The problem with the six men that were grouped together is that their formation was solid. He could kill one of the six on the first strike but would be quickly surrounded by the other five. If David wanted to fight head on, he would have to fight at least 5 at once.

Standing in the dark, David was thinking over possible scenarios. He knew that these 6 men were the strongest of the bunch. Their first task was to capture Karine and that required strong men to handle her guards. David smiled as he remembered his own rule of fighting stronger opponents. Injure them first. His parents had been locked in sleep. And he had 9 bodies that were full of weapons already piled up behind him.

David made his way back to the bodies he had left behind. After a few minutes of scavenging the corpses, David found an assortment of goodies. A few remote explosives, a handful of knives, some incendiary grenades, one standard pistol, two swords, and an assortment of other weapons. David wasn't much of a sword or gun fighter. He liked knives and close combat. Thinking over his possibilities, David finally smiled as he decided a plan. He took up one of the swords and started walking toward the pile of bodies.

——————————————-

The six guards were standing in formation at the ready. These guys were definitely better trained and more experienced than the other three groups. David smiled at the chaos and destruction that he was about to cause.

With a strong toss a bundle flew out of David's hands towards the group of 6. Immediately, one group of three split from the other to pursue the direction the where the bundle had been thrown from. David could only laugh to himself. There was no way they could find him at night. Additionally, the other group of three fell back and surrounded the bundle that was thrown their way.

"Shit, fall back. This is someone trying to split us us up. Stay in a five star formation," the voice that belonged to Grover said as he saw what the bundle contained. Three heads bound together with cord were sitting on the ground. The three men that had just started to run off returned immediately.

In less than two seconds, the six men reunited quickly setup perimeter to ward off any incoming attacks. They were quick. Two of the men pulled amulets out that brought light out in the darkness. Two had swords drawn. Grover had pulled a crossbow off of his back.

"Winston, go see check out that bundle," Grover said, "Who did they get?"

Winston walked over to the package of heads and bent down to see which group it was that got killed. He rolled over the bundle and saw what was present.

"My god," Winston said, "They have no eyelids." If they were just heads, it wouldn't have affected the him as much. But someone had actually took the time to remove the eyelids of each person. It was like the heads were being forced to stare at those still alive. Fear went through every one of the men present at Winston's sentence.

"Every group," Winston muttered in shock as he examined the faces on the heads.

"What?" Grover said.

"All of them are dead. And you are next," came a staticky voice that came over Grover's radio.

Then a boom that shook the entire forest sounded as the bundle of heads exploded.

David had put one of the remote bombs that was probably intended to be used on the the Carmine's cars at the center of the head bundle. He had also emptied every one of the gun's bullets and crammed them into the mouths, noses and other cavities of the heads.

The explosion was wicked as pieces and parts of the men's bodies flew in all directions. The light from the amulets disappeared as they were destroyed and David had no worries as he walked up to the mess that he had caused. Four of the six men were directly killed by the blast. At least, David assumed Winston was killed. There wasn't a body left as he was closest to the blast. The other three dead men were a mangled mess of meat, but you could still make out human forms. Grover and one other guy remained.

David walked over to Grover and squatted down next to his crippled body. A cough rang through the woods as the other man seemed to be on his last breath.

"Looks like he caught a few pieces of crap in the lungs. You are about to be the last one left," David said to Grover as he looked down with his dull red glowing eyes.

Grover was scared and in a whole lot of pain. One of his arms was gone below the elbow. Pieces of something were imbedded throughout his body and he could barely see.

Choking on his blood, Grover asked David, "Who are you?"

"I'm David. And you shouldn't have threatened my family," he replied as he laughed then swung his fist to hit Grover on the side of the head. Grover passed out instantly. David had to hurry because he didn't think this guy would live that long.

David sat down among the massive amount of blood and body parts and closed his eyes. He immediately was within the dark space and could now see three lights glowing. His parents two lights were still doing well but the one closest to him would fade slightly every few seconds. David reached over and touched the orb. He squeezed the orb causing it to burst. Instead of absorbing the damaged orb pieces, David understood that he could try to pluck certain information out of the fragments. The dream orbs were a critical part of a persons soul. If it was destroyed, he could catch glimpses at what that person's life was like. David had wanted to try this to find out more information. Now he knew who was behind this whole incident. They were not going to like what David had planned for them.

Now, all of the intruders were dead. The entire team of 15. All David had to do was clean up the mess. He had to dispose of the evidence. Actually, it wasn't hard to get rid of bodies when most of them were already destroyed in an explosion. Knowing he only had an hour and a half until Karine arrived, David got to work. After 45 minutes of work, the area was pretty much back to normal except for a slight depression in the ground were the explosion occurred. The area wasn't perfect but David knew that natural processes would soon wash away all remaining signs of a battle. He had piled up the corpses at the location of the bomb. Then he had tossed the three incendiary grenades onto the pile of bodies. Under the intense burn of the grenades, the bodies were reduced to a pile of ash in no time at all. David figured that he would revisit the site tomorrow for a view during the day. Now was time to get himself cleaned up for Karine's visit.

———————————————-

She had thought that by ignoring David that he would be less threatened by life in the Other. She was absolutely heartbroken by his misunderstanding when she had heard David's voicemail. She panicked when she had heard the emotion in David's voice. She was worried about him. She tried to call him but no one would answer the phone. When she had spoken with her dad that evening, he had mentioned that David had performed exceptionally well on the test and that they were coming up with a plan to get him trained for use by the company. This information had upset her even more since she knew that there was no way she could keep David away from the strife of the Other anymore.

In desperation, she had called David's mother to see if she had heard from him. Kathy Knox had relayed to Karine that David was home and was moping about because of her. Karine did a quick explanation that it was a misunderstanding and that she was coming over immediately. She had asked Kathy to not tell David because she didn't want him to run off again.

Now, Karine and her guards were making their way down the driveway to David's parents' house. She had been an absolute mess for the entire drive to David's parents house.

Quietly exiting the car, she could see the dark silhouette of a man standing on the side of the front porch in the dark. For a second, the entire group exiting the cars paused at the sight. Several of the guards went on alert. Stepping out of the shadows and into the porch light, the crew saw a pale looking David emotionlessly looking out over the yard.

"Be quiet," David whispered, "Don't wake up my parents."

Karine ran up to David and gave him the tightest hug he had ever been given. She was crying, but David didn't hug back.

"Why are you here?," David questioned with a slight aggravation in his voice.

"I'm here for you," Karine said with her eyes facing the ground.

"I thought if you weren't involved with me then you might have a better chance for survival in this world," Karine continued, "I was wrong. My father told me that you tested high on the talent test. That means that you will definitely be placed in danger regardless of me."

"I have had a large number of friends and relatives die over the years. My mother died. I have had guards that I have know since I was a child die in front of my eyes. Others just go missing one day and never return. I have seen entire families threatened as a tool to get those that love them to change sides."

"Our world is deadly and being involved with me increases the risk to your life....and the lives of your loved ones."

"I am sorry for the way I acted," she said crying, "I'm not entirely sure what to do, but I really care for you and do not want you hurt again."

"Will you forgive me?", Karine said while still holding David in an tight hug.

David stood there trying to process her entire speech. He reached his arms up and hugged Karine back.

"Sure, I forgive you," David said, "but can we go ahead and go inside. Having all this discussion in the dark, on the porch, and with all your guards staring at me....it's kind of weird."

David and Karine went inside. By the time they finished talking, Another hour had passed. It was 1:00 a.m. in the morning.

Since they had the room available, David had arranged to let everyone spend the night and leave first thing in the morning. The guards seemed a little hesitant but David had convinced them when he showed them the bunk house.

Since David's dad worked for the forestry group, it wouldn't be uncommon for crews to need a place to stay when working in the area. The Knox family had a little barn off to the side that was partially converted to a small living quarters for the crews. It wasn't anything fancy but it was more than acceptable.

David offered Karine and the one female guard an extra room in the house. It was his sister's old room that now had two beds in it as a guest room.

When Karine asked about David's sister, he simply told her, "She's dead." He didn't want to talk about it.

By 2:00 a.m, everyone was settled in and starting to get rest. Of course, two guards stayed on watch duty to make sure everything secure.

David stood at the door to the bedroom with Karine in front of him. They had both went through a lot recently. David had been infatuated with this woman since he had first seen her smile. Karine had taken a liking to David when she saw how passionately he described the night.

"My dad told me that you are exceptionally talented in the darkness element....You know why I had originally wanted to do a creatures of the night exhibit at the zoo?", Karine said while standing in front of David.

"My mom was also very talented in the darkness element. She would take me out for walks in the night when I was a little girl. My

Main talent is ice element like my dad but I managed to inherit a very small amount darkness talent from my mom. It isn't enough to be effective in use but it was enough that my mom wanted to help me walk in the dark at night."

Karine was crying because of the memories. David could feel the strings in his heart being pulled.

Raising his hand he caressed Karine's check and made her look at him. Then he leaned in for a kiss. The couples lips met for the first time and locked together for a minute.

"That was nice," Karine said as she backed shyly away to the guest bedroom door.

"Yes, it was" David responded before smiling at Karine and saying, "Goodnight."