I was walking home from work when I heard something. A high, blood curdling scream. I stopped and wondered what or who was making the sound. My mind quickly stopped wondering, and started warning me to keep walking home. Home, where strange sounds didn't startled the piss out of my body. I decided to stay there a moment longer. If I heard it again, I would go see what it was.
There it was again, louder now- or maybe closer. It didn't matter, I started to sprint. I was worried somebody was hurt. After running for a good mile, I stopped. Head crained to the ground, hands on my knees, wheezing. Definitely a terrible athlete. I got my breath back and looked up. My breath caught in my throat once more, but not from running. There, sitting on a log, was a woman.
She looked normal enough. Long black hair, a beautiful ring on her left middle finger, and pale skin, especially on her hands. I realized I couldn't see her face. Before I could ask her if she was alright, or if she was the one making the terrible screaming, she made a strange growling sound and looked up at me.
I felt fear. Only fear.
Her jaw was unhinged and where her mouth was supposed to be was a gaping hole. Blood dripped out of her eyes. Those horrific eyes. One was blood red while the other was pitch black. No whites. No pupils. Just solid color.
Funny how it looked like her left eye was just dripping down her face; red blood, from a red eye. Like wax on a lit candle. I imagined the flame of the candle, lapping at the thick wax as it burned down the wick. Light and heat were a distant memory as the image of the candle faded. I snapped back when I felt someone looking at me.
She- it at me. “You should be scared of the dark," it told me softly as it rose. I started to back up as it came closer.
I was suddenly aware of the sharp, glistening teeth in that dark hole. Like a wolf, or a lion, or some other carnivorous creature. "Creature" was the perfect word for this thing.
I just hoped "carnivorous" wasn't.
Quickly taking a few steps backwards, just to be safe, I watched the creature, and it watched me. I could smell the metallic scent of blood, and I could hear it. Drip...drip...drip. But it wasn't the blood dripping. It was the thick saliva unable to stay hidden in its unhinged jaw.
I started running. This thing was hungry, and I wasn't sure I wanted to know for what.
As the trees blurred past I tripped over a something. I didn’t need to look at my ankle to tell it was sprained.. The searing pain was plenty. I looked back but didn’t see anything.
As I started to get up, I heard it. A terrible, horrible, awful scream. I knew I was dead. I had to be! I closed my eyes waiting for the unavoidable.
After minutes passed, and I felt like I had been waiting for years, I opened my eyes again. Shakily, I glanced around, and saw nothing. I almost moved, but I heard a something. Like a leaky faucet. Drip...drip...drip. Without moving my body, I brought my eyes to my feet, and then up, to see something no one should ever have to see.
There, no more than a foot away, there it was. I couldn’t move. Fear had taken over my body. It approached me. I felt tears streaming from my straining eyes, burning and marking my face. “You should be scared of the dark,” it told me again. I screamed as darkness consumed me. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe.
Darkness, I realized, was more than just the lack of light.
It was the lack of everything.
Death is darkness, I assure you.
Because, otherwise, death is absolutely nothing, and being consumed by nothing is much more terrifying than being consumed by darkness.
Black, heavy, darkness.
And, I tell you while my conscience is still here, I am very, very afraid.
