From Darkness

The air smelled of sulfur and the darkness pulsed like a heartbeat, I knew this setting all too well. Blackness, as dark as the very void itself, settled on the town. One by one, the candle-lit light posts that this rustic village thought would protect them were smothered by the encroaching wave of Black. As the wave silently crashed around me, I could feel its presence stalk me. I finished my litany of Light, but as of all times before it never came. The sun had finally retreated, ignoring my chants, behind the centuries old buildings and the Dark was cruel enough to leave the last light on me. The halo of flickering candle light halted unnaturally around me, it seemed as though the light was being absorbed by the forever-black expanse that surrounded the land. The darkness was pulsating rapidly as It appeared. It was a Hurricane of Black that drove the wave of Darkness. The hurricane whipped my robe out in a silent torrent as the scream and cries of blood from its past victims rang in my ears. They tore into my flesh with invisible talons of white-hot iron. I screamed in sorrow and agony as the wind swept across my mind dragging rusted hooks against my reality, tearing it and tainting my mind with madness that only now I can understand.

My encrusted eyes shot open, my heart beating irregularly, waiting for the light of night to pass. I rolled on my side to face my wife, such a beautiful site, a smile on her face with delight at the wondrous dream. Jealously slowly crept into my fractured mind; eventually shattering the fragile barrier and flooding it before I could put up reinforcements. I sprang up from the bed and landed with a thud on the solid cherry wood floor. I stomped my way to the bathroom and took hold of the marble counter with a white-knuckle grip. “Get. The. Hell. Out.” I whispered as I gazed at the mirror and saw my reflection become demonically distorted. “Why should I do as you wish?” said a dark echo in my mind “I own you! That’s why!” “It doesn’t seem that way, Bario.” I felt Its rusted hooks burrow under my flesh, measuring my already flayed skin. “She only uses you for your money, I can see her mind ponder your death and I can hear her venomous mumbles. Her dreams are filled with your money in her possession” Hours rolled by as I stood there waiting for Its roaring whispers of deceitful truths to halt, “Shehashiredahitmanbefore;shehasputaknifetoyourthroat.” The information flooded my thoughts; muffling logic. I heard the creaks of wood as someone approached, it was my wife wearing her lovely revealing night gown. “What is it honey?” she said with worry cracking her falsely sympathetic voice. I felt It pressing in on my mind once again, but for the first time in 30 years, I did not care. I let the thoughts of my possessor cascade into my soul tainting it, casting me into an abyss of blood and violence “I know what you are Hunny,” using my new found knowledge “I have seen what you think, what you plan, what YOU have done!” I said in a voice that deepened with every word. My mind was clouded with the truthful lies as I reached for her, “What are you doing,” she shrieked” What do you mean! Bario stop th-“




I awoke. My vision was interrupted by red specks that floated across my sight as I looked around the room. The bed was soaked and a lovely sound of a liquid splattering against wood resonated from my right. I jumped from my bed landing heel first in a warm puddle. I slowly walked towards the wall taking in the scent; I could barely contain the ecstasy of my actions. The Black chains rattled in silence and blood dripped from the walls as I found my way. "So lovely aren't you Hunny?" Its voice replacing mine; I affectionately rubbed of what remained of her cheek, caressing the sagging meat, and then left.