I am running. Fast.
Everywhere I look, people are screaming. Their cries of terror echo like sirens throughout the vast darkness, bouncing off the moonlight and spreading like poison. They scream because of the vicious monster that has invaded their blissful village.
I need to escape. But how?
Bombarded by turmoil and panic, my legs force me through the barrier of petrified people as my brain tries to process ideas of what I should do. Would it be safer to hide?
It seems the entire village is sprinting across the shrieking cobble stones. Amongst the chaos, I might be able to slip inside a shop or a house. Then what? Hide in a box? A wardrobe? Then I would be trapped.
I keep running.
So do most of the villagers but some of them have stopped running and have started chasing the monster. They have stones and glass and fire.
The streets are less dark now, the result of the fire that is growing almost as rapidly as the fear. Almost. I can see the trees in the distance, lit up by the angry glow of flames, and I bolt towards my sanctuary.
Breathing heavily, I become immersed in the shelter of nature's embrace. With the protection of the trees comforting me, I collapse onto the moss-covered ground and listen as the cries dim until they are nothing more than faint whispers. Then silence.
I sharply gasp the cold air, its ice burning my lungs, as I remove a shard of glass from my ribs, which was put there by the village.
The village, during the day, had appeared perfect: flowers, sunshine, warmth. Utopia. The people had laughed and talked and played. They had not screamed. It is amazing what the darkness can break. A village so compassionate during the day yet so full of fire at night.
I throw the shard onto the moss. It does not break. Moss is soft. Unsatisfying.
Drips of my blood cling to the otherwise unspoiled fragment in which the light of the moon reflects the sky. The stars... the stars are so beautiful. They are the only things the darkness cannot break. I wish I were a star.
I lean closer to the glass to be closer to the stars but when I look into the shard, I am gazing only at myself, broken by the darkness. I stare with disgust and my face stares back with pity- the face of a monster.
