Fighting the Darkness

The night is darker than I ever imagined night can be. I can feel something like oil oozing around me as if the air is actually made of oil. I feel it coating my skin and slipping into me. Slime seems to cover my throat and lungs. Then in the ooze, I see faces. I see the faces of my parents being swallowed up, consumed by the ooze and ripped out of my life.

I scream. The scream rings in my ears and I find my mouth opening again to pour out more words, words that rhyme and shower curses down upon this unseen presence. The darkness around me grows thicker, more tangible. It presses against me with more unseen power. I try to breath but I am being crushed. My words can not come. My words can not come and unbind me from the darkness that now seems to be becoming part of me.

My eyes become cloudy, obscured from within by the very darkness that I was trying to fight. I can not escape it. It is a part of me.

"Why do you fight? You know it is inevitable. I own you. I have always owned you," a voice that grates upon my soul like sin personified comes out of the darkness.

I can not reply. I still can not breathe. The darkness inside me becomes darker and deeper. I feel as if my entire being has become nothing but a shell for the evil I hoped to destroy in order to save my parents. Now the horrible voice is chanting in my ears, but I can not understand it anymore. The words are beyond my understanding.

I feel like I am sinking. The darkness has become a quicksand that pulls me under. My knees weaken and I sink toward the floor. I know they are hitting the floor with considerable force, but it feels as if I have landed on sponges. My spine loses cohesion next, leaving me sprawled upon the floor, looking up into darkness for there is nothing more. Then, at last, my mind loses its connection to this world and I am only faintly aware of the slime oozing about me as my eyes close.

"Never fight with anger. That is the way of Decay. There is no honor in abusing the powers that you have."

The voice comes from nowhere. It makes sense to me though I have only begun to learn of Decay and its minions. With the voice, which is softer and more compelling than any I have ever heard, comes a blinding light. I blink, trying to see what lies within the light, but I can not see. I only know the peace that seems to consume me now and the calmness that overcomes my heart.

Sunlight pours in, dragging me once more from my dreams. Now that the darkness has gone, however, I find myself less willing to submit to the day. I want to feel that light again. I want to breathe it in and have it reassure me that everything in my world is fine. I want to feel secure again that my world has not been upturned. I can not have that. The light was not real, could not have been, and now I must return to the real world where my education continues.