2.

Adrian Roux died two days before he was to become a father for a second time. The cab of the vehicle he had be driving very quickly became swarmed with insects, so quickly in fact that he had no chance of slowing that truck of his enough to even try dealing with the situation and a loss of control it was. When the truck eventually came to a halt it did so on its side having slid along roadway then dust and dirt for at least a few hundred meters.

The biological father of one of the daughters of Darkness to be, did not die right away. He did manage to pull himself up and out of the truck then on and off close to the side of the road he had been travelling upon though with the hour of night the not so accidental accident occurred and with the injuries sustained, Adrian would bleed out long before he would be discovered.

Ben Ellis had also been driving not so long before his death came about. No crash, accidental or otherwise, brought about his demise rather a test of sorts did. Unwittingly under the influence of Darkness, Ben Ellis stopped his vehicle close to a wooded area and got out. Under instruction his daughter Nancy, who had also been in the car, escourted Ben on a walk that would end with him taking a moment to sit at the base of a rather large tree.

A touch from his daughter and he soon felt drowsy, so drowsy that he couldn't help but close his eyes and the sleep he subsequently fell into was one he would never wake from. Nancy left him right where he had come to sit, and it would only be a matter of time before he was to be discovered. When the funeral and burial came to an end, Nancy moved on and away from the Ellis family home.

Phillip Colt's life began to go downhill in the very moment his daughter was conceived. Perhaps it was always going to go downhill, Darkness for sure saw to that. When Emma was five months old, she who one day would be known simply as Raven, Darkness had words with Phillip not that he knew such a thing was happening.

For Phillip Colt, the words spoken to him seemed to be his own, words generated within his own head and not from an external source. He heard those words, he felt them, and he wholeheartedly believed it very necessary to carry out what those words told him. Kill them, kill them both. He didn't hesitate, he felt no dread and he did not flinch in the slightest prior to taking a large kitchen knife to use in repeatedly stabbing his sickly wife who knew nothing of what was to come her way.

Of course, the kill them both was meant for mother and daughter though Darkness had no intention of allowing one of the nine of his earthly offspring to be killed right from the off. Before Phillip Colt could bring a knife anywhere near his infant child, Darkness sends him through the air, having him collide with a wall in a manner that ensured that his own life come to an end.

Now in the aftermath of a revealing Ball, a dead Phillip Colt apparently is dead no more, or possibly resurrected to some degree for he has paid Jerry Grady a visit at the very facility that holds Jerry prisoner. The inquiry came as to if Jerry would like to leave the mental health facility with which he has spent the better part of seventeen years within.

Not only has that happened but so too has another visitation. Adrian Roux with Ben Ellis in tow have come to pay Bill Allen a visit. Bill Allen knows all about Ben Ellis as they have had a run in some twelve years prior and at that Bill Allen knows, or at least he thought he knew that Ben Ellis was dead, is dead.

If Ben Ellis is dead, then how has he come to Bill Allen's Home? Just wait until Bill finds out that this other fellow, Adrian Roux, is also apparently dead.

'Honey ...' Bill Allen would speak to his wife. 'Something serious has come up and I have to go.'

Corinne Allen would not offer up difficultly. Their relationship had been strained for so long that their recent returning reconciliation almost brought them back to a time when things were fresh and great. She knows whatever has got to him now that it is in relation somewhat to their daughter Charlotte. Yeah, there is no resistance, only a moment of imploring him to come home safe or to leave things be and go nowhere.

Whatever kind of resurrection it is that is going on, for two men things will be somewhat ... different. Darren Mitchell had been determined to have taken his own life on the night he became father to a newborn named Anna. That had not been the case at all. An evening to celebrate becoming a father became something else entirely.

It began with a pint glass seemingly shattering in his hand followed by a bar mirror cracking and shattering before evidence would point to this not having happened at all. Upon returning home, this kind of activity apparently kept coming when the home hallway mirror cracked and shattered. A return to his vehicle saw his life come to an end when the windscreen cracked and came at him, decapitating him.

So, how could this be seen as suicide or even be seen as an accident he brought upon himself? But such is what had been determined. His return is unlike the return of Adrian Roux, Ben Ellis, or Phillip Colt. A return in 2018 had Darren Mitchell become an observer, an observer observing from within anything with a reflective surface and in such all actions he can impart upon the world are extremely limited.

Lonnie Turner came into existence via an attack on her mother in the early hours of a dark night. This attack also saw the life of the perpetrator come to an end when Greta Turner stuck a pen in his neck. Such a life changing event, Greta could have decided to only let it go so far. Instead, she decided to rule her own life and not have it ruled for her. With aid coming from a number of sources, including from a certain Florence Reardon, Greta had her baby and with that came many challenges.

The perpetrator of the attack which brought so much Greta's way, would not be exempt from a return to life and his return comes out of a darkened sense of humour. In typical old school horror movie style, a monster literally digs himself out of a grave only to walk topside like a creature from the mind of George Romero, and a hungry creature at that.

A Ball has taken place and a Hell on Earth has been unleashed ...

***

Jonathon and Anna Hansen have not seen their daughter Lexi in two years. On a bright July morning in 2016, Lexi was not in her room. She had done a vanishing act on many occasions prior to this day but she had never disappeared for an extended amount of time before. She'd be gone hours only though would always come back.

Mum and dad have known for some time that their daughter is somewhat different but to the extent of which she is different they had no idea. Lexi has been having vanishing moments since she was eight years old, and it was around that time too that she had been observed talking to shadows.

For such a worrying thing, Lexi had been brought to see a counsellor who would have a vanishing moment of hie own, from which he would not return. Lexi had always returned, except from that morning. Three days would pass, and it seemed to the Hansen's that Police were doing nothing to find their daughter. Sure, what could they do, given the circumstances? A sixteen-year-old girl ups and vanishes with no signs pointing to anywhere she may have gone.

There were no close friends, none close enough to abscond with, sure no one else in the immediate vicinity were missing. There were no apparent enemies, nowhere to which a desire might have been expressed to go to, no boyfriends or guys whose company may be disapproved of. There were no leads at all to where she may have gone to. On top of all this, Jonathon and Anna Hansen could not have imparted what it is they think they know about their daughter, no ... they'd sound crazy to the point where they themselves might be accused of doing something to their daughter.

No, they would never harm their daughter. What about that counsellor, the one who vanished? They could hardly mention his name either, in fear for being accused of doing something to him, given the fact that he hasn't been seen in eight years. He simply just upped and vanished into nowhere right in the middle of a session to boot.

Two years since Lexi Hansen's disappearance and her parents know nothing of a Ball, they know nothing of a coming together of nine eighteen-year-olds, one of whom is Lexi. They know nothing of a news report for television despite its broadcast the previous night. However, a chance look at a newspaper stand would do the trick.

Forever trying to take advantage in any way he can, Jonathon never gave up the search, neither did his wife. A newspaper stand the next town over had indeed caught Jonathon's eye, rather a photo headlined Ball creates mayhem on the front page of the local town paper caught him. His daughter was in that photo.

He no more gets to delve into this article when someone standing no more than ten feet behind him speaks ...

'Mister Hansen ... we need to talk.'

Jonathon turns, '... and who might you be.'

'I see your daughter, along with a few others, made the news. I guess you could say I fathered one of the other young ladies in her company, but I never really knew anything about that ...'

***

On the evening an ominous Ball took place, while that ominous Ball took place, many an odd occurrence took place elsewhere. It could be said, if anyone truly knew, that these occurrences were or are apocalyptic in nature then an evacuation of sorts may be suggested or acted upon, not that there could be anywhere anyone could go to find a haven of any kind.

In true golden age classic horror movie style, a disturbance began to occur underground at a cemetery of all places, an occurrence from beneath an unmarked grave. Ground trembled and shook, stones rolled, and unkempt grass parted. A dirt encrusted hand maneuvered topside. Its digits stretched, a resting body is to rest no more, its decay reversed not entirely but sufficiently so that a re-animation could pass not as a return but less of ever having parted at all ... still death is death even in resurrection.

He who returned had all but one mission ... locate a certain Jonathon Hansen, join with him then go seek out a number of other ... fathers ...