ICU

The video bell rang and I answered it.

It was dark and rainy out, and there was thunder as well, but I was not expecting anyone, so I was a bit wary of it. I hadn't ordered anything from Amazon or Just Eat, so I wondered who it was.

I could see a figure, and they could see me.

I said, "Hello, who is there?"

They were silent, apart from the sound of the rain. My apartment doesn't have a sheltering portico, so I knew that they must be getting wet.

"Hello, who are you? What are you here for? What do you want?"

There was still no answer, and I started to feel a little uneasy. Mine is the only residential apartment in this building; the rest are offices and shops, so I was effectively alone, with a mysterious figure waiting at my front door for some reason.

We saw each other, but I could not see who the other figure was. I needed a response, but I felt sure if I shut the video bell off, the figure would ring again, and if I did not answer, they would start banging on the door, not that anyone else would hear them.

I waited.

They waited.

Again I asked:

"Who are you? WHAT are you? What do you want from me?"

Once more, there was no response, just silence from the other side. While I could see them. Their face was featureless, and I could not see their eyes. It may have just been the darkness, that was causing that but it was creeping me out.

I closed the video bell down, and waited. For five minutes sothing happened and the only sound was the rain tap, tap, tapping on my windows in the night.

Then the bell rang once more. I let it ring for a minute and then answered.

"Why are you here? What do you want? If you don't tell me wat you want, how can I know what to do for you?"

As before, the figure was there on the screen.

Insouciant.

It would not tell me anything, and seemed unconcerned at my increasing anxiety.

I was moving closer to panic by the second.

Should I go out and meet the figure face-to-face? What if the mystery figure intended to do me harm? At least if I left my door locked, it could not hurt me physically, although mentally it was destroying my mind.

How long would this go on?

It was there.

I demanded attention.

But it would give no reason.

This was madness, and I was descending into madness.

I closed the video bell down and went into my bed and shut the door. The rain hit the window as I drifted off to sleep, noticing the streetlight reflected on my mirror.

༺☆༻༺☆༻༺☆༻༺☆༻༺☆༻༺☆༻༺☆༻༺☆༻༺☆༻༺☆༻

Then I woke, or rather, I became conscious. I was not at the video bell, I was looking into my mirror, and the dark, creepy figure I could see was my own dark self.

Some of us have a darkness inside of us, but mostly we control it. Sometimes it escapes.

Mine was now in full view (to me), but I would never let it out.

My dark self should always be kept under lock and key. This was the first time I had had to confront it, and it was not pleasant at all.

As I looked at the mirror, the darkness began to disintegrate into falling black dust, blown away by an invisible wind.

I don't know why I saw my dark side, but I do know I will always keep it under lock and key if I can.