground, hitting his head against the tree trunk, blood pouring down his face, clouding his eyes.
And he turned around, trying to 
see what had gotten a hold of him.
A small hand, pale and blood
covered, had taken a hard grip off
his foot, and pulled desperately at him.
But then he tries to focus on the face,
that came closer and closer, a plea
for help, as little Lucy Campbell,
crawled against the only person
who had found her.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tiron groan, and turn around, trying to see Mikal in the mist. He hated it when he said a joke, and his brother didn’t even tell him how stupid it was.
“Mikal, where are you?!” He yell trough the thickening mist, and start walking back. He couldn’t see a thing anymore. “Mikal!!!!”
“Tiron, is that you?” A woman asks, and Tiron notice the other form in the dark and run against it.
Everyone in the town knew her, both for her beauty and her reputation. She was the last real witch in the county. And she had the same raven black hair as Mikal. Just not so messy, she had been a real temptress her entire life, and not even having a son made her stop being that.
“May? Have you seen Mikal? We went here with the constable and the rest, but we got separated in the mist.” Tiron say, and look at the beauty before him, dressed in black silk like rags. It really made her look like a devilish form from a fairy tale. He couldn’t even be angry at his father for going to bed with her. But also that had its reasons.
Once Tiron’s mother had been ill, their father had made a deal with May. One night togheter and his wife would be saved. May ended up with an unplanned child, but little Mikal were accepted into the household. And even Kira, Tiron’s mother loved him as her own. He was the proof that her husband would accept shame and gossips, just to save her.
“Little Mikal is here now? But he hates the night.” She asks, and takes a deep sigh, more like an old house wife listening to gossip. “Dear, dear, you two have done it this time Tiron. What have I and your father said about walking around at night?”
“Avoid it if it isn’t for getting wives.” Tiron sigh and she nod proudly off him, before she use her hand to cut through the mist, and all the places she did the easy hand movement, the mist disappeared. And she starts walking the way Tiron had come from. “Is it true? That Mrs Mapple saw a demon?”
“Mrs Mapple? Saw a demon? What has she gotten her hands on now? If it is Lucy she thinks is here with a demon, it’s probably just little innocent Lucy who is bidding herself out to a new passing stranger.” May giggle, and growl at the dark mist, as it didn’t disappear when she tried to use her spell on it.
“I thought I was the only one who knew about that.” Tiron laugh evilly, before he stop, noticing the dark mist they had walked into. It had been around him about the time when Mikal disappeared.
Tiron stop, as the smell of blood tore in his nose and May also stop, as she walked into a pound, a red fluid colouring the end of her dress. Then both of them see the sight before them. Two bodies were lying on the ground. Mikal, who had fainted by the hit on his head, and Lucy, who had grasped around Mikal’s foot.
But how she could have been able to move was a mystery in itself, her throat where thorn apart, her blood long gone.
Her face had an empty stare. Her usually brown eyes had a tainted aspect to them. She had lipstick on her lips, but it was smeared over her cheeks, like someone had kissed her brutally. Her dress was also destroyed, coloured in blood, revealing a hole through her chest, as her heart was gone. Thorn out.
May isn’t able to conceal a gasp by the hideous sight before her, and Tiron turn away, feeling his dinner sneak up again, and he lean over the small fence, and let his dinner make its way out of him.
Before he turn around again, as May sat down on her knees in front of her son, pulling him gently out of the dead grip, and to a part of the forest untouched by blood. Where she lay him down, and comb his hair gently with her fingers. He did really look more like her than his father, and if he was strong enough to live up, he would probably become beautiful like her too
“Miss May, what are you guys doing here!?” Constable Monthy yell, and run against them as the mist cleared up. The entire evil presence disappears with the dark mist, and the half moon glows down on them, showing everyone the body before them. The constable stops and draws a cross against his own chest. “God have mercy.”
“A demon.” May say, and hold her son gently. She wasn’t a mother material at all, so she wasn’t able to act like one either. But she cared for Mikal, and could show her love in a sister like way. He had never needed it any other way. And he had a capable mother in Tira. She was kind enough for both him and Tiron. “She was in a half dead curse, she would have woken up again if the heart hadn’t been thorn out. You should get the body out of the forest.”
The men nod, and quickly lift the body up, they had no reason to doubt her, she knew far more than any of them in the case of demons and ghosts.
“Is he ok?” Tiron ask worried, and lift his brother up as May hand him to him. Thank god, he was breathing.
“Get him back to the castle, and use these herbs to heal his wounds.” She say, and bend down, taking up a few herbs from the ground, before she hand them to Tiron, who thank her, before he run off, heading over the small hill towards the castle.
And as the nights panic continued, and the cold brew over the town together with the fear of the new treat.
A man watched everything, from the top of the clock tower, which the town’s people had once build with some spare materials.
He could see everyone, but no one was able to see him, as he hid in the shadows of a dark mist. Singing on a small lullaby, which gave him a sweet nostalgia from his childhood days.
Fear the dark
The demon is sitting in a corner
Or maybe he is under your bed?
Check it quick, before he act
And eat your heart.
Fear the dark
Dreams of peace
Keeps you safe
Keeps the demon away
Dwell in the safe dreams
Fear the dark
No more...
The dream has ended
The sun is up
Awake to find your loved ones waiting
Fear the dark
For I await
In every shadowed creek
I’ll take you if you come to close...
And when the next night comes...
I’ll steal your dreams...
Fear me...
Fear the dark I bring
† † † † † † † †
Tiron sigh to himself, he had been send to his room right away after he had come home. And his father was furious, his mother too. And why wouldn’t they be? Mikal were their little cute boy.
They intended on raising him with the greatest care, like he was a porcelain doll, that could break with any rough contact. But it was true, Mikal couldn’t take anything. Once again, Tiron didn’t mean any harm with those thoughts, it was the truth. Mikal was born poor, and had been born a cold winter night. Many said that was the reason for his pale skin. Skin like snow, and when he was out in the cold, or were exited when they were playing as kids, his lips would become so red.
Red like blood, blood on snow, Tiron used to joke, that the only thing they missed was an evil stepmother, and then Mikal could be their little princess Snow white.
“Is Mikal ok?” One of the maids asks, a young girl, with brown hair. She had been in the castle for as long as four years now. She moved in shortly after Mikal had gotten ill. She had been his best friend or something, but Mikal had never been able to remember her at all. But she had always just said that she didn’t expect him to remember her either. He had after all never been outside the castle for ten years after he first moved there.
Their father had wished him to stay away from people, afraid for people to notice his young beauty, but no one really thought over it. He dressed like one of the servants, just worse, and he never tended to his hair or face, so his pale face were covered with dirt he got on himself when he was helping the maids clean the house.
“He’s fine, Anna. Just a little shaken, that is all.” Tiron answer, walking into his room and he sigh, as he sank down in his chair. He had his own room, as all future counts should have. It was richly decorated, and he had many family pictures on his wall. Many saw him as an arrogant bastard, and hey, he was one. But he really cared for his family. He even looked at May as a part of it, a big sister.
They had a real big sister too, that Kira had gotten with her first husband. And everyone had thought it was generous of the count Richard to take both of them in. Since Kira’s first husband had been his brother.
But then, two years later, Count Richard married his brother’s widow. And two months later, she gave birth to their first born child, namely Tiron.
But their sister Sung was a little like Mikal, silent and reserved. But if she first opened her mouth, she could break the boldest man’s heart, and even mock the most helpless people. And she didn’t really show what she thought about her two younger brothers, or her stepfather. The only one of them she would talk to without spitting the words into his face, was Mikal. But to yell at him would just be heartless. He was the gentlest person alive.
“Do you think he needs anything?” Anna asks, taking up the wet clothes Tiron had slipped out off. “Like his note book or his letters?”
“Good idea, you should bring them to him.” Tiron laugh gently, and smile to her. And she nod happy, dancing out of the room. And Tiron just look after her, she was really special. Cute, in her own devoted way. In his eyes, she was the only girl in the town that had any dignity left. His sister was just a spoiled brat anyway.
Anna dance down the hallway, until she came to Mikal’s room, and open it slowly, looking into the dark and empty room. Oh no! The other maids had forgotten to make a fire there again!
She hurries over the floor, and make a fire in the small fireplace. She couldn’t believe how heartless some of the maids could be. But she would always take care of her master, her kind master Mikal.
She sighs dreamingly, and looks at the picture he had on his desk with her, Mikal and Tiron. He had been the only one who wanted to take her in, even thou she had told about her past as a prostitute in the next town, and he hadn’t even told anyone about it, he had just passed her off as a childhood friend.
She was forever in his debt. She takes up the picture, and hugs it gently, before she dance trough the room, imagining her master dancing there, with her in his arms.
A great banquet only for them, the great hall lighted, but only light against them, as everyone looked at them gliding over the floor, in a dance to celebrate their marriage.
“A beautiful dream, to keep the darkness away, to light up in the dark depts of your crumbling heart. What would you do if your dream got broken then?” Anna look terrified around in the room. No one there? But, where did the voice come from? She was really terrified! “What if your love marries someone else? What if he says he hates you? And never want to love a mere servant, a whore?”
Anna cries out, and falls to the floor, trying to cover her ears. She didn’t want to listen to that mocking voice. What kind of demon had come into the castle?
She had always imagined demons like brutal hairy monsters, who couldn’t speak at all, but as she turned against the window. She was unable to move at all, as the beauty of the demon meets her tear stained eyes.
She let her hands fall to the floor, as the demon jumped soundless down from the window still, walking graciously against her. She desperately closes her eyes, folding her hands, giving all the prayers she had ever learned, but to no avail.
The demon only laughed at her, with a gentle and amused laughter. That almost made her fall at ease, just wanting to look more at the man before her, he couldn’t be evil. No man who looked so kind and beautiful could be evil. It wasn’t possible.
He sits down on his knees in front of her, and takes her folded hands gently in his own, smiling to her. He had to be a nice man, maybe an angel who would lead her?
“I’ll end your dream, I’ll swallow it up for you, and end you suffering in this evil world.” He whisper, and she try to scream out, as he opens his mouth, sharp fangs gleaming in the moonlight. But she was too late, and her screams turn into a death gasp and he lifts her up like a groom would lift his bride, dancing around with the dead body over the floor, humming on his death song.
Smiling in childish amusement, as the dead eyes looked at him. Oh no, He couldn’t make a new one like himself now could he? Then the dreams wouldn’t end. He take a last kiss from her, before he use all his force, throwing her out of the window, and she glide through the air, like a angel, before she is brutally impaled upon the castles giant fence. The last off her blood tainting the cold steel, as the sun rose and everyone in the castle could witness the bloody sight.
But the murderer himself was long gone, a song echoing through the mansions’ cold halls for a little while. But as it faded out, only the last words were left:
Fear the dark
For I await
In every shadowed creek
I’ll take you if you come to close...
And when the next night comes...
I’ll steal your dreams...
Fear me...
Fear the dark I bring