Young Writers Society

23:50, Ten minutes to midnight.

Chris paced up and down the room

« Cmonn, it’s been forever! »

« Shut up, it’s starting soon, »

He slumped back down in a huff.

I rolled my eyes and returned my focus on the pile of stuff in front of me. Usually, we came prepared for the night: I remember the first time we did this, Alex and Chris had arrived one fricking hour early, carrying twice as many things as we needed. Tonight was less... well, more hasty.

We got into the attic ten minutes before it was going to happen, and now we had to rummage through all my parent’s junk to find what we needed.

Finally, I saw the unmistakable glimmer and pulled it from the pile to examine it better.

Yep, that was the right one. A special brand of candle that burned twice as bright and twice as long as a regular one. We’d be needing them since the place we were going to wasn’t exactly the brightest of places..

I looked at the things we had already managed to gather, we had the salt, now the candles, and.. wait. Where were they ?

« Hey Chris, you got the rose petals? »

« Nope, haven’t seen them, »

« Shit. Alex? »

I turned my head around sharply.

« Hey Alex, you sleeping or what,»

I could see his body facing the window, his eyes gazing out upon the sleeping city below.

« I’m here. » He barely blinked.

« The petals? »

« Didn’t see them. Don’t have them »

I exchanged a glance with Chris. He shrugged back at me.

« It’s fine isn’t it? I mean, we’ve never had to use them, and it’s not like we’d just randomly need them tonight-»

Alex got up suddenly. He noticed we were staring at him and cleared his throat « I have a bad feeling about tonight guys, let’s just go to sleep, »

« Hell no! » We exclaimed.

« We’ve been planning this for a week now, we can’t just not do it ! »

« Yeah ! » Chris quickly added. « Damn, I didn’t know you were such a chicken, Alex, » 

Alex inhaled sharply.

« Ok ok listen guys, I’ll go get the rose petals if that’s what worries you. Then you’ll be good? »

« It’s.. not about that, » he shifted his weight. « I don’t know. Tonight just feels wrong. »

Before he could say anything, Chris got up and shoved him down the corridor.

« Cmon, stop being such a scaredy cat and lets go! »

The door slammed shut behind them. I sighed. Was something bad actually gonna happen tonight..? Just like it did one year ago? A knot twisted in my stomach. No. Nono. It was Alex’s words that had planted the seeds of doubt in me, tonight was going to be just fine. Just like last week and the week before and the week before that. The rose petals could stay wherever I had forgotten them, we wouldn’t be needing them tonight. I breathed deeply and swung open the door.

23:56. Four minutes to midnight.

From where I was I could see Alex and Chris kneeling against the door entrance, their hands poised and at the ready over the door handle.

« Whenever you say, » Chris whispered loudly to me.

I nodded.

The room was plunged in darkness, and the only source of light was the moon feebly entering the window. The shadows were growing longer and I felt a tingling up my spine.

Tap tap

Just one more minute now.. I started opening and closing my palms, digging my nails into my flesh.

Tap tap

« Can you stop », I hissed at Alex. He tapped one final time. Then silence.

I strike the match, it comes to life in an instant, flickering in my palm. I move towards the door.

All this, I had done every day for two years now, but why did it feel so wrong today? I looked at Alex for a sign, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was still staring out the window, what was so special about it anyway?? There was just darkness. Like a wall pressing up against the window- Oh. It was time.

The door slammed open just as the clock hit midnight. Alex and Chris sprung into action, shutting the door and grabbing the sea salt and candles- we had tried taking torchlights, but It didn’t seem to react to those. It had quite the opposite effect actually.

I approached the match to the candle which immediately caught and started burning brightly.

« The door. Now. »

Chris fumbled towards the door, and swung it open in one swipe.

The door banged against the wall. Then silence befell us once again.

Chris passed his head in the doorway, and looked around, and the darkness stared back at him.

« Did we make it? » Chris asked, panting.

« Maybe. »

I checked my watch.

The clock was stuck on midnight, but the dial watch showed 0:00:00

Then 0:0059

0:00:58

I clicked my tongue in satisfaction.

« Yup we made it, »

Chris exclaimed in joy while Alex let out a sigh.

« Thank God, » he murmured.

« Alright guys what are we doing tonight? We’ve got one full hour »

«Wait but before we go, I feel like we should say something.. you know, about- »

I cut him off. “I get what you mean, Alex, really I do, but I think Chris would rather we leave that in the past,”

I looked over at Chris, he seemed to be lost in the flood of memories that overcame him.

“Don’t bring her up,” I hissed at Alex. He looked down at his feet.

“Sorry,”

“No no it’s alright, I, I appreciate it, but you’re right. The past is the past,” Chris forced a smile. « Let’s go now, shall we? »

Alex and I nodded.

“Alright let’s go.”

We stepped outside, and even though I had done this a hundred times, I still stood in awe.

The sky stretched across and away above us, well to describe it as a sky would be undermining it. It resembled an ocean. A large, vast ocean, upon which was reflected nothing. The stars were gone. The moon, as we knew it, was gone. All that was left was a huge, dark moon that pressed close to the earth. So close, I could make out the bumps and crevasses of it.

I looked at my friends excitedly.

Before we walked out, I turned around and placed a candle near the doorway. This would keep It out.

Then we started walking, and the more we advanced into the darkness, the more outlandish things we noticed. As I turned my head around, I could see things moving in the dark. Tall creatures lumbering in the distance, large bats perched on the highest tree branches, following us with their glowing eyes… I moved closer to the candles. And yet everything felt so still here… Like the world had suddenly stopped turning and was holding its’ breath.

Chris tapped on my shoulder and as I looked in the direction he was pointing at, I saw his house. I squinted my eyes, trying to make out the shape of it from the darkness, then I saw it.

« Oh shit, »

I took a step back and nearly tumbled over Alex.

« Shit shit shit, »

« What is that? » Alex whispered urgently.

Chris’ eyes didn’t leave the figure. « That’s my mom, »

A woman was standing in the doorway of the house, staring at us, unmoving. She had the widest grin I’d ever seen, a large, toothy grin, yet her bulging eyes stared at us without a hint of kindness in them.

« Oh fuck oh fuck oh- »

I slapped him.

« Listen. This isn’t your mom alright? We’re in another dimension, she’s just pretending to be your mom, but it isn’t her. »

« Alright, shit, I, I don’t know why I panicked I-»

« It’s okay. » He still looked shaken. « Listen, as soon as we’ve arrived into town, we’re heading back alright? »

He nodded, but I could see he kept avoiding his « mother’s » unblinking gaze. « It’s fine, okay? »

Chris breathed in and out quickly then relaxed his shoulders.

« Ok let’s keep moving, »

I looked over my shoulder at Alex. He glided behind us like a ghost, the candle throwing a shifting glow on his face. I could see he was holding the candle tightly, his clamped knuckles turning white around it. What’s gotten into him? I admit, this night was off to a bad start, but I wasn’t going to let this one hiccup throw the whole mood off. I caught up to Chris and we pressed on.

40 minutes left

It’s been only twenty minutes? God.. I feel like it’s been hours. The air felt dead, unmoving around me, and every second in this place seemed to stretch and dilate until it was unrecognisable anymore. I shook my head. I was getting ahead of myself. A second was still a second and an hour was still an hour, my mind was playing tricks on me because of this damned darkness pressing in around us.

Out of nowhere, Alex started whistling. It was a soft melody that cut through the silence like a knife.

I could see from the corner of my eye that Chris was unnerved by this, his eyes were erratically jumping from house to house as if they were fighting to cut loose and escape from this place. Yet still we pressed on.

35 minutes left

Alex’s whistling stopped. That’s when I knew we had arrived.

I slowly raised my head. And there it was.

The city sprawled across the horizon, dark towering buildings looming above us, and a gate that creaked softly in the breeze. We stood in amazement. Suddenly, everything that had been unnerving us was gone, and all that remained in our minds was the beauty of this still, darkened city. The thing about darkness in the Dark Hour, was that it didn’t exactly work the way it did in “our” world. Here, the darkness moved. It swayed and twisted and flowed like lazy rivers flushing across us, like a snake twisting and untwisting itself- and when it passed through you.. it felt like a ghost. It was icy and cold, but it felt pleasant, a wave of frigid water that burnt your senses raw.

And when this darkness moved through you, immediately all your fears evaporated. Chris now seemed thrilled to be here. Well why wouldn’t he be? Everything was great here.

Only Alex stood back.

“Come on! Let’s go explore the school!” Chris said excitedly.

“Definitely. Let’s go!”

“Guys,” Alex hissed. “Don’t forget about the thing!”

“Oh come onnn, we have nothing to worry about! This place is safe!”

“Don’t you remember what we saw last time!”

A spike of unease tore through the veil of calm that had settled on me. But what was it..? Something was fighting in my mind to be remembered, something I knew was of upmost importance, and I felt it, and I knew it, and I knew it.. but what was it..?

Then someone started whistling.

“Alex! This isn’t funny!”

Alex slowly turned his head towards me. His mouth was sealed tight shut.

“Oh God.. we’re good though, we have the salt, right?”

Alex’s eyes shifted to his empty hands and he stared at them. Was he expecting the salt to just magically appear in his hands??

“Alex goddamnit! You had one thing to do and you messed it up!”

“I-I’m sorry,” he stammered. “I don’t know what happened! One second they were there and then the next.. gone,”

“Shit shit shit”

“We don’t even have the rose petals..” Chris said quietly.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry-“

“Guys shut up! It can hear us,”

Instantly, they all shut up and looked around, trying to pierce the veil of darkness with their eyes. But It was nowhere to be seen.

“On the count of three..”

“One,”

The whistling stopped. “Two”

The silence was deafening.

“Three!”

We all ran as fast as we could, rushing through the obnoxiously quiet city. Chris ran past me and I followed as he shot from street to street before entering the building.