Fixation On the Darkness

Alec ran into the dark alley and saw nothing but years of accumulated trash and filth. He checked the nearby roofs and again saw nothing. He sighed with frustration and then finally noticed movement.

The woman dressed in black was perched on the wall at the rear of the alley. They both stared at each other in silence and the woman rolled backwards into the unknown.

Alec cursed, ran to where she was perched and leapt over the wall in pursuit.

He fell for a few seconds and landed in the dust and debris.

The woman stood waiting for him, she offered him her hand and pulled him to his feet before taking a swing at his head.

Alec recoiled and watched as her fist glided inches from his face.

The woman laughed, flipped backwards in the air and kicked him in the stomach.

Alec flew backwards into the garbage, winded and red-faced. He felt blood trickle down his arm and prayed to god that it wasn't a needle that had stabbed him.

"You better lick your wounds if you want to catch me..."

She taunted before running into the darkness once more.

Alec lay in the garbage, open-mouthed with rage. This woman was stark raving mad...

He considered just how much of her game he was willing to play... She was toying with him. Yet she held the next piece of the puzzle. So he pulled himself out of trash and tended to his injuries. Helen was why he had come... He couldn't stop now. Not when he was so close.

"Hurry..." Her voice floated from the distance.

Alec pulled a shard of glass from his arm and clenched his fists around it in rage before chasing after her.

He followed her at every step, keeping pace as she led him further from the district to God only knew where.

He paused for breath and watched as she sauntered mockingly into a cracked building that Alec vaguely recollected from his misspent youth.

If he remembered correctly, this was one of the points of access into the city's sewers. He recalled spending many hours with his pals smoking weed and staring into the dark inviting tunnels of the city.

He was never brave enough to walk down into what his friends called the Hell Mouth. Alec remembered the tales they used to share about the city of ruin that lay beneath.

It was all made up of course, there couldn't be a whole city inside the sewers and even now as he entered the building he failed to recall how he and his friends found out about it.

Alec walked and searched the building but he couldn't find the woman or any sign that she was close, it was only when he ventured towards the basement that her voice taunted from below.

"I was starting to think that you'd given up Alec..."

He stared down into the dark entrance to the basement and saw no trace of her. With a curse, he followed. He made it half way through the tunnel when he felt her presence. Standing still, he focused his senses to detect any trace of her, that was when he heard her breathing behind him.

He clenched his fists and turned to take a swing at her, she chuckled, caught his fist in her own and used his own weight to throw him into the concrete wall at their side.

Dazed and more enraged than ever before, he jumped to his feet and charged at her. She stood in the darkness and waited for him. Again, she countered his blow. This time she twisted his arm to the breaking point and kicked him square in the head, then chuckled as she ran deeper into the tunnel.

Alec wiped the blood from his forehead and cursed under his breath before chasing her once more.

As the tunnel came to a close, Alec saw with amazement that she was standing on the railing, looking down at the chasm that he and his friends used to nickname the Hell Mouth.

Alec approached slowly and she lowered her hood.

He stopped and cleared his throat, from this angle he was 90% sure that this was Helen.

He reached forward and called out to her.

"Sis..."

The moment she turned her head to glare at him, Alec knew that he was mistaken, those eyes were too cold to be his sister's.

Alec clenched his fists in a fitful rage and lunged for her.

She laughed and flipped over his shoulder to kick him in the arse.

Alec slammed into the railing and nearly fell into the chasm below.

He turned in anger and spat at her.

The woman sighed, removed a pistol from her robes and aimed it at his forehead.

She held it for a moment, hesitant, and shocked him completely by flipping it in her hand and handing it to him.

Alec stared at her in silence and plucked it from her hand, in a nanosecond the gun was now aimed at her.

The woman relaxed and Alec began to comprehend the true differences between her and his sister.

The woman was not Helen, although there were similarities, subtle similarities... but enough to make him question this woman's identity.

Her eyes held the same cobalt blue that he associated with the Walker bloodline but were devoid of all warmth. Her ears weren't as pointed as they were in his family. He remembered how his father once mocked that the Walkers were descended from Elvish stock. He later found out that they merely had one of the genetic precursors for Williams syndrome.

He stared at the tight and gaunt jaw line and saw some foreign resemblance, although again it was only similar, not quite a carbon copy.

The woman smiled and spoke.

"The name's Ruin." She looked around and paused.

"And it looks like you've caught me..."

Alec laughed but didn't lower the gun from her head.

"looks like..." he muttered still angry at the way she had toyed with him.

Ruin spoke, her playful tone discarded.

"Why did you come back Alec?"

Alec stared at her in silence before finally answering.

"I want to know what happened to my sister..."

She smiled but her eyes were still cold and Alec sensed that she thought he was pathetic.

"Why?" She asked.

Alec was taken back by the question. In truth he didn't know why, he hadn't thought that far ahead.

Ruin nodded at his silence and began to pace back and forth.

"They say you should dig two graves if you're seeking vengeance." she paused and laughed.

"I guess whoever thought of that never truly felt the ire of vengeance burn through them... But we know better, don't we Alec?"

Alec felt tears of rage trickle down his face. He absentmindedly wiped them aside.

She continued.

"Why do we care about graves? After all, we are dead inside. Aren't we?"

Alec lowered the gun and cleared his throat.

"Take me to The Eye..." He hissed.

She tightened her grip on the railing, looked down into the black void and spoke.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

He glared at her in silence and she nodded before leaping onto the railing itself.

"Then take a leap of faith..." She smiled as his eyes widened.

Alec was about to speak, but she leaned forward and dove gracefully into the dark world below.

He stared down into the darkness and waited, but only silence greeted him. He remained rooted to the spot, his heart heavy with indecision before finally he cursed a chain of expletives and leapt over the railing.

Alec fell into the darkness and wondered if he'd ever see the light of day again. As he fell, he thought he could see orbs of light fill the chamber he had just leapt from. He closed his eyes and smiled as he plummeted further down.

The light Alec had seen was not as angelic as his mind perceived it to be. And it certainly wasn't orbs, but in fact beams, attached to those beams were 7 men who tightly clutched automatic rifles.

The leader stopped the rest of his men with a raised fist and gazed down over the edge of the railing before retrieving his military radio.

"Sir the target has descended into the sewers..."

A bemused man responded, his tone full of a cold fury.

"Follow them..."

The leader sighed and spoke.

"Affirmative."

He signaled the rest of his men to follow and two remained stationary.

The leader signaled once more and the men spoke.

"I'm not going down there... No fucking way."

Without hesitation, the commander opened fire on the man and the wall behind him was painted in blood.

He looked around at his men and all averted their gaze. He stared at the second man who dared to refuse and spoke.

"Well choose... I don't have time for this shit."

The second man stared at his dead companion and hurried to stand with the others.

The six SWAT stared down into the darkness and began to tie ropes to the railing.

In the End

Alec didn't remember hitting the bottom or sinking to the murky depths, he did however remember someone pulling him away from the cold but inviting clutches of Death. He remembered one more thing. He wasn't alone... Helen was calling out to him.

"Alec..."

Alec's eyes snapped open, he was on his back, cold concrete reminded him that he was very much alive.

Ruin spoke from his flank.

"Thought I'd lost you for a second there..."

Alec turned to see her wide-eyed and out of breath, her damp clothing clung to her body revealing her outline in more clarity.

She walked over to the shadows and after a few moments of her cursing under her breath the chamber was abruptly lit in the crimson hue of flames.

Alec stared at the gargantuan archway that greeted them both and shuddered from both the cold of the water and the infinite possibility of the unknown.

Ruin watched him and smirked before pulling him to his feet.

"The Eye is within..."

She walked on ahead into the archway, Alec sighed and followed with a prominent limp.

The stonework had begun to narrow the deeper they went. They walked in silence until Ruin spoke.

"At the end, Helen spoke of you many times... I never understood why until now..."

"She was wrong to call you a coward, she regretted that moment for years..."

Alec stared open-mouthed at the revelation and Ruin laughed.

"What? You thought I didn't know her...?" She paused and her tone altered slightly.

"Alec... I knew her better than myself..."

Alec clenched his fists, grabbed her and pushed her against the cold brick.

"Tell me what happened..." He hissed.

Ruin stared at him in silence and shook her head.

"Beyond are your answers..."

He punched the brick at the side of her head, his knuckles bled heavily but the pain sharpened his mind. After some delay, he released her and continued to walk ahead.

They walked in silence once more, but Alec sensed her eyes burning into the back of his skull. He was about to give her a piece of his mind, but the sight of what lay ahead stopped him.

A large crimson door stood at the end of the path. The door had no handle and looked fused into the stonework itself, it didn't appear to have any hinges.

Alec stared at the size of it and marveled at the large eye that was carved into the door. He took a step to the side and gasped, from this angle it looked less like a pattern and more like an actual Eye.

Ruin pushed past him and pulled something from her pocket, a vial of jet black liquid.

She held it out to him and spoke.

"Last chance to turn back Alec..."

Alec snatched the vial from her hand, popped the cork and gave it a sniff, he turned his face in a grimace and spoke.

"What is it?"

Ruin chuckled to herself.

"A precaution, The Eye has to protect its identity... it's a mild hallucinogenic."

Alec tightened his fist around the vial and succumbed. Vengeance was all he cared about, what was a little mind fuck when it meant he could get justice?

He drank the liquid, threw the vial against the wall and retched. Ruin turned to face the door and knocked thrice.

The door began to make strange noises, Alec felt the world as it spun on its axis, and it knocked him to the ground. Sick to his stomach, he felt as if every one of his senses were magnified to frightening new levels.

The door groaned horridly and fell backwards, revealing another chamber.

Ruin walked ahead, Alec could see the vibrations from her steps on the stone surface and hear her heartbeat. He turned around and saw a great fire race down the hall towards him, inside the fire was a woman riding a pale horse... He stared drunkenly, drool beginning to collect at the corner of his mouth. Ruin grabbed his hand and pulled him into the new chamber.

Every step he took felt as if the world was quaking from a great beast, his balance was thrown completely by his hyper senses. All the while he still felt that shadow behind him. Alec turned one last time to see her garbed in black, the woman with the pale horse stared at him from the distance, her eyes burned with the spirit of vengeance.

"Alec..." She called out to him, her very voice ignited the air around her.

Alec screamed and fell to his knees as a great fire enveloped him. It felt as if the fires of hell burned through his very being. The air in his lungs felt volcanic, his vision crashed inwards and outwards as if he was a raging tide upon stormy waters.

He spoke and felt like his voice wasn't his own.

"What's happening to me?" He screamed and clamped his hands over his head in a vain hope to hold his sanity within.

Ruin knelt down to him and began to whisper in his ear.

"Focus..."

He listened to her words and realised he had been hyperventilating, he slowed his beating heart and felt enough clarity to see that he and Ruin were not alone...

Ruin pulled her hood back over her head and stepped backwards amongst the Twelve shadow beings that watched him with indifference.

He was face to face with The Eye at last.

They spoke as one. Or so it seemed to Alec in his deranged state of being.

"You seek The Eye, but for what purpose?"

Alec groaned and tried in vain to pull himself to his feet, the drug Ruin had given had drained him of all his energy, both psychical and mental.

"I want to know what happened to Helen Walker..." He spat, sweat trickled down his face from deep concentration.

They began to whisper to one another, all but one, Ruin, she merely stood and watched Alec.

"Is that all you seek?" They asked with a bitter tone.

Alec shook his head and spoke once more, he felt like he was screaming but in reality, his voice was barely above a whisper.

"No... I want to avenge her..."

One of the people garbed in black stepped forward and leaned down to stare him in the eyes.

"Do you think that we care about you and your vengeance?"

Alec, fueled by years of pent up rage felt the drug's effects wane. He grabbed the man by the throat and lifted him inches from the ground with a snarl.

The others didn't react, but he sensed that Ruin smiled beneath her hood.

"What was so fucking important that my sister had to die? Who was the girl she talked about in her letter? Tell me now or I swear to God, I'll rip you all limb from limb!"

Ruin lowered her hood and spoke.

"Me... her daughter..."

Alec dropped the man in shock and stared at her, his eyes were wide and unbelieving.

She continued.

"Alec... your sister died 6 years ago... I was twelve when she snatched me from our home and ran from my father."

The others spoke.

"Helen was our agent inside Wormwoods organization, she even bore his child to keep her cover intact, when she found out that he knew, she ran..."

Ruin continued.

"The Eye was supposed to meet us that night and take us to safety but they were too late... My mother hid me and I watched as they gang-raped her..."

Alec screamed in rage and started to punch the concrete floor repeatedly.

"No!!!"

Ruin continued as she knelt down beside him.

"She fought them till the very end..."

Alec raised his head, his eyes had changed, now he looked insane.

"Give me their names..." He spat coldly as he pulled himself to his feet.

At this same moment, the SWAT team pulled themselves silently out of the water and advanced into the dark corridor.