Darkness Has Fallen

• Matthew Wareing, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2014

Darkness Has Fallen
By Matthew Wareing
High abandoned brick walls. Holes and cracks scattered across them, mold slowly creeping across their surface. The wet musky smell of dampened streets shrieking up my nose. A faint drip of water drops and as they fall from the cracks in broken pipes, refreshing the puddles that lie across the streets. Darkness emulating out from all corners engulfing the last of the light.
The small splashes of water flying out from beneath my feet as I run with a heavy breath. Another set of feet chasing close behind. Darkness prowling the streets after us gliding low across the broken asphalt, stalking its prey … us.
With the black fog of darkness creeping behind us, we hit a wall, the end of a street. Walls high above us on either side. Trapping us in this tightly weaved web of streets holding us captive. The street light high above our head smashed and broken, the light taken from it.
“We’ll get through this” brushes past my ear as a light whisper. Her cold but yet warm finger tips brush past the hairs on my forearm and reach into the palm of my hand. I interlock my fingers within hers.
“We have to” I whisper back in between breaths. We had only been running for a couple of minutes but they seem like hours.
“I remember when there was a sun in the sky, and people roaming the streets freely.” It was a painful memory from a few weeks ago before darkness had fallen. It was a Saturday when it fell upon our town; I remember that because it was our annual school fair. I was at the ring toss when the sirens blared.
Suddenly a spark of light fell from above us, breaking me from my memory. We tilt our heads upward to see the street light sparking, almost like it was trying to fight the darkness. Then with a large spark it was on and shining bright. It was the first light I’d seen for weeks. At first it burned at my eyes. A smile broke out onto my face; it was a sign of hope. Then with a chilling wind around crept the black fog of darkness.
“We’ve got to go”, I exclaim with a great sense of urgency, and again we’re running. As we run we turn to see the darkness reaching the street light, still on and shining bright creating a small circle of light on the cold hard concrete path disused and abandoned. As the darkness passes the light is engulfed by it and once it has passed all that remains is darkness.
The high walls of abandoned buildings flying past us with the one sign of hope demolished. We are running. Running, from the one thing that can’t be stopped.
Darkness