Carli Castle [Castle - Darkness Within

Copyright 2015 Carli Castle

Smashwords Edition

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Table of Contents

ABOUT DARKNESS WITHIN

For as long as he couldremember, Lucas Ferrin had magical powers he couldnt control.Aside from that, he had a pretty normal, boring life, except forthe fact that his powers surfaced when he became emotional in anyway.

When he stumbles upon adead body on his way to work, he immediately knows there issomething very sinister going on. First, the feeling inside himtold him something was very wrong, and then there was the fact thatthe young woman's soul never returned to say who had killedheras was customary in the United Realms of Esmeralda.

As a series of strange,events begin to unfold, Lucas finds himself fighting somethinginside him that makes him want to do terrible things, somethingdarker and much scarier than the creatures that have begun to roamthe night in search for their next kill. It is a darkness he can't keep away; that talks to him in hismost vulnerable moments.

Can Lucas hold off darknesslong enough to find out his destiny, or will he give into its dark,but satisfying, desire?

NOTEFROM THE AUTHOR

First of all, I really want to thank you forgiving this book a chance. Darkness Within was born many years ago,and it was something completely different than what it is today. Iam very proud of this novel, and I have learned a lot from thisjourney.

As this is my first book, I reallyappreciate the feedback and look forward to reading what you haveto say about it. I do hope its all good, but if its not your cupof tea, thats okay, too. I appreciate you anyway.

I am now working on the sequel for thisnovel, which will be released in the near future. I will beupdating my progress via my Facebook page and my website.

Thank you for reading!

Love,

Carli

ChapterOne

Lucas Ferrin was bored.

Actually, he wasnt bored, there was not aword to describe what he felt. How he felt about the direction hislife had taken.

Once upon a time, he had been full of plans.Like most seventeen year olds, he had finished secondary school andhad planned on going out into the world and living a life ofexcitement. Finding himself, learning new things.

Instead, he was going through the motions,like the people he had always criticized. The ones that woke up,went to work, went home, slept, and woke up to do it over again.And that was exactly what he was doing, going through a list ofthings to do, as if he were on autopilot.

And his job wasnt just any ordinary job,even if it sounded like it was because of his attitude. And he knewhe had a crappy attitude about it.

Lucas was a member of the grand council ofthe United Realms of Esmeralda. When he had been chosen for thejob, he had been quite surprised, if not shocked, mostly because hedidnt really have very many talents that would warrant him aposition in the council. Not that his position was all thatimportant or necessary; he was the secretary to the president, whojust happened to be his brother, Caleb.

The truth was, Lucas knew nothing aboutpolitics. He wasnt interested in any of it, so long as the peoplein charge were being equally fair to everyone. He didnt know howto do anything that could contribute to the safety of the people inany way. And to top that, he didnt even know how to talk in frontof people at all, or to them, for that matter. The amount ofanxiety he went through when he had to introduce himself to someonewas agonizing, and here he was in the position where he had to dothat for a living. It made for interesting days at work, withpeople thinking he was just rude, when in fact, he was justpainfully introverted.

He had talents. He knew it, and he wasntjust trying to be modest about them.

He could draw anything. Just show himsomething or someone, and he could replicate them almostidentically on paper. He became alive when he picked up a sketchbook and a pencil. It was natural to him, like walking, orbreathing.

The other thing he liked was alchemy, whichhe was plenty good at, but it wasnt something he felt he wanted todo for the rest of his life. For the most part, all he did with itwas make inanimate objects do what he wanted them to do, like makebuckets fill up with water by themselves whenever he wanted themto, or make a lighter, a little non-magical device to light thingsup on fire, not actually burn things. So far, he had just madethings disappear with it, but he hadnt yet figured out wheretheyd gone.

Either way, those talents did nothing tomake his job any easier. If there was a conflict, or a dispute, oreven a war, he could do nothing with them to make the situation anybetter. What was he going to do, sketch his enemy to death?

Oh, and then there was the biggest problemof all, at least according to the rest of Esmeralda. Lucas wasinterested in sleeper (non-magical) humans. He was not onlyinterested in them, he loved anything that had to do with them. Heliked how they could live without magic, though to him, theirinventions were nothing short of magic. They had invented a steelbird that flew across the sky so they could travel from one land tothe other!

Steel flying across the sky!

If that wasnt magic, then his entire lifewas a lie.

Still, people didnt think they were sogreat, because sleeper humans were a little weird when it came tomagic. Not many sleepers knew of the existence of Esmeralda, butthe ones that had inexplicably been born with magic in their veinstended to get a little greedy with their powers. Esmeraldans didnttake kindly to it, or to people who sympathized with them. To sayLucas found their attitude a little disgusting was anunderstatement. He was not one to condemn an entire group becauseof the actions of a few.

Also, the fact that he was the brother tothe president didnt help his case, because most of Esmeralda wasnot happy that he had a job in the council when it wasnt reallyneeded. In the history of the council, there had never been asecretary serving right under the president. There hadnt been anyneed for it. However, almost eighteen months before, Caleb haddecided he absolutely needed a secretary and Lucas was the one forthe job.

But his current boredom wasnt the biggestissue at all for Lucas. It was his powers.

Ever since he could remember, he had strangepowers that no one else had. They came whenever he was exposed tohigh emotions and he had no control whatsoever over them. It scaredthe living daylights out of him. And then there were the feelingsthat came over him whenever it happened, particularly when fireexploded out of his hands, a hunger so dark it made him feel dirtylong after it was gone. It happened every time, and if that wasntan incentive to never want the powers to surface again, he didntknow what was.

The only people that knew about his powerswere his family, including Caleb, which was why Lucas had oftenwondered if his brother was right in the head, because choosingsomeone who had unstable powers to work with him in a place wherethey were to keep people safe was not only reckless, it wasdownright stupid.

So there he was, in a lather-rinse-repeatcycle.

He was a robot.

Before, when he still had dreams for hisfuture, Lucas always thought he would move away from home afterschool was over, which was right when he turned seventeen. He wouldhave gone out in the world, have an exciting life where he couldmeet interesting people of all creeds, personalities, races. Hewould venture deep into the sleeper realm on a regular basis so hecould feed his intense and ever present curiosity of its people. Itwas not encouraged to leave Esmeralda for the sleeper realm, butLucas didnt care. He needed to know more, he needed to see more.But that had not worked out for him. It was interesting how youcould dream of something for so long, envision it, almost taste it,and then life took it away like it was nothing.