It Haunts Us Once Again

I

Present Day December, Skye

Skye was finally seeing how bright this darkness was.

She sat up in her bed, mindlessly itching and picking at one of many scabs on her arm. It was late at night. How late? She didn't know. Any moonlight that would've come in through her windows was blocked out by the blackout curtains. An old purchase that, at the time, eased her mind, but she felt that it wasn't enough anymore. She could still feel their eyes on her and it made her skin crawl. She scratched harder.

She has been staying up like this for a while now, her head too consumed with paranoia to sleep. She couldn't even bear to close her eyes because all she saw these days was that phone.

That damn phone.

It was like a picture of it was glued to the back of her eyelids. Go to the end of the bed, move the trunk, move the floorboard, get the box, unlock the padlock, and there it was. A simple black burner phone with her name on the back that contained a total of five numbers. One of which was unknown. That didn't matter to her anymore though. She knew who it was and had memorized it like the back of her hand.

One button. One click of a button and I can end this all.

Or I could end us all.

They all agreed. No matter what, do not call them. Deep down, they all knew that's what they wanted. And they definitely couldn't afford that. Especially now that they were finally starting to regret their actions.

With the scab now off, the cut was open again and she could feel the blood start to seep through the thin layer of skin that had managed to heal from before. She ignored it and just sat back against her headboard in her bed, starting to pick at the next scab like clockwork. And, at this point, it was.

She couldn't take it anymore. Through her eyes, the world was too bright. Even now, in her room, she couldn't shield herself away from the light that wasn't actually there. She could see it. The physical darkness in her room wasn't dark. She knew that and it bothered her.

They are the darkest. Pitch dark. An inescapable pit with no way out that was soon going to collapse on itself and trap them all.

"Please," her mind begged on its own, the thought too small for her to notice, "let this day be the last."

She moved on to the next scab. They weren't used to it. You would think that after five years, there would be some kind of familiarity to at least grasp onto. But they knew better than to even give them that. It made her want to scream, but she stayed quiet. Just in case she was being listened to.

Because the Raven would certainly enjoy every bit of that.