I was alone in the crowd, no one seemed to take notice of me, no one seemed to care. But even though I was alone, I was not free. Something was watching me, something in the dark. As the streetlights turned on the rain began to fall, darkness was looming over the crowd, and behind me I felt a hand so frail it could break at any time. I quickly turned around with ice in my veins. Disappearing behind the corner was two empty holes of darkness, placed at the height of a six year old girl's eyes. The crowd had moved on, and I stood dirty in the rain, shivering.
When I got home to my apartment I had nothing to do, so I went to my fridge to hopefully find something to do. I shuffled around some onions in hopes of an apple. Only to find nothing more than more onions. The bright light of the fridge filled the empty apartment. I was never scared of the dark, but after today I would have to sleep with the lights on.
I heard a whisper, frail, as glass. I turned around in a hurry, only to find nothing. I peeked behind the fridge door, and looked into the darkness of the empty apartment, there was nothing. I once again stared into the fridge. Looking at some peanut butter and some jelly. I reached out my hand, and felt something other than a jar. There, in the cold light of the fridge was a voice. My brother's voice.
"Find me"
I slammed the fridge shut with all my might. With sweat running down my palms I tried to calm down.
"My brother is not here, and I need more sleep"
I repeated the words until I finally felt sane. I was no longer sticky with sweat and could now use the last of my courage to wander into the darkness of my apartment and turn on all the light's. I didn't turn them off until next morning.
The next morning, after I had turned off the lights. The eerie sense of night still lay over me. I had not truly woken up, yawning until I was finally out the front door. I ran down the sidewalk realising I would miss the bus if I didn't hurry up. Moments later I was screaming after the chauffeur, I would not be late to work. I ran up to the side of the bus, a stream of people were going into it. As I hopped on the bus my adrenalin began rising again, something felt off, something felt very wrong. The bus was completely empty. It's windows, darker than before, showed no landscape at all.
An emptiness filled the bus, and I held my breath as all sounds quieted. I looked back at the driver. There were just two floating holes of darkness, placed at the height of a six year old girl sitting there.
"Hello miss"
I was yanked by the lady besides me and quickly entered the bus, sweat was running down my forehead and I was able to breathe. I widenden my eyes as two dark twisted holes entered the bus. But I could not scream, I could not fight.
"Behind you"
A mother was teasing her child besides me, but her words had frightened me more than any other. The bus drove away and I was at work on time. With eyes widened, with my soul in a tight grip. I walked into the building and began the day as if nothing had happened.
Later, I was sitting quietly in my little office room, typing away on my computer. The day was almost over and I was already tired out of my mind. I got up from my chair and put my laptop in my bag, it was hot from being used the whole day.
"Ohh, hey, Thea"
It was one of my friends at work. He was standing in the doorway looking happy-go-lucky.
"Hello"
I said.
"Ummm, some guys at work are..."
My mind went blank. The world had suddenly fallen apart around me. I was gazing into the abyss, the darkness. There was no longer anything around me other than darkness. But still, I was not alone. From behind me I felt a hand slowly stroke my back. Ice shot through my veins and broke them apart.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"I'm watching, always watching you"
Her voice was twisted, no longer that of a child's. It was broken in pieces, shattered, as if she herself was no longer whole.
"Can you hear it?"
My limbs felt like stone, I was unable to move them. I tried to move, I tried to run, but I could only manage to move my eyes. Then, suddenly, I heard it. Around me, the abyss was breathing, quietly. Every breath it took, was that of pain.
"Look"
In front of me two gaping holes opened, darker than the abyss itself. The loud cries of torment coming from within them shot me back to my office.
"So you in... hey what's wro... HEY!"
My vision blurred and the ground fell towards me.
A white light filled my vision, I had lost my ability to think straight and time was flowing backwards and forwards at the same time. I tried to lift my hand but the world was dangling on a loose thread in front of me. I pulled myself together and was finally able to understand what I saw. I was lying in the hospital, a white light shone above me. I looked to the side in hope of finding a nurse. There hung two gaping holes of darkness.
"Sleep"
The holes shot towards me and I was once again lying in the bed facing straight up.
"She's awake!"
The nurse was screaming across the room. After having spoken to a doctor, I slept in the hospital and got out the next morning.
I walked out of the hospital onto the pavement, it seemed to stretch for miles. I breathed in the cold air and was on the brink of crying. As I stood there I heard something, voices all around me. I looked towards the nearest person, desperately trying to understand. They got louder, and louder, until I could only hear a scream that shattered the ground I stood on.
"Are you okay miss"
"Oh yea im fi..."
I was looking into two gaping holes of darkness. I scrambled along the ground and ran as fast as I could, crying. I ran along the sidewalk until my feet broke until my breath boiled. I sat down lonely in the day that had turned night.
The sun fell slowly below the horizon. The ceiling of the world slowly painted black. I trotted along the walkway until I finally found the path that would lead home. The branches from the trees looked like cracks in the sky, soon it was too dark to see them as well. The ambience of the forest filled the darkness, and I began running to find my house. Branches cracked under my feet as the cold wind stroked my back. A shiver spread from the middle of my back
"Wait miss"
I fell to the ground mopping up dirt in my face. I crawled desperate to get away. Behind me, the gaping holes of darkness. I hopped up to my feet and ran through the dark night.
I stepped on the porch and quickly sprouted out my keys. With darkness looming over my shoulder I slammed the door open and shut it behind me using the force of a dragon.
"What's going on!?"
"Oh nothing Robin!"
I walked into the dimly lit room and sat down besides my brother to watch the tv.
"Mom and dad is not coming home today, had some work to do, dinners in the fridge"
"M'kay"
I got up and went into the shower, changed clothes and went to grab the dinner.
"You sure you okay sis?"
"Yea why?"
"You're crying"
I reached for my face, tears were falling down my cheeks quietly.
"It's nothing"
I ate the rice and curry without warming it and went to bed.
The next day I woke up with wet eyes. I stepped out of bed and put on my clothes, but something felt out of place. Wasn't the house a little more run down than it used to be?
I shook it off and went out into the living room. My brother was already watching TV on the sofa.
"Morning"
I said.
He looked towards me, and smiled. It was twisted, not quite right. The thoughts started rising in my mind. My brain scrambled in my head and I turned to the tv. It was not showing anything more than a static war of black and white. The lights went out, and my brother answered.
"Good morning miss"
It was the voice of a girl, a frail voice, made of shattered glass.
I saw the gaping holes of darkness in his eyes. I remembered now. I had never had a brother in the first place. This house was not mine. In front of me hung the gaping holes of the abyss, crawling into me, I fell to my knees and embraced it.
Darkness engulfed me like flames, screams of the abyss echoed around me. A burning pain filled my body and my body tried to puke, it wasn't allowed to. Slowly I merged with the darkness. My body died and I was trapped, never allowed to die, only despair waited. Beside me were a million screams, a million who no longer really existed. My name was taken from me, and I was now one with the abyss, forever alone watching the darkness, forever awake, forever stuck in a world that didn't exist.
"Now you are apart of our family too miss"
I disappeared and an empty shell was left as my soul, myself trapped inside it. A girl, looking to be the age of six hung besides me. She twisted her limbs all in the wrong directions, her body mangled. She was also, like me, stuck in something that was not truly her. The girl began speaking again.
"I want to have a bigger family, maybe you can join us?"
She was not talking to me anymore, someone else, someone somewhere else.
And so the eyes of the abyss turned to the girl and me, they pulled us into the nothingness, forever to be forgotten by the world, never to be found again.
All was welcome to our family.