As you may have guessed, The Demons Within does turn fairly dark, in time. Without including any story spoilers, you'll want to continue reading, whatever happens, because there are a series of surprises at the end which alter the storyline.
Not to toot my own horn (toot, toot!), but my sister thought that this was my best story to date, yet still didn't want to read the end (I'm waiting to hear what she thought of the ending).
Just so you know, the sequel, Speaking With Your Demons is nearing completion (my editors are working on it) and it is much brighter than this story, which sets the stage for what follows.
Given the dark nature of many of my stories (where I tend to kill off many favored characters), I decided I'd best quit my 'heroic sacrifice' motif, but decided to have some fun with it before I did (hence the dark theme of the story).
I'll talk more about this once the story concludes, but again, I've already given away too many spoilers, and you'll enjoy the story much more without knowing what happens.