The Darkness

During the day it’s nothing more than a tunnel under a busy roadway, 30 yards of piping large enough for a man to walk through. It was put there to allow rainwater to cross the six lane street without bothering traffic. But at night it turns into something else, it becomes darkness, an endless black that could easily swallow you up if you let it. You could stand at one end and not see the other. It’s lack of light combined with the darkness of the night sky create the illusion of it going on forever and standing at the entrance looking in only confirms that illusion. It has no end.

During the day kids would use it to safely cross the busy street, it wasn’t the cleanest path, the rains would carry in all sort of trash as they flowed through, but trash didn’t bother kids, neither did walking through puddles of mud or water. It did bother mothers however, they would complain every time their children came home, trailing the spoils of their journey behind them. Shoes ruined by the dirty water and mud they had danced through. Gene Kelly would be proud. But as much as they didn’t like it they knew it was a necessary evil, at least until the city realized the need to install the long debated crosswalk families had pleaded for. Until then, mud, water and garbage be damned, it was the safest path.

Night was another matter, all of the mothers were in agreement that the roadway was safer. Dark places were where bad people hide and they would rather have their children dodging cars than have to put out an Amber alert or worse yet, be called down to identify what was left.

As for the kids and the possibility of their ignoring their mother’s wishes, there was no chance of that, the tunnel was way too scary to be of any use at night. That’s where the imaginary monsters of childhood lived, the boogie men and werewolves. The things that followed you home, hide under your bed and waited in your closet for you to fall asleep. They were the reason you never let your arms dangle off the side of your bed and they’re the same reason the tunnel was left alone at night.

There was nothing that could convince a young boy to wander in by himself, nothing except a dare.

“Go on. Go on,” they urged. “You said you would, or are you chicken?”

Their insistence was unrelenting. If he didn’t do it, it would be all over the school by morning. He would never hear the end of it. He’d have to live out the remainder of the school year with the embarrassment of everyone knowing that he had “wussed out.” As he saw it there were only two solutions, either go through with what he had stupidly agreed to or convince his parents that they had to move, a solution that he toyed with for more than a few seconds before admitting it was something he would never be able to talk them into.

He looked at the entrance, the enormous roundness of it, it looked much, much bigger now than it did in the daylight. Above it he could hear cars going past, their headlights creating a strobe effect that made the opening look even darker than he thought possible. Making it even less inviting.

“Go on,” they repeated, pushing him closer.

“I’m going,” he said, taking a hesitant half step forward. “I’m going. Just don’t rush me.”

He knew it was a mistake the moment he said it, the moment he agreed to walk through the tunnel, but they had dared him and there’s a certain braveness that goes along with recess. Everything seems possible when you’re on the playground. They had dared to challenged his twelve-year old manhood and nobody could get away with that no matter what the cost.

“You’re too much of a chicken to do it,” they had teased him. “Too much of a mama’s boy.”

“AM NOT!” he had defiantly shouted back. “Am not.”

“Mama’s boy. Mama’s boy,” they chanted. “You’re a mama’s boy.”

“You’ll see,” he boasted. “You’ll see. I’ll do it tonight. Tonight I’ll show you.”

I’ll show you…, the thought trailed off. I’ll show you….

He took a deep breath and with it another step closer. The mouth of the tunnel opened wider, inviting him in. Hungrily waiting for him to enter before clamping its metal jaws shut and locking him in forever.

One more deep breath and one more step. He was close now, closer than he ever wanted to be. Its darkness stretched out to greet him. Reached out to touch the toes of his shoes. He could actually see it reaching out for him, feel it grabbing his feet. He could hear it softly beckoning him to come in, daring him to enter.

“Mama’s boy,” it whispered. “Mama’s boy.”

“Am not,” he whispered back.

He turned to take one final look at his friends, a defiant one that screamed “See? I told you so. I told you I wasn’t no mama’s boy. I told you.”

They were silent, standing there waiting for his next move. Wondering if maybe they hadn’t pushed him a little too far.

“Maybe we should…,” one of the boys began. The boy was silenced by a commanding grab of his arm that reassured him that they weren’t the ones forcing him into the tunnel, he was doing it on his own. It was all his choice.

The guilt passed. The group remained silent and waited for him to fulfill the dare. It was time to enter.

He turned his attention back to the tunnel, one more deep breath, one more step and he was in.

The darkness enveloped him. Erased him from everything that was outside. In a few inches he had disappeared into the tunnel. Vanished into the blackness that was waiting for him, the same blackness that now warned his friends that they better not follow.

He stood there, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the lack of light, for them to find something to focus on. He waited, but nothing happened, his eyes refused to cooperate. They refused to show him what was waiting.

He took hesitant a step forward, shuffling his feet instead of lifting them. He’d traveled the tunnel enough in the daylight to know that there was lots of trash laying around, plenty of things to trip over if he wasn’t careful and the last thing he wanted was to end up flat on his face. It would be slower this way, but it would also be safer. It did have a down side though, a big one, his mom was sure to know where he had been. There’d be no way to hide the fact that he had disobeyed her and gone into the tunnel, but that was a problem he would deal with later, right now he had more important matters at hand, he had to prove that he wasn’t the mama’s boy everyone was saying he was.

He moved on through the tunnel, slower than a snail’s crawl. Time meant nothing in here, it had vanished into the darkness along with everything else. His hands went from being stretched out in front of him, searching for anything that might block his way, to being held out to the sides, trying to find a wall that he might guide himself with. Both positions came back empty, the darkness had swallowed them too.

There was a rumble in the tunnel, the cars passing overhead were the source of the sound, it echoed around him. It was something that he was used to, one that he heard during the day, what he wasn’t used to was what else he heard, the noise coming from just ahead of him.

His shuffling had alerted something to his presence. It told them that he was coming its way. Fortunately, he had prepared himself for something like this, he knew he was likely to come across a rat or some other small animal rummaging through the refuse in search of something to eat. One of the creatures that took up residence in the tunnel after the Sun went down. He was smart enough to know that they were more afraid of him than he was of them, at least that’s what his father had always told him.

Other small creatures, his mind reassured him. Small creatures. Certainly nothing as big as a lion or bear or…. That would impossible right?

He took another step, his foot pushing a piece of paper or cardboard or something like that out of the way. Whatever it was it was more than enough to send that small creature scurrying off in the opposite direction, running as fast as it’s hairy little legs could carry it.

All right dad!

He shuffled on, taking a moment to see if his friends were still there. There was nothing to see, nothing but darkness. All traces of them were gone, they and the world he left behind had been swallowed whole by the blackness that was now his temporary home.

He hadn’t realized until now just how dark it would be. How totally light consuming the darkness was. If he closed his eyes he would not be able to tell the difference. Open or closed it all looked the same.

He was halfway through before he noticed it, before he first heard it, someone was following him. He could hear the splashes as whoever it was walked through the same puddles he had crossed only moments earlier.

“Splash.

“Splash.”

Someone had been brave enough to follow him in and was coming up behind him. His immediate thought was that it was one or all of his friends. They’re plan was to sneak up behind him and scare the crap out of him, then they could go to school tomorrow and tell everyone how they had scared him so bad he wet his pants. That had been their plan all along, after all being called a mama’s boy is nothing compared to being accused of peeing in your pants. But he quickly amended that thought. No one in their right mind would follow him in unless they had too and making someone pee in their pants did not qualify as had too.

He took a few more steps listening. Whoever, Whatever, NO, whoever it was that was following him was still behind him.

A horrible thought raced into his mind, whoever it was, whoever was now behind him hadn’t followed him in at all, his friends would have shouted a warning if someone strange was coming after him. No, whoever it was had been in the tunnel before he entered. Whoever it was had been waiting for him, waiting for him or anyone else that might be dumb enough to challenge the darkness and that meant that he had passed him somewhere along the way. Walked right by him without noticing.

Being careful was no longer an issue, he lifted his feet and quickened his pace. All he wanted to do now was get out and going back the way he came was not an option. He wasn’t running yet, but it wasn’t far away.

His eyes searched the blackness before him. Where was the exit? Where was the end of the tunnel? Where? He strained them looking for it but saw nothing, nothing except endless darkness.

He glanced back one more time to see if it, no, to see if he was still there, whoever it was that was following him. He knew that it wouldn’t do any good, it was just as dark behind him as it was in front, but he had to try. Maybe it was one of his stupid friends then he could stop and pretend to be angry at them while all along thanking them for being there. He glanced back expecting to see nothing but darkness.

He was wrong.

There was something there. Something big. It filled the tunnel behind him, took up every space. He couldn’t see it, not really, but he knew it was there. It was darker than anything else. Blacker than he ever thought possible. It absorbed the darkness around it much in the same way that the Black Holes he was learning about in school would eat up everything around them, and it was after him.

He thought about yelling but didn’t want to waste the time, besides who would he call? His friends were too far away even if they were brave enough to come help. Instead he did the only thing he knew best, he did what all boys his age did best, he ran.

He took two paces then went down with a splash. He tripped. No, not tripped, he hadn’t fallen because of something that was in his way, he had fallen because of something that had grabbed his pant leg, and the only thing that he knew could grab a pant leg was a hand.

A HAND.

The two words froze before him. A hand, but from where? His brain raced for an answer. It hadn’t come from whatever was following him, it was still back there. And it hadn’t come from someone waiting for him, there was no one here. Then from where?

Before he could come up with an answer he felt something slither across his hand. Something that pushed itself off the ground and onto him. It covered his hand and moved onto his wrist where it started to wrap itself around him. It scratched at his skin as it moved. Tore at it, gouged out lines of flesh. With his free hand he grabbed at it, pulled at it, tore at it. It wasn’t a snake or a large worm or anything like that. It was long and thin, flexible and brittle. He felt what he thought were small thorns and barbs on it. He felt small branches too. They were also growing and grabbing at his arm at the same time. Digging into it and cutting it.

His mind had stopped working, he was on instinct now. He pulled at it, but it fought back refusing to let go. He pulled at it until he thought he was going to rip his arm off. Behind him he heard the splashing of whatever it was that following him. In the few seconds that he was lying on the wet ground he had forgotten about what was chasing him, but not anymore. It was coming and it was close. The Darkness that lived in the tunnel was coming to get him.

Now was the time to yell. He screamed and gave one final tug. He screamed out of fear, pain and because it was the only thing he could think to do. It was just what he needed to break free. His arm grudgingly pulled itself out the plant or whatever it was that had trapped it. He hurried to his feet and started to run, whatever was in the darkness before him had to be better than what was in the darkness behind him. He ran as fast as he could. He ran like he never ran before. He ran into the endless darkness, the darkness that swallowed him up.

During the day it’s nothing more than a tunnel under a busy roadway, 30 yards of piping large enough for a man to walk through. It was put there to allow rainwater to cross the six lane street without bothering traffic. But at night it turns into something else, it becomes darkness, an endless black that could easily swallow you up if you let it. You could stand at one end and not see the other. It’s lack of light combined with the darkness of the night sky create the illusion of it going on forever and standing at the entrance looking in only confirms that illusion. It has no end.