Stay out of the Dark



 It’s out there, I know it is. Tormenting, mocking, taunting us all. Shrouding our nights and plotting by day. Its secrets are so mysterious and so god damn sinister that nobody dares to venture out of the light. Straight down the path of seemingly endless fear and discomfort that most normal people despise. If you hadn’t guessed already, I’m speaking about…about…''darkness. ''God, even saying the word abuses my subconscious. From a young age, I have had an awful phobia of whatever lurks within its depths – see, I never even knew… what it was until recently.

  It was around a year ago at the winter time. It was around 6pm and I was in the park with some of my closest friends – a couple who I had known my whole life and the others… well they had just been introduced by my lifelong buddies. We had been there for a few hours just having a ball – playing football, chatting and just generally having a good time. It wasn’t until it was getting dark that some of the group – including me – had to go home for dinner. After all, I wouldn’t want to be out when it got dark, as you probably guessed, especially because it got dark earlier in the winter time,  ha...ha. But anyway, we all lived within walking distance from the park so we didn’t need a lift back home – although, I wish I had now.

  I took the same route as my friend, Joe. It was a blur what we were speaking about of course, by now. Probably video games or music, creepypastas or TV. But that’s not the point, OK? Anyway, we continued walking onward until we reached his house. Mine was a bit further down the road. We continued speaking for a few minutes until he said he had to go. I turned for a brief moment to look down to my house through a thin layer of mist. But, when I looked back a second or two later. Joe had disappeared. Worse still, it seemed… it seemed darker.

 I couldn’t have been looking away for much more than a second. I was a little nervous and confused but shrugged it off while fast walking anxiously down the road towards my house. My conscience was playing tricks on me as I walked – or so I thought. I kept thinking that I was being watched by shadows in the house windows or in the gutters. Shadows forged by pure evil. Holding a pair of glaring eyes. Just watching. No motion… but I tried not to think about them. After all, they’re not really there, right? At least, that’s what I’m told by my friends nowadays… after the incident.

 When I reached my house, at this point my clenched fists were sweating but a sigh of relief exhaled from my lungs. Although, when I reached my house – along with most other houses on the road – the lights were off, and the curtains were drawn. I supposed that my parents had gone to bed early. So again, shrugged it off. However, something confused me when I tried to unlock the door… the door did not unlock. I had my key with me, and the locks had not changed. My parents would have told them. “What the?” I said to myself aloud. Of course, like a madman would speak aloud when alone. Now positively freaked out, I went to the side gate to find that it was wide open. Now for a start that was strange of my parents but not only that… but there was a trickle of blood leading on into the back garden. “Was someone hurt? NO, NO! They could not have just- just got through there,” I think as I saunter down the bloody patio. It stopped at the shed further down my garden. And when I opened the door now terrified, god damn… I saw something that still haunts me today. On the wooden wall, next to a bloody shovel hanging up, said the words “stay out of the dark!” written in… ''blood. ''This not only shocked me, but sent shivers down my spine. My nightmare had turned from a harmless phobia to a vicious reality. Just then, I noticed those eyes again, in the corner of my eyes. The same as on the street. Before I turned around, it had gone.

 I ran out of my gate and back out on to the street. By this time, it was so dark that I could barely see in front of me. However, there was just… just one light on the corner of the street. It stood out very well in the night by now. But, there was something unsettling about only one streetlamp being on and the rest being off. Me being me though, I didn’t think about it and frantically made my way into its beam across the deserted road. Not only my phobia was drawing me in now, it was that message. “What could it have meant?” I thought to myself. By this point in time, I stood within the light, but waiting for what?

 I don’t even know… but, the message in blood on the wall. I don’t know what was going through my mind. I felt like it was telling me something. I know, its self-explanatory. But, I decided to trust my instinct on this one. My fear was taking over my mind by now. Just as I began to think about what to do next, another streetlamp, just a bit further down the street – near Joe’s house, came on. Worse still, a figure. Hunched and crooked looking but shadowed in the beam of light. At first I thought it was my friend… but as glared further into the blackening abyss of their dark eyes, this thing was beyond human. It stood about 10 yards down the road. It had a hunched back, dirty rags for clothes and a smile that sickened me to the stomach. That smile… it housed a row of chipped stained yellow teeth that reflected the light of the lamp post. It stared for a few minutes, haunting me with its eyes. Until all of a sudden, the light just went off. My first thoughts were to stay in the lights. But he could sneak up on me and I would have no idea. After all, it was so damn dark and foggy! My heart began to beat heavily. I could almost smell its breath down my neck… I imagined the smell of sour milk hitting my nostrils as warm air hit my neck. But no, it couldn’t move that fast without me knowing, could it?

 Frozen in position with shock and fear, I had nowhere to go. I was starting to believe that the message was nothing but a trap… a way of just luring me into the light so that…that thing! It could just track me. Maybe it was the creature who wrote it; directed to me. But why me? Was it because of my phobia? My family? Myself? I don’t even know…

 Suddenly, all of the streetlights made a sudden sound of electrical burst and came on. I was confused but slightly relieved. Although, one thing that confused me, it had gone. The…the… thing. It just disappeared. But all of a sudden – after a minute or so of standing, observing the illuminated foggy road that was dampened by the now midnight dew, I felt a warm breeze smelling of that sour milk I imagined hit the back of my neck as if strangling me with its horrid scent. As I turned around, there stood the monster… just ''grinning. ''I felt Goosebumps blossom upon my skin as it inhaled with a cackling sound. I stood motionless, terrified, not knowing what to do. As it began to raise its head to reach mine – knife now in hands, it spoke with a mischievous tone, penetrating the silence of the street.

 “A little dark to be out alone, don’t you think?”

 “NO! I cannot let my fears overrule my life anymore!” without thinking, I threw a perfect punch to its jaw, knocking it away. Its recovering… now’s my chance! I pulled the knife from its grasp and hit it again, this time knocking to the ground. The creature surprisingly not putting up much of a fight. I then fell down to my knees and stabbed it repeatedly in the chest, while it let out a blood curdling scream… it was dead. I began to laugh for some reason, uncontrollably and then ran to the door and passed out by it, feeling heroic for facing my fears but tired and dizzy. My nightmare was over. Except not.

 I woke up, in a plain white room. Barred windows and padded walls and a simple bed. I overheard two doctors speaking outside my room, looking in at me as they spoke.

 “Yes. His other neighbour found them. The boy stabbed his neighbour repeatedly after apparently being out in the street late at night, grinning with torn up clothing,”

 “Do we know how late it was?” the other doctor asked.

 “Around midnight last night, he was found outside his own house, muttering something about staying out of the dark. Apparently they had seen him in the same place for 4 hours, just grinning, looking around the street. That was until Mr Gail went out and spoke to him keeping his wife inside watching over.”

<p class="MsoNormal"> I couldn’t believe what I had done. I had k-killed someone! But, it felt good surprisingly. And thinking back on the events, I began to laugh. I couldn’t stop as the doctors continued to stare into my cell. I still can’t. Even when I see the creature that stalked me that night in my sleep, still blood coated and stabbed from my attack. But a mischievous, sinister grin still present on its face…