A/N: This is a story written for the NFA Locked Room and Paranormal challenges. It's a sequel to my supernatural story Set the Captives Free. Since this story is fairly firmly located in a universe of demons and spirits that I mostly created, you may want to read Set the Captives Free first, but I think this story does stand on its own. The title comes from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven".

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS. I make no money off it. I also do not own The Princess Bride or The Road to Zanzibar. (Are you intrigued now?)

Darkness There and Nothing More
by Enthusiastic Fish

Chapter 1

Tim tossed and turned on his bed. He couldn't help feeling that something was about to happen. ...but he didn't know what it was.

"Some knower I am," he muttered and turned his pillow over. Then, he stopped and looked at the palm of his hand. The tattoo there was burning bright red instead of its usual black.

Instantly, he was alert. It had been more than a year since the destruction of Mongothsberd and more than a year since he'd had any indication of something supernatural. He liked it that way. The world was a brighter, happier place when he could forget about that aspect of his life. ...but right now, he couldn't do anything other than strain his senses beyond their usual bounds and try and understand what warning he was receiving.

He lay on his back and stared up at the ceiling. There was something oppressive in the air. He wasn't safe...but he didn't know how to become safe.

Suddenly, his phone started ringing, but as he rolled over to answer it, hands burst out of his bed, numerous hands. They began pressing him down into the mattress. Tim screamed as he struggled against them and his tattoo began to writhe and skitter around his palm. Then, the hands gave a mighty pull and Tim sank down into the mattress...

...and vanished.

The phone rang until voice mail picked it up.

"Hey, McGee. It's Tony. You know that weird tattoo thing on my chest, the one that no one else can see? Well...it's really weird tonight...like it's glowing. That can't be normal, right? There has be something going on. ...oh, great and wonderful knower, please let me know. Give me a call back."

An hour later, the phone rang again. Again, voice mail.

"Okay, McGee, something really weird is going on. I'm getting worried. I don't want to sound like a nervous Nelly, but give me a call when you get this. I don't care what time it is. Okay?"

An hour later, there was a knock at the door. Then, the unmistakable sound of a lock being picked. Then, Tony came in, looking around the apartment.

"McGee? McGee?"

He was wary, even though there was nothing overtly menacing. Maybe it was the time he'd spent with Tim last year in Mongothsberd, maybe just because he knew that at three in the morning, Tim should be there. Or maybe it was the fact that he had an invisible tattoo of a three-headed dragon on his chest and it had started glowing and wouldn't stop.

Whatever the reason, he was careful as he walked through the apartment to Tim's bedroom.

"McGee?" he called out...somehow knowing he wouldn't get an answer.

The bedroom was empty, the only sign of recent occupancy, the tangled sheets on the bed. Suddenly, Tony felt a compulsion to go and check out the bathroom. It was weird because he would have looked in there anyway, just to be sure that Tim really wasn't there, but this was a compulsion that he couldn't fight.

Weirded out, he obeyed the compulsion and walked into the bathroom, passed the bathtub to the mirror. He looked into the mirror and...

...and Tim was standing behind him, faded and afraid.

Tony whirled around. No one was there.

He turned back. Tim was standing behind him in the mirror. His mouth moved but Tony couldn't hear anything.

"Tim?" he asked.

Tim stopped talking, closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Tony," he whispered...from behind.

Tony turned around once more and Tim was there...sort of. He was translucent.

"McGee...what's going on?"

"I don't know. Tony...they'll be back soon. I need your help. I don't know where I am, but...it's a lot stranger than going through the looking glass."

Tim looked to the side and he began to look even more afraid.

"Oh, no. They're coming back. I don't have time." He looked at Tony. "Trust me, Tony."

"Trust you?"

Tim nodded and then thrust his tattooed hand at Tony's chest. There was a flash of light and Tony fell to the floor unconscious. Tim looked at him and then looked away.

"No...no...what do you want?" he screamed...and vanished once more.