Darkness

Darkness

Writing Club Exercise #2

Mar 4, 2014

Prompt: “I was willing to go to…….”

The night was pitch black.  Somewhere that vortex of ink surely was a new moon.  I was willing to go to any lengths to get out to the old cottage for an evening off from the clamor of the manor and all its assortment of occupants.  I say “was” because as the sun had set and I was slowly swallowed by the night, a sea of regret washed in and I had begun to drown in my own perspiration as my candle extinguished in the humidity.  The dank scent of the marsh grew stronger as I struggled to find the trail.  A voice from my youth chided me to stay put.  It was the wisest course of action when one is lost.  There’s a greater chance of being found. 

With what I had left behind locked doors, I did not want to be found.  Had I locked the doors?  The nagging thought sent tingles running up and down my spine in alarm.  That menagerie of houseguests would form one search party that I hoped would never find me. 

As I groped through the black dank void, for the path I had lost.  My fingers faltered treacherously over slimy things and yet I was desperate enough not to draw back in repulsion.  Here and there my foot found a root and I caught myself, silently flailing and cursing once more over my late departure.  What would have been a ten-minute hike to solace had quickly become a blind nightmarish adventure.  In my mind’s eye all sorts of creatures great and small crept just out of reach.

I could hear the pitter patter of scurrying to evade my clumsy steps.  A howling solo broke out in the distance and a rondo began as other creatures joined in reply.  This only served make my skin crawl.  Hopefully the lonely choir members were just as lost to the darkness in their little niches as I.

The lake rested due south of the house so the cottage sat just west along the shoreline.   I could hear water lapping softly, trickling and teasing at the smooth pebbles in its wake.  The marsh lay just past that and was full of quicksand.  Without bearing or mark, for all I knew I was walking in circles.  There was a rustle in the trees behind me and I froze.  The question rose hauntingly, “WHOOOO?” With a shudder, it grew clear as the moonbeams that began to light my way.  "Dark heart," I whispered, "Me, it's myself I truly fear."