To the girl, an insignificant being in the endless world of darkness, the streets seemed to go on forever. She was caught, racing desperately about the winding alleys, like a lab-rat in an infinite maze. Running on and on forever. Always with the hope that the next corner will be the last…
Her only option was to persevere, as staying put would make no progress at all. Going back was virtually impossible, for her path had been swallowed up by the advancing dark. Tall buildings leaned over to gaze curiously down at the lost stranger, their windows glaring down like hollow life-less eyes.
As eyes were no longer of any use, she reached forward with her arms, willowy fingers clawing out for something real to hold. Her fists just closed on empty space, no matter how far about she wandered, arms flailing desperately like a blind man.
In the emptiness she could see forms, dancing in brightly glowing dresses in all the colours of the rainbow. She gasped in desperation and clenched her eyelids together tightly, trying to get rid of unusual visions. To her horror, they stayed stubbornly in front of her eyes, as if they were inside her…inside her brain.
Her breathing became laboured and all of a sudden, the ground beneath her seemed to disappear into thin air. The thoughts swirled in her mind, confused by the strange apparitions in nothingness. She stumbled forward, but could feel no ground beneath her, nor no walls around her. She was locked in a cage with no bars.
The lonely figure finally emerged into a wider patch of road and her heart lightened at the sight of a few lonely lampposts, each one bathing a different patch of tarmac in a synthetic orange glow. She clutched at the material of her coat, wrapping it round her bony shoulders, as she tried to remain calm and catch her breath. Tiny particles of dust hung stubbornly in the air, reflecting miniscule pinpricks of light, though the moon could not be seen. Shaking her head in determination and disbelief, she urged her pace to quicken. She began to massage her numb fingers in attempt to keep the blood flowing in her veins.
Oh, if only I’d remembered my gloves! She gave a false chuckle to try to improve her mood and relieve the tension, but she could not suppress a shudder. She glanced nervously back to the dark alleyway that was her next path. It was completely concealed by shadow.
As she gazed at it, she seemed almost mesmerized and the entrance seemed to double in size right before her. The arch twisted and curved to form a wide grimace, grinning almost invitingly and beckoning to the girl with protruding, stony fingers. The mist formed a long, crooked nose and the face started to cackle evilly at her. Her heart was screaming, though she could not move. Her legs were rooted to the floor and her eyes were longing to keep watching, hypnotised by the horrific scene.
All of a sudden, an enormous dark shape emerged, not like the bright lights of before, but one of the opposite, a creature of pure darkness. It reached the girl in two strides. Her pupils dilated to the size of dinner plates, not just because of the overwhelming terror, but because her eyes struggled to take in as much light as possible when the dark shadow smothered them. But it was in vain…the darkness had swallowed her up. It simply passed over her, like a wave covering the sand on a beach. Her matter was dissolved and destroyed to become as empty as the darkness that defeated her. At least the death was painless.
