A/N: You guys seem to like when I write dark stuff! :P I'm glad to see that though, cause that gets me more excited for the chapters I have planned in the future.

Quite a few of you thought that the new mysterious enemy was William Afton. He isn't. Afton was condemned to Hell after he was destroyed in FNAF6 and he won't be leaving. But that doesn't mean his influence won't be felt after his damnation…or that other things can't come out from Hell instead…

It's easy to look at the ghosts as they are now and think that everything is all fluffy bunnies and rainbows, even though I kinda killed that idea just last chapter. But, lest we forget…FNAF is a horror series, and I think it's time we incorporated a bit of horror into this fic. The ghosts aren't murderous or violent anymore, but they're not going to take kindly to any threat, real or perceived, at each other or especially at Mike.

This is my first attempt at writing horror. Just be aware that this will be fairly low-key, but think of this as both an experiment and a taste of what is to come. Also, to answer a question from a while back, I will not be including Five Nights at Candy's since I know pretty much nothing about it.

Also, minor spoilers for The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Though that book's been out since I was in high school, so you've PROBABLY heard about it at some point anyway lol

Chapter 18 – Break-In Gone Bad

There was no denying that the atmosphere had changed in the house. Even though Mike had resolved to continue with life as normal and the ghosts were all on board, the idea of a new enemy targeting them was enough to put everyone on edge regardless.

The biggest and most obvious change was that Mike had completely abandoned his plans to get the kids safely out of the house for the time being. Whoever had cursed Cassidy had been able to do it while the kids were all still in the house, and outside of its protection it would be even easier for him to strike again. Quite understandably, nobody had complained.

To make up for this, Mike had decided to start reading some of the books they'd asked Alex and Meghan about a la extended bedtime story. The kids were all sitting or lying down on his bed in his room, and he had spent the better part of the day reading the whole thing to them. He'd also turned off all the lights in the house except for his desk lamp to make the effect seem more "real." It was now 10 PM, and he had just finished up the last few words of The Lightning Thief. He'd had a feeling they'd enjoy the book based on their initial reactions to Harry Potter, and his prediction had been right on the money.

"So Luke was evil all along?" Cassidy gasped. "He seemed like a cool guy though!"

"That's the thing about evil, though," Mike sighed. "It can hit you when you least expect it. Case in point, a few days ago," he added mentally.

"Zeus is kind of an asshole, isn't he?" Fritz commented. "I mean, he sure as heck isn't like God, that's for sure."

"He was like that even in original Greek mythology," Mike pointed out. "So was Poseidon, actually. In the modern era of that book he's a decent enough guy though."

"I'm just surprised Hades wasn't the bad guy," Jeremy pointed out. "Isn't he supposed to be…like…Satan or something?"

Mike shook his head. "Nah. Actually, Hades was probably one of the most decent Greek gods out there. He didn't fuck around with mortals unless he had a good reason to and for the most part he just did his job. He's not the Devil, that's for sure."

Gabe shrugged. "I think I need to start looking up Greek mythology a bit. There were a lot of cool monsters that Percy and his friends fought. Maybe knowing about the characters before we read the books might make the experience more interesting."

"I'd be down," Susie added. "It's not like we have anything else to do."

"Yeah, I…"

CRASH!

Everyone felt a shock run through their system as they heard the noise from below them on the first floor. Mike's eyes narrowed immediately – that had been the sound of a window breaking.

Mary turned to her friends. She had a feeling she knew what was going on, but she needed to check anyway. "One of you, turn invisible and see what that was," she ordered. Jeremy nodded wordlessly and faded from view, before sinking into the floor. A few seconds later, he returned.

"Somebody's broken into the house," he confirmed grimly. "Seemed like a normal human as far as I can tell, I don't think he's the one who cursed Cassidy. But still…" His voice trailed off, but everyone knew what he was thinking. They would be completely fine, but Mike…

Jeremy's eyes narrowed. "I think we should show this guy exactly what happens to people who mess with our dad," he said menacingly.

"If he thinks the only thing here is a helpless old man, he's got another thing coming!" Fritz agreed.

Mike raised a hand. "Guys," he interrupted with a frown. "I know the only reason you guys are saying that is because you don't want me to get hurt. And believe me, I'm not any happier about the fact that somebody is breaking into my house." He gave them a stern look. "If you want to give this guy a scare, I'm okay with that. But absolutely no killing whatsoever," he warned. "That would completely defeat the purpose of your redemption. And ONLY act to harm if this guy came here specifically to hurt me in some way. Chances are this guy might just be a robber, and no amount of money is worth a human life."

The ghosts nodded in acknowledgement. "We weren't ever going to kill him," Gabe answered solemnly. "We know what that got us into, and we're past that."

Mike sighed in relief. "Okay." His lips suddenly stretched into a mischievous smirk, which was returned by the ghosts. "Go show that guy what you're made of."

Meanwhile, downstairs…

Colm stood as still as humanly possible as the echo of the glass breaking resounded throughout the house. It had been completely dark and silent from the outside, and he figured that this would be the only chance he had to successfully steal some money from inside. The only person living in this house was some rich old guy who'd recently retired from a job and lived a bit away from the main areas, and he was as good of a target as he could possibly find to snag some money from.

Once he was sure that nothing was stirring, Colm began to silently move throughout the first floor. From what he'd gathered, the old man who lived here was well-respected by the people who knew him, and he didn't want to hurt the guy. He'd delay searching the top floor (where he was sure the old guy was sleeping) for as long as possible, and search the lower floors first. Hopefully, the guy would never know that his house had been broken into until he was long gone.

As he snuck through the darkness into the living room, a chill suddenly rush down his spine. It felt as though a presence, or more than one, was glaring at him. He whirled around, trying to find whoever was looking at him with such hostility, but he found nothing. Still, his unease didn't fades away, and deep within him his subconscious treacherously whispered that he had made a grave mistake coming here.

Still, he had come this far, and he couldn't turn back now. Colm inched towards a door that seemed like it would lead into the basement, and his guess was proven correct. As quietly and quickly as possible, he crept down the stairs and into the basement. It was a nicely furnished basement, with a couple of sofas scattered around, a TV, a bar, and even a few pieces of exercise equipment.

But what caught his eye immediately was something that seemed completely out of place. It was a black bear animatronic designed with a red hat and bow, with a gold star on its chest. Disturbingly, its left eye seemed black and empty while its right eye was completely normal, and the way its mouth hung open like that…

"What the fuck is a Freddy Fazbear animatronic doing in this house?" he muttered. He barely remembered anything about the children's franchise, but didn't a lot of bad crap happen around it? Whatever. It wasn't relevant. The animatronic was just sitting there leaning against the wall, and it could stay there. Sooner he found some money, the sooner he could get the hell out of here.

His eyes caught a large picture on the wall towards the back. It was a picture of what he guessed was the old man, obviously several years younger, hanging around with many of his friends. A college photo was his guess, but what really grabbed his attention was just how large the thing was. "Almost as though it could hide a safe behind it?" he wondered.

He turned towards the picture, focusing his full attention towards it, but before he could do so, a voice echoed from behind him. "What are you doing, mister?"

He whirled around, and this time he saw someone standing a few feet away from him. It was a young girl with blonde hair and wearing a yellow shirt. Shit. What was he going to do now that a little kid had caught him stealing her father's stuff?

The girl giggled, sending a shiver down Colm's spine. There was something just…wrong…about that child. "Are you here to see dad?" she asked, tilting her head quizzically. "Are you his friend? But why wouldn't you just use the doorbell? Why wouldn't you just ask to see him?"

Colm mouth ran dry as he struggled to come up with a response, and to make matters worse, the girl's lighthearted and friendly tone completely vanished with her next few words. "You're not a friend, are you?" she challenged, her voice now containing an undercurrent of hostility. "You're here to steal from him, aren't you? Or maybe you're here to hurt him." Her voice dropped to a snarl. "Maybe even kill him!"

The thief's eyes widened in horror, both at the sudden menace emanating from the girl and the accusation she had hurled at him. "No…" he finally found his voice. "I…I wouldn't…"

A mechanical whirring silenced his protest. The thief had already been on edge ever since the girl had started talking to him, and as he identified the source of the noise his mind edged into full-blown terror. The bear animatronic he had noticed before…it was moving. Its one good eye was trained directly on him, and his blood ran cold as its eye narrowed menacingly at him.

The girl giggled again, and only now did Colm realize that for some reason, he could clearly see the girl even though the entire room was plunged in shadows, and that he could see through her. "This is Lefty!" the girl's ghost declared, her voice reverting to its friendly tone. "He's a friend! I'm sure he'd just LOVE to meet you!"

The animatronic had gotten up on its feet and was starting to lumber towards the stairs. Panicking, Colm rushed towards them as well, completely abandoning his original goal or any pretense of secrecy. If "Lefty" managed to cut him off before he got out of the basement, then he was doomed. He felt a small bit of relief as he realized that the girl wasn't following him, but that reprieve quickly vanished with her last few words.

"The others…they know you are here…" she spoke with an unnatural calm. OTHERS? THERE ARE MORE OF THEM? "They will find you, and they will catch you. There is nowhere to run."

Colm raced up the stairs, praying that the ghost's threat had been an empty one. But the moment he stumbled back into the living room, he knew that the girl hadn't been lying. Another ghost was waiting for him in the living room, this one a boy with black hair. The boy grinned at him when he saw him approach.

"Well, hello there…" he greeted the thief cheerfully. "You seem rather lost. Almost as though maybe you shouldn't be here?" An undercurrent of malice entered his tone. "Yes…almost EXACTLY as though you shouldn't be here…"

Colm's eyes switched frantically between the boy and the entryway he had come in as he tried to measure how quickly he could make a break for it. "Where do you think you're gonna go?" he asked with a sneer. "We don't take kindly to people who threaten our dad. And it looks to me that that's exactly what you're doing!"

"I…I'm not a murderer!" he finally managed to shout out. "I don't want to hurt your dad, whoever he is! That's not why I came here."

The ghost glared at him. "So why do you have a drill in your pocket?" he hissed.

Colm's eyes widened as he realized the boy could see what was in his pocket. He'd brought that drill only so he could break into any safe he found. But the ghost apparently thought that it was a murder weapon, and it was clear that he wouldn't believe him now no matter what he said. Colm raised his hands in surrender. "Wait…I'm not…I wasn't going to…we can talk about this!" he desperately attempted to negotiate. "I…I won't do anything! This was a mistake, I get that now! Please, just let me go! I swear I won't tell anyone or do anything, I promise!"

The boy's grin widened. "That's right!" he exclaimed, before the grin vanished, and his voice took on a sinister tone. "You won't."

Colm slowly backed away from the ghost and towards the front door, not daring to take his eyes off the boy in case he decided to attack. But instead of moving towards him, the boy's eyes looked up above his shoulder. "Isn't that right…Gabe?"

The utterly terrified thief slowly turned around, and as he feared, there was yet another ghost floating behind him. It was another boy, this one with brown hair. Of all the ghosts he'd seen so far this one appeared to be the oldest, though he barely registered that fact as he was too busy focusing on Gabe's unholy grin.

Colm waited for the boy to say something, but instead his eyes and teeth started glowing erratically. A strange tune began to play from out of nowhere, something straight out of a music box. It took a second for Colm to realize that the flashes of light emanating from the boy matched exactly with the tune playing. If he hadn't been scared out of his wits, he would've been impressed by how synchronized it all was.

Colm watched the boy carefully as the tune continued to play, not daring to move in case the boy decided to attack him instead. Then, all of a sudden, the tune cut off and the entire house plunged into darkness. Colm couldn't see anything – the hallway he was in, the living room he had come from, even the two ghost boys had vanished. For a fleeting second, dared to hope that maybe, just maybe, the ghosts decided to spare him after…

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" Colm screamed. The brown-haired boy appeared out of nowhere and lunged at him with arms outstretched, and this time he barely resembled anything human. Both of his eyes had become empty black voids with streams of black liquid pouring out of the sockets, and there was a gigantic slash across his chest as though he had been sliced open with a knife. Only the thief's reflexes allowed him to avoid being strangled by the ghost. He didn't know if he could actually hurt him, and he wasn't going to risk finding out. He ran deeper into the hallway, the one place that he didn't know already had a ghost waiting for him. He hadn't seen a back door out yet but he knew there had to be one. Maybe he could find it through the kitchen or somewhere close to it?

He stumbled into the kitchen, and... "Yes!" he thought excitedly. "There's a back door! I can almost get outta here!"

…and that was when yet another ghost appeared, this one a red-headed boy. He felt his heart sink as the boy laughed at him. "So close!" he chuckled as he shook his head. "But no dice. You're not going anywhere, buddy."

Colm could say nothing as the boy grinned. "Why so eager to leave? What's your hurry? I've got all the time in the world, just like the rest of my family."

As he spoke, the three other ghosts he had seen arrived as well, floating through either the walls or the floor into the kitchen. To make matters worse, two more ghosts appeared on either side of him. Both of them were girls, one with black hair and one with orange hair and green eyes, and they were both wearing the same grin that the rest of the ghosts were. The last figure to arrive was not a ghost, but a strange, puppet-like figure that floated through the doorway he had come in. The puppet's white mask was completely emotionless except for its eyes, which were glaring at him with unmistakable hostility. It was both the least and most creepy thing he had seen in the house so far, and he had no idea what to make of it except for the fact that it was just as hostile to him as the others were.

"It's been so long since we had a little fun…" the yellow-haired girl from the basement said with an unearthly giggle.

"Dad's done the best he can, but it just isn't the same," the black-haired boy added.

"We're just kids who want to have fun and play…" the brown-haired boy said with a smile.

Then, looking into his eyes as one, all the ghosts said their last line together. "Won't you stay and play with us?"

Colm collapsed onto the floor as the ghosts started laughing mockingly at him. "Please!" he begged. "Let me go! I didn't come here to hurt your dad, I just came here to take some money! Please, don't kill me! PLEASE!"

"All right, kiddos," a new voice suddenly broke into the kitchen. "Think that's enough for tonight."

The lights suddenly turned on, and everyone's attention was drawn to a man who had walked into the room. The ghosts all grinned at him and made varying noises of laughter and amusement, and unlike the menace they had shown Colm, it was clear that there was nothing but love and affection for the man who had arrived. Regardless of the circumstances, Colm never felt so happy to see another living person.

"We got him, dad!" the black-haired boy exclaimed. "We got him good!"

"You sure did," the man replied with a smirk. "I don't think you could've spooked this guy any more than you already have.

"That's what he gets for messing with you, dad!" the yellow-haired girl added.

The Puppet-like figure, in the meantime, had approached the man still sprawled on the floor. The man didn't dare move as the Puppet rummaged through his pockets and took out the drill and the wallet that it found there.

"Only things I found were this drill and this wallet," she reported, and Colm noticed that it was indeed a girl's voice coming out of the Puppet. "According to his driver's license, his name is Colm Duessel. And unless the drill was meant to be his murder weapon, I don't think this thief came here with the purpose of killing you, Mike."

Mike nodded. "Yeah, that's what I thought. But still, it couldn't hurt to be careful." He pointed at Colm. "Would you guys mind picking him up and taking him to the dining room? I've got a lot to talk about with this guy."

The ghosts began to surround him, reaching out with their arms. Colm didn't try to resist, and he was glad he didn't, because the ghosts could somehow move him as though they had actually grabbed him. They marched him into the dining hall and forced him into a seat. The old man, Mike (who honestly was a lot younger than he'd imagined) took the chair opposite.

"So…" Mike began. He seemed entirely calm and relaxed, though considering that he had seven ghosts as his protectors it was easy to see why. "Mind telling me what you were doing in my house? Oh, and please don't lie," he interrupted before Colm could say anything. It was only then that he noticed that the Puppet's hands were right next to his head, and that they were glowing with strange blue flames. "We have ways to know whether you're telling the truth or not, so do me a huge favor and don't waste any of our time."

Colm sighed. "I was going to rob your house, take some money."

Mary looked over at Mike. "It appears that he's telling the truth," she drawled sarcastically. "I couldn't have guessed."

Mike cut him off with a lazy wave of his hand. "Yeah, no shit," he answered with an amused smirk. "We already know that. Gimme the good stuff, buddy. I wanna know why you're here."

Colm looked apprehensively at the man. His outward appearance seemed affable enough, but the thief had no idea whether that friendliness was genuine or if it was masking fury and anger underneath. Either way, he knew his best bet was to just tell the truth. "It's because of my family," he admitted. "We ran into some hard times. Both my wife and I lost our jobs recently. We think we could find new ones in a few months, but I didn't have any way to provide for her or my kids. We needed money, and we needed it fast."

"Okay…" Mike nodded, "makes sense so far. But why my house in particular?"

Colm sighed. "A couple of reasons. It was far enough from the rest of the town that there wouldn't be any risk of me getting spotted. And from what I heard, there was some old guy living here who recently retired and who had bucketloads of cash." He shook his head. "Clearly, either the people in town are wrong or they like to exaggerate. I was expecting some weak old 65-70 year old guy just lying down in his bed all day doing nothing. Not somebody who looks like they could still compete in the freaking Olympics!"

Mike burst out laughing at that, and so did the ghosts. "The Olympics, huh?" he repeated, before turning to his ghostly children. "What do you guys think?"

"Heck yeah, dad, you should go for it!" the red-haired boy answered.

"Think it's worth a shot!" the orange-haired girl agreed.

As the other ghosts made varying noises of agreement, Mike smirked and shook his head. "Nah, unless sarcasm or dry humor suddenly become Olympic sports, I'm not competing in any Olympics anytime ever."

"That's not even getting into the ghosts!" Colm added. "Nobody mentioned any ghost stories about this place! Why are there so many ghosts here?"

Mike's smirk suddenly took on an edge. "Hey, buddy, I don't mind you asking questions or freely talking, but don't ask me any questions about the ghosts ever again. Got it?"

Colm nodded rapidly, not wanting to test Mike's patience. "Good!" Mike's voice returned to its friendly tone. "You know, those rumors were right about one thing. I AM rich. But the thing is, I have more than 99% of my money in the bank. If you were planning to take everything out of my house, you would've made off with only about 10K at most."

"I was only planning on taking a few thousand at most," the thief offered weakly.

"Colm, buddy, I don't give a shit how much money you take from me," Mike interrupted again. "Even if you took all 10K out of that safe down in the basement, it would've been freaking chump change to me. No, I don't care about that. What I care about is what I'm going to do with you, now that you've seen my kids." He gestured towards the ghosts.

Colm didn't say anything. There was something telling him that the ghosts could have done a lot worse to him if Mike allowed it, and if he angered either of them then he'd be better off taking his drill and ramming it into his own throat.

Mike leaned forward on the table. "The plain and simple truth is that I can be one of two things to you, Colm, and which one I am depends entirely on you." He smiled a warm, friendly smile. "I could be the person who can help you when you need it the most." He reached into his pocket and took out an envelope. Colm's eyes widened in shock as Mike laid out 5000 dollars on the table, all in hundreds.

"Or…" his voice suddenly turned dark and threatening, "…I can be your worst enemy," he growled, and Colm felt a wave of dread rush over him as he looked into Mike's eyes. There was the menace that he had suspected lurked underneath the old man's friendly nature, a darkness that he was only now exposing to the outside world. He was half-expecting the ghosts to be staring at him with the same murderous glare, but to his surprise they seemed just as stunned at Mike's sudden darkness as much as he was.

Then, as quickly as it had come, it had gone, and Mike returned to his pleasant demeanor. "My first impressions of people tend to be right more often than not," he continued. "And right now I think you're a decent guy who places a high value on his family. Enough that he was willing to steal to keep them safe and stable." He nodded approvingly. "I respect that. I really do. Which is why I'm going to make you an offer that I think you'll find very reasonable."

"What do you have in mind?" Colm asked.

"It's quite simple," Mike explained. "I won't report anything that happened here today. That broken window? Just an accident from me being stupid. And what's more, I'll let you leave with the 5000 dollars. Go home, use it to take care of your family, buy them something nice, I don't care. All I ask is just one simple thing in return."

"Anything! Anything at all!" Colm exclaimed. Mike was seriously letting him have that much money? This was WAY more than anything he'd planned to steal from his house.

His joy faded when Mike's expression darkened again. "Never tell a SINGLE person what you saw in this house," he demanded. "You spoke about taking care of your family and keeping them safe, so I hope you'll understand me doing the same for mine."

Colm opened his mouth to speak, but Mike cut him off with a raised hand. "Allow me to elaborate, just to emphasize how serious I am about this. "From the moment you came into my house, you gave me the tools I needed to ruin your life." Mike took out a small video camera and hit record. Colm watched himself in the basement, looking around for a place where a safe might be hidden. At one point, there was a clear image of his own face staring back at him. "I had a camera hidden on Lefty. You know, that black bear animatronic you probably saw earlier? Mary here was watching you from inside him. She recorded this just before my kids decided to have a little fun with you."

"Shit…" Colm breathed. That would be more than enough to get him arrested, especially by a guy as rich as Mike. He didn't seem like a stereotypical rich asshole by nature, but the man clearly knew the value of using large amounts of wealth to his own advantage.

"My kids might have wanted to scare you a bit, but they weren't really going to do anything to hurt you. Not unless you tried to attack me directly, which you're not. No, as far as you should be concerned, the questionable honor of most dangerous person in the entire house…that would belong to me." Mike's eyes narrowed. "I know your name, I know who you are. I have proof that you were in my house. And I have all the time and money in the world to come after you and make your life a living hell." The dark look faded slightly, and now it was tempered with an edge of sympathy. "You might not think it with this house and all the money I have, but I know what it's like to live with almost nothing, more than you could possibly know. Hell, if it had just been me here, with no ghost kids factored into the equation, I probably would've let you just take the money without a problem."

He looked Colm straight in the eye. "But just like you, I have a family now. Just like you, I'm going to make damn sure they stay safe and happy. So please. Keep your mouth shut, don't say a word, and you'll make the easiest 5000 dollars in your entire life." He gave the thief a friendly grin. "What do you say, Colm?"

Colm shakily extended a hand, torn between joy at getting the money he needed and dread at what would happen if he broke his end of the deal. "You…You have my word, sir," he promised. "I won't breath a word of what I've seen here to a single person. I swear it on my mother's grave!"

Mary looked over at Mike, having resumed her "magical lie detector test." "He is telling the truth," she confirmed. "I can sense it."

Mike lazily accepted the handshake. "Good man. That's what I'd thought you say." He pushed the stack of bills towards Colm. "Money's all yours." A wry smirk suddenly crossed his face. "It's getting late and I'm starting to get tired. So do me a huge favor and get the hell out of my house," he drawled.

The thief didn't waste any time. He thanked Mike profusely, reiterated his promise, took the stack of bills and rushed out, this time taking the front door instead. Mary followed him to make sure he didn't steal anything else on the way out, and shut the door behind him once he was gone.

Mike rolled his eyes at the broken window. "Really?" he asked. "The guy had to break my window? He couldn't have just drilled into the lock on the front door?" He shrugged. "Actually, I don't know if replacing the lock or the window would've been more expensive. Oh, well!"

The ghosts were chattering excitedly and laughing amongst themselves when he returned, clearly amused at the events that had transpired in the evening. "You guys going to bed anytime soon?" he asked.

Gabe shook his head. "Nah, all that scaring business got us too energized to go back to sleep now," he replied. "Think we might play some Crash Bandicoot or something before we hit the bed."

Mike shrugged. "Hey, you do you. Me? I'm going to look around the web for a new window to replace the broken one.

As he turned around to head up the stairs, Fritz couldn't resist asking a question. "Hey, dad?" he asked. "Why did you give the thief the money? Why didn't you just threaten him into keeping silent about us?" Mike considered the question for a few seconds before giving a surprisingly simple answer.

"Cause I can respect why he did what he did, and he needs it more than I do."

/

And that about wraps it up! My first attempt at writing horror, and low intensity levels aside, I hope it didn't turn out too badly. I was originally going to have Liz be the one in the basement, but then I decided to give more focus on the original four, especially Jeremy and Susie, since I haven't really focused on them as much as I have the other characters. And as you saw with Gabe, the "Freddy Toreador March" thing is an ability associated with him specifically, not Freddy the animatronic. But don't worry. Liz will be standing in the spotlight soon enough…even though she'll wish she wasn't. Let's not forget, she was originally known as Elizabeth Afton, after all...

This was also my first detailed exploration into the darker side of Mike Schmidt. Since he didn't really have any ill will towards Colm, it, too, was relatively subdued. Mike knows about his own darkness, and he hasn't outright suppressed it, but he won't tap into it unless he believes it is absolutely necessary.

For those of you were hoping for things a bit higher on the intensity scale, heh heh heh, don't you worry. Some of the chapters I have planned will have PLENTY of darkness to go around, and trust me, they are very close indeed. IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME.

Oh, and before I go, does anybody have any guesses as to where Colm's name came from? :)