Hi! I know it's been a long time, but this story will be continued. At the moment i am revising and rewriting the chapters and they will be posted as fast as i can.

So for those who had already read this story please tell me what you think of this new first chapter, and those who are here for the first time please comment.

I hope you all enjoy the new Dark One.

Disclaimer: Chrno Crusade does not belong to me.

Prologue

Darkness, it was everywhere, in every wall, in every corner in every crack and in every puddle, mysterious, isolated and it had been undisturbed for so long it had long ago forgotten the light that had abandon it. It had been so long that anything had dared to defy its realm, so long that stillness had fallen in every particle present it was like a few years back the very passing of time had gotten tired of this place and moved on to more interesting pastures, leaving this place untouched and forgotten.

What's this?!

Something was happening! Time was starting to move again, slowly and angrily like a machine that had become rusty from neglect it protested against any movement. But something was definitively changing, first a feeling in the air, something was stirring in the darkness.

Noise! There was noise! So strange was this new intrusion to the once reining quietude that the air seemed to ripple in tiny waves as it was not used to such strong movement. Voices, young and fresh, the opposite of their surroundings travelled through the air, only to bounce on the walls in what seemed to be a never-ending eco, propagating the sound far beyond the range of its weak source.

And finally there was light. It cut through the darkness like a knife and the darkness once so powerful and all-consuming hid in the corners afraid of this strange intrusion. It had been so long since light had entered this abandoned place, so long since it touched its dirty walls that it was like it had never existed in the first place. In the light the silent mysterious place was exposed in its full ugliness, the walls were cracked and bare and the only places where they weren't a dirty gray were where there was a sick brown-yellowish mold eating it away, it was a narrow straight passageway, a few empty doorways led to equally empty rooms, in the floor several puddles had formed due to the humidity and leaks, everything made of dark stone. So bare and cold was this place that even the rats had abandoned it years ago, it had stood alone until this intrusion had forced it to awaken.

"Rosette! We shouldn't be here. Let's go back before we get into trouble… again."

"Oh Shut Up! If you're so worried then go but I'm not coming back! If that stupid tour guide got even more boring my pulse would stop!"

The boy sighed and reluctantly kept following his sister trough the darkness, one of his hands strongly gripping the red flashlight and the other gripping the hand of his sister and no force in this world could make him let go of either. It was true that the woman's dull mechanical voice going on about facts and dates had almost send him to a stupor so when Rosette had suggested they sneak away to tour own their own, he did not need much convincing. But now they had wandered away from the group and crossed the velvet rope with the AUTORIZED PERSONEL ONLY sign, eager for adventure a half an hour ago, the excitement of being in a forbidden place had all but disappeared, he was cold and afraid of the never ending emptiness of this dark place, but the girl stubbornly refused to go back until she found what she went looking for: a thrill.

"I don't understand what's so secret about this place! Nothing more than a bunch of empty, leaky, dark rooms and this stupid hallway! Really! When I thought about catacombs I imagined something more exciting… Like bones and sculptures!"

"If you had been listening to the boring tour guide you would have known that this monastery has been empty since the 1800's or something, anything exciting has probably rotten away by now!"

Suddenly a draft of bone-freezing air blew in from the many cracks in the stone walls, stopping the argument and making the siblings huddle closer together in a vain attempt to search for heat and comfort, this place chilled them, and not just physically, there was something there, or there had been something there that was wrong, that was evil and that, whatever that had been, had been infiltrated in the very walls of this place, the atmosphere was one of secrets, one of fear and suppression.

It had been the first day of spring that was warm enough for them to leave their jackets at home, but there in the deep, dark underground no warmth of the sun above could reach and caress the depressing environment, the cold air ran through them like one of the coolest winter morning. Goosebumps made their presence in the children's skin and once again they silently wondered if perhaps it was not time to turn back.

But they kept going… Deeper, darker, colder…

Water dripped from the humidity that covered the ceiling and walls; forming small puddles. The water rippled by the steps of the two unexpected visitors and showed a twisted image of the siblings, hand in hand, walking alone through the empty maze of rooms a flashlight in the girl's and boy's hand lightening their path.

They were young, very young, neither child could have been more than twelve years old, Their faces and expressions had enough similarities for anyone with a watchful to notice they were siblings, both blonde and blue eyed still there were many differences, the girl was taller by a couple of inches, she also had a fuller body, stronger, tanner skin with a few sun-kissed freckles on her white round face and more vigorous figure than of her brother, her blonde golden hair ran down her sides in two braids; the boy was thinner and paler, giving the impression that he was just recovering from a long sickness, his hair was more of pale yellow and was cut short. They were clean and obviously well-cared for, but one could see that the clothes they were wearing were old and most likely hand-me-downs, the boy wearing a sweater a size too big for him and the girl a patched dress, both their shoes were old snickers. Such was the picture that graced the long undisturbed tunnel.

The only sound that could be heard down in that forgotten place were of the footsteps the two pair of feet did when stepping of the cold stone and occasional puddle, echoing in the endless darkness creating a strange eerie beat.

"This place is pretty creepy huh Joshua?"

"Yeah. Do…do you think there might be ghosts down here?"

The girl turned to face her sibling, the darkness hiding a nervous look on her face.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well you know…this place is so dark and scary like something out of those horror movies. And before the trip I read about this place, many books talked about strange rituals and mysterious deaths when the last monks were here… and there are reports from the people in the town saying they saw lights flashing here in the middle of the night. That's kind of weird don't you think?"

"What I think is that you've been reading to too many ghost stories and listening to too many old wives' tales. This place isn't haunted, just boring."

The boy blushed hotly and looked angrily and embarrassed at his sister, still despite his fear of the place he let himself be guided down the dark path, peaking here, lightning that.

"Fine. But you know what? In every horror story the first victims are always the ones that don't believe, wander away or the blondes! "

"Whatever… and if a ghost did show up at least it would a heck of a lot more interesting than this. You are such a coward Joshua."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are... What's that?"

"If you think I'm falling for that old…"

"No really. Look here!"

The girl tugged on her brother's hand pulling him a few steps forward making him look at what her flashlight had caught in its beam. His widen at the sight.

"What the…"

It was a door, a door at the end of the dark tunnel. All the other doors had been ripped away leaving only the stone doorways but not this one, this one had remained. It was made of pure grey stone and it was very tall, taller than any of the adults they knew and it was carved in the center with a large crucifix and surrounding it were sentences, everything had been carefully carved in the massive block of stone.

"What does it say?"

"I don't know Rosette, it's in Latin."

He touched on of the letters, tracing its contours with his small, thin fingers and felt a jolt and a freezing numbness running down his arm and pulled back quickly.

This is wrong. We shouldn't be here, something's wrong!

"Let's open it!"

He looked at her in horror.

"What?! No Rosette, we've done enough! Let's just go back and not touch anything"

But the girl was already pushing the cold stone with all her might.

"Come on help me out. We finally found something worthwhile and now you want to go back? What's the worst thing it could happen?"

He looked at the imposing door and imagined all the things that could go wrong if they opened it. But still he was curious… it was so strange and mysterious and he always did love a good mystery.

So he joined his sister and started pushing, there was at first a great resistance but then a dull crack, like the door itself had given up on protecting whatever was on the other side and the door opened easily, showing a great room filled with darkness. The siblings pointed their flashlights to the inside and gasped

This room was completely different from all the others. The stone walls, floor and ceiling had been smoothed out in perfection, there were no puddles or cracks here. And carved in the stone of the walls were thousands of sentences, some in Latin, some in a strange language and symbols thousands of hidden patterns and pictures of hideous beasts, it was like the whole room was telling a story and they couldn't read it. It was also the biggest most glorious room they had been, and judging by how there were no more doors it was the end of the line for their little adventure. In the walls there were several torches waiting to be lit. But none of that interested them, no; the truly fascinating thing could be seen at the back of the room, illuminated by the thin lights of their flashlights.

Unconsciously she let go of her brother's hand and walked slowly to what had caught her attention, she eventually stopped in front of it mesmerized, she had never seen anything like that, she didn't even know something like that could exist. Her brother followed her, fear temporarily forgotten by this discovery.

It's magnificent!

She didn't even notice her brother was by her side, until he, also shocked by what was in front of him gasped.

"Wow!"

I'll say…

It was a crucifix but never before had they seen one quite like this before in their short lives. It wasn't the usual ones sees in every church, made of wood or stone with a suffering Jesus looking at human with a kind, sad look on his face as he looked down at the humanity that had doomed him. No, this one was made of metal, strange enough it didn't even looked to have rusted even with the humidity in the room and the long time without care, but the children did not noticed any of this, so fascinated they were with was on the cross.

Instead of the usual religious figure, the person in the cross gave a feeling of everything but holiness, instead it's tall, impressive figure gave an aura of forbidden, of darkness and of sin, the last the thing one would expect to find in a monastery.

So tall he was that the children had to lift their chins up high to take a good look on its face. His hair was of a very dark deep purple, almost black, that fell of his shoulders to reach its lower end of his back, it was hard to tell if his skin was of a light tan or merely dirty from the layers of dust that covered it. Every inch of his body was muscled and toned and seemed to scream strength and male, bare-chested the only thing that covered him were a pair of tight, black pants. He was strapped to the cross by brown leather straps, each with a small golden cross; there was one on each of wrists and ankles, several on his torso and a big one on his head that covered most of his face. Even thought she couldn't make out his features Rosette could swear that she saw a shinny fang poking from his mouth. Hanging from its neck was a watch; it was as big as Rosette's hand with a brown encasing with metal lock. They couldn't see in what hour had it stopped but it was pretty obvious that it had passed a long time ago since its last tick.

"It's amazing."

"It almost looks alive."

True enough if it wasn't for the mysterious circumstances they had found it, the layer of dust in it and the total stillness it would be impossible to tell it apart from a real person. He looked so alive, she was sure that if she reached out her hand to touch his skin she would feel it warm and thumping with life or if she touched his hair it would be soft and real. She almost did but she was nervous about touching his bare skin, anxious and scared but still fascinated. She wouldn't dare touching him but a still hidden part of her wanted to.

Joshua walked to the side of the statue to observe it from every different angle, meanwhile Rosette at the watch, it looked so old but still modern, why a watch? Did watches even existed in the time he was made? There were so many questions…

"What do you think it means?"

"Huh? What?"

"Come on Rosette! Even you know enough about religion to know this isn't normal. It must mean something… Maybe it's one of those underground cults I've read about, maybe this monastery thing was just a cover and really…"

"Don't even start with that conspiracy crap Joshua. You may be my brother but I swear I'll hit you."

"It makes sense admit it! The maze, this secret room, the statue… Just look at it Rosette! And now tell me…

Look at it? I can't take my eyes of it!

The imposing figure was by far the single most impressive thing she had ever seen; her hands were itching to touch it. That thing on its mouth… was it really a fang? He looked human enough but there was something off about him, something dark and otherworldly that told her this wasn't just anybody. He was different. However the figure was too tall for her to reach its face and the fang attached to it, but that watch… it hang on its neck just close enough for her to touch its glass surface. It hanged in there so temptingly, covered in dust; curiosity was killing her; if she only could wipe it and see it better…

"Ouch!"

"Rosette, what happened?"

"I cut myself on the watch, the glass was cracked. It hurts!"

"Let me see."

The boy took his sisters hand between his own and stared. There was a cut across her fingers, it wasn't very deep but it was bleeding a lot, the vivid red blood seemed to glow in the dark as it ran down her fingers and dropped in thin drops on the stone floor. In fact the glass of the watch was now smeared with blood, the cracked glass was colored with red making it look even more terrifying and occult, a few lonely drops making their way downwards to the metal casing.

"It's just a cut. Don't worry about it."

"But it hurts! And look how much it's bleeding…"

He sighed and smiled at her whine, Rosette who was always so strong and confident was such a girly when it came to things like this. He cradled her hand closer, happy to comfort her and be the strong one for once in a while.

"Alright, alright. Let's go back and wrap it up…"

Crack

The siblings froze on the spot. A second crack made them look up to the watch just in time to see as the watch gave another loud crack and a jump, swinging slightly form the chain that fastened it to the statue's neck. A soft white light emerged from the cracked glass, providing a weak but ghastly glow on the sibling's faces, faces that were suddenly a lot paler than they had been just a few seconds ago. The air went from cold and light to heavy and stifling in less than a second.

They backed away, slowly, carefully…

"Rosette… What did you do?!"

"Nothing! I just touched it!"

Tick

It was such a soft sound than in normal circumstances it would have never interrupted an argument between the loud children. But in that place, at that time, it had the same impact as gong, panic rose to their faces, eyes as wide as they could hands gripping their flashlights in a death grip, they were so young, so alone and so very frightened.

Silence! Even breathing seemed to be too loud when facing such a thing, so they stood there frozen in time, waiting for the moment they would realize it was all in their heads.

Tock

No! There was no mistake nor was it a product of their imaginations. It was the real thing, like something out of a horror film.

And the blonds are always the firsts to go.Recalled Rosette grimly.

Tick

The watch had started to work again.

"Rosette let's go. NOW!"

"Ok…"

They took off as fast as their small bodies could take them, their chests hurt and lungs burned from the effort, their shoes and the bottom of their clothes were soaked from the puddles and in the cold air it stuck uncomfortably to their skin. The cold air hurt as they desperately breathed in but still they needed more to go on and took desperate shallow breaths. They couldn't stop, they would never stop, the cold could come, the water and the pain too but they would not stop until they reached the sun and left this evil place to its darkness and loneliness. So the two ran down the dark hallway, passing the cold empty rooms, the more athletic girl basically dragging her brother. Until finally with a gasp of relief they emerged from the darkness to the warmth of above.

The sun enveloped them in a warm loving hug of a mother welcoming its children home and the grasped their knees and struggled to calm their ragging hearts and recover their strengths.

"The adventure is over. Too much excitement, back to the boring tour guide"

"I couldn't agree more sis."

And they carried on fully intending to lock this incident in the deepest part of their memories, only to be remembered as a childhood nightmare to only silently disturb them in the lonely dark nights when they couldn't sleep.

How wrong they were.

For the siblings did not stay to see the true extent of their actions. They did not see as torches gained light by an invisible force, how the walls with their strange carvings had moaned in pain and started to crack until what was once perfect smooth stone was ugly and twisted.

How the hand of the "statue" clenched to form a fist, testing his strength. How latter that same hand ripped away the binds to the cross with hatred and violence and the body tumbled heavily onto the floor and they definitively didn't see as a laugh rumbled through the once empty walls and dark rooms, filling every corner of the void, dark and powerful, a song of victory…

No the children did not see any of this, but as they traveled away from the old monastery that sound of the awakened watch seemed to chase them through the fields and houses until it finally found a permanent home in their nightmares.

That night Rosette stared at the ceiling, from her small bed, it was impossible to sleep when the day's events kept playing in her head over and over again. That ticking that awful ticking was echoing in her head.

She and Joshua were grounded for a month and were made to stay on the bus for the rest of the tour, fortunately nobody noticed were they had gone to, or that anything had changed during the time they were gone. They didn't talk about what had happen although she had the feeling that for the next few days Joshua would devour any book or watch any show that had the slightest mention of cults or religious secrets.

Her hand throbbed and she pressed it against her chest as her other hand pulled the covers to cover every single part of her tiny body as to protect herself against anything that might harm her. Though unwanted the memories of the day came flooding back to her and she unconsciously shivered in the warmth of her bed. The blood, the watch, the ticking, and the statue, she was sure she would never forget that statue for as long as she lived.

"Who am I kidding? I am not going to get any sleep tonight."

Suddenly it was there, a calm, deep voice, urging her to calm down, to close her eyes and relax against the soft mattress, to stop thinking and just listen. It was like those times soon after her parent's accident, and to comfort herself at night she always imagined her mother's soft voice. But this was not her mother, this voice belonged to a man, it urged to thrust him. And since it should be all just a half-awake dream she did, and the moment she relaxed the voice started telling her a story, about a journey to strange land. Soon enough she was lulled to sleep.

"Sleep well my little one. I'll come to you soon"

No. It wasn't over, not by a long shot. It was never going to be over.

For time had just started to run again.

Tick Tock

Tick Tock

Tick Tock

To be continued…

So here we are i hope you have enjoyed yourselves. Please leave a review your feedback is very important to me.