BLACK FLAMES

Black Flames

Jimmy awoke in total, all-encompassing darkness. The silence that surrounded him had its own sound, a sound that penetrated his ears and made his heart beat faster. The usual sound of the refrigerator humming was absent, and the sound of Jimmy’s parents snoring in their bedroom was nowhere to be heard.  HE slowly crept out of bed, and blindly fumbled for the light switch. IT clicked on, but the power was out, and the lights didn’t come on. HE opened the door, and it creaked loudly as it showed utter darkness outside his bedroom; it didn’t usually do that. “Hello?” HE called out, and his voice rebounded across the walls of the corridor. “Anyone awake?” he shouted out, but silence answered him.

He stepped out of his room and unseeingly walked to his parents’ room. He turned the door handle.

It was locked. His heart was beating wildly now. “Is this some kind of sick joke?” He said; his voice unsteady. But he was answered by his own voice bouncing back at him. HE wiped his forehead of the sweat that was building on his forehead; it was starting to get really hot. He blindly walked back to his room, touching the walls, and his hand found the air-conditioning control. The red light was off. He was getting really freaked out now.

Suddenly, his parents’ room crashed open, and a blood-curdling scream echoed into the night; it was coming from outside. HE hurried to his parents’ bedroom, but it was empty, and the window was open. The wind blew into the room, the curtains blowing out with it. He hurried to the window, and saw a shadow disappear behind the corner of the building. The street light flickered and went out. Then the other ones across the street went out, until the street was surrounded by the blackness of the night.

In the sky, the full moon hung like a shiny orb, trying to give him a message. What the hell was going on?

Suddenly there was a creaking sound, and every door in the house slammed shut. The window closed in on itself, the glass cracking as it slammed against the frame. The light in his parents’ room turned on, and wind from the air-conditioning vent blew in his face. The door crashed open again, slamming shut of its own accord. The light flickered out again, and he saw the shapes of the darkness flickering in the air like vengeful demons. HE screamed, his voice echoing across his house. He tried to open the door, but it was locked. “Let me out!” He shouted. “Please!” The door crashed open again, with so much force he crashed into the wall, his head burying into the brick wall, and an even darker blackness enveloped him as he went under, losing consciousness.

When Jimmy Falon came to, he was in a pool of his own sweat, and tears. He was having a nightmare, that he was running away from ghosts that ‘ooohed’ and ‘ahhed’ behind him, their translucent bodies flickering and floating after him. The door was still, and he walked out of it feeling slightly relieved. The sound of his footsteps as he went down the stairs echoed into the darkness, but it was silent again. No unexpected developments, no scary –

But suddenly music started playing from an old stereo, a track from his favourite album Nymphetamine by Cradle of Filth. His heart threatened to jump out of his throat and spill onto the floor. It stopped again, then played louder than before. At the bottom of the staircase, he ran to the front door and turned the door handle. It didn’t budge, not that he expected it to. He reached under the mat for the keys but they were nowhere to be found. Behind him came a scream, then a bright light flashed under his eyes. HE jumped backwards and crashed into a table. Papers and bowls of fruit fell onto his head, threatening to crack open his skull. The scream came again, closer. A shape materialised from the darkness. He could tell because it was blacker than black, darker than dark. The scream came again, right in front of his nose now. He wanted to scream now, but all rational thoughts escaped his head and he froze, the terror too much to lift an arm. HE felt something pass through him, and he screamed as the filth became him, and he became one with the blackness.