This is a story I wrote quite some time ago and I've been wanting to share it with as many people as I could. Love it, loath it, burn it, trash it.
THE LIVING NIGHT
I don’t like the dark. It comes with its long, skeleton-like fingers, engulfing everything it touches. I really don’t like the dark. It is the evil of the day; nothing can stop this evil unleashed upon the world. It stares with its dark red eyes that pierce every corner of my room. I’m in my bed right now, watching as it slowly creeps towards me; I must prepare. It’s so close now, mere feet away. I don’t have enough time, I must hurry. So close now…
As the darkness made its way across the boy’s room, he tried to prepare for its coming; he didn’t dare go near the dark. Nothing could stop it. As the boy took his final breath, he felt its cold, long fingers wrap around him. It was a new sensation, nothing he had ever felt before. As the sun rose above the horizon the next day, he was nowhere to be seen.
The boy had finally woken up; yet, he was not where he was supposed to be. He was in a world unlike any other; the sun was hidden by darkness. As he looked around this mysterious world, he noticed a dark looming object rising above the clouds just up ahead; it was a castle but none like he had ever seen. It is misty, neither here nor there; it is like it’s made of darkness itself…
* * *
I had finally reached the castle; it was very large, dark, not even of this world. I see something, a large dark figure, watching my every move. This place looks all to familiar, it’s as if I’ve been here before; I know I haven’t seen it but that thing up in the tower, its face, it doesn’t have one! Those fingers, those skeleton-like fingers. Those red eyes, full of pain and misery. I know now, it’s the night! It has brought me here…
As it watched the boy, it realized that he had figured everything out; it raced down the stairs towards the courtyard. There, it waited. It waited and waited and waited until a small figure rose through the mist. The boy. It rose up but was standing in an awkward stance. It stood there breathing heavily with its eyes burning with rage. It was ready to be rid of the boy once and for all. It raised its hands ready to engulf the boy in its web of darkness once again to send him away forever. The boy didn’t look frightened. Something’s not right, it thought. It sent its fingers flying towards the boy. I have him now!
Suddenly, a light engulfed the creature. The light! That light! The pain! The agony! The boy had taken out a torch and shone it on the creature. It had let out a blood curdling scream; the boy had to put his hands over his ears, but that didn’t help. It was starting to distort, its legs shrank but grew at the same time, and its eyes flashed every colour of the rainbow. It started to crumple up. It was the end…
After a few agonizing moments, it was gone. The walls surrounding me collapsed, the darkness had finally let its grip over the sun. The light bathed the land. All the darkness was disappearing. Everything was starting to live again. This was the start of a new age.
Then, the world around me spun uncontrollably fast, there was a blinding light and I woke up in my bed again. It was a new day…
The boy started to recount his story to his family and friends throughout that morning, who all regarded him as crazy. They all said that his imagination got the better of him. He decided there was no point in telling anyone else but to write it down and hope that it could help future generations. As he went outside to go to the park, a large pair of red eyes watched him from a nearby by bush.
