Soul of Darkness by Vanessa Black Read Free Book Online Page B

sunlight.
    Aaron settled down on the long stretch of sandy beach while Aidan and I headed toward the sea once more.
    I wasn’t the least bit surprised that Aaron wasn’t joining us. He’d been distant and silent since we’d started our road tri p ― not that Aidan and I had had much to sa y― and had remained several paces behind us throughout our lengthy walk along the beach.
    Aidan took off his shoes and socks and hunkered down to remove mine. With my bare toes digging into the sand with every stride, I approached the ocean. The water was very cold…I could sense as much…but I didn’t step back out of the onrushing waves that swept over my feet.
    I didn’t mind the cold. I remained unfazed.
    “I want to show you something,” Aidan said, grasping one of the hands hanging loosely at my side. These days they didn’t seem to have anything to do unless ordered. I wasn’t sure if my arms and leg s ― or any part of my body, for that matte r― still really belonged to me. They felt remote and…disengaged.
    Aidan’s hand was soft and warm as I let him gently steer me toward and finally around a large cliff that jutted out of the water near the shoreline. Turning the corner, I could see a similarly shaped rock rising parallel to the first.
    Between the two stone giants, a small cove was continuously flooded with shallow water rushing in through each foaming tidal wave. Deep enough to sit down in and have the waves roll over one’s body at shoulder height, it resembled an enormous bathtub.
    “Step down into the water,” Aidan said, guiding me into the cold depth of the small cove.
    I sunk into the ocean without thought, without a moment’s hesitation about the cold against my skin or getting my clothing soaked through and through.
    Aidan joined me and immediately started to mutter something underneath his breath. The air around us began to change, and I thought I detected an almost invisible bubble forming and gradually enveloping our bodies and a large part of the sea surrounding us.
    The water suddenly didn’t feel cold but rather warm, and my clothing wasn’t clinging to my body. Instead, it floated around me ― though not in the way it would from being carried by the water but in a way that seemed to suggest the fabric itself had become weightless in the altered atmosphere.
    Sinking further into the ocean, I leaned back, holding myself up on my outstretched arms.
    My naked feet broke through the water’s surface as I tilted my head back to gaze toward the sky, the wetness on my exposed skin glistening ever so slightly in the dark.
    Leisurely, my eyes wandered across the seemingly endless stretch of black sky before settling on one of the numerous clusters of tiny bright stars spread far and wide across the universe.
    Suspended weightlessly in a pool of warm water, the air surrounding me strange and otherworldly, I felt as though floating among stars that must have died long ago, the light I gazed upon in that moment the only proof of their existence.
    What would remain of my light once I was gone?
    Who would bear witness to my existence?
    Your light is already gone.
    Had it been my own thought or that of Darkness? Sometimes I no longer knew. I was losing myself with each passing moment, never knowing which thought would turn out to be my last. When would the darkness inside of me take me over completely?
     
    Or…had it already?
     
    Aidan’s eyes found mine in the dark, his face hovering inquisitively above my own as if he was wondering what was on my mind. Or maybe he’d seen something in my expression while I’d been mesmerized by the stars. Had he perhaps sensed a flicker of emotion?
    The night was black, the lone light from the stars too weak to illuminate Aidan’s eyes…but I perceived their striking blue radiance as clearly as if we were standing in the brightest of daylight. For, I saw not with my eyes but with the memories buried in my heart…saw not what was in front of me but a vision