The Dark Reality

And it was there – inches from me – I let out a scream and felt as if I rotted into the mystery – I couldn’t see – I swung wildly with it in my grasp and then – and then – then…

*

We’ve learnt to live in darkness. For years now we have faced little light and have adapted our ways to fit the safety precautions. Nobody leaves their homes in the daylight. Nobody switches on much more than a weak bedside lamp if they have intention to move. It may seem like a strange world to you, but for us it’s reality, and reality is what you grow to live with.

Shadows can only form in the light – that’s common knowledge. A Shadow only needs the light and the object to coordinate to cast the stretched image on the ground, and add a little bit of emotion…

Millions have disappeared worldwide and no government, no ruler, nobody can figure out where. But they can figure out how. Why, it’s the Shadows. You place one toe on one and you vanish. Poof. No trace of your existence is left. Your home? Empty, clean – as if ready to be sold and moved out of. Your work? You never worked. Your family? Oh, they remember you… but they don’t act like it. Your name becomes a taboo among anyone who ever knew you.

Nobody knows how they first appeared, either. Well, of course, by science, shadows have been around for the existence of basic physics. These Shadows only showed their first traces properly about a decade ago; before then, the most evidence you can get is an unimportant, yet strange disappearance dotted irregularly through the history books. The first few traces began in the 1300s, in Europe and Asia. They stayed intermittent until, like I said, about a decade ago. Then all of a sudden, Shadows were everywhere, and the world was plunged into what could be permanent darkness.

Night was once an eerie time of day. Thugs and drunk teenagers are aplenty, but not only that. The mystery and unknown that bathes the ground is haunting for any sane person. Once, at least. Now darkness holds are a haven, the place the Shadows can’t get to you. Successfully go about your entire day in darkness, and you hold the key to a universally normal life. Everyone works in the night. Everyone. You won’t even find healthcare workers in the daytime: if you have a heart attack in the bright of the light, it’s better off for everyone you just suffer.

I’m fifteen. I go to school for three hours: midnight to devil’s hour. They can’t risk any more than that for obvious reasons. Every “week” night, I only leave the house to walk to school. You’d be mad to drive – it’s either you crash without headlights or destroy someone by using headlights. So, I walk. There are still the old streetlamps, only they don’t work, but people use them to find their way to places in the pitch black. It’s like the whole world being blind. I know my school is twenty-three lamps left from my front door, thirty right, then another seventeen partly right, then the last nine sloping upwards to the school gate. Reverse to get back home. It’s an effort, sure, but would you rather risk disappearing? It may seem nice compared to our reality, but I’ve heard the screams that echo from the Shadows sometimes. Screams of a thousand lost ones, wallowing in despair. It’s enough to keep you up at night; more than enough to make you do extreme things to escape the light.

Only the faintest of memories from when I was a kindergartner playing in the light surface in my mind sometimes. I dream about them often: the sun shining on my face… natural warmth from the daylight… shadows being a friendly thing to chase as part of a game… and then, this one shadow in particular. It lurks in every dream, jumping out at me in the end and scaring me awake. It was no danger back then. Now, I know if I ever saw it, I’d be done for. Your own Shadow was the deadliest of all.

I was walking to school as per usual. Hands swinging out blindly to latch onto the next lamppost, counting… thirty… now partly right – one… here – two… I’ve never had any trouble walking to school before. All the streetlamps are dead; they have no power. Everyone knows they’re only there for guidance and none have turned on since the first day of darkness. That day was different, for some reason. I’ve heard about automatic lights that switch on if motion is detected nearby from my parents’ stories about their bright and sunny childhoods. Apparently, I used to love running in and out of them when I was a toddler. What I didn’t know was some still existed, clearly: I stepped towards where the third lamp would be and – click. There it was. My Shadow.

I blinked – a second wasted – before realization hit me. I scrambled back to get out of the feeble light, my eyes straining with a sudden effort they hadn’t made before – loose gravel – I tripped backwards, yelping – my metal water bottle clattered out my bag onto the pavement – I grabbed for it – the light had left white spots dancing across my eyes–

 And it was there – inches from me – I let out a scream and felt as if I rotted into the mystery – I couldn’t see – I swung wildly with it in my grasp and then – and then – then…

A thousand blood-curdling screams struck the area; a dramatic white flash seemed to split the sky in two. I saw, through the splotches left unblinded by the light, my Shadow disintegrate into what could’ve been a billion scattering fireflies.

Surely, that couldn’t have been all that was needed? A panicked move: a metal water bottle to crack a Shadow, and destroy it entirely? Whatever had just happened, I was so relieved I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. A thrill pumped through my veins and fueled my swiftly beating heart… adrenaline… I had avoided disappearing; I was alive…

I started hearing voices, conversations, appearing out of nowhere about me. A couple materialized nearby, speaking in hushed tones then letting out screams when they saw the patch of light that bathed me, rushing away into the pitch black. My Shadow didn’t seem to be reforming – I smiled to myself, looking about the area the lamp washed the street.

The split in the sky.

They all stared back at me. Hundreds of them. The ones who screamed. Their eyes unblinking. Beckoning.

I didn’t want to; I saw no reason to, but something about it seemed to drag me… draw me in like a magnet…

No, it wasn’t that easy. Nothing came simply anymore. I had not destroyed the Shadow.

The Unknown embraced me with its cool fingertips.