Excerpt: Synergy

Chapter 6
A feeling of awareness began to come over it. Slowly at first, like a creature coming out of a long hibernation. Awareness that it was not alone, it had been alone for so very long. It sensed the being, the warmth of fresh flesh and blood and it began to feel the familiar hunger curl in its belly. But it did not feed on flesh or blood, it was not that type of creature. It had no body, no substance to speak of, but that fact did not make it any less real. It was a creature that existed between day and night, between waking and dream, between real and imaginary. The food that sustained it was much more difficult to find, but in the end, also far more satisfying and finding it was part of the pleasure.
Fear, hatred, anger, these are the things it fed on; these are what made it strong, powerful. The others had already served their purpose, it had fed well off them and grew strong and powerful, but it was always the same in the end. It would absorb the energy provided by its prey and the hunger would abate – for awhile, then it needed to feed again. It could go long periods between meals, but it had been denied food for such a long time, it was weak and it was very hungry. The longer it was awake, the more aware it became of its growing hunger. A seething growing need surged through its being. It had no desire to retreat into sleep has it had done for time untold. What it wanted, what it needed was to feed.
The man had proved tasty, so tasty, his fear and angry and even his disgust nourished it, but it wanted more. It had not been strong enough to take the everything he offered, it did not have enough strength or time to take full advantage of its prey. But time was on its side, it could be very patient when the promise of sating its need was at hand. It had fed a little, just a little, just enough to help it wake. It wanted more, more. It was so very hungry.
It had let the others have far too much freedom. One had actually tried to warn the man. When it was stronger, it would have to deal with the one called Jacob Willows. But not yet, first it needed to feed. Tonight, tonight it would work on the man. Tonight it would begin to feed. Tonight it would begin to regain its strength. It had been so long.
***
Jacob Willows tried to control his fear. It would serve no purpose other than to give it what it desired most – strength. But the control was difficult because he was afraid, very afraid. He couldn't remember how long it had been, time stopped being something he considered important, he only knew he hadn't been aware for many years. Being aware was both a curse and a blessing. A blessing because he felt almost alive again with the awareness, he could be with his family, and he could try once more to free himself from this pointless, mindless existence.
It seemed to be longer and longer between the creatures feedings and every time he felt as if it were his last chance to grant his wife and his boys the peace he denied them all those long years ago. His weakness put them here, his inability to control what the others told him was beyond him to control. They had given up, most of them, but Jacob refused too. Maybe it had been too long for the older ones, but Jacob could still remember what it was like to draw breath, to love, to live. One night of recklessness had placed his family in this endless hell. A hell he knew he might deserve, but not his Molly, not his boys. Maybe if saving them was beyond him, at least he could prevent others from suffering the same fate.
Jacob's captor was still very weak from years of inactivity. It would take time until it was string enough to feed in earnest. It had tried earlier, but the man was strong, but they all succumbed in the end. But perhaps this time Jacob could prevent it. He would pay for his interference, he could feel its anger seething even now. If the creature succeeded in feeding off the man and the woman, Jacob knew he would suffer terribly for his attempt to warn them. Molly was afraid for him and the boys. She cried all the time now and Jacob told it would only make it stronger.
The others generally kept, to paralyzed with their own fear to even try to save themselves let alone anyone else. That was not Jacob's way, he was a Christian, and the thing that had made him do the unspeakable things he had done, did not understand that. There had been times Jacob thought he had been abandoned, but then he realized he had to free himself. That was when he decided to start to try and warn the new ones.
The first time was the worse. It had made Jacob relive that day, the day his sanity abandoned him, the day he put a knife to his beloved Molly, the day he killed his own sons. The very thought made him sick to his stomach, it also made him angry. But anger is what it fed off. Jacob had learned to control that over time and time was something he had in great abundance. He had to be careful this time, he would not let it do that to him again, not ever again. Jacob was learning, but he had yet to learn how to defeat the thing. That was one lesson he had yet to figure out.
"It's a foolish thing you're doing, brave, but I ain't gonna lie to you, foolish." Jacob was startled by the voice, the others usually gave him a wide berth, to afraid, or to timid to risk the being's wrath. He turned to find one of the others who had helped him in the past, but his name escaped him. names were of no value in this place. The other man, seeing his discomfort, held out his hand in greeting. "Tom. Tom Lennon."
The name brought instant recognition. They all knew each other's stories. What they had been made to do to bring them to this place, they all wore the blood shed in the last moments of their lives. Only their bodies had been made to look whole again so that it had the pleasure of punishing them again and again if they caused trouble. If they behaved like Jacob.
Jacob took the man's hand and gave him a nod. "Maybe," he conceded. "But I can't sit back and let it take another one. I can't." The last two words were spoken earnestly and more for himself than to convince Tom.
"It will only hurt you more in the end, you know that, right?" Tom pushed his stiff, bloody hair off his face, but it fell right back into his eyes.
Jacob nodded and raised his brows. "That I do. But maybe if I help him, the one on the outside, maybe he can help us."
"How do you figure that?" Tom asked.
Jacob hiked his shoulders in resignation. "I haven't figured that out yet," he admitted. "But you felt him, he's strong. Stronger than I was."
Tom nodded. "Stronger than me too, I grant you that, but it isn't fully awake yet. He won't win, they never win."
"And they never will, unless they have help." Jacob looked at Tom with hopeful eyes. He had been trying so long on his own, an ally would be most welcomed.
Tom took a deep breath and seem to consider the entity keeping him captive in a state of eternal torment, neither alive nor fully dead. No peace, only fear and pain for as long as it existed. "My missus ain't gonna be happy with me, but I gotta say I'm tired of being like this, I want rest, I want peace, I want my little ones to have what I took from them. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you have the backbone to stand up against this thing that done this to me and mine, then so do I. I'm not sure what I can do, but if you figure it out, just tell me what I gotta do and its as good as done."
Jacob felt a tenuous smile on his face for the first time in as long as he could remember. He felt caked blood crack at the unfamiliar expression. He felt something else almost as foreign stir to life in his soul. Hope. Jacob Willows felt hope for that soul and the soul of all those doomed to spend an eternity dying over and over again.