Dark Skies

• Brianna Alchin, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2014

As I lay on the deep rich grass in the dark of the night and watch life go by in an eerie silence. The dark dewdrops littering the grass, making it sparkle in the moonlight. The dewdrops danced across my pale white, sickly skin like shining pebbles. Glittering in the moonlight they kept multiplying by the minute as the rain sprinkled over me like shattered shards of glass. My eyes have been growing heavy for a while now but I'm holding back as much as I can. What am I holding back from you might ask? Well it's the inevitable, the darkness and death. The darkest place in the galaxy or universe. I don't really know where it is or what it is like, I just imagine it as a dark abyss where nothing matters, not even yourself. I'm slowly giving in, letting the darkness take me. The darkness begins surrounding me soon and there is nothing I can do. They say life is short, but I didn't think of it literally, I thought it was just a saying. Before you know it your will be slowly wasting away and letting itself go in the darkness. At the age of twenty-two I am lying on the rich green grass slowly dying. As I'm slowly dying I begin analysing everything in life, like what I will never see again and the things I won't feel again. I'm listening to the soft but powerful howls of the wolves, the beautiful but annoying sounds of crickets in a meadow trying to enjoy the last bit of my life as much as I can. I think it's time to go, I'm on my last strong now, it's time to let go. Well goodbye now, the darkness is surrounding me slowly. Goodbye life...

I suddenly jolt awake in surprise. Dark, cold and silence surround me before my chattering teeth break the silence. This must be the darkness that comes after death. Suddenly, a light is burning my eyes and I find myself standing on the edge of a cliff over a magical place. I think I'm in heaven, I hear a rustling sound behind me and I see a person standing next to me, but this is no ordinary person. They look too innocent, perfect even but then I notice the eyes. Black obsidian, penetrating your soul. If this is heaven then this being is the devil. Darkness always finds its way into the light. The creature takes me hand, whispering "good work my child, you have taken me back to heaven. The war will begin and we will win. The world will worship us." My death was no accident with the devil in me.