3.

'Hello Samuel ... so good to see you've come back home.'

Never take Darkness too lightly. Samuel Fontaine should know better, he does know better, yet he counted his chickens before they hatched. He took a chance and just when he thought he was in the clear, a greeting came his way.

Off to an overpass he went on the third day of September 2018. Once there, he did not hesitate to move down to the underground beneath it. He knows this place so well for he spent a fair amount of his teens coming and going from this place. He learned how to steal, how to watch out for himself and how to make the most of trusting no one at all. These are all tricks of a trade, a trade that belongs to Darkness and without them the world would be so much ... brighter.

At that, those years were necessary years. They helped him become the man he is today, prepare him for all that was and is to come. Things for Sammy have been going very differently since he moved on. Recently, his life appeared to be back on a negative roll though this time not by choice, nor by being misled. Hints of positivity are only peppering through the dark of late and now he is trapped, imprisoned in a place he once considered to be ... home.

He swore he would never come back to this place though he felt he needed to come, especially if he were to move forwards. Now, moving forwards looks like it will be no easy task, a task he may not be able to perform at all. Darkness once told him he would return and now that he has, Darkness will not gloat, nor will he simply allow Sammy to move on.

The reason why he came back was to seek out someone he had briefly met with some eight months prior. For that other person, Christopher Furlong, thirty years had passed and not just eight months since that coming together. Sammy didn't quite get what he wanted from his return though he got enough out of the meeting he came for and as he was about to leave, leave believing he had managed to escape contact with Darkness, a greeting came his way.

'Hello Samuel ... so good to see you've come back home.'

'This not my home ...'

'It once was and what was will be again.'

'Not this time.'

'Really? Well then, let's just see you try to leave ...'

That veil, it so often is impenetrable from the outside in. On this occasion it won't let Sammy out, it will not let him pass. It won't let him leave. From the outside it is impossible to see past the darkness, from the inside Sammy can still see out, he just can't get there.

'Let me leave ...'

'Sorry son, I cannot do that.'

'I am not your son.'

'If you say so.'

She is still outside, a lady who had been waiting on the outside of this place when Sammy arrived. Apparently, she knows Sammy, at least to some degree. Sammy has no idea who she is even though he had been struck by a vague sense of familiarity when he had briefly spoken with her. She had told him she would wait until he came back out, but Sammy cannot come back out. That veil is as good as a brick wall, a wall he can see through but not move beyond.

He calls out, tries to get her attention. She is only feet away. It doesn't matter how far away she is, she will never be able to hear Sammy, for as long as the veil remains between them.

His thoughts turn to Majella Smith. He knows she never meant to hurt him. How he would like to tell her that it is alright, that he is alright. He should not have waited so long. Weeks have passed since the ball; weeks has passed since his miracle moment yet still he had not tried to see her. Under current circumstances he would be doing well if he ever were to come into contact with her again. This gates thing. She must not go through the gates; Chris has told Sammy this now on both occasions where they spoke with one another.

Despite there being question marks hanging round Chris Furlong's sanity on both occasions Sammy met with him, could Chris be referring to Majella? Could he be referring to this familiar lady outside this crazy place? If either is so, then what could Sammy take from that? Are they just words, or could they possible hold some meaning?

It hits him. Two things hit him. He has the answer, he has what he needs to foil Darkness and an imprisonment now will ensure that he stops nothing. And the lady outside ... Whether it is Darkness that is offering him crumbs or something similar in the here and now or if a possible echo or something of the likes is occurring, Sammy suddenly sees how or why there is the recognition of that lady outside.

The night of the Ball, Majella Smith lost control. Anger got the better of her and she seriously injured Sammy Fontaine to the point that he came very close to losing his life. Five days later and still in critical condition something happened to Sammy. A lady arrived at his hospital room and placed the palms of her hands on Sammy's chest. Moments later, she left the room as abruptly as she entered and before anyone could wrap their heads around anything that could be happening, Sammy was up and out of bed, looking healthy as healthy can look. She healed him.

The lady who came to him that day is the very same lady waiting on him to leave an underground area unlike any other underground in existence. Her name is ... Julie Evans and is a couple years or so older than Sammy himself. As a child she had an ability to heal, until a day came when a young boy riding a bike was hit by a car.

It took all she had to revive that boy to the point it had been thought that she lost her gift. Truth was, her gift never left, it just appeared as if it had. Like the daughters of Darkness, Julie has a second gift and unlike the daughters of Darkness, Julie does not have a dark heart. Her lesser gift informed her of where she needed to be at the time in which she came to heal Sammy and this lesser gift, if it can be thought of as being lesser, will lead her yet again.

Her abruptness comes out of getting round explaining who or what she is to everyone she comes across as well as why she comes to people when they need her to.

'It's my spot, not yours ... get your own spot.'

There is a man speaking not all so far away from where Sammy stands. Darkness has not yet left Sammy's company. This fellow seems to be there one moment and gone the next then he is back again, a former counselor now altered and confused.

'Why not go say hello?' Darkness speaks, noticing what or rather who has grabbed Sammy's attention. He has been waiting to speak with you for some time.

Sammy remembers this fellow. He was there when he first arrived to this place. Moving towards him, the other fellow speaks first.

'You are Sammy Fontaine ... this is my spot, not yours ...'

'That's right. May I ask as to who you may be?'

'My spot ... this is my spot ... I ... I am Andrew Hardeman. One of his daughters did this to me ...'

From that statement Sammy can determine that this fellow is referring to Darkness himself ...

'... She done something to me, you know ... because of her I am both here and somewhere else ...'

What exactly that mean, Sammy can only guess ...