Obscurum (a novella)

By Reinier Krol

Returning home after two tumultuous years looking for himself, Skylar finds his world more alien than before he left. His mother and two brothers continue to feed the self-worthlessness creeping through his body and his past forever shadows his desire to better than everybody else.

When he finally engineers the courage to ask his childhood sweetheart – and lifelong neighbour – on a date, Skylar at long last has an opportunity to demonstrate his unique skills. But what evil is plotting to keep the lovers apart? Skylar will need to identify and defeat this killer if he is to safe the love of his life. The devil’s tango dances closer than anyone could have ever imagined.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reinier Krol
• Release date: Nov 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310701245

Reinier Krol

Reinier Krol is an Australian-based writer/filmmaker with 20 years experience in the entertainment industry; working as a director and producer on various shorts, docos and corporate videos. He has also written a number of feature-length screenplays.He published his first full-length novel, “Loch Ness” (as Reinier J. Krol) in 2000, before focusing on writing, directing and producing for the screen.He has returned to prose because of his passion for the themes explored in Firenight.The author is indefatigably passionate about raising awareness of the growing emotional struggles of young people, depression and teenage suicide prevention. Coming from a background of counselling young people, the author has seen first-hand the emotional challenges young people face and the all-too-often path to self-destruction they choose.The author encourages everyone to proliferate a much-needed dialogue and understanding within the community about the scope and seriousness of this otherwise, out-of-sight-out-of-mind – and devastating – crisis facing young people today.

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OBSCURUM

A Novella by Reinier Krol

Smashwords edition published by Reinier Krol

Copyright 2013 Reinier Krol

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

OBSCURUM

Chapter 1

She needed to die and I had chosen myself do it!

Watching her from behind the cracked, fence paling was exhilarating and numbing at the same time. Exhilarating because it shuddered my brain with thoughts about what I could do with her once she was mine and numbing because of the damn cold!

I stood motionless at the back fence. Raggedy planks of wood, barely the height of a person and poorly constructed along termite-invested crossbeams, was all that separated the row of modest, suburban homes from the darkness of the forest flanking the estate. I knew those woods better than any of the people living in the houses at its fringe. The choking fronds of the forest had been my friend, my protector and my cloak for many nights before, as I moved along from house to house, optically hunting through the open curtains.

I hated those despicable people, living in their unadulterated, private universes, without a clue about what life was really like. My life had not been like theirs in any way. Since I was old enough to sneak from my bedroom window and climb down the pipes from the second-story, I explored the woods after dark and shot my prowling gaze into their all-too-happy worlds.

At first, I watched the families at their dinner tables. The happy boys and girls feasted on roast chicken and baked potatoes. They drank sodas and filled their tummies with chocolate chip ice-cream.

Urgh! I hated those boys and girls.

They didn’t know what it was like to suffer. What it was like to not have sweets and drinks and ice-cream. They didn’t know what it was like to have nothing.

As days turned to weeks and then, to endless years, my hatred for them grew from a sapling of discontent to a huge trunk of envy.

Why couldn’t my life be like theirs? I wondered.

As I staggered through the woods when I was only a boy, I knew that someday I would take what was rightfully mine. I would need to be patient, methodical, daring. But I would have my revenge, even if it meant auctioning off my soul to the lowest bidder.

I missed those days of exploring the forest without fear. The forest was my friend then – and still to the present day.

I watched her now through a splintered crack at waist level. My knees dug into the soft, moist soil and I felt its coolness soak through my jeans. But it didn’t bother me. My focus was only on my nemesis.

The girl!

She had changed over the years – grown like I had. Her hair was longer and darker than I remembered, but she looked as stunning as when I last saw her, two years earlier. Her contours were like the silhouette of an angel. Her eyes were chestnut brown and intense. They had sucked me in like a vacuum. They had taken from me all power to keep control of my urges, my wants and my sanity. I would have done anything for her.

I did do everything for her. Everything. I stole for her. I lied for her.

I killed for her.

And she didn’t even know who I was. Didn’t recognize me when we passed on the street. Her despicable confessions had made my life more worthless than the gutter of a family upbringing that was afforded to me. But I would show her, I thought.

I would show them all.

Her power over me was still magnetic and I wanted to get closer – watch her from arm’s length and see her chest rise and fall.

I wanted to enjoy her before I strangled the life out of her.

The fence shuddered as I gripped the top of the palings. I hesitated a moment, peered over the top into the back yard to make sure the space was dark, empty, safe. And no dogs! I hated people’s paranoia. Dogs. Alarms. Sensor-lights.

But the house had none of those.

I clambered over the wood and jumped onto the soft grass below. Even their grass was perfect. God! I hated them! I kept motionless for several breaths. I had learnt the power of complete stillness. Even in daylight, most people didn’t immediately spot things – people – that were inanimate. Cloaked in darkness and without an inch of movement, I was practically invisible.

Then, I made my move. I took a step forward. And another. My eyes darted from the backdoor of the house to the curtained windows on the ground level and up to the bedroom on the second level. The blood shot through my arms, legs, neck, feet and just about every part of my exhilarated body.

I loved the adrenalin.

There was no greater excitement than stalking through the night, hunting like a prowler in the darkness, staring into the unsuspecting worlds of moms, dads, boys and girls. The satisfaction of them not knowing that a pair of envious eyes watched them from the blackness of the outside world was incomparable.

I tip-toed to the edge of the back porch, waiting for someone – anyone – to throw the back door open and spot me.

What would I do then?

Would I run?

Would I attack them?

The thought of it gushed adrenalin through my veins. Secretly, I wished for someone to swing open that portal to the inside world so I could show that what I was capable of.

My