I stood in awe, staring up at the mansion, the glittering, glowing mansion.

I had just turned 16 yesterday, and was given one day's grace before I had to take this test. A test that some don't complete alive.

The test I am about to take was one of many, one designed for me; for only me.

As I gaped in awe at the mansion's grandeur, at it's intricately woven design that seemed to flow and breathe, a woman came up to me and ushered me inside, saying only one riddle-like sentence before departing and locking me inside the house; :See you on the other side."

The lock clicked shut loudly, leaving only the eerily quiet house to comfort me.

I was standing in the most grandiose foyer I had ever seen! It had a chandelier and beautifully placed light shining in and illuminating the inside and leaving nowhere for shadows to lurk and hide.

It was hell.

Were was the mystery? The intrigue? The horror?

Only shadows could manifest that, but they've all gone; departed - never to be seen again.

I couldn't see any furniture, the only thing adorning the mansion was light.

To my left and right (a little further down the foyer as well) were stairs. Winding, twisting, turning stairs. Each set of stairs had a sign hanging from the ceiling in front of it.

I walked towards the stairs and look up, trying to see where they lead, and found nothing.

Well, not nothing, but something akin to that.

The sign that read 'Into the light' had a blinding light at the top of the stairs, and the sign that had 'Embrace the darkness' lead to a pitch black room.

Which set of stairs I was going to choose should be obvious.

I chose the left set of stairs - the stairs that lead to darkness.

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When I reached the top, something odd happened to the previously blank walls. Lines began to appear. They wove in and out of each other, creating spiral patterns and intricate pictures.

But they looked incomplete.

I looked around at the room I stood in, and found two more identical sets of stairs. Winding, twisting, turning stairs. I strode up the left set immediately, wanting to get this test done quickly. As I reached the top, the markings on the wall moved again, creating an even more intricately woven pattern of swirls and vines. It was breathtaking.

But then I noticed something. Something ominous.

I found a small picture of me running into the darkness, becoming more monstrous as I drew closer until suddenly-

Red

Red was all that adorned the walls.

I knew what the walls were alluding to.

The walls were telling me to pick the other path. The right path. The paths filled with light. They were telling me to give up all that made me, me!

The darkness was all I had. It was all I was. It was all I was ever going to be.

So I chose to believe in myself when I feel more comfort in the dark than in the light.

I choose to believe that darkness is truth.

Up multiple flights of winding, twisting, turning stairs I went, all of them leading to darkness, to calmness.

Each flight I went up, the walls reacted to, creating more grotesque and inhuman monstrosities as I went, painting the walls in red.

I chose to stay true to me.

So, when that final flight of stairs came, I didn't waver. I know who I am and I am proud of my choices.

And so I stepped. In. To. The. Light!

Immediately blinded, I shielded my eyes, trying to block the light.

But it shone too brightly.

It was a glittering, glowing, blinding light.

One that would destroy the shadows that shield me.

One by one, my shadows were peeled back, exposing me and all that I was hiding.

A radiant core shone from inside me, completely dwarfing the light that blinded me.

And it showed what I really am.

A hideous, horrendous monster that fed on darkness to shine.

I was part of the problem!

I was what this test was trying to get rid of!

I… was obsolete…

I have no purpose other than to consume. I knew nothing else but hunger. Deep, primal hunger.

So I gorged myself, and eventually I made it out.

Out of this accursed place.

Out of this blinding prison.

Out of the mansion.

A woman was waiting for me, with a smile on her lips.

"So, you have decided to embrace darkness. Can't say I blame you, but that wasn't that choice I would have made. I wasn't the choice I did make."

She stood there, smiling almost pitifully, carrying a flashlight.

She shined it my way, and I began to writhe in agony.

How was this pitifully small flashlight doing more damage than the blinding light?

How was-- Was my choice wring?

Am I truly meant to walk in the light?

Is darkness truly evil?

Am I going to die?

No!

No! I refuse to die! Darkness will prevail! DARKNESS WILL TRIUMPH!

And then everything went black.