In The Darkness
“There’s always something in the darkness.
I feel it following me around the house at night when I get up to pee.” Ashley
says.
“How many times do we have to talk about
this? I know we have a storm coming, but it’ll pass soon.” Dave says, looking
irritated.
“Until you believe me! And I don’t care
about the storm. I’m not just making this shit up. You don’t feel anything at night?”
“Besides your ass?” He says with a grin.
“Ha-ha. Yes, besides my ass!” She says
with a playful slap on his cheek.
“I have a few times. Only because of the
crazy shit you tell me at night.”
“Like when?” She asks.
“The other night when you went to
Walgreens, I got up to get another beer, and when I shut the light off to come
back to the room, I felt something staring at me from the kitchen.”
“It watches me, too. Mostly it follows.”
She says.
“I felt like something wanted me to stay
in the bedroom. Almost as if the rest of the house was his. Fuck, now you got
me going with this nonsense.”
Ashley’s face goes pale as she squeezes
Dave’s hand.
“What’s wrong, baby?” Dave asks as he
focuses his attention to the door that she is fixated on.
They watch the black mass silhouette
staring at them with shiny black eyes from just outside the bedroom door. The
hallway is dark, but this creature is darker, as if it is absorbing the
darkness around it. It starts to growl deeply as it shows it’s long, black
teeth behind a sharp smile. The growl gets more intense as it watches them.
Feeling her heart in her throat, she grabs the flashlight beside the bed and
shines it at the doorway…
“Tell me you fucking saw that?!” She
shouts.
“Fuck, baby, yea… Where is it?”
“We have to get the hell out of here right
now. RIGHT fucking now!” She says with her hands shaking.
“Wait a minute. Maybe we are just tired.
We’ve been sharing stories of something that doesn’t exist, shouldn’t exist but
inside our heads. Darkness matrixing is what it’s called.”
“Are you serious? You saw AND heard that
monster! It’s growl made my heart skip a beat.” She says with watery eyes.
Lightning crashes right outside of their
bedroom window, shutting the power off for a split second. Dave feels pressure
on his arm and neck, then the lights flicker back on.
“Baby, what’s wrong with my arm and neck?!”
Dave says frantically.
“No, no, no… Hold on, baby.”
Ashley runs to the door to get a bandage
to wrap up Dave’s wounds, but she notices all of the lights are out in the rest
of the house. Only light coming in is from the street lamps. She returns to
Dave and watches blood pour from the gashes in his flesh.
“I can’t feel my hand. Fuck, babe… what
are we going to do?” Dave asks.
Ashley wipes tears from her eyes as she
walks to the closet to get one of Dave’s old work shirts to wrap his wounds in.
She notices black, glossy eyes watching her from under the bed as she turns
around to walk towards Dave. Frozen in place, she just looks into the
creature’s wide eyes.
“Hurry up, baby. I’m feeling light headed.
Stop staring off in space…”
Low growls come from under the bed. Dave
rolls over and grabs the flashlight from Ashley’s night stand, then shines the
light under the bed, freeing Ashley from the creature’s spell.
“I need to hurry up and get your bite
marks covered up; you’re bleeding so bad…” She says as she sits next to Dave.
“We need to go while I can still walk.
Fuck… There’s so much blood. How bad is it?” He whispers.
“No need to go, baby. Let me finish
wrapping your arm, and then I’m calling 911.”
Lightning crashes right outside the
window, killing all power to the house. The creature appears next to Ashley and
bites into her shoulder and rips of chunks of flesh from her bones. Dave
reaches over and grabs the creature’s arm as he shines the light on it, making
it disappear. Looking into Ashley’s wild eyes, Dave hears growling from out his
bedroom door.
“It’s at the door!” Ashley yells.
“We have the flashlight. It can’t come in
as long as…”
Dave passes out from blood loss and slumps
over onto Ashley. With her good arm, she reaches for the flashlight and shines
it at the door.
“Baby, I love you…” She whispers.
The flashlight starts to dim. The creature
steps into the room with it’s big, sharp grin. While the light slowly dims, the
creature gets closer to the bed as it soaks up the darkness around it, growling
louder as each second passes. Covered in blood, and with tears streaming down
her face, Ashley watches as the light slowly dies…
The End
