Welcome to the Darkness

Chapter 1

Satherfell is a small town on the coast of Maine, the birds fly high in the sky and dive down into the water to gather their food. The wheat grass fields rustle with inexperienced joy, and the cell service sucks ass. So, here I am. In the middle of a lake on a swim platform, the sun beats down onto the pages of this notebook and you can watch as the ink written words from my gel pen dry slowly with each lasting drag. There's a coffee stain on the last page and some new water marks that threaten to wrinkle the page.

"Marcus, are you just going to sit up there all day or will you actually come and swim with me?" The huffy voice belonged to none other than my childhood friend, who waded in the fish infested waters with a look of contempt upon her milky coffee face. Her neon green hair sat in plump buns on either side of her head and green water threatened to stain her cheeks as it ran down from her hair.

I closed my book and gave the poor woman a droll stare. "Do you really want me to come in? I'm not that fun." The torn binding of the red book sat in the sunlight while the rest sat in the shade of the black umbrella above. Danni's face turned into a scowl as she threatened to splash water onto the untreated boards of the rickety old swim platform. Surrendering, I lowered myself from the ladder into the dark water and waded over to my bright puff of a friend. I mumbled a hi as the water encased my shoulders.

Danni smirked, flopped backwards into the water and kicked her feet up to splash at me. "It's like bathwater, so nice and refreshing. It's so much nicer than the water at the school, but I gotta say I'm gonna need a shower with all these minnows nipping at my toes..." Reaching up with one hand, I swept my wet bangs back over the top of my head as she rambled on. "...besides it's not like it's every day that we get to leave campus like this."

"Like what?"

"Like this, silly goose!" She raised her arms quickly from the water, sending droplets flying into the sky. With a huge grin on her face, she motioned to all of the random kids swimming with their friends or families that surrounded the swim platform. Some jumped from a rope swing from the small cove, others sat on pool noodles, but more often than not snorkels rose from the water, their wearer holding a new item from the bottom of the lake. "Today is beautiful! And if the water weren't so murky, we may be able to see the light reflecting at the bottom of the lake."

I gave her a curt nod and looked behind me where he waded with his friends, practicing times and relays with his swim team. I felt a light dusting of sunlight on my cheeks and turned my head back, Danni had ignored the whole moment and had begun drifting on her back, fluttering her fingers in the water.

Days like this are what college kids live for, the days beyond the finals where there's a few months to just relax before the new semester starts. It's a sunny, free day to spend with friends and family alike. A day to have parties under the clear skies where the full moon beams down on them ushering them to have fun while it still lasts.

The nights are my favourite time, it's not hot and there's no sun to beat on your neck while you read. Just the faint silver glow of a sun that smiles down on you, like a lost relative. The dark is for mischief and lies, parties with extravagant food and flaunting characters, the ones where the host lurks upstairs because it was meant to be a small gathering and they think about how their parents will kill them when they return from their trip. I've been in the dark my whole life. The darkness is not a safe place, it's where the monsters in people's hearts fester and take form. The moon turns everything into shadows and smiles become toothy grins from the demons that lay in your head, whispering sweet nothings and drawing you close.

I'm not afraid of the dark, I'm not afraid of anything. The sun that grants happiness to others just puts an intoxicating warmth into my stomach. I can see the moon for what it really is, it is not smiling, it's crying, hoping the people that stay up late enough are there to keep it company through the cool evenings until the hour a day that the moon gets to see his friend, the sun. For that hour during the day, the moon gives off a shy smile as it closes behind the mountainscape. I'm like the moon, the only thing I feel is the yearning to spend an hour with someone who can bring out the emotions locked deep in my heart, the lock rusted, the gate sealed and the key a red, dusty mess in the pit of my stomach.