The Silver Pendant=The Dark Keeper Profiles Challenge

Chaos walked amongst the town of Petersburg. It began when Grace Blackstone, a young medical researcher
received a package at her home. It was a cold and dreary day, and being
on vacation, she decided to stay indoors. When the doorbell rang, Grace
jumped, her nerves were recently frayed, due to terrible nightmares and
lack of sleep. She grabbed a sweater and headed downstairs. A cold chill
swept inside her house making her shiver as she opened the door

Once inside, she proceeded to open the package. She stood there staring
dumbly at the contents. Inside a rectangular box lay a lovely silver
necklace with a strange dagger for a pendant. The dagger was silver,
with a black outlining and had a snake curled around it with red glowing
eyes. Grace stared at it enchanted, she was repulsed, yet fascinated at
the same time. It was the necklace in her nightmares, though she never
did remember them , she definitely knew she had seen the necklace
before. Fear seized her heart and she trembled in spite of herself. Why
she felt this irrational fear, she didn’t know. Ignoring the sensation
of foreboding deep in the pit of her stomach, she grabbed the necklace
and hung itaround her neck on an impulse.

At that moment a
dark figure who hid behind the oak tree in front of Grace’s house,
laughed a soft maniacal laugh, his eyes glowed brightly, for a brief
moment and then turned instantly, black... In the middle of the night,
Grace opened her eyes, she got up from her bed, an intense feeling
within her, she needed to kill. Every one deserved to die. She would
start with her next door neighbors, the Fletcher’s. She closed the door
behind her not bothering to get dressed.

Slowly, stealthily
and with determination she approached, the Fletcher’s home. All the
lights were out, all was silent. Grace grabbed a butcher knife from the
kitchen, not making a sound. She tiptoed all the way upstairs, to where
the rooms were. She started with the children.

***********************************************************************

She
felt cold and wet. She opened her eyes and saw she was not in her bed,
but lying on the grass, between her house and the neighbors. She was
bewildered and had no idea how she had gotten there. As she tried to get
up, she got a look at her hands, which to her horror were stained with
blood. Blood! Her mind screamed. Examining them she saw the blood was
not hers. She managed to get into the house, her heart racing wildly,
frantically searching her memories and trying to recall what had
happened. She remembered nothing. Attributing it all to her nightmares,
she cleaned up and fell into a deep sleep.

Sirens screaming in the
distance, broke the eerie silence. Grace woke up and looked out of her
window. An ambulance was approaching, a police car not far behind.
Several questions haunted her mind, as she saw the neighbors gather
around the Fletcher’s home, her skin broke into goose bumps. Something
horrible had happened she just knew it.

“Breaking news.. There
appears to be a serial killer on the loose, here in the town of
Petersburg. Several families have been murdered in their own homes.
Police say they have no suspects as of yet. No motive has been found
either, It is a most baffling case, that due to the lack of
incriminating evidence, it has been rumored that local Police have been
seriously considered calling in the FBI.” Grace Blackstone was at her
job researching a supposedly new found cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Her
co- worker and only friend, Lara Parker, shook her head, shuddering
slightly, “ Can you believe it? We’re not safe anywhere any more.” Grace
just nodded sympathetically, a chill of her own creeping up her spine.
She excused herself and went to the bathroom. She washed her face, the
cool water soothing her.

As she lookedin the mirror, her heart
lurched forward and she nearly screamed. In the far right corner she saw
a dark figure shaped like a man, staring back at her with red glowing
eyes, it seemed they were the same eyes of the pendant she wore. He
smiled wickedly at her and vanished into thin air. Grace felt the color
drain from her face, an involuntary shudder trembled through her body.
What was happening? She asked herself.

************************************************************************

The
dark figure appeared in Grace’s home, walking slowly through every
room. He was speaking in a strange tongue, evil washed off of him in
waves infecting the whole house. He disappeared as Grace parked her
vehicle in the garage. Inside the house, all hell broke loose, for her.
All of her nightmares came rushing to her head at once. Her head pounded
heavily against her skull, the pressure was so intense, it brought her
to her knees. Her heart beat so loudly she could hear it as if it were
inside her ears. The images came and went, the violence of the crimes,
the gore, the screams. She saw them over and over again, until she
couldn’t stand it anymore. Everything went black.

************************************************************************

She
came to and was not in her living room, not even in her house, She lay
on the grass in front of a strange red brick house. She sat up and
blinked trying to concentrate and clear her head, the familiar sirens,
sounding in the distance. Horrified, confused and dazed she ran as fast
as she could.

”Latest news. The hunt for the serial killer is
still at large. No breakthroughs have been made. This could be the most
difficult homicide investigation in Petersburg, yet. FBI agents are now
involved and we will continue to update more information on the eleven
o’clock news. In the meantime, lock your doors and be safe.”

************************************************************************

Three months later…

Grace
was a terrible mess. She no longer went to work, she no longer called
Lara or any one else for that matter, she spent her days and nights
locked inside her house. She did not answer any calls or opened the
door. Her hair was a mess, her skin translucent pale. Her eyes had dark
circles under them, she was barely skin and bones. She spoke to herself,
muttering the same thing over and over” Must kill. Must kill. Must
kill..” The necklace with the dagger pendant glowed malevolently in the
dark like the epiphany of all evil. Grace was no longer herself. The
dark figure stood besides her all the time now, coaxing her to kill and
kill again. Grace looked at him and smiled nodding.

************************************************************************

“
Poor Grace.” Lara said to Dr. Gray Winters, head doctor of Petersburg’s
only asylum.” Dr, Gray nodded absently. “ I never knew. She- she.. Was
my best friend. I’ve known her all of my life. I should have known
something was wrong. I-” Dr. Gray cut her off gently. “ It’s not your
fault, Lara these things happen. She just snapped, this occurs
sometimes. She’s with the best here, so don’t worry she’ll be fine. You
did the right thing.” “ Lara nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks.
Grace had been the serial killer. She had been the one killing all of
those innocent families and Lara could not possibly fathom why? What had
possessed her to do such a thing?

Grace sat on her padded cell,
holding her knees and rocking back and forth. She didn’t speak, she
didn’t even acknowledge, Lara’s presence. It was as if she were lost to
the world. She occasionally spoke to herself and nodded as if speaking
to somebody she could only see and hear. Lara decided to visit her one
last time, she knew her friend would never come back to the real world
again. She sat in front of Grace and spoke to her sweetly, talking about
old childhood memories of them together. Grace stared straight ahead,
never even blinking.

Finally, Lara got up to leave, feeling pain
constrict her lungs, tears brimming in the corner of her eyes. ‘ Good
bye, Grace. Get better. ‘She said knowing it would never happen. Lara
bent down to hug her, when Grace grabbed her hand urgently. Lara’s eyes
widened and she looked at her friend astonished. Grace had given her the
necklace that she had worn around her neck. Lara took it and nodded,
she would keep it as a souvenir of their friendship. She didn’t see
Grace’s cold smile. The dark figure winked at her.

Lara drove
home. She had the pendant necklace,she looked at it and on an
impulse,wore it.She was so tired she decided to skip a meal and go
straight to bed. As she lay there, nightmares taking over her dreams,
the necklace glowed...Somewhere in the middle of the night, she woke up
on a dark deserted alley. She had no idea what she was doing there.
Slowly she sat up and bringing her hands towards her, saw that they were
stained with blood.

Amongst the shadows the dark figure laughed maniacally, as Lara’s bloodcurdling screams enveloped the night.

************************************************************************

“This
just out. Another baffling case. There seems to be another serial
killer on the loose, here in the town of Petersburg. This killer seems
to be targeting children. There have been four known murders so far.
Police are investigating….

************************************************************************

The
town was called Petersburg, without the Saint. For the demons from Hell
who sought refuge on earth after God’s wrath meant their world would be
a place of the past. They intended to live in a society where they can
mingle with humans and go undetected. They would live healthy, and
happy, where the demonic behavior would flourish. Angels in Heaven would
ignore the evil doings because they would simply blame it on mortal
sins.

Unfortunately, when they crossed onto the surface of the
planet, they took with them a Dark-Keeper. This evil presence could make
any sin a disaster. It would steal dreams away from people who aren’t
even sleeping. The struggles that the demons would have would show in
magnitude in the evil they would do. The mortals would be aware of their
presence, and try to cast them out with the help of divine power. The
demons had to think of other ways to commit sin so the blame wouldn’t be
on them.

The demons had to live amongst the mortals as best they
could. They knew it was going to be a challenge, but it was one
challenge they would certainly take on. God had destroyed Hell, but they
knew deep in their cold hearts, that God would not destroy the mortals.
He had a soft spot for them. He cared about them. That was certainly
some news they could live with. If they commit crimes against humanity,
they would have to keep it low-keyed, because they knew that the
Dark-Keeper would triple the horror.