The whole story was like walking through a nightmare.
The captain's suffering was never-ending, with one obstacle after another. Then came the biggest, most surprising twist and slowly, it all made sense.
I don't know if the captain deserved being in that nightmare or if he was also a victim. I liked that the hero and villain were not exactly defined.
It was scary and mysterious at the same time.
A well written plot and good characters.
This is a page turner I recommend to everyone who likes to read horror stories with gore, violence and abuse.
-Reviewed by Lorena Sanqui for Readers' Favorite
The Darkness Within - extract
Darkness. The ultimate surrender and the final act of a long lost existence. It is the dark that surrounds all - life and things. It’s a fact not easily forgotten.
It is in the darkness where everything begins and where it ceases to be. Complete emptiness and deafening silence, that’s where the Captain’s mind is right now.
But in this nothingness, feeble voices and sounds of joy reveal themselves. Resonance of playing children, their distant voices aren’t clear and yet are there. The feeling of warmth embraces the dark before the nightmarish screams of children tear the illusion to pieces.
***
The Captain awakens, confused and tired; all he can see are flames. He rises to his feet in a place he does not know. A place far from the tender fibers of reality. The place born of darkness.
The sky is a raging inferno that rains fire without mercy everywhere. There is no land, no visible places. Only that small patch of ground the Captain awoke on, floating among pieces of stones and molten rock. No ground below, just an endless burning spiral. This unknown place terrifies its beholder, the Captain, in more ways than just one. Particularly that feeling of familiarity he feels as he stares on around.
“What is this…? Where am…?” the Captain never finished that sentence. As he turns around he sees the “Lightark” floating there a few meters away.
His ship was ripped apart, only the front half is clearly recognizable although damaged beyond repair. Its debris are floating all around.
“No…no, this cannot be real. THIS CANNOT BE REAL!” he screamed into the void.
His anguish cry reaches far and wide but slowly dissipates like an echo in the surrounding inferno.
Powerless, he falls to his knees; at that moment a maniacal, evil laughter comes from all directions. The Captain gets back to his feet, awaiting in fear anything possible.
“You are so mistaken, this is very real!” a dark growling voice spoke to the Captain.
“Where are you? Where am I? What the fuck did you do to me?” asked the Captain. Laughter follows the Captain’s questions.
“I am everywhere! I am everything here and everything you see! And it is here, where all your sins will punish and destroy you. It is here, where your death awaits you!”
“No, no I do not belong here, I may not remember who I was but I am damn certain I’m a good person. I do not deserve this!” the Captain cried.
“You truly are a pathetic believer, trusting in yourself even though you have no idea who you are!”
A fireball falls unto the remains of the “Lightark”, completely incinerating what remained of it.
“But you have spirit, and it is that spirit and belief that will be crushed here!” another laughter followed as the Dark Voice spoke to the Captain.
“You will soon know, slowly and painfully you will realize that you are going to fall! Until that time, I am going to enjoy watching you crawl your way through misery! Let’s test those beliefs of yours!”
The Darkness Within
Novella, paperback
ISBN-978-1494224776
Captain Roberts, a lonely man with amnesia, which took away most of his life, is trying to find a speck of information or feelings which would bring back his lost memories.
His world is in space, but his problems are much closer to him than he can apprehend. As an only survivor of fatal space accident, where 3000 people lost their lives, he is under pressure of investigators and his own blank memory.
Will his attempt to push the trigger, aiming at his forehead, uncover at last his lost life or will it awaken a Dark Entity fed on his personal failures and pains?
Will the Captain find himself or he will find himself locked out from any power over his life, just being stooged …
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The Darkness Within by Robert Friedrich may be a short story, but all the elements of horror were still there and were shown perfectly. It was scary and mysterious at the same time.
A well written plot and good characters.
This is a page turner I recommend to everyone who likes to read horror stories with a little gore, violence and abuse.
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