A woman is tortured by the Dark One, living a lonely delusional life, until she meets hope and accepts his help to face the truth of her abusive childhood and unique survival.

SYNOPSIS:

Joy has led a tragic life. At 4-years-old, with her father killed in action in Afghanistan, Joy lives with her mentally deranged mother who is found hanging in the basement. Years later Joy doesn't remember her past. Today, Joy lives in a studio apartment and provides for herself. Joy’s existence is not a happy one. She is exhausted by nightmares, tortured and haunted by an entity she calls the Dark One. The Dark One follows her, an amorphous black shape. Seen only by Joy, The Dark One threatens her constantly and plays with her; sometimes raking its claw through her hair or pushing her down a flight of stairs. Slapping and hitting her causing cuts and bruises to herself or spilling coffee where others blame her. Joy just lives with it. She knows she is truly cursed. Or quite insane.

At 16, Joy ran away from home and never returned. Now she inherits her parent's house and moves in. Across the street, a friendly neighbor lady named Luci still resides and has protective memories of Joy. Next door, two very loud and combative neighbors live–Jeff and Gina.

A crow Joy names Rascal adopts and helps her find her humanity as he seems to see the Dark One. Rascal helps Joy both in her daily life and nightmares.

Joy runs into her co-worker, Maxfield, at a bookstore. Max is attracted to Joy but she quickly extinguishes the spark.

One day at work, Joy passes out. Joy is taken to the hospital for treatment and Max stays at her bedside. A strong attraction develops. The Dark One starts to interfere with Max.

Max senses something very deep and profound is at work in Joy’s life and he is determined to help her. They visit a psychic who sends them packing, telling the couple Joy must “un-invite” the entity. An exorcism by a priest yields no effect. Joy braves the basement from her nightmare and finds documents of her history which she shows to Luci.

Finally, Luci, reveals what she knows. When Joy was four, the police found her badly beaten and alone in the basement with her mother dead by hanging. Joy starts to remember realizing that was the first time she saw The Dark One. Joy was raised by a couple she now knows are not her biological parents. Joy is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and believes her nightmares have clues so with Max present; she confronts the nightmare child. She sees The Dark One sprang from Joy...is Joy and saved her life by destroying her mother. Joy of different ages comfort one another as they come to terms with their deranged mother who had abused/neglected Joy from a very early age.

Six month later, the couple makes marriage plans when Joy’s adopted parents show up. They have obvious wounds from their time with The Dark One.

Joy finally integrates the Dark One as a young broken part of herself who saved an almost destroyed Joy from a deadly beating. Then they all hear the baby next door screaming, the child of Gina, is in danger. Joy transforms into the Dark One to protect the baby from her parents by sending Jeff and Gina into Dante’s inferno where they experience hell. Returning they are scared, wounded, covered in blood and deeply changed. The baby is safe. Joy and Rascal look for more children to save.

THE DARK ONE