Sounds In The Dark

Sounds in the Dark
By: C.D.B.

         This is the end, Richard Ingram thought, as he sat on the porch swing of the abandoned house with a revolver in his mouth.Click, was the only sound that came from the pistol that Richard had placed, ever so gently, into his oral cavity. How could I forget the bullets? Frantically, he searched his pockets with his left hand, all the while keeping his right hand steady and firm. But, it appeared he had left the bullets somewhere else, in a place he couldn't remember.

         It was the one year anniversary of the accident that had snatched the lives of his beloved wife Ruth, and their only child Sarah; leaving Richard the sole survivor. He had since been plagued with blackouts making his memory hazy. And the habitual binge drinking left him absent-minded. Bourbon whiskey was his only companion and he would often wake not knowing what city or state he was in or how he had arrived there.When his inner darkness consumed him so much that his body shivered uncontrollably with paranoia, he coiled into a ball of nothingness as his fear and guilt tormented his soul. He would never forgive himself for the loss of his wife and daughter. Alcohol, for better or worse, kept the shadows at bay; dark shadows that had stalked him to this dreadful place and left Richard unawares. The madness had finally taken it's toll.

         The front porch overlooked a foggy, mountainous range, surrounded by the woodland and the miserable darkness. The sounds of the animals at night were not as bad as no sound at all. When the forest was quiet, the movement in the night was silent. Death was there, all around him everywhere and he could smell it. The mist of the fog hung low in the valley of redwoods as far as the eye could see. Over the white mountain terrain, was a clear night sky, lit by an endless array of wonder shining from the twinkling stars. Richard wasn't fooled by the elegant beauty of this world, the one he had to learn how to survive in. He was raised in the wilderness, it was his home and yet, he yearned for the city life. Some inner force had led him back here, after years of making a life elsewhere and trying hard to forget his youth.


         With an empty bottle of Jack Daniels lying between the cracks on the floor of the porch, Richard screamed at the top of his lungs into the black winter's night. "Damn, I can't do anything right!" His deep voice resonating through the forest, down in the valley and echoing around the mountain's peak. A high pitched screeching noise, like that of a thousand tortured bats harmonizing together into one long note, thundered through the woods swiftly replacing Richard's shriek. He slapped his hands over his ears to muffle the sound as tightly as he could, trying to keep his brain from exploding into a million pieces from the racket.

         Richard knew then that he was in grave danger. The incessant screams coming from the night were horrible and violent sounding. Worst of all, it was driving him to the breaking point. Paralyzed, he couldn't move a muscle so he just sat there on the swing like a stone; blue eyes gazing out into the unknown until a flicker of light illuminated the frozen atmosphere in the distant, dark forest. And though the temperature was icy, nothing could have been more frigid than the chill that ran up Richards' spine at that particular moment.The way the light danced and weaved intrigued Richard as all of his life he had been attracted to the mysterious, to the....unexplained. Witnessing the death of his family was the most horrid nightmare fathomable so there could be nothing else in his reality that would possibly shake him now. Everyone lives in their own little world and so did Richard, before this fateful night.


         “From delusion lead me to the truth", he whispered to himself the old proverb that he remembered his father drilling into him when he was an adolescent. Louie Ingram had often misquoted scripture from the book of Proverbs while waiting for Richard to take off his pants and bend over the altar. Pastor Louie died of heart troubles before Richard turned eighteen but, the damage was done. A tortured childhood leaves a lot of unanswered questions and my soul will have hell to pay once the demons fight their way outta the closet, Richard thought. He immediately pulled the revolver away from his mouth and shoved in the back of his pants.

         While still staring at the light, in awe of its mystery, he stood up from the swing and walked off of the porch, down a slippery snow slope and disappeared into the dark, majestic woods. Silence was all around him, especially after the pandemonium that had deafened him not more than ten minutes ago. Slowly, his hearing came back to him. And with every step he took, broken twigs echoed throughout the valley, within an earshot of any predator that might be near. Richards' nerves started to twitch. The closer he walked toward the light, the brighter it appeared; like the light at the end of the tunnel, except it was growing larger by the minute and becoming more vibrant.

         Soon, Richard's paranoia came back to his cold soul and his excitement immediately turned into absolute........terror. The flame was approaching him at an accelerating speed. Once he realized the light was coming for him, whatever it was, he knew in his heart of hearts that it was evil and he was the prey. With a burst of adrenaline, he ran as fast as he could through the darkness. He prayed as he moved that he wouldn't face-plant into one of the majestic redwoods as he was running blind. Racing against the devil in the black of night, the moon was hidden from his eyes. Richard could feel the blaze scorching the back of his legs, neck and ears. He could smell his skin burning. His body was exhausted to a degree of collapse but he would not give up. Something inside him wanted to remain alive for some odd reason, and get away from this evil that was insidiously pursuing him.

         Suddenly, there was no more forest to run through, just a cliff above a drab ocean with more than a thousand foot drop. He turned around expecting to confront this monster of the trees and then saw......nothing. His hand reached for his weapon in the back of his pants but, it was no longer there. Where was the fiery entity that had been relentlessly hunting him down. At that exact instant, spirits started viciously surrounding him, an army of phantoms materializing out of the thicket. Following the mass of apparitions was a familiar figure. It was an image of Richards' dead father, Pastor Louie, staring him down with a sadists' smile.

         “Behold my son, I am the keeper of demons and you are my spawn. In your life you chose to brutally murder your wife and daughter". Richards' face went pale as he dropped to his knees in shock and disbelief. “No father, you are wrong. They died in a terrible accident, I would have never hurt my family”. The ghostly presence ignored Richard and continued speaking,"Since you also felt the need to take your own life........YOU shall join me! Where's your revolver son, oh you must have left it on the porch.” Richard hesitated while he searched his pants anxiously. “It's on the porch with your DEAD body, my boy”. “NOOOOOO, Richard screamed in horror, still not believing what he was seeing and hearing. “Welcome to HELL, my son”!! At that moment, the trees parted and the earth opened up with an intense heat emanating from the pit. All of the demon sounds in the dark tore Richards' soul apart piece by piece, while he screamed for his father to have the mercy he had denied Richard in life and he would beg for an eternity.