Void Of Light

Darkness itself is not what We fear, it is what thrives in it. The worlds light didn’t go out in a quick boom. It happened over time. Slowly. Gradually. Painfully. It took 33 days for the worlds light to be extinguished.

At first, no one seemed to notice and as the days went on fear, panic, and distrust began to flourish. By day 21 you couldn’t see more than 40 feet in front or behind you. Still, the sun was not the source of our looming shift into darkness. The sun was there, shining as it always had. Only now it seemed farther away and like this impossible journey to find our way back into its light. There was something else driving this change and I still have yet to discover the cause. It was as if we each gave off a personal light and each day our light would fade just a little more. The darkness grew and we would feel more powerless to stop it each day.

By day 33 it was pitch black, devoid of all light. I won’t lie there was a lot of violence, greed, and more shown in the days leading up to total darkness. The world had plummeted into complete darkness, death followed us all. It seemed everywhere we went, we would trip over at least a dozen bodies. We had no idea the darkness was only the beginning, a precursor to what true horrors were to come our way.

It was only my little sister and me, our parents had died in a car accident 2 years ago and since I had just turned 19, at the time, I was able to gain guardianship. She is 12 going on 22 and she thinks she is already grown. It was hard for us, but I worked 4 jobs to make sure I could provide for us. We fought sometimes like all siblings do, but our love for each other goes deep. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her and she for me. We are each others whole world and when the world went dark, all I could think about was ‘how could I keep us safe now?’

I was scared. I can admit it, but I couldn’t let her know how terrified I really was. She needed me to be strong in the face of darkness or we would never make it. No matter how much death we would come across, I had to keep us moving forward. There was nothing else we could do, we had no choice but to make our way through the darkness, together.

She wore this silver heart shaped locket around her neck, with a picture of mom and dad on one side and a picture of us on the other. They had given it to her for her tenth birthday only 3 months before their accident. After mom and dad died, I told her whenever she got scared to just grab ahold of the locket and remember she is not alone. We are all with her, always.

I’m glad she had this to focus on. Things were tough, but we luckily came across some other survivors a few days before things went completely dark. An older gay couple, a single mom and her teenage son, and three girlfriends in college. We all decided to stick together and figure out how to navigate this new world we all found ourself in.

It wasn’t my intention, but I quickly became the leader of our little band of misfits. Everyone else seemed too terrified to even move half the time and the other half they spent arguing over dumb things that didn’t even matter anymore. The only thing that matters now is survival. We didn’t have time for petty problems of the past or the fears of the unknown future. So I knew if I was going to keep us safe, we would have to stick together and work as a team. No, we would have to work as an OHANA.

Overall, things were going well at first. Sure it was difficult navigating in the dark, but where there is a will there is a way. We had found some flashlights and some food provisions, making survival not seem like such an impossible task. We created a system to go out and look for things by holding onto a rope and tethering it to our home base. It wasn’t until day 42, things began to shift again.

Natalie, one of the college girls decided to go foraging, alone. I had already made it clear we needed to always use the buddy system anytime we went out and that there needs to always be someone on the other end of the rope just in case. I tripped into a taught rope and quickly realized someone had ignored our rules. I began to pull on the rope to try and bring whoever was out, back in. I could feel a little resistance but felt there was a distinction of whoever it was coming back home. Then all of a sudden the rope pulled through my hands so quickly it burned them. I tried to pull the rope back in but I couldn’t. I yelled for the others to come help me. Tim and Maxwell, the couple, came to my aid and we all worked together, but it was of no use. All of a sudden, the rope gave way and we were able to pull it back in, only to find no one was on the other end.

Jessica and Celeste came running in. They said Natalie was missing from their room and immediately I knew. Natalie was the one who went off on her own. I tried to stop them from running after her, but they knocked me to the ground and ran out without thinking. We heard them calling out for Natalie, their voices began to grow farther and farther away. We heard a bellowing scream, it hit me to my core. We all heard the scream. I rushed to lock and barricade the door. Tim and Maxwell wanted to go after the girls. I told them no, but they wouldn’t listen. I begged them to stay, but to no avail. Against my desperate plea, I agreed to be on the other end of the rope. I knew they would not return. From the moment I heard the girls screams, I knew we were no longer safe to go outside in the dark.

It was two against one and quickly our ohana was disappearing into the dark. They ran out after the girls. I am not proud of this choice, but I could not risk the safety of our sister and the remaining two members of our ohana. I cut the rope and locked the door behind them. As I was blocking the door, I heard another chilling scream. This time it was Tim and Maxwell, there was no doubt in my mind.

The screams alerted our sister, Jeanine and Sterling. They all came barreling in to find out what happened. I told them everything, even the part about cutting the rope. I told them what I had to do to keep us all safe. I could tell Sterling didn’t believe me when he started punching me in the face, I honestly thought he wouldn’t stop. I felt so guilty for cutting the rope I didn’t even fight back, I let him punch away. In a way, the pain felt good. Like I deserved to be punished for letting them die in the dark. I knew what would happen and let them go anyway. Jeanine pulled Sterling off of me, but she didn’t believe my story either. They set off out into the dark together, this time I didn’t even try to stop them from going. I was in pain from the beating I had just received and simply gave up on trying to convince them to stay. They must have not even walked 50 yards outside before we heard them scream. This time we could hear the crunch of the bones breaking in the not so far off distance.

We quickly barricaded the door back. It was now just me and my sister, all over again. Left alone, afraid and abandoned just like when mom and dad died. We couldn’t leave, yet if we stayed whoever or whatever was out there would find us soon. One by one our ohana led them to us like a trail of breadcrumbs to our home. We quickly grabbed some food together, our one remaining flashlight and with no other choice, ventured out into the dark void.

I reminded her of the locket and to focus on this and not to be afraid. As long as we were together she would be safe. In the moment, I wanted to believe it was true. So I lied to her and even to myself, knowing we were anything but safe. We moved quietly and quickly through the dark. For a short time, I thought maybe we would be alright. Things would just work out for us, because we had faith in each other.

I felt something scaly and rough brush up against us. My sister screamed as she slipped through my hands. I reached out to grab for her and pulled on her necklace. It ripped from her neck and she was gone in the dark, lost to me. I screamed out for Maria, but it was of no use. I had nothing left to live for. I turned the flashlight on so I could look on our family’s faces one last time, even if it is just a photo of us in Maria’s locket.

For one brief moment, I saw their faces and it felt like we were all together again. I could be taken by the darkness and be at peace. I felt the rough, scaly demon brush up against me again. I wanted to see the monster that took everything from me so I turned the flashlight on it. It was white and scaly with blood and saliva dripping from its sharp fangs. The moment I flashed the light in its eyes it ran away. If only I had known before it was afraid of the light. Maybe I could have saved Maria. Maybe I could have saved everyone.

I will never know for sure, but I do know I am alive in this moment thanks to the light. I shined the light on the locket again, took a deep breath, and I let go. I closed the locket, held it tight in my hand, and I shined my light into the dark void to begin my journey all over again.