The Dark

Darkness, it enveloped her as she sat on the wet grass staring at the sky ahead. It was cloudy that night, too cloudy. A faint glimmer of the dying stars above cast a shallow glow across her sunken face. The slow breeze sent a shiver down her neck as she sat expressionlessly waiting. 

She was tired, too tired, but she couldn't rest. Not yet anyway. She had a mission to complete that was far from over. Tomorrow she would be going to space.

When the time came to leave it wasn't the take-off that was most frightening, nor was it the thought of dying. No, the most frightening part of the entire ordeal had to be the loud metal screeching noise. It began as they entered the earth's atmosphere, but didn't stop as they left it either.

It was ear-shattering, even over the already painfully loud take-off the high pitched rip noise was audible. An endless whine that wouldn't leave the air. The crew tried there best to cover their ears but to no avail. The noise was just too loud.

The cause of it was unknown to them, but the damage had already been done. Not a single person on the rocket could hear after that, white noise was all that was left now- then the screaming began. The team couldn't hear each other scream, but the horrified faces and opened mouths were enough of an indication to one another. 

Tears pooled in their eyes as they continued hurtling towards more empty space. They had a job to do, but something wasn't right. This was never supposed to happen. Had the ship been damaged? Did something hit them? Were they going to die? They were all questions they wanted to ask but were incapable of doing so, instead, the questions hung in the air along with there fate.

If the noise were still audible none of them could hear it now. They heard nothing, not each other, not the ship, not anything.

Panicked, confused, the team sat in terror awaiting what could be their last moments. The woman amongst them all who was once calm and collected was now deathly pale and shaking. This was never supposed to happen. 

With a small flicker, all the lights on the ship went out. The crew looked between each other for answers but were in no state to communicate. The woman looked at the control panels with fury as she attempted to return the power but it was useless. 

As the power left, so did the artificial gravity. The crew rose slightly in their seats, only being held by there tightly fastened belts. It was dark, quiet, almost as if there were static in the air now. Goosebumps pricked their skin as they looked at one another through the dimly lit ship. The only light they had now was from the suns gaze and a small rectangular window in the side of the ship. 

They were going to die, they all knew it. The feeling of ultimate dread was shared between them now even without words.

A shadow slowly came over them, making it near impossible to see. It was a thick, black smoke outside the window of the rocket. How it was there made no sense, nothing like that should exist in space. Yet there it was, right in front of all of them slowly creeping closer. 

Some tried to break free from their seats, some tried to even look closer to the mysterious cloud, but the woman. The woman was frozen still staring directly into its centre. There was no point in struggling and she knew that to her core, she didn't know how, but she knew.

The smoke came closer and soon covered the rocket, there was no light inside anymore. The darkness has snuffed it out. 

It moved like a person, as in it didn't move aimlessly but instead with a purpose, To surround them.

They were all watching the now covered window in fear as something began to slowly form on the other side. A circle maybe. A face? they couldn't be sure. Whatever it was, it was not supposed to be there.

The thing was pressed against the glass, you could call it a creature at this point, as a face begins twisting into formation from the smoke. It was demonic, with large empty holes for eyes and a wide agape smile, it was as if true evil was staring them In the face. And truly evil this thing was.

The creature pushed closer to the glass and slowly began to push through it. It was impossible, yet the beast carried on pushing through closer and closer to all those on the ship. The smell coming from it was unbearable, the only way describe it was to compare it to rotting, burnt flesh. The air was thick, they had stopped struggling now. It was futile and they knew it. there was nowhere to run in space. They had resigned themselves to there fate, but the horror of their imminent death was overwhelming.

The engineer went first. The monster hovered over him before slowly tearing his head from his shoulders revealing the gruesome sight inside, a horrific crunch no doubt audible to the creature that killed him. 

They began to scream again but non of it could be heard between them, and the thing wasn't finished with them yet. It moved from victim to victim. making each watch as the other would die a horrific, painful death. The girl knew it was her time soon, she knew it was coming for her. 

She ejected herself from her seat in an attempt to get away from the creature, at least to die an honourable death. She pushed herself down the ship as fast as possible with no gravity, but the creature was coming for her. Its smoke chased her like a tentacle latching onto her back.

Instead of the feeling of smoke, it was the feeling of hot tar on her back searing into her skin, yet she pushed on. The ejection door wasn't far now, it was just insight. Death was already accepted, but not by the hands of such a creature. She pulled forward one more time, her crew members left behind to suffer their own fates, as she grabbed the emergency latch handle to release herself into space. 

Her last thought as she was sucked into the empty abyss was of that creature and its wicked grin, oh how it would haunt her even in death, or was that death itself? 

She never got the chance to find out as she sped through the abyss, her last few seconds alive spent looking back at the massacre before her. As her body tumbled away from the scene and into space, spinning and freezing, she faced the stars once again.

Only this time her eyes were vacant, cold and dead. She never did get to see the stars again, but only for her frozen eyes to face them. All the same, the stars were beautiful out that night, and there wasn't a single cloud to hide them. She at least was finally at rest.