7.

A young lady, in her early twenties perhaps, is rummaging around a store at a petrol station as if she were a child in a candy store with free reign on what it is she can have. A truck driver notices this young lady right away and what she is doing confuses him as he himself enters that store to pay for topping up his truck. He wonders what could have such a lady at such a place at such a time in the evening as it currently is. He doesn't ask her this, not yet anyhow.

That young lady is so childlike that she has already opened a pack of soft jellies and is munching on them having yet to pay for them. She notices the man who entered and if he were to mention her jelly eating then she may do something untoward to him, but he doesn't so all is good. The first words between the two only occur after she overhears him speaking to the store attendant stating of where it is that he is on his way to.

His destination, she had not known of it yet until she heard him speak, that place he is going to, she needs to go there too, or at least to a place along the way.

'You wouldn't mind a passenger on your journey, would you?'

Still facing the store attendant behind a counter and with his back to the rest of the shop, the truck driver is sure of whom it is that is speaking to him. Sure, there had been no one else within the store so it must be the jelly eating lady. Turning round and thinking that this is his lucky day, he doesn't hesitate in giving his answer.

'Sure, as long as you don't mind sitting next to me.'

'I don't think that will be much of a problem.'

He can't help but wonder how this young lady manages to keep the figure she has, given her late night eating habits. This, of course, could be a once off thing for her and those jellies though he thinks that maybe it isn't. He is ready to move but not before giving her the once over, something that brings a smile to his face.

'C'mon ...let's go.'

She begins to make a move to follow when the store attendant speaks.

'Excuse me young lady ...'

Truck driver instantly suspects that he is about to inquire about payment for the jellies. 'I got this' he says and indeed pays for what she took. In the cab of the truck, not long after it gets going, the question comes that was always going to come.

'So, what has a lady like you out at night so late and hitching a ride to the middle of nowhere?'

She giggles at the question like a child would upon hearing a word she probably should hear and finding it funny. He can't help but find this more than a little weird and with how she was back at the petrol store he reconsiders making any possible advances towards her. The way she is reinforces how young she is, and he is at least twice her age and unbeknown the rest too.

She doesn't answer the question but the two do converse throughout the overnight journey. At about six in the morning, still a fair bit away from the next town they would surely come to if the journey continues, she asks him to pull over for they have come to where it is she needs to be.

'Are you sure?' he asks. 'There is an all-night café not all so far up ahead; we could go get some breakfast there if you like?'

'No, that's OK. Here is where I need to be ...'

'Alright, if you are sure.'

'I am sure, thanks Mister.'

Again, the thanks Mister sounds like something a child would say upon returning a rouge football. He also notices what appears to be an electrical charge move between the fingers and thumbs of her right hand. Perhaps deciding not to make a move upon her is and was a good thing, if only he knew the half of it. In one of his mirrors, he watches her at the side of a road as he begins to pull away. He also sees her begin to make her down a steep incline. He soon drives over a bridge and he cannot help but wonder if that young lady is heading down towards the space beneath this bridge and soon, he thinks of her no more.

Yeah, she is heading down a steep incline, but she no longer looks like a woman in her early twenties, rather she looks exactly like a girl who has only just turned ten years of age. She looks exactly like a little girl by the name Lonnie Turner for that is exactly who she is, and this place is right where that shadow wanted her to come; it is exactly where Darkness wants her to be.

A couple hundred meter walk down that rather steep incline brings Lonnie to a rather large stone arch underneath a flyover roadway, an arch that leads into a rather dark and unusual slum town. This is not a place for most anyone to be, it is not a place for a child to be unless you so happen to be a daughter of darkness.

This underpass is not a place to just pass through. It is not a place for any regular child to be and of course, she is no regular child. Down here she will be Darkness royalty. A veil of darkness acts as a barrier and one cannot simply just see past it, nor can one just simply pass into it. It takes a certain kind of being to do that and as we know Lonnie so happens to be one such a being and she enters unrestricted.

Immediately beyond the veil and to the left, a large metal oil drum fire crackles strong illuminating the face of an older man casting his shadow up and onto the grey brick wall behind him. His cracked wrinkled face shaded with stubble, his hair grey and wild, his eyes glazed over and blankly looking Lonnie's way, his mouth open, smiling slightly, revealing a lack of teeth and what teeth he has are rotten.

This old man, his clothes are dull and worn, he should be more than enough to frighten any child but not Lonnie. She is not so much aware of who it is she is or why she is here though she knows that will come for Darkness plans to teach and develop a power or powers in another of his daughters. She also does not know who that old man is or as to why he is of any relevance to her.

A certain Sammy Fontaine has spent a number of years down here but by such time as what Lonnie has arrived Sammy is here no more, not that she does or could know who he is. There is someone else down here, a sister, one of eight sisters Lonnie will come to know of in time and this particular sister of hers has already been down here a few years.

Half aimless and half with purpose Lonnie moves on until she sees another girl coming towards her. She is unsure as to who this other girl is and as it would soon become clear this other girl certainly knows Lonnie. The two girls come face to face standing only a few feet away from one another.

'Hey ...'

'Hi' Lonnie replies, not knowing what else to say.

'It's good to see you sister.'

'Sister? I don't have any sisters ...'

Lonnie sees that this other girl is in possession of two rather deformed dolls and a stuffed rabbit and also notices the presence of a number of wolf like ... creatures ... that seem to have somewhat of a connection to her.

'Oh yes you do. Yep, I'm Maxene, you're Lonnie ... wanna play?'

'Sure ...'

Maxene drops one of the deformed dolls she has come to care for, if care can be such a thing to such a thing, and she begins to run off. Lonnie doesn't delay. She picks up the fallen doll then runs to go catch up with Maxene.