The sign saying ‘Closed for routine maintenance’ swayed gently on the metal chain cordoning off the insect enclosure of London Zoo. Snatching a glance behind him, the Apprentice stepped over the temporary barrier into the exhibit area. He continued down the corridor, passing long lines of dripping exhibit tanks full of browning foliage and damp soil. As he progressed further in the dimming light, he became aware of a musty smell that hung in the air like a miasma.
With the incapacitation of the Teacher, he had been summoned. Today would be the day of his final initiation. He would come face-to-face with the Dark King himself and receive the secrets of the brotherhood.
Turning the corner, he stopped in his tracks. The distinctive profile of a man was silhouetted against the floor-to-ceiling glass partition of the Amazonian insect enclosure. He was wearing a black baseball cap and had his back to the Apprentice. On the other side of the glass was an artificial bio-habitat, containing fauna and flora indigenous to the Amazonian region. A fat drop of condensation tracked a path down the glass. To one side of the glass wall was an entrance door, providing access to the artificial habitat. A small, red flashing light above the door indicated that the door was ajar.
‘You are here,’ said the man quietly.
‘Are you the one?’ replied the Apprentice hesitantly.
The Dark King studied the Apprentice’s reflection in the glass. ‘Don’t you recognise your master’s voice?’ Slowly, the Dark King turned around.
The Apprentice eyed the man cautiously. There was something strangely familiar about him. He was tall, standing well over six feet with a lithe athletic build. Despite the shadow cast by the man’s baseball hat and dark sunglasses, the Apprentice could make out that his face was badly scarred.
‘Come with me,’ said the Dark King, ushering the Apprentice with his hand.
The Apprentice followed the figure through the door into the exhibit area. The door closed behind them and locked with a click. The light above the door turned green. After taking a moment to acclimatise to his new surroundings, the Apprentice trailed the man along a winding path into the centre of the habitat enclosure, sweeping away ferns and lush vegetation from his face as he went.
‘Your Teacher has served me well,’ said the Dark King, stepping off the path and walking over to a large boulder set at the foot of a giant tree. ‘Before his unfortunate accident, he told me that you were ready to take the next step. To serve fully.’
The mouth of the Apprentice suddenly went dry. ‘I am.’
‘You understand what that means?’
‘Yes, I understand,’ said the Apprentice with growing certainty in his voice. ‘To reject the light and step forever into the power of the darkness.’
The Dark King’s lips curled into a dark slow smile. ‘I will show you dark secrets and what lies behind the stories of the ancients. You will have unimaginable strength and power at your command.’
Goosebumps shuddered down the Apprentice’s neck.
‘But once you have stepped into the shadow, there is no going back to the light. You will be forever a servant of the darkness.’
The Apprentice was wired with expectation. ‘I want it,’ he replied with chilling simplicity.
‘You must accept the darkness, in all its forms.’
‘I will.’
The Dark King took a step away from the boulder. ‘You have agreed.’ Raising his hand into the air, the Dark King began to speak in tongues. A dreadful feeling rose up in the Apprentice’s body. His breathing shuddered and then something heavy landed on his shoulder. Keeping his shoulder still, he slowly turned his head towards the alien object on his jacket. It was a fat black cockroach, its body slowly pulsing on his shoulder. A cool draft of air passed across his face and then another landed on his arm, then another in his hair. Instinctively, the Apprentice tried to swipe them away, but others started dropping out of the air like black rain.
‘Accept them as your own,’ cried the Dark King.
Then the rain turned into a swirling commotion of blurs that filled his eyes. Despite the air being dark with droning black insects, the Apprentice could still breathe, his face and airways strangely free from obstructions. His eyes rolled in his head in fear, scanning the seething mass surrounding him. Through the cloud, he could make out the figure of the Dark King, the air around him appearing clear. He heard his muffled voice above the whining drone.
‘Do you accept the darkness?’
The Apprentice surrendered to the voice. ‘Yes,’ he screamed.
The next moment, the Dark King drove his heel fiercely into the ground. A shudder pulsed through the swarm of insects, like a ripple trembling through a drop of water. The noise surrounding the Apprentice suddenly intensified. Moving together as a coordinated mass, the swarm lifted the Apprentice’s body several inches off the ground. As it pushed and pulled at the featureless blur of his body, the Apprentice felt an intense power within. Then, like a defibrillator sparking a patient back to life, his heart jackhammered inside his ribcage.
The Dark King looked on malevolently for several seconds and then stamped his foot again. Almost instantaneously, the air began to clear. The Apprentice dropped to the ground, a floating mist of dust shrouding his body. The noise of the swarm was replaced by the rustling sound of leaves high in the tree canopy.
Slowly, the Apprentice got to his feet, his eyes blazing with the incredible untold power now surging through the nerves of his body. The features of his face twisted into a sinister smile.
The Dark King opened his jacket and placed a Glock 17 pistol into the Apprentice’s hand. ‘I want you to kill someone for me.’
The Apprentice didn’t bat an eyelid at the nature of the request. ‘Who?’
‘Vincent Blake. Hunt him down and kill him.’
‘Yes, my Master,’ said the newly anointed Teacher to the Dark King.