THE ROOT OF DARKNESS

PROLOGUE

The little girl ran making little giggles as she ran deeper into the dark tunnel taking a turn by her left before cowering down and hiding behind a random box. 

“Merit”. A voice calls behind her startling her and making her scream as she threw her hands up to her mouth. She sighed in relief as she saw the black strands of her cousin, Donovan’s hair.

Merit playfully punched his chest. “You scared me”. Donavan placed his index fingers on his lips. “Stay quiet”. 

Donovan peeped out of the box, he hid behind as he turned back to face Merit. “Where’s Heather?”. He asked. Heather is his sister. They’d decided to play hide and seek with little Merit and this time, Heather was “It”. 

Merit shook her head as she started giggling once more, her excitement taking the best of her. “I don’t know. Maybe I finally lost her this time”. 

Donovan moved back to hide behind the box as he heard footsteps walking into the tunnel. Merit squealed as she played with her hands. The mere excitement of getting caught coursing through her veins. 

“That’s her, right?”. Merit question as Donovan placed his index over his lips, silencing her. A low whistling sound could be heard as the footstep moved moved deeper within the tunnel. 

Donovan turned to face Merit, his hands gripping her tightly by either side.”Wait here while I go drive Heather away. You can stay here by yourself, can’t you?”. 

Merit suddenly felt sad as she pouted her lips. “Why do you want to drive Heather away? As long as you stay here, Heather won’t find us”. The whistling sound could still be heard very low. “Do you hear that?”. Merit questioned. “Heather is still far away”

But Donovan knew better than Merit because how could Heather, his sister who was born without teeths, possibly whistle?.

Donovan turned to face Merit as he spoke with a low voice. “No matter what happens, don’t make a sound and don’t let Heather catch you, okay?”. 

Merit nodded her head as she watched Donovan leave. All alone in the dark tunnel, Merit did whatever she could to pass up time. 

She counted the stones, played with sand as she kept on peeping out once in a while for Donovan but he never came. Heather’s whistling seemed to have stopped too. 

“I’m bored”. Merit said pouting her lips. “Did Donovan take off to have fun with Heather, without me?”. 

Merit sighed as she placed her knees under her chin, hugging her body as she fell asleep. Minutes later when she’d woken up, she started to feel scared that Donovan hadn’t come back. 

As she made her move to step out of her hiding place, soon Merit heard the whistling sound once more as she fisted her hands in her mouth, filled with excitement. 

She could hear Heather’s footsteps drawing closer and nearer to her hiding spot.

Maybe Heather had pressured Donovan into telling her where I was hiding. Merit thoughy as she cowered lower behind the box she was hiding in. 

She shook her head. “No. Donovan would never do that”. She muttered under her breathe. “I bet Heather was just smart enough to figure it out herself”

Merit had kept on soliquizing with her thoughts that she wasn’t aware that the footsteps was moving closer to her hideout. 

“Or maybe..”. Merit stilled as she heard the whistling sound become clearer. “That sound…but Heather doesn’t have..”. She threw her hands to her mouth as fear started to grip her. 

“It could be Donovan making that sound”. Merit tried to tell herself to calm her trembling body but they’ve been hearing that whistling sound since when Donovan was with her.

Was there someone with Heather?. She thought. But only the three of them had agreed to play the game.

Merit threw her hands to her mouth, surprised. “Was Heather cheating?”

“Where are you hiding?”. Came a voice that sounded so much like Heather’s that Merit though it gave Merit a jump scare, she was finally able to calm down as it was confirmed that the person who was outside was Heather .

Does Heather have a twin that I don’t know of?. Merit thought, confused. Isn’t Donovan her only brother?

Honestly Merit didn’t know much about her cousins, Donovan and Heather so she’d decided to come spend time with them to get to know them better and as they’d started to get to know eachother more, Merit had suggested they played hide and seek where Heather would seek for them which led them to this moment. 

She was tired of hiding either way so Merit thought it’d be best to just allow Heather catch her. Afterall, she was starving and really wanted to go home. 

The dark tunnel was already giving her the creeps. She stood to her feet with her tiny legs as she jumped out of her hiding place, smiling. “Heather, you found-“. Merit’s eyes widened as she held eye contact with IT. 

It’s big bulging eyes forever left an imprint in her mind. She slowly started to back away shivering in fear as the saw blood dripping down the base of it’s eyes. 

It’s sharp talons gripped her, pulling her close to it as it brought his eyes close to hers as a wide grin spread through the corners of it’s lips. “I found you”. 

This memory had always haunted Merit kosarin even 45 years later now that she was 50 years old. 

Merit kosarin trembled on her wheel chair as she saw the face of a young girl in her twenties staring at her from the end of the room.

She trembled as she saw the smirk on the girl’s face and knew immediately that she was IT. 

Merit knew that she has to warn the world about her or else many were going to die but how could she possibly warn the world when that incident 45 years ago had left her traumatized to the extent that now, she couldn’t speak?