What the darkness brings

Soft music flows from the speakers and fills the empty space. The woman hums to herself as she dances around the room in her silky night-dress, that shines in the fluorescent lights. They leave no corner darkened.

As she slows to a stop, she gazes out the wall of windows to take in the view of the city. The glittering lights flutter and tremble under the moon, almost like its purring.

“City of lights, what a delightfully illuminated district you are” she sighs in content.

As she turns to leave the view behind, something flickers in the corner of her eye and when she looks back, it’s a sea of darkness.

She pales and squeezes her hands into fists. She stands motionless, like a statue, staring into the deathly dark abyss.

Her eyes squeeze shut as she gets blinded by an intense white light. She opens her eyes slowly, frightful of what beholds her should she look, and gazes towards the street.

The abyss is gone, the brilliant lights are back.

 As she stares around the street, trying to find reasons why that may have happened, she murmurs lowly “why now?”. She glances up across the city and notices that one by one, darkness consuming buildings, as it travels faster and faster across the land towards her, she holds her breath.

The street below her, consumed once again.

 Her lights go out.

And the city is silenced.

“Everything is fine” she tells herself.

“It’ll come back on” she reassures herself.

She waits and she waits, and she waits. She waits for what feels like hours, but it was merely a couple of minutes. Abruptly, someone on her floor screams, then another and another, and another. People below her, people above her, people next to her. They stop, almost as soon as they started.

The woman stumbles back away from the window, like she got a shock, and towards the kitchen. She trips over the coffee table and onto the ground. At that instant her ankle twists and pops. Pain shoots up her leg and she whimper’s quietly, as she sits on the floor trying to ease the pain.

Suddenly the tv crackles on and a man’s voice comes through from the static. She is unable to identify the man, but knows It’s most likely someone from the government.

“Don’t go outside, don’t trust anyone and most importantly don’t use-” a guttural scream suddenly rips through her floor and the tv turns off.

 She sits still, listening for any more noises. She tries glancing towards the windows, but she is shrouded in darkness and deems it useless. She attempts to stand, muffling her whimpers. But the pain being too great, sends her falling back down with a loud thud. She holds her breath, praying to any gods, that nothing heard.

Swift knocking comes from her door, she doesn’t move.

It continues.

She catches her breath and quiets them.

“please, help me. My daughter, she’s hurt” a male voice sobs.

She gasps and starts crawling her way to the door. Determined to help this girl and find out what is going on. Lord knows, she won’t ignore a person in need, despite being in a poor condition herself. Always getting scolded from one person to another to look after herself first.

As she reaches the door, she remembers what the man said.

She whispers it to herself “Don’t go outside and Don’t trust anyone”.

Her instincts screaming at her to open the door, but her brain reminding her of what happened not even an hour ago. She squeezes her eyes shut and leans against the door, reaching her hand up to the handle, she rests her hand there. Her brain fighting against her heart.

The man sobs louder and begs her to open the door, banging on it.

“You have to stop helping every person you come across, not all of them will have good intentions and one of these days you’re going to wind up dead” an old woman’s voice shouts through her mind, reverberating around and around.

Her brain wins and she lowers her hand.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry’ she repeats in her head, she holds her sobs as the man shouts louder and kicks at the door.

Thumping suddenly comes from down the hall, slow and steady, like a heartbeat. She quietens and so does the man, both becoming paralysed in fear.

Then silence.

A crunch, followed by a thud.

She hears some chewing and tearing of flesh.

She stays paralysed, listening to the man be destroyed.

She feels something leak under the door and knows it’s his blood. It pools around and soaks her leg. She holds in her sobs and tries to ignore the feeling, but the more her clothes absorbs it, the stronger her sobs get.

“Daddy?” a meek child’s voice says through the darkness.

The chewing stops and within an instant, the child screeches and its quiet once again.

Gnawing and tearing starts again.

 A sob suddenly falls from her lips, as she realises she could've helped him, she could've saved the child.

The noises stop.

A deep growl rips through the dark.

The slow and steady thumping comes towards her. The creature sniffs around her door.

More thumping and growling comes towards her. More creatures have joined this floor and they smell her.

She stays paralysed, blood still soaking her. With bated breath, she waits for the door to be smashed opened. Waiting for the monsters to devour her, staining their teeth red and smelling their breaths of death.  

They growl once more.

Then a scream comes from the upper floors.

They rush away, followed by loud thumping and growling, they look for the source.

She lets out a low breath.

The darkness covers her in a blanket of fear, as she imagines all the different monsters that thrive in the dark.

She quietly crawls away from the door and back towards the kitchen. The ankle, still throbbing in pain, makes it hard for her to stand, but she finally manages. She fumbles around in the dark, looking for anything that could be of use for her.

She grips something that feels like metal. She feels around the heavy and metallic object.

She finds a button.

“a torch?” she quietly questioned.

She turns it on and fills the room with light.

Her door breaks open.

“Don’t go outside, don’t trust anyone and most importantly - don’t use any lights. They are attracted to it, like moths to a flame"