At a tavern one Friday night, astrophysicist Gabriel Diaz meets a mysterious young woman. Captivated by her beauty as well as her views on good and evil, he spends the next several days with her. After a while, however, he begins to notice a strangeness in her…especially the way she seems to take pleasure in toying with his conscience.
The young woman, Kamilah, invites him to Rize, Turkey, where she claims her family owns a cottage in the woods. In spite of his heavy workload and the disturbing visions and nightmares about his sister’s baby that is due to be born soon, Gabriel agrees to go with her.
But nothing, not even the stunning beauty of the Black Sea, can disguise the horror of her nature… In a place where death dwells and illusion and reality seem as one, Gabriel must now come to terms with his own demons in order to save his sister’s unborn child, and ultimately, his own soul.
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Dream Realm Awards Finalist!
Reviews:
“Mayra Calvani is a masterful storyteller… Dark Lullaby is complex and compelling…” –Habitual Reader
“Dark Lullaby is an atmospheric paranormal horror that grips you from page one and refuses to let go until you’ve raced, breathless, to the end.” –ePinions
“Dark Lullaby is a page-turner. A horror story from the top shelf! You’ll love it.” –5 stars from Euro-Reviews
“This is a terrific horror…” –Harriet Klausner
“Dark Lullaby will capture you with its rich descriptions, its exotic location, and the need to uncover the dark secrets hidden within its pages.” –Cheryl Malandrinos, The Book Connection
“I loved this story, which started as a romance, then quickly evolved into a spine chilling horror, transporting you back to a land where folklore legends, based on truth are alive, and unimaginable creatures walk the earth.” -Susan Keefe, Amazon Reviewer
“…this story is exactly the kind of creepy tale that’s given me a new reason to keep the light on at night.” -Relasped Catholic
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Excerpt
Late that night, sipping red wine on the second-floor balcony after a mouth-watering meal of barbequed fish, Gabriel was overwhelmed by the feeling of impending doom.
He gazed at the woods surrounding them. Far away from city lights and civilization, he had never experienced such perfect darkness before. Only the full moon illuminated them with its clear silver light. His eyes turned upwards to the sky and he held his breath. There, crossing the southern sky in all its splendor, was the Milky Way. An arm of it, anyway. Layers upon layers of stars created that milky effect. Never before had he seen such a magnificent, clear sky, not even in Arizona or New Mexico.
“Look!” Kamilah leaned forward, pointing with her finger to the woods.
And for the first time, Gabriel saw the little lights.
This was no trick played on his vision. There they were, going this way and that with uncanny rapidity, to and fro, making a little witch’s dance in the distance, as if they were electrons and neutrons trying to collide inside an atom. Unpredictable, erratic, volatile.
“Do you believe me now?” Kamilah quivered with excitement.
“The lights are real, no doubt. But your explanation of them is something else. Fairies? What did you call them—cin? Spirits of the forest?”
“That’s what people here believe. You know, two years ago a team of foreign scientists came here to study these lights, but they weren’t able to find any explanation for them. They were trying to compare them to similar lights seen in the mountains of Peru. The Peruvian villagers, though, believe them to be aliens. Spiritual beings from another world.”
Gabriel remained silent as he studied the strange phenomenon. For a moment the lights vanished. Then they re-appeared.
Kamilah began humming a soft melody.
Gabriel felt goose bumps rise on his arms and legs. That music…. He listened, entranced. He began to feel sleepy.
“Stop singing,” he said.
“I did.”
He could still hear the lullaby, though the sound had now turned very distant. But it was no echo. It felt as if something deep within the forest itself sang.
“I’m going to take a closer look,” Gabriel said, standing up with the glass of wine in his hand.
“No! Don’t bother them! Sometimes they don’t like the intrusion. They might get mad.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” He was surprised at the sudden anxiety in her voice.
“I mean it!”
“You’re such a superstitious fool! I’m going to have a closer look.” He downed the rest of the wine and put the glass on the floor. A protesting Kamilah followed him.
“You don’t know what you’re doing!” she kept saying.
Soon he was outside striding to where the lights hovered. For somebody who had felt so ill this morning, his body felt marvelously supple and strong. The mountain air was cold, but his limbs were infused with an inner warmth, a warmth that wasn’t just physical, but also came from his intellect. Gabriel needed to know what these lights were. He needed to understand them. He couldn’t really explain his fervor to comprehend.
“They’re gone,” Kamilah said.
His pulse raced. Midway down the clearing he halted, his eyes searching. Darkness enveloped him. Then he saw them again, right in front of him at the edge of the woods, as if they had moved closer in order to greet him.
He approached them, his pace quickening with each step until he was practically underneath the magical light dance. He had to bend his head back to look at them. He wasn’t aware of Kamilah behind him or of anything else. The trees, the grass beneath him, the cottage…everything disappeared. He was alone with the twinkling magical lights.
The lights seemed to lower themselves closer to him, the pinpoints dancing right above his eyes. Immobilized by the thrill of it, he was overcome with palpitations. He forced deep breaths, while never moving his eyes from the lights.
Once again a gentle, lovely lullaby reached his ears, distant at first, and then closer and closer, until the sound became deafening, and he had to cover his ears with his hands.
“Go away! Leave him alone! He’s mine!” Kamilah shouted behind him, anguish and misery warping her voice into an inhuman rumble.
The lights began swirling around his head. He felt his mind swimming in light, immersed in it. There was no feeling of malevolence, but there wasn’t benevolence either. He tried to define the emotions involved, but couldn’t. He lifted his hands and tried to touch them, but realized there was no matter to touch. His hands went through the lights as if going through a spectrum. In this illumination, oddly divine in nature, everything around him became visible with absolute clarity, as if the sun had abruptly risen and washed the world with iridescent white radiance. He had the sudden, bizarre feeling that the lights were trying to send him a message.
The lights vanished suddenly.
Absolute silenced reigned. Only Kamilah whimpered softly behind him.
He was stunned. He turned around slowly, unable to see her. When his vision adjusted to the blackness, he tried to speak, but couldn’t.
Kamilah was sitting on the grass with her legs tucked under her, her hands covering her face. Finally she rose.
“Why are you crying?” he asked, his voice shaking.
She threw herself at him and cried, hugging him like a lost waif.
“What’s the matter?”
But she cried harder, squeezed him harder.
“I thought they would hurt you!” she wailed.
He wrapped his arms around her, instinctively responding to her obvious fear and pain.
“I’m fine,” he murmured, staring in wonder at the darkness.
“What happened? What do you feel?” she asked, drawing away from him, her eyes pleading and probing.
“Nothing happened. I feel…. I can’t really explain. It’s indescribable.”
“But what happened when the lights covered your face? What did you feel? What did you hear? I need to know!”
“I cannot explain my feelings right now. Nothing happened. The lights…” He was at a loss.
“What did they say?”
“Say? The lights didn’t speak.” But he wasn’t a skeptic anymore. He didn’t have the right to mock her. He was awed, and deeply respectful of the unknown. All his beliefs had come tumbling down. He was unable to explain with his five senses what he had seen or felt. Yet it had been real, there was no question about that. He instinctively knew it had been real, and he had to accept that. The experience had involved other senses beyond the accepted five ones. Different concepts and ideas swirled in his mind, concepts and ideas which until now he had deemed impossible. Words like ‘spirit world’, ‘psychic’, ‘sixth sense’ raced through his mind as quickly as the dance of the lights.
“Are you sure? You didn’t hear anything?” Kamilah insisted.
“I’m sure.” The warmth had left him, and he felt very cold now. “Come, let’s go back inside.”
Together they crossed the clearing, Gabriel’s arm around her shoulders, Kamilah’s arms circling his waist.
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