Dark Stranger

Prologue

Have you every gotten that feeling that something is looming over you? Or maybe you've experienced some kind of strange premonition or nightmare which then turns out to be true. What nobody realizes is that while they have a Guardian Angel, they also have an internal malevolent spirit known as the Dark Stranger. This story explores the twisted paths of the Dark Stranger, and the most terrifying manifestation of its power: when it becomes an actual person. A young child is born premature and experiences nightmares and horrid visions every day of his life. His parents think he is schizophrenic, but in reality he is the only human being who has neither a dark stranger nor a Guardian Angel: because he IS a dark stranger.

1

"Have you ever wondered what it's like to only know fear, hate and bitterness? Do you know what it's like to remember, even at the age of 15, what it was like to be wrenched from your mother's womb before the proper time? Do you know what it's like to have imaginary friends who you only meet in your nightmares? My name is Billy Smith, and I know all these things as life. Every second of my existence was miserable. Even when I was in my mother's womb I had nightmares which I couldn't comprehend. Help me, for God's sake, if there is a god. I want to die."

Doctor Ballswick looked across the table at the youth. He had just spoken all those words as if he didn't truly understand any of them, but was just saying them. However, the force of the words dazzled the Doctor. This child was living a life of pure hell which perhaps he could correct if he could only reach the poor kid. He set down his coffee and looked at the boy. "How do I help you?" he asked. The boy grinned across at him and then slowly began to laugh. The laughter sounded like screaming crossed with sputtering. Dr. Ballswick sighed. Whenever he got remotely close to reaching the boy, he would start laughing and Ballswick couldn't get a word out of him.

Billy of course found this all very amusing. He was just playing to this man's silly desperation to know what was inside his head. "If only he knew!" Billy's inner fiend laughed, "He'd be gibbering and laughing like this too!" The image of Dr. Ballswick laughing and rocking back and forth made the sadistic child's mind scream with glee and he continued to laugh. Of course, Billy was much less concerned with Dr. Ballswick than with escape. Ballswick, for all he knew, could be that chance of escape, so he kept the foolish doctor sane. For now.

Billy's mind practically roared with laughter, except it wasn't his mind. Billy's child self had been horridly suppressed by the one conscience which now dominated his mind: Nastarine, the dark stranger who had taken the form of Billy Smith. Nastarine, a spirit of pain and hatred, would have liked to be counseling a human to do horrors, but knew that his current guise would be much more effective.

"Why won't you let me get inside your head, Billy?" Dr. Ballswick said, half to himself and half to the boy, convinced that the insane child couldn't hear him. Billy stopped laughing, though and suddenly sat up. "My mind?" asked the child suddenly, actually sounding human. Ballswick turned around in surprise and delight. He'd done it! He'd gotten through! "Do you wish to tell me something, Billy?" he asked. "YES," said a roaring, evil voice which couldn't possibly come from a child's larynx. "I'm NOT BILLY!" With that, the child's eyes suddenly turned a sickening shade of yellow and Ballswick saw the walls slowly crumble around him...and then he knew no more.

The following morning the following headline appeared in the paper: Ballswick asylum for the mentally disturbed destroyed. Cause unknown. And at the same time...in a different part of the town from Ballswick asylum, a young girl named Michelle Jameson suddenly sat bolt upright in bed, a terrible sense of dread prickling at the back of her mind.

2

Tommy walked through the halls of Cadderly county middle school. He made sure to avoid the lunch-money stealing mob outside the cafeteria by dunking under the heads of passing students. As he entered the cafeteria, his friend Nick Young pulled him aside and led him off to a table where the two of them always sat with their friend and (though they didn't tell her this) mutual crush: Michelle Jameson.

Michelle watched as the two guys approached. She thought they were nice and funny at times, but their crush on her was painfully obvious. It wasn't anything personal, Michelle was just picky. Very picky. There was one man and one man only whom she loved and she had never even met him. Never that is, except in her nightmares. She had never been sure what to make of him. On the one hand he seemed to be the vessel of the one recurring monster she always seemed to meet: A hideous ghost-like sadistic creature called Nastarine. On the other hand, it was he who saved her from Nastarine in the end. Whatever he was, that hadn't stopped her from developing a huge crush on him. However, at the end when they almost seemed like they were about to kiss, Nastarine would always pull his final card and force her to wake up by violently shaking her. But last night she had had a much more virulent nightmare. Nastarine had not done his usual tricks but instead laughed and warned her that she couldn't hide from him any longer and that he was coming for her. Also, the boy never appeared. It was just Nastarine laughing and laughing and laughing. The evil creature had then proceeded to begin to burn her to crisps. Just as he was striking the match, however, she had woken up. She hadn't told her friends about this dream yet(she always told them the dreams she had with Nastarine in them. Something seemed to make them think he was an interesting character instead of a terrifying monster.)

"Hey, Michelle, what's up?" asked Tommy as he sat down next to her. She was SO gorgeous, he thought as he snuggled comfortably next to her, just comfortably enough not to look like he was in love with her(which he was). "Any dreams with big N yet?" Nick's ears pricked up at the mention of "Big N". Nastarine, in their opinion, was a monster worthy of the kind of celebrity that Frankenstein and Dracula had. They each had already planned Nastarine costumes for Halloween and each was trying to outdo the other in terms of total detail.

Michelle sighed and told them all about her nightmare. They loved it, every ounce of it, especially the part where he was about to roast her naked over a fire. What they especially seemed to love about it, though, was that the boy did not appear. "Mr. Knight-in-tin-knee-guards" was what they called him. It figured, they obviously saw this dream hero as competition(and of course, they were absolutely wrong. They were no competition for HIM.) "Men!" she thought.

"Well, well, how's the Nastarine cult?" asked a familiar and less-than- welcome voice. It was Spencer Bradleys, a smart-ass kid who pimped his intelligence to the school bullies in exchange for protection. He enjoyed abusing the authority that being friends with John J. Colinson, the schoolyard Genghis Khan, gave him. Of course, he considered Nastarine to be Michelle's two-bit attempt at popularity or infamy. "We're fine, thanks, Spencer," said Nick coldly. "Roasting naked over a fire?" Spencer asked Michelle, his voice filled with sarcastic concern. "I suppose Mr. N used your panties as napkins?" he laughed hysterically at his own joke. Nobody else did. "That's one HOT dream!" he burst out chortling with mirth. "Get out of here!" Tom spat. Spencer looked at him condemningly. "I wouldn't do that, Tom," he said with mock concern. "Your face wouldn't enjoy meeting your brain, which is what will happen if you threaten me."

Michelle suddenly went absolutely rigid. She hadn't heard Spencer's snooty voice saying those words, but Nastarine's. "What is it now? Nastarine's marinating you in Dijon mustard or something?" Spencer asked sarcastically. "N-no. When you were talking about not threatening you, you spoke with Nastarine's voice." Spencer looked at her tolerantly. "Hey, Nast! I told you not to use my voice while at school!" he shouted at his stomach. He then did a deep voice and ventriloquized quite poorly "Sorry." He then turned to Michelle again. "Either you're super-crazy or you're a really good actress or I'm coming for you!" snarled the horrible voice of Nastarine through Spencer's mouth.

"You did it again!" shouted Michelle. "You just said 'I'm coming for you' in Nastarine's voice!" Spencer looked at her quizzically. "What I said, Miss crazy, was that either you're super-crazy or you're a really good actress or I've got some kind of suppressed soar throat." Michelle blinked. "You didn't say 'I'm coming for you?'" "What am I, the Grim Reaper? Of course not!" Spencer said. "That was me." This time Nastarine's voice was coming from Nick. Michelle was terrified. She didn't know who'd speak in Nastarine's voice next. She tried to compose herself, but then someone passing by their table spoke in Nastarine's voice...then everybody at her table...and then the entire café. She passed out.

And standing behind a pillar near the café, Billy Smith watched Michelle with increasing interest, Nastarine chuckling within his heart. He had found her at last. 3

"Michelle, you've got to wake up!" exclaimed Tommy at Michelle. "I don't think she'll feel the need to wake up anytime soon," Spencer said sarcastically. "She's probably going to wake up with some story about that bogeyman of hers eating her on corn tortillas." "SHUT UP!" shouted Tommy and he punched Spencer in the jaw. Spencer looked quite shocked and then smiled a very evil smile. "John!" he shouted, "The little queers are revolting!"

John J. Colinson strode over. He was a big boy, with at least six inch muscles on his arms alone and stood a full 5'10. His face was severe and bulldog-like. "What is it, Spence?" he asked in his thick, nasty voice. "This little bitch just punched me in the jaw," Spencer said, indicating Tommy. Colinson strode up to Tommy. Tommy stood his ground, despite the fact that John was at least a foot taller than himself. "I'm gonna give you a choice, twerp," John snarled. "You can either wind up with a purple ass or you can be my friend's slave for the rest of the day." Tommy didn't know where he got the courage to keep his mouth shut. "Well, which is it?" asked Colinson smugly. "None of the goddamn above!" Tommy yelled and sent an uppercut into Colinson's face. The boy looked surprised, but he retaliated with the speed of a great white shark bearing down on a helpless fish. However, just as he was about to pound Tommy's face in...

Whack! Smack! Thunk! Several punches rocketed out of the air with such speed that they seemed to be almost as simultaneously as grace notes on a well-tuned piano. John didn't see where they were coming from, he didn't know who they were coming from, but they hurt...oh Christ did they hurt. He backed up to find himself staring into the face of some kid who he'd never even seen before, but who looked at least two years older.

"Flimsy..." commented the boy, wiping dust off his clothes, which consisted of a long black trench coat, black pants and a black sequined vest with a black turtleneck underneath it. "Very flimsy." "Who are you?" demanded Colinson, puffing himself up to his full height. "You can pop that balloon chest of yours, flimsy," said the boy nonchalantly. "My name is Billy Smith."

Tommy was interested in how this was going on. This boy was certainly not as strong or as large as John, but he seemed to radiate a charisma so strong that John seemed like nothing but a clumsy, fat blob compared to him. John snarled "You'd better stay off my turf, if you know what's good for you, queer." "Is that so?" asked Billy. "Then pardon me for the intrusion on your 'turf', flimsy boy, but I have a proposition for you." John laughed, but the laugh didn't come out as an intimidating, boisterous noise, but rather as a nervous series of hacking coughs. "What's funny?" asked Billy. "A proposition, freak? Listen, I don't need no 'proposition' from you," he said. "No? What about this, then?" asked Billy, sending a series of bone-crushing punches into John's abdomen as if he were just flicking his finger.

John, when he had done grabbing his stomach, stood up and glared at Billy. "You fight dirty, prick," he said. "From my point of view, that's what you were doing to this boy," Billy commented, indicating Tommy. "But if you want a fair fight, you may take the first move." John lumbered forward and swung two killing punches at Billy, who dodged them as if they were clumsy jabs with sticks. He then proceeded to send a series of punches into John with seamless accuracy. And then the kicks began. Soon John was simply writhing around and Billy was just a flesh colored blur hovering around him. Finally Billy backed off. "Do we understand each other?" he asked. John stared at him openmouthed. "I am new in town and shall require protection by a notable and feared presence in this community. You seem as good as any," Billy said to John. "Why don't we talk somewhere else?" John tried to stand his ground, but then realized that he had better follow the stranger.

Tommy suddenly felt his stomach turn inward. From the sound of the new guy's words, he was some kind of juvenile mastermind. If he was doing business with John, he couldn't be good news. What Tommy didn't know was that while John had been mean and thuggish, the new boy would be much, much worse.

He would threaten their souls.

4

After school Tommy hurried out of the school, more to avoid John's gang than anything else. But as he hurried down toward the flagpole, he was stopped forcefully by a hand on his shoulder. He looked around to see Billy Smith looking into his eyes. "Hey, kid," said Billy, "Going somewhere?" Tommy figured that as long as he wasn't being asked for his money, he was safe. "I'm just trying to get away from your protection," he said apologetically, for John and Billy had forged a bargain.

"My protection is a worthless thug of a boy I only employed to give him his dignity. I need you for a more specific reason," said Billy. Tommy listened intently, almost honored to be asked to aid this near-god of a boy. Wait, what was he thinking? God? Yeah, right, he was just another kid. "I know you're friends with a certain girl here who has visions of an entity she calls Nastarine," Billy said. Tommy blinked. How did he know about big N? He figured that Michelle's bogeyman had to be more well-known than he thought. "I also know that you have every single dream of hers written down in your diary as a half-hearted attempt at a book. I do not wish to read them, but I wish to meet this girl. I want you to arrange a meeting." Tommy stared back. He had been honored, but now he saw where this was going. This kid was trying to horn in on his girl! Not if he could help it! "Me introduce you to a girl I've loved since the sixth grade?" he asked incredulously. "Who said anything about introducing me?" Billy asked menacingly. Tommy stared up into those dark eyes and suddenly felt as though his insides had turned into lead. "You're him, aren't you?" he asked. "You're Mr. Knight-in-tin-knee-guards." Tommy stopped himself. No, that couldn't be, could it? Billy smiled. "So she knows me from the dreams," he said more to himself than to Tommy. "I certainly think it would be in your best interest to point her out to me, my good boy," he said. Tommy tried to stop himself, but before he could his hand had extended towards Michelle, who was standing at the curb.

Billy looked across at her and then strode towards her, stopping to shake Tommy's hand and thank him. When he reached Michelle, he placed his hand on her shoulder and whispered in her ear "Hello, progeny."

Michelle froze. She recognized that voice and didn't like to think about it. Was she mad? Was she hallucinating the way she had hallucinated Nastarine's voice? She turned slowly on the spot...and saw him. It was the boy who had haunted her dreams and had both allowed Nastarine to appear and then driven him off. Billy stared into her eyes. "Who are you?" she asked. He grinned. "My name is Billy Smith," he said. "I have arrived here for the purpose which the singular consciousness which guides me has set me to." Michelle stared in abject terror. The words he were uttering were exactly what her dream-boy said before Nastarine appeared. Then the boy spoke in Nastarine's voice. "I am here to claim you, progeny." Michelle screamed and ran. She didn't dare look back. She was conscious of steady, nightmarish footfalls behind her. Then she felt hand clasp around her waist. "Let me go, Nastarine!" she screamed. "Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" "You should talk, my dear," snarled Nastarine. "You are what I am here to let go."

Then Michelle woke up. She found herself in her bed, staring around, bewildered. She had been so sure that dream was real, but it wasn't. It had been just another dream to tell her friends and have them write it down. She got out of bed and walked to the bathroom.

When she got there, she checked her reflection in the glass...and fell back.

In the mirror Nastarine grinned back at her, his horrible, monstrous form writhing. "You cannot escape from me by waking up anymore, Progeny!" he screamed. "What do you want from me?" Michelle cried out, sobbing with fear. "If you want to find that out, go to Ballswick hospital!" Nastarine snarled and disappeared. Michelle suddenly felt herself being slapped and found herself on the pavement outside school. Tommy and Nick were sitting next to her, trying desperately to wake her up. "What happened?" she asked groggily. "Well, that new kid walked up to you and...I thought you had gone nuts. You screamed at him to let you go even though he wasn't touching you and then you fainted. And he...he carried you back over here and laid you down on the grass and then he said: 'she and I will meet again,' and left."

Michelle thought this was absolutely unbelievable. She knew she had felt Nastarine(or rather, Billy) grab her. But if he hadn't, then what had truly happened? There was only one way to find out. She had to go to where Nastarine had said. "I had a dream about big N," she said as though it were routine. "I've gotta go to Ballswick Asylum."

5

Ballswick asylum loomed on the horizon, a testament to destruction, its windows cracked and broken in. Half of it was entrenched in the earth like a grim travesty of the leaning tower of Pisa. Standing at the base of the building, Billy Smith looked out over the town(Ballswick asylum was set on a hill). He knew she couldn't refuse Nastarine's summons. Nastarine himself had entered her mind to give her that dream. Now all he had to do was wait for her. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the curved scalpel which he had stolen from Ballswick asylum. No harm in bringing a little muscle along, he thought.

Meanwhile, Michelle, Nick and Tommy were climbing the hill to Ballswick asylum. Tommy and Nick were excited, this might be their chance to meet Big N in person. Michelle, though, was terrified. If Nastarine really was up there, she couldn't wake up this time. She knew Tommy and Nick were here, but would they be any match for the monster she had dreamed of night after night?

"So you're here at last," said Billy as Michelle, Nick and Tommy arrived at Ballswick asylum. He was concealed carefully under some rubble. What he was about to do would require that he be hidden. He focused his eyes on Michelle and closed his eyes...and switched places.

Michelle's skin suddenly began to prickle and then crack, but no blood flowed out. There was a putrid smell as the organs under the skin withered and died and her skin peeled off in long, rotten orange slices. And then...from out of the skin, as if he were pulling off a costume, stepped Billy Smith. "What happened?" asked Billy in Michelle's voice. "What's going on?"

"I'll tell you what's going on, my dear," said Billy's voice from under a pile of wood and the next thing that happened was that the pile was thrown off and Michelle walked out from under it. Michelle crossed to where Billy and the two boys were standing. "So this is what I look like," said Michelle in Billy's voice, her mouth forming a grimace-like grin of pleasure. "I had no idea I looked so much older than you!" "What is happening?" asked Billy with Michelle's voice. "What are you doing, Nastarine?" "Oh, I'm not Nastarine," said Michelle, "You are, remember? I'm just some poor little girl who gets nightmares about you." The last sentence was said in Michelle's voice with such realism that the boys were confused about who was who.

"What is happening to me?" asked Michelle/Billy as her voice began to deepen into Billy's charismatic tones. "A simple exchange of souls," said Michelle. "I'm sending Nastarine into you. I'm sick of inhabiting that body, progeny!" came Nastarine's voice from Michelle's body. "So I'm taking the only other one which is available to me..." and now the voice changed mouths. "YOURS!"

But suddenly the skin on Billy's body began to shrivel and suddenly Michelle's face turned into a horrible snarl of anger. "No! You can't fight back!" snarled Nastarine from her mouth as that skin too began to crumble. "You're bound to me, Progeny! You can't escape! You can run, but I'll always be there to take your soul!"

With these words, the skin fell off and once again Michelle stepped into where Billy had been and Billy stepped into where Michelle had been. The boys had been eagerly taking all that had transpired down, but now they looked up and realized how dangerous it was. "Run!" screamed Michelle. "Run for your lives!" And it was not bad advice, for Billy's skin had once more begun to shrivel off, but this time it was just his.

Soon it fell off and out slithered a long, grey, worm which was at least twelve feet long and two feet wide. The worm reared up and then a swarm of flies flew out of Billy's body and turned into two arms which then blended flawlessly with the worm, two more swarms flew out and formed wings and then another worm appeared which crawled up on top of the first one. Then the whole gruesome assemblage reared up and melded together into a massive, spitting, screeching monster ten times more hideous than anything the others had ever seen.

The face was like the underside of a millipede, bristling with black hairs which twitched and moved of their own accord. The wings looked like great, scaly masses of writhing worms and leeches. The arms were bulbous and slimy like a slug's and the body was still grey and hideously long like the worm. The creature snarled and soared into the air, swooping after Michelle, Tommy and Nick.

As it flew, the creature slowly melded together into a shapeless mass and then into the form of Billy Smith, flying along with a look on his face like that of death. "Run!" he roared at them with the voice of Nastarine. "Run from your very secret of existence, progeny! Run from what you have so often revered and tried to replicate, foolish boys! Run from the face of evil, run from the wings of hate, run from the hands of fear! Run from Nastarine, the dark stranger!" With those last words, he swooped down so low and went so fast that his path was like the arc of the grim reaper's scythe. He was fully level with Michelle and just as he was about to collide with her, he swept her up in his great, black arms and swooped above the outstretched arms with his quarry struggling and straining against his inexorable, evil grip.

6

Michelle strained against her fetters. Billy had tied her down with a straitjacket from the ruins of Ballswick asylum. He had her stripped down to her undergarments. But she knew that sexual assault was not on his mind, she knew that Nastarine had much more sinister plans for her.

Billy walked over to where Michelle was tied. "So," he said, "It's time we finally talked face to face before our mutual friend comes back." He said this with such a different tone than he had used before that Michelle stopped struggling. He reached out his hand and tilted her head upward by the chin.

"We are both trapped by Nastarine, it seems," he said. "You are the only person he seems to care about and I am the earthly vessel of his spirit. I wasn't always like this, you know, Michelle," he said. Michelle was surprised. It was the first time he hadn't called her "progeny". "I was an ordinary kid at one point, you see. But Nastarine was always just beyond my conscious mind chiseling a way in. I didn't know it, but I'm a dark stranger, Michelle." Michelle didn't understand what he meant by dark stranger. "A dark stranger is like a guardian angel, except the opposite. Nastarine's a really powerful one, he can go beyond just tempting people, he can become people. Like me. And like you," came Nastarine's voice.

"Like me?" gasped Michelle. "Of course, progeny. A while back there was a family by the name of Krudson who were all dark occultists. The father in that family was the first human being I became. The child he produced with the wife had more of my blood in him. Then the Krudsons died in a fire and their child was the only one who survived, but with no memory of the incident because it was so traumatic. He was adopted by the Smith family. Then, two years later I took over the body of a young rapist. He raped your mother, Michelle and got her pregnant with you. Your mother didn't have an abortion thanks to my interference and now here you are."

Michelle's eyes widened. So that was why Nastarine called her progeny. So that was why he didn't take the forms of the boys and why she could only hear his voice when he spoke with another person's mouth. That was why only she could feel him when he grabbed her that day. She was a part of Nastarine. She was just as much a dark stranger as Billy. No! That couldn't be!

Billy moved up to her. "Now, let me free you from your human mind," said Nastarine, and Michelle saw her skin begin to slide off...and the worm begin to come out...

And then she fought. She fought like she had never fought before. She fought like a desperate woman. She could hear Nastarine shrieking at her to give up. She felt the arms of the worm punch their way out of her sides and screamed in agony as the writhing appendages clawed at her hips and anything else they could reach. She forced herself to focus on Billy through the horrible blur of pain and lunged for him...and kissed him.

And then her mind was suppressed by Nastarine. Her skin fell off and the worm and swarms and other things crawled out and formed Nastarine's body.

7

But Michelle's kiss had wrought a change on Billy. For a moment his fifteen year old self had come back. For a split second he threw off Nastarine and for a split second he was Billy Smith, and not only that, he was Mr. Knight- in-tin-knee-guards. He faced the ugly, writhing mass that was Nastarine and knew that he couldn't let the monster back inside his body, he couldn't let that evil thing pollute his soul again. And he stood his ground against Nastarine.

Michelle looked down at the pathetic little boy. She was fully Nastarine now and she was fully evil. No more of this nonsense. She didn't need him any more. She reared up and lunged for Billy, her insectoid arms swinging wildly. Billy dodged out of the way and retaliated by throwing a rock from the ground into her/his eye. Nastarine roared in agony and then slowly condensed into the form of Michelle. She sprang on Billy with all the superhuman strength Nastarine had given to Billy at one point. However, just as she was about to strangle him, Billy kissed her back.

All at once, Michelle's skin fell half off and some of the worm emerged. But at the same time, she awoke from Nastarine's clutches and with a final twitch, the whole wretched mass that was Nastarine fell out of her other half. Almost at once new skin grew in the same place. Nastarine growled and rounded on both of them. Michelle and Billy backed up as the great worm reared towards them...and then began to change. It slowly but surely melded into the form that had haunted Michelle's nightmares for ages: The horrible apparition that was Nastarine as he truly was.

He was dressed in robes that shone glowing white. They were dazzling, but in a sinister way that made you think of bright spotlights when you've got stage fright. His skin was pitch black, to the extent that it seemed to be an open, gaping hole into nothing. And his eyes were yellow cat's eyes with a predatory glint. His teeth flashed with the same hideous radiance as his robes. And his hair was disheveled and was the same horrible white. He advanced on them, his horribly out of spectrum self colliding with the surrounding environment.

"You two are on match for me!" Nastarine gloated triumphantly. "No-one throws Nastarine out and lives to tell the tale. I'm going to use you both as vessels to bring more and more dark strangers into the world when I've done with you!" he hissed. "Now look at him, progeny," he whispered hypnotically to Michelle. "Look at the man you've dreamed of for so long. Look at his soft flesh, feel it, kiss it. Suck it." He then turned to Billy and whispered in the same coercing tone "And you, vessel, observe her. She is beautiful, is she not? You want her, you know you do."

But Nastarine had not counted on one thing, or rather two things: Nick and Tommy. The two boys had followed Billy back and had witnessed the whole sordid mess. They now leapt from their hiding places and charged Nastarine. They ran right through him, though(for he was an incorporeal presence). But their ensuing collision with Billy and Michelle broke Nastarine's lusty spell and stopped the two just as they were about to sink into unabated sexual activity. The dark stranger loomed over them. "Courageous indeed," he said. "But I'm afraid that you too are going to find yourselves trapped in my sp-" suddenly he stopped. His face contorted into a grimace of agony as Michelle and Billy kissed and let their human souls flow to each other. Without his vessel or his progeny holding any room for him(for they had consummated their desire in just such a way as they saw fit), Nastarine could no longer hold a position in the world. He sent out a demonic wail of anger and dissipated into two separate, smaller Nastarines, which floated into Michelle and Billy's bodies.

But these were not capable of dominating the soul or becoming physically present. They were just ordinary dark strangers and the best they could do was to whisper dark temptation into the two teens' subconscious minds. And as Billy and Michelle approached each other, suddenly they felt a strange sensation inside themselves, like the awakening of a presence they hadn't felt for a while.

For the first time they had guardian angels.

8

Fourty years later.

"And now it appears that a new terror is about to make the big screen: the dark stranger Nastarine. Tom Glasston and Nick Young, the creators of Nastarine are here with us in the studio. In the upcoming movie: "Blood and spirits" in which the new creature makes his debut played by Christopher Lee..." Billy Smith turned the TV off. He knew full well how Nick Young and Tom Glasston had come up with the story for "Blood and spirits", in fact he even figured he knew the story already. A voice in the back of his mind urged: "Sue them! Sue them!" But he knew better than to listen to that voice. He had listened to it way back when he was a kid too much.

"Dad!" came the voice of one of his kids from a bedroom. Billy got up and walked into the bedroom. He saw his son sitting bolt upright in bed, strangling his teddy bear, he was holding it so tightly. "Dad, I had a nightmare," said the boy. "Tell me about your nightmare," said Billy concernedly. "In it there was a big man in all this white with a black face and he kept on offering to make me happy and give me power and when I said no he turned into this big monster. And he kept on calling me progeny and said he'd be back..." whimpered the boy. Billy turned white. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out an ad for "Blood and Spirits" which showed Christopher Lee in the black makeup and luminous costume holding a knife. "This him?" asked Billy. The kid looked at the picture and then looked back at him. "Not quite the same face, but basically yeah," he said.

Billy nodded. "Son, if he comes back, here's what I ought to tell you. I know this bastard, and if he comes back just say no. You hear me, son? Goddammit, just say NO," said Billy. He then turned to leave. "You're a little late, vessel," came a voice from behind him and he turned to see his son sitting bolt upright and staring at him with a sadistic grin. Billy charged the boy, but before he was five inches, his son was out of bed and had sent him five crushing punches...

And then Billy woke up. His wife, Michelle, lay next to him, sound asleep. He breathed a sigh of relief. He had nothing to fear from Nastarine any more. Nastarine was now just a little voice in the back of his mind. He sank back into the pillow. But just as he was about to fall asleep...

"Dad!"

The End