Dark Light

Shadows of Light

I stood centre stage with my head bowed. The blazing white lights burned the naked flesh of my arms and feet, back and face. I wore thin salmon pink footless tights, a simple deep purple - almost black - leotard with 1 centimetre wide straps, and a black transparent wrap skirt that fell just below my bottom. My thick waist length dark brown hair was pulled back into a sleek high pony resting over my right shoulder.

I continued to stand motionless on the spot. Head down. Skin burning. Waiting for the music to start. My hands shook slightly with nerves for the performance ahead. Though I had performed many times before, I had never performed here, at such a big competition, in such a big theatre.

The theatre was full of velvety red seats that covered three levels. The three levels of velvety red seats were full of people old and new, tall and short, of all different nationalities. The people sat whispering and staring, staring at me. I could feel their unbreakable gazes upon me though they were not visible through the thick layer of darkness that lay in front of me. I could hear the quite buzz of murmurs they passed to one another. Hear even the smallest of sounds from a mint tin rattling to a cell phone vibrating.

My head snapped up to look at the dark crowd as the deafening music blast from the surrounding speakers. The music sounded slow and angry, the thumping base echoed through my soul. The murmuring had stopped as though the music had commanded them. The gazes intensified dramatically waiting to see what I would do, what would be my first move.

I started my contemporary routine slowly. Arm. Step. Leg. Bend. My body guided me through the first few graceful steps until my heart had leaped into my throat and was pounding heavily in my ears blocking out all signs of the now faster music. I was forced to continue my dance to the throbbing of my heart, use it as my new beat. Jump. Step. Step. Jump. The spotlight followed me as I staggered across the stage.

A shadow caught my eye. Another and another. Shadows emerged from pools of light left behind on the floor. Shadows sank from the raised ceiling. Shadows leaked from the burning lights shining on the stage. The shadows were solid black shapes created from bright white and coloured light.

The burning of the lights upon my skin had vanished. Now they had turned cold, like ice. The lights that should have lit the stage had been cut, now there was just the dot of the spotlight that followed me lighting only a small portion of the stage. The dot, though I wish it would, refused to heat up, refused to burn, refused to take away the icy chill that had settled within me raising the hairs on my bare arms.

I kept on dancing around the dark shadows towards the down stage left corner. Step. Step. Kick. Place. Splits. Roll. Stand. I still had not found the angry music that played to the audience, instead I continued to danced to the continuous throbbing of my aching heart. Though my heart was racing I could feel the beats becoming more struggled.

I saw only the lightness and darkness now, all colours had disappeared. Shadows were still appearing at random around the stage and through some parts of the watching audience, there numbers growing greater by the second. I could feel a misty wetness rising around my bare ankles causing my sweaty feet to slip slightly. Arm. Head. Step. Jump. Cartwheel. Land. Reach.

The dance had to be ending soon but time was moving so unevenly it was hard to tell how long I had left. I had abandoned the choreography to long ago to try and find my placing in the unheard music.

I felt a single drop of liquid leaked from my eye and ran down my face until it hit the corner of my mouth. Saltiness spread through my body giving me an ever so slight boost of energy as I kicked my legs backwards. More tears followed the first making thin trails of black eyeliner and foundation run down my face. Then one final tear escaped the grasp of my right eye only this time the colour of blood red. I knew it was red from the red tint it left in my eye, a tint that gave the surrounding darkness a red hue.

As the tear dribbled onto my face a searing pain shot through my right eye. As the tear traced a red squiggly line down my right cheek a tried as hard as I could to stop myself screaming in pain. The droplet burnt me inside and out, drained my energy bit by bit, causing my struggling heart to almost stop.

The tear drew closer to the ground by the second bringing me downwards as it went. My knees weakened struggling to hold me and the pounding in my head sharpened becoming ten times louder and faster. When would this end? Cold sweat stuck my long brown hair to my face, back and shoulders. My mouth and throat had dried and shrivelled demanding for some form of liquid.

As the blood red tear dripped off my chin and onto the hard wooden floor I collapsed onto a tangle of limbs. Shadows engulfed me, rushing at me from all directions, reaching hands tried to grab me, and everything went black and white at the same time. The throbbing in my ears turned to an irritating buzzing sound like a bee was sitting next to it. Beads of sweat covered me drenching my clothing though I felt like a block of ice sitting in a freezer.

* * *

I seamed to detach from by body, I floated in the audience as they lifted my body from the stage. My body's eyes were wide and glassy, the right tinted slightly red, red with my blood. My mouth was slightly agape, my bright red lips standing out against my pale face. A red trail, along with many black, stained my pale blood drained cheeks. My limp unmoving body was shiny with layers of salty sweat.

I continued to watch the stage as a small black solid looking shadow jump and grab hold of my wrist, then slowly disappeared as if my skin were absorbing it. Some colour flooded back into my cheeks and my glassy eyes flashed black before resuming their original hazel colour. Right before my body reached side stage I saw it wide staring eyes flutter gently shut and my agape mouth close firmly into an unmistakable grin.

My body was no longer mine, it was taken from me, ripped from me. Now it was controlled by one of the shadows of light. I was frightened, the realisation that I had had my life stripped away slowly sunk into my mind. I may never see my friends and family again. I may be stuck hear forever watching students and teachers perform.

I glanced left and right to see the row I sat in full of other transparent souls, others like me who had been ripped from their body, tricked by the shadows. Tricked by the dark light.