Escape the Night: Darkness Rises

A/N: Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night! It's now time to start with Season 2, and I have written a pre-season story that I will post first before I post the season 2 premiere. Sorry for the gap between posts, but I was busy with work, babysitting my nephews, and earlier I took my client from my other job to her doctor's appointment. Nothing to worry about, just a routine checkup.

Enough about real life. Onward!

Read, review, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Escape the Night. I just own any and all characters that I just happen to create.

PROLOGUE: REMEMBRANCE

`"One year ago on June 22, 2016, the world was thrown into turmoil when YouTubers Joey Graceffa, Andrea Brooks, Shane Dawson, Oli White, Eva Gutowski, Matthew Haag, Timothy DelaGhetto, Sierra Furtado, GloZell Green, Bart Walker, Benny Smith, Justine Ezarik, and Lele Pons, along with SciFi actress Dawn Hatcher all went missing for three months.

`"During those three months, the Los Angles Police Department did an exhaustive search for the missing YouTubers and the missing actress, refusing to give up even after the normal 24 hour period had passed, and just when the families of the missing people had given up hope, it was then that an organization that called itself the Society Against Evil, found four of the missing people alive.

`"According to a representative of the secretive Society, a man named Arthur Kenneth had lured the group to a house, and had held them prisoner for those three months. He was the leader of a sadist cult and had tortured and killed ten of the missing people by the time that the Society Against Evil had arrived, saving the lives of Joey Graceffa, Oli White, Eva Gutowski, and Dawn Hatcher.

`"Thanks to the Society, Arthur Kenneth and two other cult members Sarah Belkin and Marvin Trask, were stopped and killed. Why this cult went after these particular people remains unclear, but it is clear that whatever the reason, the survivors have been moving on with their lives despite the horrors they'd gone through during those three months of hell."`

In one of the safe houses for the Society Against Evil, James McCoy clicked the TV off after the memorial report about the 1920s house incident, which was based on the cover story that the Society had provided after retrieving both the survivors and the dead bodies of both the victims and the bad guys.

'And that's the story that Joey, Dawn, Eva, and Oli are sticking to,' he thought, sipping his tea and turning his attention to the stack of reports waiting for him on his desk. He knew that most of the reports were the standard ones about the training of new agents that were either descendants of the first twelve families, or had been recruited, possible sightings of those who served the Cursed God, or even the birth of new potential Light-bearers.

But the reports that he was primarily focused on were the ones that had updates about Joey and Dawn. So far, the Darkness that'd infected Joey when he took the deed from the 1920s house was slowly growing inside the boy, and this was worrisome. Of course, the reason that it wasn't growing faster was because of Dawn's presence as she and Joey did spend quite a bit of time together when she wasn't busy with her acting career, and when he wasn't on tour for one of his books or some YouTube-related project.

Dawn still didn't know about the Light that resided inside her, although James figured that she was starting to suspect because of what had been told to Tim and Matt when they had been held prisoner by a cat-like woman back at the 1920s house. Due to an order made by the Council of Elders over a century ago, all potential Light-bearers were to learn of the Light and summon it on their own before they could start training on how to use it and control it, and because of this, the recent generations of Light-bearers have proven to become more powerful because of this.

'The Council of Elders want me to tell Dawn the truth,' James thought, putting down his cup and seated himself behind to desk to work on the reports, 'but I was able to convince them to let her have time to recover from the incident, and that the order must be followed.' He figured that eventually he would have to tell the actress the truth, but he only would do that if there was a second incident that would end up involving both her and Joey, and if that did happen, then that meant that the ancient prophecy would be coming to pass.

'I really hope that the 1920s house incident is a one-time thing and there isn't any repeats,' James thought, but one of the entries in the journal that'd once belonged to Arthur hinted that there was someone else out there, seeking to do what the Evil hadn't been able to do, and that this person was going to be targeting Joey and Dawn. 'Not all visions come to pass, and hopefully whatever Vincent had seen won't come to pass either.'

In a hidden location, someone else had been watching the same memorial report, but this person was watching by way of a glowing crystal ball. When the report ended, the figure waved a hand over the crystal ball, and the image of Joey Graceffa appeared on the surface.

'Ah, so he has the Darkness growing inside him,' the figure thought, pleased to have found what was needed for the person's plan. 'And when the Darkness is ripe, I will summon it to me, and who knows, Joey might be able to provide additional aid for my plan. Yes, he will be quite helpful.'

The unknown figure had been waiting in hiding for over a century to finish a plan that would give her the means to enter the modern world and conquer it in the name of the Cursed God. She had come very close to getting the power to take over the world, but the arrival of two agents for the Society Against Evil interfered, taking away the power source.

She had been furious at their interference and had learned from them that only souls from the future could help regain the power, but that a Light-bearer would be her final downfall. She refused to believe that she would be defeated by a Light-bearer and had instead focused on learning how to freeze a location in time by torturing the two Society agents for information, and had since been searching for the means to get back what had been taken from her.

Now that she knew about the Darkness growing inside of Joey Graceffa, she just had to wait for it to grow enough for her to bring it to her, and once she had the Darkness, she would be one step closer to fulfilling her plan of conquering the world for her master.

Yes, once she had the Darkness and the souls from the future, then she would be one step closer to taking over the world.

A/N: Uh oh, who could this mysteriously woman be? And what does she have plan for Joey? I will be posting the first chapter shortly, and you can put your guesses in your reviews of who the woman is. Bye for now! R&R everyone!