The blackness of the street was of varying degrees, but it was still black. The blackness had come from various sources such as oil and small rocks, but its unaccompanied presence, as well as the lack of other colours began to confuse Eric. Eric shook his head and raised his fluttering hands to his forehead, in order to exorcise these insane confusing thoughts from his mind, but sadly his effort failed.
Eric faced the fact that he would have to refocus his attention to the grey. With a heavy sigh he began to take the grey back into his mind, and his faithless soul. Eric became frantic as he began to search wildly for a source of colour, some source of life, but his desperate search came up negative. Tears formed in his blue eyes and steadily made their descent down his pale cheeks, leaving a salty trail of misery in their wake. As gravity took over the tears fell from his face to the grey ground, making a silent 'plop' on the street.
Eric felt disturbed as he saw the dark tarmac swallow up his tear, leaving only a small round black mark as a sign of its existence. Unable to watch the sight anymore he turned his head to the right, in hope of some light relief. For a brief moment Eric's small hopes lifted: triumphantly painted on the black tarmac where two, seemingly unending, strong yellow lines. This sign of light on the bleak depressing scene prompted Eric to smile and reach out to touch the lines. Eric reached out, in spite of himself, hoping that the lines where not manifestations of his imaginings like the false dreams of warm breezes were. Realising that the line where real objects that could be touched Eric's heart jumped. He ran his fingers across the bold yellow lines, ignoring the rough feel of the road underneath; such insignificant imperfections meant nothing to him at that moment.
It was a that moment when Eric saw the one thin that robbed of his smile, the one thing that made all his high hopes come crashing down, it was nothing gigantic - yet it was earth shuddering: it was a speck of grey amongst the bright yellow lines. Eric blinked his eyes, wishing that it was his over working mind playing horrible tricks on him. It was not. Once he opened his eyes from the quick blink more and more specks of grey started to appear. Grey fragments rained down on the yellow lines in their masses. Unable to focus on the grey any longer, Eric raised his head, forcing the muscles he had relaxed only minutes ago, to work again. He let his eyes follow the horribly imperfect yellow lines to their destination. Eric screamed with pure agony when he saw that the lines curved into all encompassing blackness.
Unable to comprehend the horrid sight any more Eric forced himself to look behind him. For a moment his hopes rose when he saw a lone streetlight, shining a welcoming light into the world. Eric caught himself in mid sigh when he realised that the light was an elaborate hoax, a way to tantalise and tease the masses into believing that happiness existed. Eric saw that beyond the glorious 'white beacon' was nothing but another all encompassing darkness.
Attempting to thrust his arms in the air Eric screamed again. He screamed at nobody in particular, not at all expecting and actually receiving no answer. Eric hoped to thrust his head in the air, but was interrupted by the hope of finding something worth living for in the sky, the clouds had engulfed the sky. The blackness had hidden the moon, his home, his family, his friends and the stars. Only blackness.
Eric had the urge to run from it all, and, for a moment he felt content with the fact that darkness had not won yet. Now, though, he began to realize that the discoveries he had made about this world tonight had taken a physical toll on his body. He was growing tired, and if succumbed to his body's cries, the blackness would win anyway. His fight would have meant nothing at all.
Eric realised that it did not matter if he won or not. The darkness had overcome the light forever. For Eric it did not matter if he stood up to the darkness. It meant nothing.
With that Eric closed his eyes, allowing the darkness to win.
He forced his eyes opened, unwilling to believe that everything meant nothing. Eric turned his head forward, and his face actually felt the warmth before his eyes saw it. Out of the darkness, he saw two beams of white light, the most beautiful white he had ever seen in his entire life. He smiled, and he thought for a brief second that he had actually laughed, was actually still laughing. He was laughing for he began to realise that those two beams were coming directly towards him out of the blackness. They were basking him in their glow, and he forced his entire body to turn towards the oncoming lights so his body, like his face, could bask in the warmth.
His arms, greedy for the warmth, reached out in front of his body, hoping that somehow, they could feel the warmth before the rest of him did.
The lights were close now, so close that the white was actually beginning to blind him. He fought off the urge to close them so as the blackness faded away into the white. His final thought was about the beauty of it all before the blackness completely faded away, and yet, engulfed him in its beauty. He was finally happy: Truly happy.
The man driving the vehicle leaped out of his truck, not really comprehending what he had just done. He looked at the crumpled body, the puddle of blood forming around the corpse. The driver wasn't quite sure, and at this point, he really didn't want to examine the body, but he thought the dead man before him was actually smiling.
The driver's head swung frantically, searching for some sort of help, but he found none. All he saw was blackness. Distressed, he looked for some sign of life, and his eyes focused on the lone street lamp, the lamp that offered a meagre sign of hope. He began to race towards that light, hoping that there was more behind that light instead of the overwhelming blackness that surrounded it.
But all was dark....
By Richard Daglish
