Darkness by John Saul Page B

nothing, moving with the steady rhythms of an automaton, George Coulton climbed down from the porch of the shack and stepped into the boat. A moment later the boat disappeared back into the blackness of the night, the Dark Man still standing silently in its prow, and except for the fact that George was no longer there, Amelie wouldn’t have been certain that anything had happened at all.
    Refusing to think about what it might mean, terror beating louder in her heart with every passing second, she forced herself to begin working once more on the tiny garment in her hands.
    But even as she worked on it, the certainty grew within her that her baby would never wear it.
    Unless …
    A thought flickered in her mind, but she turned away from it as quickly as it came. Despite what she’d said, she didn’t want George to die.

    The boat drifted to a stop, and Jonas Cox shipped the oars. He looked up at George Coulton, seated in the stern, seeing George’s bloodless face glowing ghostlike in the first light of the rising moon. Jonas could feel the fear that had seized George, and knew that the Dark Man, standing behind him, still had his eyes fixed on the boy Jonas had known all his life.
    “You have disobeyed me,” the Dark Man said, and though he spoke softly, the words chilled Jonas.
    “I didn’t—” George Coulton began, but before he could go on, the Dark Man spoke again.
    “You belong to me. You do what I tell you. I did not tell you to marry Amelie Parish.”
    “She were havin’ my baby,” George whimpered.
    “My
baby,” the Dark Man corrected him. “Your children are mine, as you are mine.”
    “An’ I’m givin’ him to you,” George whined, desperate now.
    “You promised your woman you wouldn’t,” the Dark Man stated. “You belong to me, and your children belong to me. It is why you live.”
    George said nothing, his eyes widening as he began to realize what was going to happen to him.
    “I will not be disobeyed. My children will not promise that which is not theirs to give.” The Dark Man opened his cloak and drew a long knife from a sheath at his belt. Leaning over, he placed it in Jonas Cox’s hand. “Release George Coulton from the Circle,” he said.
    George gasped as he saw the knife, but it was alreadytoo late. Before he could utter even a single word, the knife in Jonas Cox’s hand flashed in the moonlight, and its blade, razor-sharp, plunged deep into George’s chest.
    A scream rose from George’s throat, rending the silence of the night, building as pain shot through his body, then fading into a low, horrible gurgling sound as blood bubbled from his lips.
    As the life drained from his body, he began to change.
    His eyes sank into his skull, and his skin withered into leathery folds. His muscles, lean and firm only a moment ago, turned flaccid, and his strong young bones turned suddenly brittle, his hip breaking under the weight of his own body.
    Jonas Cox twisted the knife in response to a quiet order from the Dark Man, plunging it deeper, then ripping it upward to slice through George’s heart.
    George’s body toppled from the stem of the boat, dropping into the shallow water.
    Jonas, ignoring the corpse in the water, washed the blood from the blade of the knife, then returned it to the Dark Man. He put the oars back into the water, and the boat slipped away, disappearing once more into the darkness.

    At first it was nothing more than a faint gasping sound, as if somewhere nearby in the darkness some unseen creature had been taken by surprise. Then, in an instant, Amelie heard the gasp turn into a scream of utter terror. It built, rising to a crescendo, then was suddenly cut off.
    For a moment Amelie thought it was over, until she became aware of an agonized gurgling sound, a sound that died slowly.
    Silence once again hung over the swamp. Amelie sat still, not daring to move until slowly, tentatively, the night sounds began to rise again.
    For the creatures of the bog, whatever