PARAPHERNALIA

Update 3: Challenge

The darkness, what is it? What does it mean? How do we define it? Does it truly exist? Or just a figment of our imagination? Well, who knows!
I had never thought too deeply about it until now. The idea that the word 'darkness' describes a lot more than just 'absence of light' eluded me, for I was a fun-loving and cheery person who never even had to put his own shoes by himself. Yes, I had the life most people are envious of!
So, where did it all go wrong?? Let's find out!

I was a sophomore at the most prestigious Lincoln Central University majoring in Literature. It was the first time I decided to leave the comfort of my home, or rather mansion and live in a dorm with people of my age, much to the disappointment of my mother. I was excited to step into the real world, and I must say it wasn't pretty at first but it was worth it.
I enjoyed every minute of it. I made a lot of friends and hung out every weekend. They are cool and always taught me a lot of things, like TikTok is something trending right now. I had never heard of it, so I got curious. It had a fun logo. There begins my doom.

At the end of the first semester, I returned home to find everything as I had left it. My father made sure to be home that day, which was a rare surprise. I could tell that he was proud of me. I had never been happier. My mother had prepared my favourite dessert, Shepherd's pie, by herself which was yet another great surprise. If only we had my sister with us, the family dinner would have been perfect. She was always the apple of our parents' eyes, the ever so gorgeous, talented, skillful and gentle being. I aspired to be her, she was my idol in every aspect of life. I followed in her footsteps, tread in her shadows, followed her every move. I loved her and cherished and was maybe a tad bit envious of her. She was the favourite child after all!

I confined myself to my room most days of my vacation. My parents were mostly never home and the house-help preferred to keep their distance. I was the troubled child after all. Don't get me wrong here, to be honest, I had never done anything remotely 'troublesome' in my life but my sister set the bar so high that I could not reach it no matter how hard I tried, and trust me, I did, very hard.
Day after day, I spent watching TikTok videos and this shit was addictive. The videos and content were nothing awe-worthy but it was still highly engaging. I kept scrolling one after another. It had me completely hooked. It had me wondering what social media marvel I was missing out on. It's never too late to find out!

Day by day I delved deeper into the depths of modern day internet. My inquisitive nature kept fueling me further in. Turns out, internet trends were a fickle phenomenon and kept changing every week, if not days! It was hard to keep up and impress my friends who I rarely met before the next semester started. Things were going good for me. One day, a friend texted a link, which was common in our chat group, to send memes, videos, images etc., but it was nothing like that. I had the misfortune to click on it.

The page it took me to was very dull yet somehow terrifying. I waited for something good to pop up. A bunch of random texts and symbols appeared. There was a single legible sentence in the middle of the gibberish, a task, a vague task. I was confused and slightly worried. When I reopened our chat, others had similar queries about it. As I had suspected, it was the new 'trend in town'. The task sounded fun and I had no idea what would happen once I complete it, so my gaming nature took over and I got to it. The first task was a simple one 'Pluck a flower that's not yours'. So, I went over to the neighbour's and got the prettiest rose I could find. I hope they don't mind. I quickly got back to my phone and clicked the link again. How silly of me! But things just got interesting..

The next task appeared. It was legit! I tried closing and reopening the link several times but the task did not change. It was easy, doable and was starting to get so much fun. A new kind of addiction was born. I spent days and nights to clear the levels and the tasks got more engaging and vague. I went out in the middle of the nights to do what needed to be done. My parents unaware of my deeds, and my friends dropped out one by one like the cowards they were. The challenge immediately became the craze of folks of our age, fondly termed the 'Shark Bite Challenge'.
I remember very clearly, a fond memory on the occasion of Friendship Day, a group task organised by the task game we were so hooked on. 'Power of friendship is a currency', doesn't sound like a task but I figured it out. We went to the nearest gaming store and managed to get the newest model of PlayStation without paying money for it. How we did it might be a story of another time, but it was hella fun!

I was at my final year of University and the challenge lived on, though not trending anymore. It seemed endless but I kept going. The tasks were far more adventurous and tricky, so none of my friends were playing anymore.
I got stuck at the 99999th level.
'STAB HER'
It did not make sense at all...until the doorbell rang and I saw my sister after four long years!!

Now back to the question, I had at the beginning, "What is darkness?"
Well, now I know it.
Darkness is when the Devil lives in you and you like it.