Darkness unbound

Clouds were gathering above the city, bringing an early darkness above the crude constructs of concrete and steel. Like harbingers of doom, they crawled, bringing omens of death and devastation with them. Damien and Lisa were sitting in their car, which was parked on a long and lonely street in the suburbs. Their eyes were fixed, yet anxious. As the wind was picking up speed, they didn’t even notice pieces of garbage from the street passing by their car.

The first drop of rain fell onto the windshield of the old car, but only Lisa noticed the noise. Damien’s stare was fixated on the house not far from them, across the street. She squeezed his hand, and he felt the shaking.

‘We must do this!’

Damien’s voice didn’t comfort her at all. The shaking did not stop or slow down. He looked at Lisa. His stare was grave but resolute. She looked back at him with the admiration of a schoolgirl going out for the first time with her much older crush. One thing Lisa was sure about, she would follow Damien even into the depths of hell.

‘I know, but are you sure this is the right thing to do?’

Lisa pleaded with her eyes. She secretly hoped for Damien to abort his plan, but knew he would not. He placed his sweaty hand on her cold cheek and caressed her velvet skin.

‘Look, these people have more than they deserve. We get in, take the money we can lay our hands on, then get out. Nobody will ever know anything. Do you trust me?’

‘Yes, of course. But since when it is a crime to win the lottery?’

Damien sighed, then turned his gaze back at the house, which was being covered by darkness. The rain was picking up some speed, too. Now, it sounded like a tired machine gun on the windshield and roof of the car.

‘Look at us, Lisa! We are working our asses off every day, and we are getting nowhere. And these assholes just get crazy rich overnight. Where is the justice in that?’

She avoided his eyes and kept staring at the dashboard. In reality, Lisa was lost deep in her thoughts. She felt his stringent eyes locked on her, but she didn’t look back.

‘There is no justice,’ she murmured.

‘Yes. Now the situation is even worse. Those greedy bastards fired me, and you are pregnant!’

Damien touched her belly, which was just beginning to show the signs of pregnancy.

‘We will not raise our child in poverty, like our parents did. If it doesn’t work one way, we will try another. Society had failed us more times than I can count. Now it’s our time to fail its stupid rules and regulations, and take what we need. Screw everybody, we need to survive.’

Lisa was still lost when he grabbed her hand. The shaking subsided a bit, but its remnants were still there. Echoes of repressed fear hiding below the surface, ready to burst up again.

‘All right,’ she said, and nodded. ‘We go in quickly, take the money... or anything valuable, and get out.’

‘Exactly! That’s my girl! Brave, brave girl. We’ll be out in no time. Just wait for the rich bastard to go to sleep.’

‘But he doesn’t live alone, does he? You said he’s married, no?’

‘Yes, I saw him with a woman, but not recently. I do not know where the old hag is. Maybe she left him, or she’s just travelling.’

‘One hell of a time to leave him...’

‘Yeah, I bet. Now the bastard can get all of them women. With that kind of money, he can buy anything.’

The house looked as if being the subject of a serious renovation project, but for some reason, the work got halted. Half-finished work was faintly visible on the outside of the house. In the driveway, they saw a brand-new BMW, probably one of the latest models.

Damien only dreamt about such a car. He had seen these new and fancy cars on the internet, and sometimes on television, and he was drooling every time. But he had to be satisfied with the rabbit cage on wheels, which was his car. It was enough to get around the city, but it wasn’t reliable enough to be used for long drives.

They haven’t even watched TV for several months because it broke down, and they couldn’t afford to buy a new one. The second-hand one which they had bought at a discount broke down too.

The rain slowed down after an hour or so. Damien and Lisa waited in the car, but the man who had won the lottery did not leave the house. Soon enough, they noticed that someone had switched the lights in both the living room and kitchen off.

‘Let’s hope he went to sleep,’ said Damien.

‘I doubt that. It’s still early.’

‘Yeah, but I think he is getting drunk or something. I saw his face a few times when I checked out the house, and I think he got hooked on booze. Maybe because his old lady left, I don’t know.’

‘You think he’s drunk?’

‘Definitely. I know the face of a man who drinks a lot.’

‘I know. Your dad...’

Now Lisa was the one reaching for her fiancée’s hand. She was perfectly aware of the history between Damien and his alcoholic father, and also the almost bloody finale of the relationship between the two men. Even after several years, she still kept thanking God for Damien’s self-control. He would have ended up in prison had he done what he had intended to do back then.

‘We wait for another fifteen minutes, and then go to the house. Take a good look around, and if everything’s clear, we find a way in.’

Time went by fast. Just as time seems to slow down when one is desperately waiting for something, it seems to speed up when one desperately wants to avoid something. It’s only a matter of perception, but it can wreak havoc on the mind.

‘All right, let’s go!’

Damien looked around one more time, then exited the car. Lisa followed suit. The street appeared empty, and the rain subsided. Puddles lay all around on the cracked and uneven asphalt. Lisa looked up at the light pole close to the house they were trying to break into. It seemed to brighten for a second, then its light almost faded to nothing, just before recovering as if nothing had happened. The heavy rain must have damaged the grid, she thought, brushing off the strange event.

Damien signaled her to follow him, and she did. They saw nobody outside. It was the perfect time for a robbery. Their shoes made splashing noises as they approached the silent house. A dog barked not so far away, which made Damien stop for a second, but he soon he continued.

This part of the city consisted mostly of decrepit or abandoned houses. Hobos sought these out frequently to sleep for a few nights before moving on. Some houses have been overgrown by vegetation and their roofs or walls had collapsed or crumbled. The only building in the area showing the signs of maintenance was the house Damien and Lisa planned to rob.

Hedges and some trees surrounded it. It was the standard American suburban home. The owners could only afford to maintain it in a mediocre condition in the past. Now, Damien and Lisa saw in more detail the signs of ongoing renovation all over the place.

Some scaffolding was placed near the walls, there were piles of wood planks, cement, and bricks covered with plastic sheets. There was also a vast pile of gravel near the driveway, and a cement mixer, which the workers had covered against the elements.

They approached the house from the left. In this part, the hedges were the densest. Lisa felt a shiver go through her. She shuddered. It was not the cold, but something different. A coldness which had not only cut to her bones, but it cut all the way to her soul. Lisa looked at Damien, but he seemed to be unaffected. I’m too afraid, she thought. Get your act together, she whispered to herself, but it had little effect.

Damien stopped her and leaned close.

‘Let’s check the house all the way around,’ he said. ‘We have to make sure that nobody is awake. Take your time, don’t rush it. We should make no sound.’

He pointed toward the back of the house. This meant that he will go around the front, which was riskier. People could see him from the street. He turned to go around the front, and she mustered her courage to go alone around the back. She wouldn’t have done this alone. Maybe if she were to starve to death, or if her child were to starve to death.

Lisa believed in her fiancée. Even though she knew it was not right to steal, the fate of her unborn child and their survival were the most important. Why is it a sin to steal from the rich when you are starving? This was the question lingering in her mind. This was what gave her some justification for what they were doing right now.

The light coming from the street had a hard time reaching the back of the house. Reaching for the flashlight was tempting, but Lisa knew it was a bad idea. No flashlights, unless they were inside, and if they were absolutely necessary.

Lisa paced until she reached the back door. She peered in and saw only darkness. But then, she noticed faint light coming from the basement window, which was a few feet from the back door. She went closer, careful to not make any sound, and bent on her knees to peek inside.

Through the window, she saw a man sitting in a chair near the entrance, which was opposite to the window. A small table was beside him, with a candle on it. Darkness covered about half of the room, mostly the area under the window. Lisa tried to discern what was under the window, but she couldn’t. The darkness was too deep for her eyes to peer into.

As she kept staring, Lisa saw that the man’s lips were moving, and his stare focused on something in the darkness. He was speaking to somebody, or maybe he was too drunk and already hallucinating. After some talking, he stopped and took a small rosary from the pocket of his jacket. He held it with both hands in front of him, closed his eyes, then began praying. At least, this was what Lisa concluded upon seeing the strange events.

‘Free me!’ a whisper hit her ear, and she both gasped and flinched at the same time.

It was as if somebody had been standing near her, and whispered in her ear. Lisa’s heart almost exploded out of her chest. After seeing that there was nobody around, she leaned against the wet wall of the house and tried to catch her breath. Every inch of her body was shaking.

‘What happened?’

The question came from Damien, who completed his round around the house, and saw Lisa with her back to the wall. She gasped again when she heard him. He went close to her, but then saw the faint light in the window, and looked inside for a moment. He noticed the strange sight inside, but wanted to make sure Lisa was alright.

‘Let’s go home, Damien,’ she whispered in a pleading voice as he crouched beside her and wrapped his arms around her.

‘But what happened? What scared you?’

‘I thought... I thought I heard something. It was... It was like a whisper. Like somebody whispered in my ear, but when I looked, nobody was there.’

‘What...’

‘I don’t know. Maybe I’m going crazy, or maybe... maybe it’s the pregnancy. But it seemed so real.’

‘Ok. All right. Calm down.’

She just nodded and felt a little better when Damien caressed her sweaty cheeks.

‘Look, we’ve come so far. We just have to go in and find the money.’

‘No...’

‘Hey, hey, the man is down there,’ he pointed his finger to the window. ‘That’s good. We know where he is. I don’t care what weird stuff he is doing, we just want some cash, that’s all. We go in through this door, find the basement door, and barricade it with a chair. Even if he hears us, he won’t be able to open the door, and we’ll have time to search or run if he calls the pigs.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yeah, of course I am. We have to do this. Now is the time.’

‘All right. But let’s hurry, please. I’m afraid.’

Damien just nodded, then searched for his lock-picking kit.