Disclaimers: Apart from Alex and the random bone thief, the characters are mine, mwahahaha...yeah...

Chapter 1 – An Introduction to Darkness

'..."Bored" just pounds through my throbbing head. Boredom is endless. Time to spare, and plenty of it, Time is ticking, slowly, slowly. Slowly. Eternity is timeless, eternity is endless. Boredom. Boredom...' - T'eyla Minh

Alex's mind drifted as the lecturer droned on. She curled her hair absent mindedly around her pen. Her hair was a honey blond which appeared to absorb the last of the fading sunlight. Her eyebrows and eyelashes shone brightly, as is the case with sun-darkened people.

She looked around to see if anyone else was as bored as she was. Suddenly she spotted Seamus, the Irish student from Dublin. In a crowd he would stand out - typically handsome, tall – over six feet with a muscular build and chiseled features. He noticed her and made his way towards her, knocking people with his bag as he went.

'Hi, how are you?' He asked, in his strongly accented voice.

'I'm good.' Alex replied without any enthusiasm. It was not that she disliked the Irishman, on the contrary she liked him very much but she was feeling depressed on this particular day.

He turned his head away from her and briefly tried to listen to what was being said. However his attention span lasts for about one minute and he continued the conversation.

'What's that ejit on about?'

'The third Sylow Theorem.'

'That's going to take me ages to copy up!'

'Well, you should have arrived at the lecture at the normal time like the rest of us!'

'You can hardly expect me to wake up at 8 to be here on time, especially not on a Monday morning!'

'Everyone else seemed to have managed it and besides, it's the evening!' Alex said sardonically and flicked her blonde hair from her eyes.

Seamus checked his watch and laughed to himself. 'Oh, so it is!'

The lecture finished and everyone rose from his or her seat to leave.

'Do you want to get something to eat?' Seamus asked.

Alex sighed to herself. 'Only if you're paying.'

'We'll decide when we get there!' Seamus informed her.

They set off across the campus grounds together. It was a clear night with few clouds, the stars twinkled in the heavens and the moon shone with a radiant glow, it would have been a romantic moonlit walk if only Seamus stopped talking. Alex though was barely listening and seemed to be preoccupied with something unknown to him. However, there came a point in their conversation, where Seamus could not ignore the fact that she was not listening at all to him.

'What are you thinking about? You're mind seems to be in the clouds today!' Seamus asked.

'About my grandfather's death.' She said ruefully. She would have added that she was also thinking of the tome made of human flesh, discovering she was the guardian of light and had teamed up with a supposed vampire to combat the ancient evil, but her instincts told her that it was unlikely that he would believe her.

'I'm sorry, I forgot.' He said sympathetically. 'Did they find out who murdered him?'

'It was – never mind. You wouldn't understand even if I told you.'

'Ah, go on!' He pleaded.

Alex shook her head. 'It's a rather sensitive subject.'

'Sorry... I'll control my morbid curiosity!'

She started to sob, but he was unsure of whether she was actually crying or if they were just crocodile tears. 'There, there,' he said reassuring her, 'it's understandable to still have strong feelings for your grandfather. Here, dry your tears.' He handed her a tissue and she dabbed her eyes.

'Dinner is on me, I think!' Seamus exclaimed, producing his wallet from his pocket. She laughed at him and took his hand.

He led her to the nearest restaurant. They ordered their food and Alex waited patiently for the food to arrive. Seamus, on the other hand, on his way to the toilet, knocked into a waiter, who spilt the soup over the trousers of another diner. The waiter apologised profusely and backed away, saying he will fetch something to clean him up. Unfortunately, he tripped over someone's bag and the rest of the soup went over another diner. The man stood up, grabbed the waiter by the collar and punched him in the face. The security guard strode over to where the incident was happening and pulled the man away from the waiter, effortlessly.

'Throw him out!' Cried the waiter, who now sported a bloody nose.

The man twisted out of the security guards grip and threw himself at the waiter. The security guard started to attack the man with a truncheon. At that point, the man's girlfriend started to scream hysterically and hit the security guard with her handbag. Some back up came and they were able to throw the man out, his girlfriend following shouting insults at the staff.

Seamus sat back down without Alex noticing. She, like all of the other diners, was watching this savage scene.

'Technically, I started that.' Seamus stated in a matter of fact tone.

Alex frowned at him. 'Don't say that too loudly! They might throw us out as well!' She whispered. He nodded in agreement.

The waitress came with their food not long after and placed it on the table. Seamus started to prod at his squid with his fork.

'Ha, would you look at that! They left the eyes in!' He prodded his fork into the squid's dark pink skin; its eyes bulged obscenely as he did this.

Alex paled and pushed her plate away from her. 'I'm not felling very good anymore!'

'Do you want me to take you home?'

'I don't want to be any trouble.' She trailed off.

'No, not at all! My cars parked nearby just let me finish my food.' He prodded it once more and then started to eat hurriedly. Alex took another look at the squid and rushed to the bathroom.

The bathroom was in a state of disrepair. The toilets were clogged up with human excrement and the murky water was up to the brim. However, if you are about to vomit, you tend not to be picky.

Alex started to throw up violently, unaware of the woman who walked past her cubicle. Something inside the woman began to take control of her and then threw her into a fit on the floor. Once the spasms had subsided she walked over to Alex's cubicle. She tried to open the door but was unsuccessful, since Alex had locked it.

While she was struggling with the door, Alex finished retching. 'Who's that? Alex cried out. The woman did not respond but continued trying to pull the door open. The woman stopped and backed away. Suddenly the creature inside her burst out, her insides splattered against the cubicle doors.

The creature jumped up and grabbed hold of the door of her cubicle with its powerful scythe like arms. She saw her chance and slammed the door into the wall. The creature slid down, temporarily stunned. She sprinted back to her table and urged Seamus to rise from his seat.

'Hold on! We can't leave yet! I haven't paid!' Seamus exclaimed.

At that moment, the creature burst through the door. It turned its small head around to pick a suitable victim and then slashed its way inside the security guard standing nearby. Alex's tugged at Seamus' T-shirt more frantically and grabbed his chestnut coloured hair.

'I can't explain right now, but we have to get out of here!' She urged him. Seamus left some money on the table and quickly followed her out.

'Do you have a car?' She asked panicking.

'Just round the corner, this way.' They ran in the direction that he indicated.

The creature was still in pursuit, using the truncheon to get people to move out of its way. He went outside and caught sight of Alex and Seamus running away. He followed them into the car park nearby.

Alex and Seamus arrived at the car. Both of them were leaning on it to catch their breath.

'A mini?' Alex managed to say between breaths.

'Nothing wrong with it!' Seamus replied offended. They both got in and Seamus reversed it out of the space. He was about to drive forward when he noticed a man standing about 50 meters ahead of him in the road.

'Don't just sit there! Drive!' Alex screamed.

'But, I'll run him over!' Seamus said in dismay.

'He's already dead.' She explained. 'So just put your foot on that fucking accelerator!'

Seamus was still confused, but there was not enough time to explain it further. The man had started to approach them slowly; wary in case they might drive into him. Alex slammed her foot down on the accelerator. The man hit the windscreen and went 15 foot into the air. He landed hard on the ground, his body broken by the fall. He became no use to the creature, so it burst out from inside him. It ran after them for about half a minute, and then stopped realising it was futile. It gave up the chase and stalked off, looking for another victim.

'What the hell was that?' Seamus cried looking back.

'Keep your eyes on the road!' Alex shouted. 'I'm surprised that you passed your driving test!'

'Take a deep breath and then breathe out slowly!' Seamus said trying to calm her down; his efforts were reward by a glare. 'Do you know what it was?'

She took a deep breath. 'It was a bone thief.'

'A what?'

'It goes inside a person and controls them by pushing their souls into the back of the skull. They try to put up the appearance of being normal, but they converse strangely. I believe they are telepathic and can read the thoughts of others. So if person becomes able to see past the veil of -' she trailed off.

'Past the veil of what?'

'I don't want to drag you into this.' Alex said.

'The veil of I don't want to drag you into this? That's a strange thing to see past!' Seamus said confused.

'No, that's not it! I shouldn't tell you! It's better if you don't know. Forget it!'

'What happens once you see past this 'veil'?' Asked Seamus, she now had his full attention and he was not willing to let the subject drop.

Alex reluctantly continued. 'If you can see past the veil, a bone thief will change and attack you.'

'So that security guard knew?'

'No, the bone thief wanted to possess a new body, he was just unlucky.'

'How can you know if a person is real or if they have a bone thief inside?'

'I have been aware of their presence for years so I am able to tell by a person's smell. A bone thief smells in between the spice of vanilla and pestilent rot.' Alex informed him.

The explanation still confused him and he had many questions he wanted to her to answer but Alex shook her head and refused to tell him.

'Where's your home then?' He asked.

'About three blocks away.' She replied.

They traveled the rest of the journey in silence. They arrived outside her apartment block, they kissed and he bid her goodnight.

'I'm having a party at my house tomorrow, do you want to come?'

'I'll think about it.' She replied.

He watched her go inside, and then drove off, his mind preoccupied with thinking about the day's events. What was that creature? How did Alex know what it was? Why had he not seen something like that before in Ireland? He laughed to himself, 'only in America!