Dark Application: ONE (The Dark Application Series Book 1)

Dark Application: ONE

The Dark Application
Series: Book One

by
Brian Krogstad and Lindsey Waterman

"Dark Application will blow your
mind!" -
Celebrity Magician
Criss
Angel

Copyright ©2012 Brian Krogstad

All Rights Reserved

Kindle Third Edition

This author has provided this e-book to you without (DRM)
Digital Rights Management so you may enjoy it on any device. This e-book may
not be reproduced or transmitted or stored in whole or in part by any means,
including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written
consent of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles or reviews. Please send an email to
[email protected]
for specific reproduction requests, copyright concerns or distribution
inquiries.

This e-book is a work of fiction. The events and characters
described herein are imaginary and not intended to refer to specific places or
living persons. The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the
opinions of the author. The author has represented and warranted full ownership
and/or legal right to publish all materials in this book.

This e-book is
available
exclusively
at:

www.Amazon.com

For
FREE Bonus
content
, excerpts from Dark Application: TWO and advanced reader discounts,
please visit:

www.DarkApplication.com

A
s
his eyes flickered open and shut, he started to focus on the green blurs
swirling above him and the brown lines they were attached to. Within
seconds, his eyes popped suddenly open and he realized he was staring at the
branches and thick green foliage of the southeast quad. The branches
swayed in the warm sticky Virginia summer breeze, all dappled with yellow
sunlight. When a draft ruffled his chest hair, he realized he was stark
naked in the middle of the day.
Right in the middle of
the quad.

The back of
his neck was on fire, a burning sensation that stretched from the base of his
skull all the way down his back and spine. When he reached his hand up,
he felt a crust of burnt hair on the back of his head. Twisting, he saw
the raw patch that his back had become. He winced in pain as he strained trying
to see his bubbling, scabbed skin.

Gasping and
jumping to his feet, he scanned the green expanse of lawn for people who would
surely spot him tumbling around campus in the nude, but more so, for his
clothing or his backpack; any of his belongings would do.

But especially his phone.

He cupped
his privates in both hands and began to peck about the grass with his bare
feet, looking desperately for his cell phone.
Where is Amy?
He thought with panic.
What the hell just happened?

There was a
hedge of tall juniper surrounding this portion of the grassy quad area.
As Luke scanned the grass for his phone so he could get himself out of this
predicament, he noticed the towering cloud of black smoke that was billowing up
from someplace behind the juniper, spreading across the sky, spattered here and
there with flaming bits of fire and ash. At that moment, it suddenly
dawned on him that everything was quiet; no bird sounds, no chatting students,
no distant traffic from the campus parking lot.
Total
silence.
Where the chemistry lab had been was now a black
smoldering hole. He peeked around the juniper and saw it, about 300 feet
away, the pile of brick and black ashes that he had caused.

No, that
It
had caused.

He shook off
a deep nauseating chill and turned to run in the other direction when he
slammed into a tall massive chest, rocking the person back on their heels.
The person was a tall, frighteningly muscled man with a pink complexion,
an impeccably starched black suit, and slicked-back midnight colored hair.
He had a red, deeply-pored nose that he snuffed when Luke stumbled
backward, and the dark circles under his eyes were gray. Behind him was a
military style Hummer with the door open, and a woman in a green military
camouflage uniform and a black beret who stood with her hand on the door
handle. She had a pistol
holstered
at her
side.

Cupping his
privates, Luke stooped and took a bounding leap to the side, as though he
thought he was going to run off. His clumsy movement was impeded by a
bicep the size of a tree trunk that caught him around the waist. The
stiff cuffs of the man’s suit raked his back and he screamed, “Ouch!
Watch the back, dude! I’m like burnt and in pain here, man!”

The man in
the suit did not relax his grip, but aggressively reaching toward Luke’s groin
and grabbing one wrist, swung his bare body around so Luke’s hands were pinned
behind him. When he heard the clink of hand cuffs as they were put on him, Luke
protested wildly, shouting, “Oh no, come on man! I’m butt-ass naked here!
Just give me back one hand, please? Can I get a blanket or
something?”

By then he
was cuffed and being dragged in humiliation to the open car door where the
military woman stood waiting. He could feel the cold leather seats when
they tossed his naked body into the backseat and slammed the door.

The car
pulled away from the curb, the woman driving,
the
suited man in the passenger seat looking straight ahead with a solemn
glare. “What do you think of when you hear the words
Defense
Application for Remote Kinetics
, Mr. Jeffers?”
he
asked solemnly. “Are you the type of guy that is going to man up and
confess,”
he
continued, “or are you the type of
guy that denies everything until they fry you?”

Luke’s hard
breaths rasped as his heart began to pound and he started to sweat. He
tried to answer, but his voice was caught in his throat.
They know
,
he thought.
They know about the exams I cheated on, the games I stole,
the Dark Application
. A chill rolled through him. It could have
just been illegal downloading.
Stealing software, okay, big deal,
everyone’s done it. But now… now…….

A sickness
setting in, he dropped his head, reeling in self-disgust.

Murder.
Now I’m going to be charged with murder.

*****

5 Months Earlier

Luke
Jeffers always considered himself to be a fairly disciplined, although
imperfect, guy. He was always up on time, never late for class, and never
late on rent like his two roommates who regularly owed him money for covering
their share of the bills. He liked to do little things like make his bed,
keep clean pillow cases on, and wipe up the coffee spoon drips on the counter.
The things he was the worst at were shaving regularly, replacing worn-out
tee-shirts, and talking to girls. His two roommates, Chris and Amit, were
typical college sophomore slobs, but they respected the space they shared with
him, wiping up the counters before he came in, sweeping up the floor or taking
out the empty beer bottles before he came downstairs in the morning. Luke
imagined it was because they admired and respected him, but deep down he knew
it was because every time they didn’t have money for rent, beer, or food, Luke
would always fork over.

And it
wasn’t that Luke was desperate for friends or that he had a lot of money to
begin with, he was just the only one who was able to manage the small amount of
money he had. The three of them had met on a craigslist ad, advertising
roommates needed for freshman year, and now that they were almost juniors, they
were such good friends that they couldn’t imagine a more comfortable living
arrangement. Tossed into each other’s space, they meshed unexpectedly well.
Chris had the car, Luke had the dough, and Amit knew lots of cute girls.
Luke justified his being overly generous by telling himself that they
would surely do the same if he were ever broke. That’s just what friends
did in Luke’s mind; they just helped each other out.
Like
Chris, for example.
He was the only one in the house with a car.
So Chris drove them around, and Luke paid for gas…and dinner, beer, and
the electric bill. But whatever, he always said. What goes around
comes around.

On a
Monday morning in late January, Luke sipped coffee at the rickety hand-me-down
kitchen table that was covered in pen and knife graffiti, and looked over his
new schedule. Pulling his fingers through his scruffy blonde hair, he reviewed
his daily planner.
Math, chemistry, and computer
classes this semester.
Plus a new internship that started this
week, CIS: Computer Information Systems.
Huh,
sounds
like this is
going to be a busy few months,
he thought.

He
gathered his books, tossed his backpack on, and strode into the cold gray
morning. The chain on his bicycle clicked loudly and the gears clanked
when he shifted, but it still managed to take him the twelve blocks to school
once again. At least it hadn’t snowed yet this year so he was still able
to bike to school. He absentmindedly leaned it against the rack and
didn’t even bother to lock it up. As he jogged up the short sidewalk to
his chemistry class, he saw Amy walking hand-in-hand with her new boyfriend.

Her
thick black curls bounced around her face like doll hair. She was bundled in a
scarf and her cinnamon-brown cheeks showed just above the cotton. She was
like a perfect little snow bunny, all curvy, cute, and soft. Her butt
bounced in the tight jeans she was wearing as she walked with the new guy
directly in front of Luke. The boyfriend opened the door for her and then
slammed it in Luke’s face without even noticing
, he
was so intent on staring at Amy.

Luke
cringed when he realized the only chair left in the lab was two rows behind Amy
and
Dude,
where he would have to look right over their heads to see the
professor. They didn’t even watch the
lecture,
they just sat and flirted the entire class. Luke glowered and grimaced
every time their hands touched. When class let out, Luke grabbed his
books and raced for the door, shoving through the other students.

The
sky outside was dark and silent. A storm cloud had dimmed the sun and
gathered, broiling, into a seething black-gray mass.

“Luke,”
rang a shout from the parking lot. Amit stood waving, his shabby purple
mountain bike slouching pitifully beside him. Luke waved back and entered
the crosswalk. Suddenly, a sleek new low-riding black Camaro sped around the
corner and Luke jumped back onto the sidewalk. The tires on the car
squealed briefly as the driver hit the brakes and the horn loudly bellowed.

“Watch where you’re going!”
Luke said, throwing his arms
up. The passenger window of the car slid down and Amy poked her head out,
her gorgeous smile the only brilliant thing in the drizzly and ashen landscape.
Deep bass beats spilled out the window behind her. The boyfriend
sat coolly in the driver’s seat, ready to do whatever Amy told him to next.

“Sorry
Luke!” she said.

A
red-haired girl popped her head out the window, squeezing her face between the
back of Amy’s seat and the door. “Move, dork!” she screeched. The
boyfriend threw his head back in laughter and the car sped off.

Savannah
Byrne had long been known as the Girl with the Big Tits. She had
fire-orange hair and a long, daintily-boned face. She had been the first
of the girls in elementary school to noticeably begin developing breasts, and
since then they had only continued to grow. She was the first to get a
nose ring, the first to get a “tramp stamp,” the little butterfly tattoo on her
lower back, and the first to get caught smoking behind the H Wing of their high
school. How the hell she had gotten accepted into college was a mystery
to Luke. She was a sassy, loud-mouthed cantankerous bitch who stuck her
pointy nose into everyone’s business and had forever, since day one, had a beef
with Luke. In seventh grade, she had told the whole school that Luke had
asked her out when he hadn’t, and it embarrassed the shit out of him. Of
course everyone believed her, she was the prettiest girl with the biggest boobs
in junior high. In his freshman year of high school, she had teased Luke
so bad about the zit on his nose that wouldn’t heal
, he
had actually begged his mom to let him switch schools. She’d tormented,
badgered, and teased him in every way, sticking her enormous breasts into his
face, getting everyone else to join in; the ringmaster, the mistress of misery.
The biggest bitch he’d ever had to deal with in his life.

And of course, Amy’s best friend.

Luke ripped
his bike out of the bush where someone had tossed it aside and thrust his
weight forward on it. It clanked louder than usual today as he and Amit
rode in silence side-by-side down the gray, cracked asphalt streets to their
sagging yellow, peeling-paint, college bunk-house.

It was cold
and musty inside the house, and Amit quietly lit the stove and began a pot of
tea. That was something of value Amit brought to the household; somehow
he always knew just the right tea to brew that would make Luke or Chris feel
better. And Amit was the kind of dude who would glower silently with Luke
when he was feeling down without rubbing it in, or trying to ask about it, or
even talking about anything at all. Amit was good at reading peoples’
moods, and when Luke was in the type of funk he was in today, Amit would just
sit there silently and keep him company. He was just a chill guy. Luke
liked that.

With a
sigh, he sunk into the stained couch and pulled out his syllabus, memorizing
his new schedule. “Better try to get some work done before Chris gets
home with a thirty-pack,” he said. Amit nodded and chuckled in agreement.
There was no use trying to get a whole lot done when Chris was home.

Looking at
his schedule, Luke saw that his internship, which began the following day, was
located off-campus about four miles south of town in an industrial complex he
was unfamiliar with. “Hey Amit, do you know where Commerce Loop is?”

“No
dude, I don’t know,” he said.

Luke
plugged in his tattered laptop and opened it on the coffee table. After several
attempts to connect to the wireless router, he finally gave up and busted out
his smartphone. Instantly he was online and he mapped out 4018 Commerce Loop
with ease. Quite the bike ride from his house, he realized. He
might actually have to take the bus.

The
door burst open and Chris blew in with a gust of cold air, whooping loud shouts
about the rain and tossing a case of generic beer onto the counter. “Wow,
it’s
cold in here guys!” he said, rubbing his hands
together. “Hopefully that rain doesn’t turn to snow, or worse yet, ice.
If it does your biking days are over, and I really don’t feel like playing
chauffeur every day.” He threw off his gloves and came into the living
room, stooping in front of the fireplace and throwing kindling in. “What,
you girls too lazy to make a fire? What’s going on with you? What’s up
with you Luke, you start your period today?”

Amit
chirped and slapped a hand over his mouth. Chris opened his mouth,
showing his teeth, and let out a high-pitched cackle. That same cackle
that kept Luke up until 2 AM half the time. That same cackle that haunted
him in his nightmares. The cackle that, no matter what shitty mood he was
in, always made Luke
want
a beer.