SOMETHING IN THE DARK BOOK EXCERPT
TWELVE
A woman's body was laid out face down and motionless on the floor, next to the door. At a glance, I could see the handgun next to her had no clip. Officer Dredge. A flashing thought; too bad I didn't let the police car follow me to the house.
Gerald was sprawled out on the sofa, a pillow obscuring his face. His arms and legs were flailing in distress. A tall, burly man in a dark suit was bent over him, pushing the pillow with both hands. His head turned my way, staring at me with piercing, dark eyes. My sister was riding his back, her legs wrapped around his waist. His snakeskin boots confirmed it. He was indeed the same man I watched in the hospital parking lot. Shannon had both arms locked around the man's throat. She was cussing up a storm, and only glanced my way, as if she didn't dare lose any concentration at the task at hand. The man seemed to be treating her the same way, with total indifference.
My first step toward them caused me to cry out as I carelessly put my full weight on the damaged leg. Fortunately, I only need a few steps to reach them and when I did, I launched myself with as much velocity as possible off the lone good leg. The mysterious intruder turned to intercept me just as I speared him in the ribs, knocking him over the sofa, complete with screaming sister and all. For a moment there was an urge to check on Gerald, but I heard him gasp and choke. That meant he was breathing and Shannon was in greater danger, so I continued over the sofa after the dark haired man. I was stunned when his head popped up to meet me at eye level, especially since Shannon was still glued to his back, her arm tenaciously locked around her throat. Regardless of the extra burden, click to read on...
86
"It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."
Anne Frank
"War with evil; but show no spirit of malignity toward the man who may be responsible for the evil. Put it out of his power to do wrong."
Theodore Roosevelt
"Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires."
Bertrand Russel
"It's better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a terrific cost."
Stephen King
"Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil."
Aristotle
"When good men die their goodness does not perish, but lives though they are gone. As for the bad, all that was theirs dies and is buried with them."
Euripides
“God did not create evil. Just as darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of God.”
Albert Einstein
“What if evil doesn't really exist? What if evil is something dreamed up by man, and there is nothing to struggle against except our own limitations? The constant battle between our will, our desires, and our choices?”
Libby Bray
“I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.”
Charles Dickens
“The best men are not consistent in good-- why should the worst men be consistent in evil.”
Wilkie Collins
TWELVE
A woman's body was laid out face down and motionless on the floor, next to the door. At a glance, I could see the handgun next to her had no clip. Officer Dredge. A flashing thought; too bad I didn't let the police car follow me to the house.
Gerald was sprawled out on the sofa, a pillow obscuring his face. His arms and legs were flailing in distress. A tall, burly man in a dark suit was bent over him, pushing the pillow with both hands. His head turned my way, staring at me with piercing, dark eyes. My sister was riding his back, her legs wrapped around his waist. His snakeskin boots confirmed it. He was indeed the same man I watched in the hospital parking lot. Shannon had both arms locked around the man's throat. She was cussing up a storm, and only glanced my way, as if she didn't dare lose any concentration at the task at hand. The man seemed to be treating her the same way, with total indifference.
My first step toward them caused me to cry out as I carelessly put my full weight on the damaged leg. Fortunately, I only need a few steps to reach them and when I did, I launched myself with as much velocity as possible off the lone good leg. The mysterious intruder turned to intercept me just as I speared him in the ribs, knocking him over the sofa, complete with screaming sister and all. For a moment there was an urge to check on Gerald, but I heard him gasp and choke. That meant he was breathing and Shannon was in greater danger, so I continued over the sofa after the dark haired man. I was stunned when his head popped up to meet me at eye level, especially since Shannon was still glued to his back, her arm tenaciously locked around her throat. Regardless of the extra burden, click to read on...
86
"It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."
Anne Frank
"War with evil; but show no spirit of malignity toward the man who may be responsible for the evil. Put it out of his power to do wrong."
Theodore Roosevelt
"Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires."
Bertrand Russel
"It's better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a terrific cost."
Stephen King
"Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil."
Aristotle
"When good men die their goodness does not perish, but lives though they are gone. As for the bad, all that was theirs dies and is buried with them."
Euripides
“God did not create evil. Just as darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of God.”
Albert Einstein
“What if evil doesn't really exist? What if evil is something dreamed up by man, and there is nothing to struggle against except our own limitations? The constant battle between our will, our desires, and our choices?”
Libby Bray
“I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.”
Charles Dickens
“The best men are not consistent in good-- why should the worst men be consistent in evil.”
Wilkie Collins
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."
Henry David Thoreau |
"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who help to perpetrate it.
He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." Martin Luther King, Jr. |
Copyright © 2012. Something in the Dark - James White. All rights reserved.