A long time ago, Darker was a kid in New York City, hustling to feed his family. He was nothing special. Just a growing boy, in a neighborhood of hundreds, on an island of millions.
Roy Worthington discovered Darker while reviewing information about Thomas Eakran, the famed doctor of the Institute for Brain Function. Back then,Worthington was a fan of Eakran and had read all of his published work, and the Consortium of Human History had been monitoring the doctor. They had designs on incorporating the work of the IBF into its collective of research organizations. Worthington read all about the double life that Eakran lead in the Consortium materials; he was a world-renowned scientist by day, and underground drug manufacturer and trafficker at night. The Consortium viewed Eakran’s secret life as proof that he was made for their organization and they kept his secret while they wooed him.
While reviewing the information on Eakran, Worthington realized that Darker was the man’s closest friend, or association; there was no one else that Eakran spent more time with, except maybe his security guard Giovanni. Eakran had other secrets that the higher ups of the Consortium decided Worthington did not need to know for reasons that were their own. In all of the surveillance material, the pictures and videos, Worthington had never seen the home that Eakran lived in. It was suspicious; I wouldn’t be surprised if he were an alien, Worthington thought to himself more than once.
The resurrection of Evens James “Darker” Josephs had little to do with the will of either Darker himself, or of Dr. Eakran. No one asked Darker if he wanted to return to life and be used as a gift, and Eakran was largely ignorant to the machinations of the Consortium. He knew of some of their activities, the work of Dr. Worthington for example, but he did not know anything about the organization that was the Consortium of Human History.
Darker was content in his afterlife and the new life in his physical body was not what he remembered life to be. He felt limited by limbs and senses. He felt isolated from others and their experience. His body was like a cage and it took time for him to acclimate to having it. He hated clothes; Maria and Eakran often found him naked around the house. When he did wear clothes, they hung loosely off his body so that he could easily take them off.
Darker could not say that he enjoyed his second chance, but he was intrigued by Maria, and Eakran seemed more open to a closer relationship; they did live together.
Living at Eakran’s house was awkward at first, but there was really nowhere else for him to go. He did not want him old life back in New York, and he wouldn’t know how to explain his resurrection to them anyway. He would not burden any of his family with his return to life. They would see it as a miracle and view it as a sign that they should hang closer to him, which he knew he would not be able to sustain. Darker did not enjoy time with most people because he thought most everyone was distracted by empty and useless things that took them away from the true wonder of existence. He did not want to feel that way about his siblings and their families, his nephew Corey. He wondered what Corey’s life was, and he had to force thoughts of his nephew out of his mind. He did not want Corey to suffer the fate of a spontaneous death, he wanted Corey to have a life like his father with a wife and children that loved him. But Darker wasn’t ready to tell that to his nephew just yet.
He was not sure what he was meant to do with his second chance, but Darker had reasons to wake up everyday.
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