Darkness Around Us

• Kristy May, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2017

Darkness is all I sense like it’s a shadow embedded in me. It’s attached, always observing my every move. The dark creeps, like a friend they cover me to get close and consume my heart.
My soul still struggles and hides beneath my flesh with no will to fight, the murkiness is everywhere.
In the air we grip life from, the salt water that battles with the sand as the moon rises. Even the ground trembles from its immortal powers. The darkness has death's gaze and a demon's soul, something arises from the dark mist, a girl.
A girl with a blanket of light entwined around her body. She’s as tall as an old willow tree and has long golden hair that falls to the tip of her toes. She can overpower this space, this nightmare of a place.
Her smile shines so bright it puts the sun to shame knowing it cannot compare. Her laugh sparks life into everyone like a jolt of lightning connecting to metal. She can calm the ground from its frightened stage and turn the roaring oceans into mere ripples. A slight hiss of her soft voice can sooth even the darkest of hearts with a rich melody.
A clash begins between life and death, good and evil, light and dark. Could there be a monster pulling the strings that keeps balance of the world? I can’t think, my head is muddled and changing shape. Turning inside out and twisting around trying to imagine a devil of destruction causing excruciating pain.
This place, the dark is circulating around me showing a glowing sketch of a man. His eyes are a bold clotted red shade, clouded with a black tinge surrounding the pupil. His teeth are pointed like the horns breaking through the skin down his back. The man's arm extends and his corrupt hand brushes against my cheek, he hides most of his face behind a cloak of sin.
The girl of light lost her smile at the sight of the mutated individual embracing me. She began to rupture into a chaotic rage, her hand clutched his face and smashed him into the swollen black void. She gave me a fright. I thought she was taken over by the darkness like everything else.
I’m scared. I'm stuck in a weak position. I don’t know what to think, both show an evil aura yet who am I more afraid of? She could be tricking me with a fake light that shadows her.
Her smile may be bright but her monstrous power is genuine. If that is so, could I have misjudged the man I see as a demon? Could the light be hidden deep beneath his rotting flesh and soul? Am I over thinking this because of fright? They both watch me. I can see a glooming smoke breaking away from his face, so this is a trick as well. Can I trust the light? Or just give up and fade into the dark. The end