The Darkest Corners
The concluding part of this darkly funny, horror series Darren Shan called 'deliciously nightmarish'.Kyle is a bit of a problem child. He won’t do what his dad tells him. But that’s because his dad wants Kyle to unleash the scuttling, screaming, killer creatures of the Darkest Corners and bring about the end of the world. Now might be a good time to rebel…
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For my son, Kyle, the inspiration for this series.
This is it. Kyle versus Dad. You against me. May the best man winâ¦
Contents
Chapter One - The Beginning of the End
Chapter Five - Just Not Cricket
Chapter Seven - Mr Lazy Bones Wakes Up
Chapter Eight - The Truth is Out There
Chapter Twelve - The Wrong Door
Chapter Fourteen - A Cold and Lonely Death
Chapter Fifteen - Hello There, Mr Squirrel
Chapter Sixteen - The Long Walk
Chapter Seventeen - Ring of Death
Chapter Nineteen - The End of the Beginning
What had I expected to see? I wasnât sure. An empty street. One or two late-night wanderers, maybe.
But not this. Never this.
There were hundreds of them. Thousands. They scuttled and scurried through the darkness, swarming over the village like an infection; relentless and unstoppable.
I leaned closer to the window and looked down at the front of the hospital. One of the larger creatures was tearing through the fence, its claws slicing through the wrought-iron bars as if they were cardboard. My breath fogged the glass and the monster vanished behind a cloud of condensation. By the time the pane cleared the thing would be inside the hospital. It would be up the stairs in moments. Everyone in here was as good as dead.
The distant thunder of gunfire ricocheted from somewhere near the village centre. A scream followed â short and sharp, then suddenly silenced. There were no more gunshots after that, just the triumphant roar of something sickening and grotesque.
I heard Ameena take a step closer behind me. I didnât need to look at her reflection in the window to know how terrified she was. The crack in her voice said it all.
âItâs the same everywhere,â she whispered.
I nodded, slowly. âThe town as well?â
She hesitated long enough for me to realise what she meant. I turned away from the devastation outside. âWait⦠You really mean everywhere, donât you?â
Her only reply was a single nod of her head.
âLiar!â I snapped. It couldnât be true. This couldnât be happening.
She stooped and picked up the TV remote from the day-room coffee table. It shook in her hand as she held it out to me.
âSee for yourself.â
Hesitantly, I took the remote. âWhat channel?â
She glanced at the ceiling, steadying her voice. âAny of them.â
The old television set gave a faint clunk as I switched it on. In a few seconds, an all-too-familiar scene appeared.
Hundreds of the creatures. Cars and buildings ablaze. People screaming. People running. People dying.
Hell on Earth.
âThatâs New York,â she said.
Click. Another channel, but the footage was almost identical.
âLondon.â
Click.
âIâm⦠Iâm not sure. Somewhere in Japan. Tokyo, maybe?â
It could have been Tokyo, but then again it could have been anywhere. I clicked through half a dozen more channels, but the images were always the same.
âIt happened,â I gasped. âIt actually happened.â
I turned back to the window and gazed out. The clouds above the next town were tinged with orange and red. It was already burning. They were destroying everything, just like heâd told me they would.
This was it.
The world was ending.
Armageddon.
And it was all my fault.
The world changed.
It happened in an instant, but it felt like an age as my mind swirled with everything I had just gone through. Running from the screechers. My battle with the Beast. Discovering that Ameena wasnât real â had never been real. But through it all one thought loomed larger than all the others.
My dad. A tape recorder. A bang from the tinny speaker as he shot and murdered my mum. His face, smiling at me. Leering, laughing.
And then an explosion inside of me. A rage, like nothing I had ever felt before. He had killed my mum. He had made me listen to her dying screams. And then he had run away.
But no matter how fast he ran, it would never be fast enough. I was coming for him. This, finally, would be the end.
Shadows engulfed me as I arrived in the Darkest Corners, the Hell-like alternate reality where all forgotten imaginary friends go. The world Iâd left behind had been blanketed by snow, but here the ground was awash with filth and stagnant puddles.
The buildings around me were the same, but different. These were crumbling relics of those back in the real world, all boarded-up windows or burned-out shells. They were barely visible in the faint glow of the moon.
I spun on the spot, searching for any sign of my dad. Heâd had only a few secondsâ head start, so he should have been somewhere close by. I peered into the gloom, trying to find him, but a sharp cry from behind made me turn.
