Author's Note: Trying a new thing, gonna have a quote from Jackie in the next few chapters, then maybe a few quotes about Darkness in general, but only ones that make sense.

Chapter 6: But Neither On Pandora

"Right around the time he died my father said to me, he said, 'Jackie, you can't outrun your fate, but you sure as hell gotta try.' I didn't really know what he meant back then. You see, there was something inside of me, something terrible, waiting to get out. And when it did... It made me watch the only thing I ever cared about; get her brains blown out right in front of me. Then it gave me the power to make things right, the kind of stuff you only see in your worst nightmares. The killing only made it stronger, harder to control, eventually, I found a way to bury it. But ever since, it's been tryin to get back out. It calls itself, 'The Darkness'."

Landing on a balcony I fold the wings behind me before walking through the archway, into a bedroom, its furnishings are surprisingly, human in origin, "Weird" I think to myself as I approach the door, there's a problem, my wings are too large to fit through.

"Easily sorted." I say as the Darkness creeps back inside me, that fight with the creatures, the 'Demons' outside taught me a few things about how to control the various powers of the Darkness, I learnt that the 'Serpent-Heads' or 'Demon Arms' are not really bound to the Darkness, they're more of a free agent, maybe even sentient themselves, I even have names for them now, 'Grabby' and 'Slashy' I call them. Simple I know, but they seem to like them. I also learnt that I can conjure weapons made of pure Darkness, now that is some cool shit. Also on the table was the armor, now that's interesting, it seems to be able to adapt to different circumstances, the wings are already apparent, but I wonder what else I could add to it. I've no doubt that as I get more and more familiar with the Darkness and spend more time fighting, that I'll uncover most of the powers. "Can't wait to see what else there is." I think as I exit the room.

"YOU HAVE A PLAN, I ASSUME" The Darkness says as I stare down the hallway I'm now in.

"Yeah, head for the Centre, for the throne room, that's where the head honcho is I guess." I reply, starting to walk, I must have walked for hours, round and round this place, taking every passageway I could see, but nothing. I'm just about to punch the nearest wall in frustration when I hear something, or more accurately, someone, following the sound of their voice I find myself drawn to whoever it is, opening door after door I poke my head in, the voice getting louder and louder, until finally I'm standing before a big, black door, "Guess we should knock, maybe." So I do, raising my fist I rap my knuckles on the door, the voice stops talking, I can't hear anything, no footsteps, no breathing, nothing, just as I'm having second thoughts about this I turn around to leave before the door creaks open, then I feel something against the back of my head, it's a gun. Not wanting to get my brains splattered on the floor I raise my hands and slowly tell the gunman that I mean them no harm and that I'm just looking for the way out.

The gun lowers a little, I guess that means he believes me, kinda bad on his part then as I, faster than any human eyes can see, whip around and 'Grabby' clamps his Thankfully toothless jaw round the guy's throat. then he's in the air, being thrown backwards, shadows obscuring his face, as he crashes into the only piece of furniture in the room, a large leather bound chair, knocking it over as he does so. He's back on his feet in seconds though, and firing his gun at me, I just stand there and let the bullets hit me, before bounding over to him and tearing the gun from his grasp, before crushing it in my hands and throwing it on the floor. Then, I grab him by the throat again and this time instead of throwing him around I notice that there's a circle of light in the Centre of the room, just about where the chair was, so, the guy in my hand all the while I walk over to the light and hold him out into it.

He's got a really stylish suit on, coat's a little too large but it works, strangely. His hair's long, black and well kept, as I'm studying him I realize that I must be an even weirder sight for him, in my armor with the tentacles and the wings, but weirdly by the look on his face I'd say he's not even shocked to see me.

"Why do you look so calm?" I ask slowly letting my grip loosen a bit. "You'd think that if someone like me just came out of nowhere, you'd be a bit scared, maybe even piss yourself, but you, you look like you know me."

"Why the fuck are you back? you piece of shit" the guy says, before spitting in my face, nice. "Haven't you had enough, HAVEN'T YOU ALREADY GOTTEN WHAT YOU WANTED!?"

"listen buddy, I don't fucking know you, and judging by the way your acting I'd say you don't know me, so how about you shut the fuck up and tell me your name before I kill you eh?" I say, tightening my grip, raising him further into the air.

"Stop playing games you fuck! you already know my name, you've made my life a misery for years." he says, staring at me with such hatred in his eyes.

"No, seriously I don't know you, so." I start, letting him drop and losing the armor and everything, "How's about you tell me your name, then we'll go from there." I finish.

He looks at me, and for once his expression changes, his look of hate replaced with one of confusion, as he tries to recognize my face, when he fails he walks over to the chair and lifts it back onto its feet, before sitting down and, moving his hair out of his face, telling me his name.

"Jackie, Jackie Estacado, you?" he says, crossing his legs.

"Gabriel, Gabriel Sterne." I say, conjuring a chair and sitting down opposite him, before holding out my hand.

He shakes my hand and then asks me why I'm here, I tell him that I'm looking for the way out, and that I could use some help, then he asks me how I came to be here, so I tell him, about my life, about the shit that's happened, about everything, it's only when I get to my 21st not so long ago that his ears prick up, then he's truly interested in what I have to say, listening intently when I recount the experience in the warehouse, before finally stopping me when I get to the fight in the cemetery.

"Wait a minute, what?, say that again." he asks me, so I do, I tell him about walking to the cemetery, about finding myself standing in front of some woman's grave, about the ass-whooping I received and finally about getting burned to a crisp. As I'm describing the woman who killed me his eyes start to widen and when I tell him about her saying she was the Angelus he stands up, before grabbing me by my collar and asking... No, yelling at me is it true.

"Of course it's true, she said she was called the Angelus and that she knew about the Darkness, and then she killed me, and here I am." I say, backing out of his grasp.

"After that he tells me about himself, I listen for a while as he recounts his life, about all the stuff that happened to him, about the Darkness, about how it made him watch his girlfriend get killed in front of him, how it gave him the power to get revenge, about everything. Then he gets to a part about getting attacked at a restaurant and suddenly I remember him, interrupting him I say that I was there that night, as a doorman, I saw him go in, he sort of remembers seeing me but to be honest it doesn't matter. When he reaches the end of his tale, about killing himself with something called the 'Siphon', about going to hell, about losing the Darkling, at that point I have to ask what a Darkling is, apparently it's a physical manifestation of the Darkness host's subconscious, he tells me he used to have tons of them but managed to keep just one, weirdly he tells me it was British, kinda strange for a yank but what the hell right?.

"Well, looks like we're both stuck here then." I say, examining the room, there's nothing in it, nothing at all; in fact I'm not even sure that there are walls.

"Yeah, looks that way huh?" Jackie replies, and I just nod my head in agreement, "What about the things outside, the creatures?" I ask, "What are they?"

"I don't know, fuckin demons I think, Johnny'd know for sure though." Jackie says, closing his eyes and rubbing them with his hands.

"Johnny who?" I ask, "Johnny Powell, he's a Darkness expert." Jackie replies, "He's the one who helped me with the Darkness in the first place, He'd probably know how to get out of here." he finishes.

We're stuck there for a while, each trying to come up with ways out, each finding holes in the other's ideas, until I ask Jackie how he got out of hell before, he tells me that he had the Darkling to help him.

"Well, how do you get a Darkling then?" I ask, "I don't know, you should already have one, or two. If you've got the Darkness then it should have given you one." Jackie says. Concentrating I try to make a Darkling appear but don't know what they look like, so I ask the Darkness if it can help, but I get no reply.

"Hang about a sec," I start, getting up, "Why don't you just get yours back?" I ask Jackie.

"Because he died, getting me out of that fuckin asylum place." he says.

"Yeah, alright, he died...But when you were the Host, now that it's me, I should be able to use your memories to bring him back." I finish.

"You really think that'll work?" he asks. "No... But it's our only hope isn't it?" I answer.

Standing up and asking me what to do I tell him that I don't know, maybe try taking my hand, he does so, then I tell him to concentrate on the Darkling, what it looked like, how it spoke, what it wore. I can't tell if he is but I soon get my answer as a small hole opens up in the floor and a small creature climbs out, wearing a union jack flag for a dress and with a dead cat on its head. Shaking its head it looks around before its eyes fall on Jackie, Jackie opens his eyes and meets the Darkling's gaze, and then it opens its mouth and talks.

"Monkey, what are you doing here? And why am I alive again?" the Darkling says, patting itself down, before its eyes fall on me, "And who the hell's this?" it asks, crawling over to me and sniffing me. "Oh... Right then, guess you're the new host eh?" it asks me and I nod.

"Congratulations Monkey, you're free." He says, turning back to Jackie, who's sitting down again, "Yeah, I don't have the Darkness anymore, but I'm still trapped down here, and Jenny's the Angelus now." Jackie finishes.

"Oh, sorry to hear that Monkey." the Darkling says, also sitting down, before asking me why I'm here. After I've explained everything, he tells me that I can't get out because I don't have a body anymore, back in the real world, I ask him how do we get out then, and he replies that the only way to get out of hell, is to make a deal with the Devil, so to speak.

"Well, where's the Devil then? I'll make him let us out, both of us." I ask.

"He's inside you mate." The Darkling replies, pointing at my chest, not knowing what he's talking about I go to ask him but before I can I get what he means... Asking him to clarify he tells me that the Darkness created, or at least helped to create hell.

"So, in order to get out, I have to make a deal with the Darkness?" I say, not sure of what I could offer him.

"No not you, you can come and go as you please, but if you want to get Jackie boy out here, then you have to give the Darkness something it wants even more than him." the Darkling replies.

"Yeah, but he don't want nothin more than me does he?" Jackie says.

Just as I'm wondering what we can get to bargain with him the Darkness makes a re-appearance in my head.

"THE SIPHON, FOR HIS SOUL!

"What's the 'Siphon', I ask out loud.

"THE SIPHON, OF COURSE!" Jackie shouts, as he tears out of the room, getting up I follow him, the Darkling not close behind me.

"Wait", I call after him, "Where are you off to?"

He doesn't answer, worried I'm going to lose him I start running, soon though we're outside, the sky hasn't changed, it's still dark out, I see Jackie running out the front gate and head out after him, catching up to him I spin him around and demand he tell me what the Siphon is, he tells me that it's the only thing that can cage the Darkness, I ask him why the Darkness would want to be caged, he replies that it wouldn't but it wants the Siphon because it can complete the Darkness, make it stronger than anything, that sounds really awesome, so I ask him where it is.

He doesn't know but the Darkling pipes up, telling us that he can sense it, so, Jackie in front, he starts to lead us across the plain. Hopefully, giving the Darkness the Siphon won't be a stupid thing to do. Hopefully, we can all get out of this alive.

Author's Note: My god this chapter sucked balls, I hate conversation, so much to explain and so many little things to write about, hopefully this didn't come across as rushed or pulled out my ass, believe me it wasn't-Took me 3 days to write this one, never again though, man do I hate writing dialogue.