The Collection

In the Darkness

The world was dark. So dark that we couldn't see anything.

Pitch black.

We used to have eyes. We took them out so we could eat. What's the point in having something you never use? Plus, we were running low on food.

So, we were resourceful and ate them. Once we got past the slimy texture of them, they weren't half bad. And we didn't have to fight over them because we all got our own two. It put off the hunger pains for a while. Until they came back.

***

We had the whole world memorized. The cozy sector. Steel sector. Lay down sector. And resource sector. We knew the layout like the back of our hands.

Only place we'd never been, place we'd sworn we'd never go, the deep down sector.

We would walk above it. Easy. Easy because we knew. We were together. In familiar.

They fell one day. Fell down. To the deep down sector. They said they were alive. Breathing. We all let out breaths of relief.

Alive. In the deep down.

Asked them what it felt like. It was pitch dark. No eyes.

They said cozy sector. Steel sector. Unknown sector.

What does the unknown feel like? we'd asked them. They replied. Food.

Joyous. We might live. The deep down sector. Salvation after all.

***

We'd finished.

Eaten it all. Gone.

Food gone. Salvation gone.

***

A bang.

Voices. New ones.

Are we alive? they'd asked.

Are we? I don't know anymore.

Yes.

How many of us? they'd asked.

How many? The same. We're all the same.

23. 24 before they fell in the deep down.

Alone.

Another bang.

Footsteps.

Good God. they'd said. What the hell happened here? they'd asked.

Where did they come from?

Our world... bigger than we know? Bigger than the cozy sector, steel, lay down, resource sector? Than the deep down sector?

Impossible.

Not possible.

Warmth.

They dragged me out into warmth. The newcomers. Strangers.

New feelings. Wet and cold on the bottom.

A bigger world.

Loud, screeching sounds. Sirens?

A bigger world.

What is warm? I'd asked.

They'd replied. The sun.

********************

This confusing and weird peice was written on December 16, 2021.

At the time, I was doing COOP at an MP Constituency office. My supervisor was in the middle of a virtual conference and I'd finished the tasks I was given. I couldn't disturb my supervisor, so I started writing.

"The world was dark," was the sentence that popped in my head when I pulled out a pen and the back of a page from my workbook. I wrote that first sentence down and the rest just spilled out of me.

Thirty minutes later, when my supervisor's conference had finished, I was shaking the cramps from my hand and staring at an unlined paper full of messy, chicken scratched words.

There's a little bit of lore to this one, mainly the setting and where these eye-less people live. If you think you know it, let me know in the comments!

Have a nice day!

Madi