Chapter - I (The Dark Glow)

Unknown glow following and haunting the outside of a dark mansion...

CHAPTER " I Prologue (The Dark Glow) ~ Remake

I STOOD PERFECTLY STILL, looking up at the grand house and the dark sky beyond it.

The dark mist drifted away from the moon, making its way to the set of clouds, what I hoped would be the perfect moment I’d been waiting for.

The camera, I hold in my hands, bought from a garage sale, waited patiently to take some pictures.

I didn’t know how long I’d been outside, it felt like hours, but it was actually only twelve minutes. For a split second I thought about giving up for the night. There is always tomorrow.

But suddenly everything around me seemed to get slowly brighter. The moon cleared through a misty vapor of clouds that looked like a dark white curtain behind the house.

In other words, it was perfect now for my photographs.

I pressed the button of the camera, heard the click as the flash light turns to red, and started counting. When I reached ten, I let go of the button. The flash dazzled and I had what I needed.

I repeated this a few more times, at one point adjusting the focal length of the camera so that the house itself was out of focus and the giant oak tree in the front yard also comes in the view. I didn’t take many pictures.

After a few minutes the clouds covered the sky and it was again dark, not good enough for me. Even a house like ours giving ancient looks, and an enormous stained-glass window, needed the right setting.

Now that my attention was drifted from the photographs, the spookiness of the scene start to haunt me. Suddenly, standing outside all by myself, an easy target for any random creature lurking through the woods, seemed very foolish but anything is possible. My breathing turned fast and my hands trembled as I cover the lens cap of my camera. I was in a hurry to grab everything and run for the house, but something inside me refused to give in to the fear. So with slow, relaxed movements, I removed the camera lens. I slipped the camera strap around my neck and started started walking fast towards the grand house.

“Snap”

I turn my head around, looking for the sudden noise.

“Deep breath”. Maybe It was just a bird, or a squirrel, or one of the cats my wife insists on feeding even though it’s going to give me a little problem. I thought of setting my mind on one of the kitties, and try to overcome my fear by calling if any cat is nearby.

“Shuffle shuffle”.

“Heeeeere, kitty,” I said softly. “Heeeeeere, kitty kitty kitty . . .”

“Snap”, “pop”.

I keep hearing the weird sounds but couldn’t able to find what was the real reason of those strange noises.

“Present yourself, kitty,” I said, a little louder.

A head popped out from behind the trunk of the oak tree.

My heart did three backflips and my color goes pale as if blood stopped flowing in my body, but soon I recognized the dark-colored hair of my naughty wifey, Macy.

Macy said. “Sergeant Meow, reporting for duty.”

I wasn’t surprised on her childish behavior as it was the thing I love about her the most, which keeps the colors in our life and kept it happy for so long.

I tried to think of something to say, but I still hadn’t caught my breath. I rested my hand on her arm and take a deep breath.

She stared at the camera for a few seconds, her lips pressed together frowned that had recently become her daily expression. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her fingers lightly playing with the sleeves of my T-shirt that she took as her pajama top for the night sleep.

“How long have you been out here?”

Macy shrugged, looked at her watch.

“A while.” I replied.

“What time is it?”

“3:16 am.”

“Seriously?” She stared at me.

 I had been outside for three hours.

Macy followed along behind me all the time when I’m out taking pictures. She stands near the camera and watches what I’m watching, but she says she doesn’t get it, doesn’t know why some stupid thing’s worth photographing.

I’ve tried to teach her, but she’s actually kind of hopeless. When we started, her pictures looked like bad vacation snaps, and after five exhausting hours, they were worse, because of that now she was trying to be an artist.

I told her not to worry, that maybe her true talents are in the pictures that she draws.

What else could I tell her? To give up hope? or that wherever we go we don’t capture the moments and parts of the life we live. Taking pictures of everything was my passion even when she thinks it was a waste of time to take useless pics but if I would have confront her, that would have hurt her and that was not the kind of person I was, so I let her do the things which makes her happy.

“What are you taking pictures of? I don’t see anything,” she said.

“I would explain, but its three a.m.,” I said. “I’ll show you when I develop the pics, okay?”

She nodded and yawned.

I took another look up at the house.

There was a soft glow peeking through the branches that shaded our bedroom windows.

“Oh, crap . . .” I said. “Macy, which room is that light coming from?”

If my Mom was wandering around, turning on lights, then she would know we were not inside, and then it was a pretty short to figure that we will be gone. And that meant trouble. The rules of my house were strict and there were restrictions especially upon me.

Rules…

No putting yourself or Macy in strange or dangerous situations to take pictures, Don’t go on the roof. No taking pictures of market products. No taking pictures on other people’s property. Don’t use Macy as a subject to get photos of people who don’t want to be photographed. I was fairly sure that pretty soon it would just be to Put the camera down, sit on the sofa, and don’t move.

Even with a parental ruling, the photographer in me couldn’t ignore something so cool-looking. It’s like the way a hunter will see an exotic animal and want its head on his wall, only less gross. When I see something interesting, I want to take a picture of it so badly it’s almost like a craving it. I uncover the camera lens and looked through it to see which room was that light coming from.

“It’s not my room,” Macy said. “It’s not yours either.”

The moment she explained that I realized we were not allowed to sleep in one room as It was so low worthy and not an elegant way of living, so we were given two big bedrooms to enjoy our sleep.

I set up my camera. Then I turned my attention to the light.

It was a soft and pale glow, as well as Macy was right, it wasn’t coming from either of our rooms.

It didn’t actually seem to be coming from inside the house at all.

I held the camera as steady as possible, bending my knees and taking a deep breath and holding it, pressed down the button.

After a few seconds I let go, then took another picture, and another.

“What is it?” Macy said, looking towards my camera.

As I tried to zoom in to know the source.

The light was gone.

We waited a few more minutes, but it never returned. Finally, I covered the lens and hang the camera around my neck. Macy watched me, glancing up every few seconds to see if the light was back. Our eyes met at one point, and I saw her eyes sparkling black in the moon light making her image so beautiful to take countless photos but I wouldn’t dare.

What was it? Where had it come from? Why did it turn off? She asked.

We were both thinking the same thing.

We walk together silently through the side yard. Fortunately, the October nights were cool enough that the many, many gross spiders that usually wander that part of the yard were gone. I walked in front, while she was coming from behind me, freaked out by the situation.

I turned back to check on her, stopping so suddenly as she ran right into me.

“Spider?” she asked, panic in her voice.

The sudden collision of our bodies gave me a sensational feeling from her warm body especially the soft touch of her perky n*****s, brushing through the shirt a little down from my chest in the cold night. I blushed but takeover my senses in that situation looking down in her scared eyes, innocence beyond adoring.

I shook my head. I was then looking past her into the front yard, at the spot where we’d been standing just twenty seconds earlier.

It was lit up by the same faint glow we had seen from afar almost close to the tree.

And the glow actually seemed to be . . . growing.

“What?” Macy whispered.

“Uh . . .” If my wife saw it, she would faint.

I looked right at her and smiled. “Nothing.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I got a sense of the light growing larger and then I realized it wasn’t getting bigger…

~It was getting closer.

It was following us.

“You know, I have seen a little spider,” I said.

“Go. Now. Move,” Macy said, pushing me backwards.

I let her go ahead of me through the back door as I took one final look behind us. There was no glow. Either it had disappeared, or it hadn’t come towards the corner yet.

We got into stealth mode to climb the stairs very fast towards the second floor, skipping many stair steps, all of which squeaked loudly enough to wake the whole house, and then Macy waved her hand towards me as I reach near her close to our bedrooms.

“I want a good night kissy before bed”. She demanded.

She knew how to turn all my feelings in heatful desires.

“Ok dear little wifey”. I said as I take my arms behind her back locking her against wall and join my lips with her delicate lips making our breathing as one, I let my hands wander around her arched back and bubbly hips as she tries her best to keep up with the kiss while holding me with her legs crossed around my waist, her moans were one thing to make me active while squeezing her was another. Soon enough we completed the moment of our night kiss session and she ducked into her bedroom.

I set the stand of camera on the floor after coming in my room and the camera on the dresser, exhaustion was all over me. I changed into a long T-shirt and crawled into bed, telling myself that it had just been a group of fireflies.

I mean, it had to be. There wasn’t any other explanation.

The last thing I saw before I fell asleep was the tinniest trace of a glow on the branches of the oak tree outside my window.

Curious fireflies, I told myself sleepily. So curious that they’d found a way to follow us upstairs without actually coming into the house.

End Ch. I ~

Author's Note

Beware of the glowing lights of dark night...