Darkest Memories

Book 3: The Fence

Book III

Somewhere outside of the city, a farm where a small family lived happily and contentedly. In the small family was a boy named Steven. He was the youngest among his siblings, he has two sisters and one brother. Their parents were very poor but they still work hard for the family, to give them something to eat and hopefully make enough money for them to go to school.

One cloudy and gloomy day, Steven's father was calling him from outside of their hourse, Steven never liked going outside during these kind of days because he feels depressed every time he looks up at the gloomy sky. Still, Steven had no other choice since his father is calling him, so Steven puts on his shoes on his tired feet and opens the old wooden door of his small bedroom, the house was never painted so it looks dull on the outside and the inside. He walks down the stairs, acting as if he was in a hurry then hurries out. When he saw his father, he quickly looked at the fence. Steven was curious.

"What are you doing, dad?", asked Steven.

"I'm reinforcing the fence, I believe that something bad is going to happen.", replied his father.

"What's this fence going to do for us then? Shouldn't we do something else other than reinforcing the fence with more wood?", said Steven.

His father didn't reply, staring at the wooden fence.

"We have no other choice.", said his father.

"What do you mean?", asked Steven.

"What do you think that we should do? It's not about the weather.", said his father.

"What is it then? Why won't you tell me?", asked Steven.

"I just can't. I don't want to make all of you worry.", said his father, worried about the future.

"You're making me worry! You should just tell me now.", shouted Steven.

"I fear the day when she comes back.", said his father, trembling.

"Who's coming back?", asked Steven.

"It's too late to say who she is. We might as well as accept our fate.", said his father.

"What are you saying?", asked Steven, even more worried than before.

"What I am saying is, we are all going to disappear from this world within one night.", said his father.

"Then what was this fence for?", asked Steven.

"Look out there, at that blank field.", said his father, pointing at the mysterious white figure, still far away from the farm.

"What's that?!", yelled Steven in a panicking tone.

"That's our end, son. It's our end."

His father stops fixing the fence then walks back into the house.

"Dad! We should do something!", yelled Steven.

"We can't do anything about it. We'll be endangering many lives if we tried to run away into the city. Now go to sleep, so you won't see her coming.", said his father, closing the door to his room.

"Dad! We have to do something! We can't just sleep it away!", yelled Steven, panicking and still hoping to live.

Steven sighs, knowing that his father isn't listening. Losing all hope, he goes back to his bedroom, looking at the mysterious figure through the window.

"It's still far away, and it's moving so slow but there's no other way to run away from it other than running away for the rest of our lives.", said Steven to himself, hoping to find a way.

Through the window, the field which the mysterious white figure floated on dies as it touches the life within it. Steven sits on his bed and tries to think of something that can avoid it. Steven stops thinking, then looks out through the window again.

"Maybe I can burn the house.", said Steven, not thinking straight because of fear.

While Steven is thinking it through, he thought that it's the only thing possible if he wanted to live longer. So he grabs a matchbox, and explained what's going to happen to them to his family. They all except the father didn't believe him. The father kept quiet, hoping that it will all end.

"Dad, you knew this would happen! Why didn't you tell us?", asked Steven to his guilty father.

"I don't know what you're talking about, son. Maybe all of that work earlier in the morning made you hallucinate.", replied his father.

"I know you're lying. Tell us the truth!", said Steven.

"Enough. Go to bed, Steven.", said his mother.

"Mom, I'm telling the truth!"

"Go to bed, now!"

Steven was helpless, he had no other choice but to listen. He went back to his room, shuts the door behind him then sits on the bed, thinking of what to do.

"I have no other choice. I must burn the house, with them or without them. They'll notice the fire anyway once the house is lit.", says Steven, resorting to his last and terrible option.

He looks outside through his window, he has more time before the mysterious white figure reaches their house so Steven puts his matchbox in one of his pockets then stands up from his bed, still shaking of fear. He then opens the door and checks the whole floor, looking for more matchboxes. Then he walks downstairs and heads straight for the kitchen, hoping to find more. After a while, he managed to gather several matches, maybe even enough to burn the house down. Though he had little time left before it arrives.

"I'm so sorry, mom and dad, big brother, big sisters.. I'm sorry that I have to do this, there is no other way.", whispered Steven to himself, holding a match, waiting to be lit.

Steven lights the match, then he hesitates. After that, he then throws the match from the outside. The wooden board wasn't easily lit especially because of the strong winds heading towards his direction so he tries again at another side of his where the wind will not interrupt. He hesitates again, then throws the match at the wooden board. It took a moment for him to make the fire big enough to burn the whole house.

That little spark was enough to burn the house, but Steven was still unsure about his family's safety, Steven goes through the front door, avoiding being burned alive in the fire. Steven goes up stairs, trying to wake his parents up first. When Steven was inside the room, they were already gone. Steven felt large weight in his chest and a tear dropped from his eye. Steven goes out, hoping that his siblings were alive. Before Steven opened the door to the room of his sisters, he heard cries of sorrow. Steven hesistates but then opens the door to their room. Their faces were full of tears and their faces were red, but Steven knew very well that it was all his fault. Steven tells his sisters to get out of the house before it was too late, then he moves on to his brother, the one that he loved the most. Steven ran to his room, when he opened the door, his brother's hand was already on the door knob.

"Steven, what happened?!", asked his brother in fear.

"There's no time, let's get out of here!", said Steven.

When they ran downstairs, the front was already blocked by burning wood. Steven suggested to use the backdoor, when they were already there, Steven looked outside. Steven was in shock and was paralyzed in fear, seeing that the fence was all black and withered. Before Steven was able to tell his brother about it, he saw it, grabbing his brother by his neck then it suddenly sucked his soul away from him, his brother suddenly withered away and looked dead and lifeless. Steven was in fear, so he barged through the door and ran to his sisters, but it was too late. They were also dead and lifeless, just like his brother. Steven was the only one left. Steven fell on his knees, and cried. When Steven looked back, it was there. Steven jumped back on to his feet and tried to run away to the road, heading straight for the city.

"I can see it, the city is there. It's just nearby.", Steven said to himself.

Steven ran and ran as fast he could, just to get away from it. As he ran and ran, it seemed like it was getting foggy, Steven was had blurred vision but can still run anyway. So Steven ran and ran as fast as he could, for the rest of his life.