Uttuku

The Books of Darkness

by Robert N. Stephenson

Chapter 18

The Ta’ibah

Diana Arlyn is an author of gothic fiction best-sellers. A hard drinker with bipolar disorder, she falls in love with a mysterious woman, and the turbulent relationship draws Diana unwillingly into a legend.

Diana is haunted by questions: why did the woman pick her, of all people, and how can the Ta’ibah, the hunter of darkness, know so much about her? She is also haunted by the ghost of a dead author. She must find out what he wants, recover a lost book that belongs to someone who wants to kill her, and ultimately survive the darkness.

I followed Diana for the day. The sun, too bright, made it difficult for me to maintain focus. While she drank at an outside bar, I took a man in the car park then left him, in his car, head against the steering wheel. My inner darkness strengthened. I was ready to follow again.

She drank four partly filled glasses of alcohol before getting up to move down the street. Today she’d taken to wearing all black, much like Sarina. They were growing closer. The dream would do its work soon and this would grow ever stronger. I needed it in order to do what I must, though with this would come a problem, one I didn’t know how to address.

Sitting in a park, watching the grass, Diana looked to be lost in thought. What thoughts? I approached and sat beside her; the wall didn’t prevent me. Things had changed. She didn’t feel me, he was letting me close. How close, I wondered? She had a far-away look in her eyes.

Carefully I dipped my index finger into her mind. Her eyes fluttered a little. Just a touch, a slight caress to see what she could see. I withdrew my finger, she caught her breath, hand to her chest. What I’d seen confirmed what I knew. I wanted more, the second touch stopped by him.

Again she fell into his protection. A brief look he allowed, a deeper look, he did not. I sat back and just watched her. Being attractive could have been the reason Sarina was drawn to her, it made sense, though it rarely happened she would make a human friend and bring one so close into her life.

Diana’s thoughts were a mess of emotion and vision, a crazy collection of strengths and doubts that played off each other like two bad comedians. I made sense of some thoughts, gathered what I needed to to understand her far-away look, but not enough to put anything together in a solid form. He wanted her for a purpose, one that involved me and Sarina.

The fact she’d guessed about the book’s existence caused some further concern. Could he have given her that doubt? It wasn’t possible, was it? That would mean he’d been orchestrating events for three years, all the while knowing where everything was. I didn’t like it, didn’t like being used for purposes other than what I had become. I hunted, I fed, I delivered the darkness. I didn’t meddle in human lives, I took them.

She stood, thoughts collected and began walking along the path. Following her led nowhere for the moment; his purpose would be revealed when he saw fit. My purpose? Push the women closer together and then use it to draw Sarina out and deliver what we’d come for.

Proceed to Chapter 19...

This link goes to the book website.