Darkness surrounds me, my mind is blank, trapped in a room of shadows. I hear murmurs and loud whispers from the faint crack of light I can see from afar. The air is chilled, but I feel no breeze, and warmth surrounds my waist and below. Why am I here? Why do I deserve this? To spend my days in this abysmal pit of despair waiting in fear until I fall into slumber, no torture is much greater than this. How long do I have to stay in this prison? I look out beyond the space of this darkness only to see more darkness, it’s not even black! “Calm down,” I chant. “Calm down.” The noise from the single crack of light suddenly silences. I can now hear footsteps, first soft and slow, then walking faster and louder, until I can feel the tremors and begin to panic. Isn’t the light supposed to be filled of safety and happiness!? What could be beyond these doors, an angel to come save me, or death to rid me of my suffering?
I hope it is an angel, I have too many things to do that I have not finished! My mother would be baking my birthday cake next week, I would have been nine then, I would have gotten that Nerf gun that my friend promised to give me, and we were going to ambush our neighbor as he got the mail. Oh, that would have so awesome! Too bad though, what can I do now? There must be a plus side to this, like no longer having to wash the dishes, or maybe homework, yeah, homework was such a bore! Or maybe even–SWOOSH! The small crack of light instantaneously grew into a great flash! So I will be saved by an angel it seems, but where’s the wings, the halo and harp? In the center of the light is not an angel, but a large shadow, that is even darker in the space around me in comparison of this beautiful yellow light! Anyone could feel the aura of rage emitting off the menace as it raised what appeared to be an arm. How will I be able to avoid this when there is no where else to run in all of this empty space?! Maybe it could go away if I can fool it, make it think someone else already completed the job. I lie on my back, closing my eyes tightly. If only I could slow my rapid breathing.
The steps grow louder as if the shadow in the darkness is going to step on the spot where I lay down. It stops. Nothing but silence, my heart racing. Even with my eyes closed, I can see a brown hazy orange, the light still shining, waiting for me to run into, to free myself from this prison. I want to move, but I just can’t. This shadow will grab and silence me no matter how fast I run or how loud I scream. I want to move, but I am stuck here as long as whatever is here remains next  to me. The warmth that went only from my toes to my waist rises up causing me to start panicking. What is it doing to me? What will happen now? The footsteps start again, but go from tremors to thumps, and thumps to soft thuds. I feel relieved, as if He himself saved me from the wrath of the horrendous creature. Only to realize the brown hazy orange has gone back to black, making me open my eyes quickly. I tilt my head up slowly, heartbroken to see that the light that almost lit these dark walls around me has now been reduced to the faint crack yet again, even darker than it originally was. I remain still, waiting. Waiting for a sign that I am still truly alive.
After what I felt was hours of thuds, it gets quiet again, then the murmurs begin again. I heaved a breath of relief. But the warmth surrounding my entire body begins to make me feel hazy, my eyelids drooping slowly. I can’t sleep now! Not knowing the terrors surrounding me right now! But no matter how hard I try to stay alert, my eyelids drop, and nothing changes. Even with my eyes closed, the darkness outside still overpowers the blackness in my own head. I can’t think anymore.
My. Thoughts. Getting. More. And. More. Cloudy.
*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
I wake up with a jolt, franticly searching in the darkness. I see a soft glow of light, no, not the crack from afar, just a soft glow that remains in its place, to protect me from the threats that dwell in my surroundings. That glow has been there to protect me as long as I could remember, it keeps me warm and happy to know that there is something watching over me for my safety. The warm glow gets brighter, and I can see a space to my left, darker than all the others, a shadowy figure standing even within that darkness, staring right through me. The dark space gets wider, the glow becomes even brighter! The soft glow couldn’t contain all the light, exploding into a spray of bright sparks, then they faded away. The warm presence that this space once had became a terror with shades beyond the deepest of oceans, the darkest of nights, and the emptiness of the black holes. I was also wrong, that figure wasn’t a shadow. I can’t tell what it is anymore, since it can now move around wherever it desires in the dark.
*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
“Wake up!” my eyes flash open, I still feel exhausted but wide awake at the same time. What was that booming voice that called to me? My vision is has slightly improved after I fell asleep, it comforts me to know that I will be able to see my surroundings, even if it’s still too dark to tell what is what, or so I thought. I shouldn’t be afraid, I’m almost nine years old! Yet my awareness of everything around me made it even even more frightening with these dark shapes standing around me. I head thuds again, but it’s not coming from the crack of light. The noise is coming from my left, my heart stops for a moment, I cannot breathe. Maybe if I tilt my head just a little bit, I could just see a little–
NO. No no no no no. Please tell me that this is just a hallucination. Whatever was there in my dream shouldn’t be here now. So why is it?!
A single shape stands in front of me, quickly swaying back and forth, banging into the edges of the dark space, making the thud sounds harmonize to the rhythm of my rapid heartbeat. My eyes widen, a small gasp of fear escaped my throat. I snapped my hands to my mouth, but the damage is done, it heard. The swaying grew slower, but my heartbeat grew faster, I started breathing harder, until I was practically hyperventilating. But when I couldn’t hear the thuds through the sound of my heaving, that’s when I really started to panic. Warm tears started streaming sideways down my face, my vision getting blurrier. I could barely see anything in front of my, so I wiped furiously at my eyes, I cannot be distracted now! I stare at the shape to see if it’s noticed me. But I am unable to do that, not out of fear, but because the shape was no longer there! I start to frantically search for where it could have possibly gone, then I felt something resting on my feet.
My heart is beating faster than I thought possible, I start to sweat at the brow and the warmth surrounding my is not helping at all. I start kicking as hard as I possibly could, but I was held down from the waist below, I couldn’t get up! I wasn’t stuck like this earlier either, how did this happen–wait, it must have been from that other shadow that dwells on the other side of the crack, they must have done something when the warmth rose to my neck from earlier. Thanks to that, another monster of the dark is here to unleash new terrors much worse than what I could possible imagine. Whatever was resting on my toes started to crawl onto my lap, tears began to stream from my face yet again. I started kicking more frantic than ever, the creature wasn’t budging at all, it was as if it wasn’t even intimidated by what I was trying to do. It kept inching forward onto my stomach, then that was when I tried fighting back. I wasn’t going to let this be the end of me! I’m still going to get that nerf gun. I’m still going to eat that cake! I’m still going to keep living even if I have to do chores and homework! My hand lunge towards the large and disturbingly puffy creature as I try to strangle it, wherever it’s neck is. But it’s still moving closer, how is it not dying or at least showing a sign of slowing down. Something flashes past my face, something now running down my cheek, and I know it’s not tears. Distracted by this, I was unaware of it springing of my chest and landing on my face! My rapid breathing was suddenly halted by the creature as it’s supposed arms were wrapping around my neck. It was trying to choke me, and I gave it the opportunity to do so! I soon started to get that drowsy feeling again, but instead of being surrounded by the cozy warmth, I was being suffocated in the chilled air. My thoughts getting cloudy yet again, my eyes drooping, the feeling of pain in my neck is slowly diminishing.
*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
NO! My legs gain so much strength I don’t know where it came from, I kick with so much force, the warmth on my legs instantly vanishes. I jump and land on the ground, glad to know there is an actual ground, and rip its arms off my neck. I heave in a great big gasp and pulls one of its arms away from my body until the entire mass was off my head. I pulled my arm back, and chuck the beast as hard I could into the dark space it came from. Then pulled one edge of the space until the dark space was no longer there. It’s over. That strength that I gained rapidly started to diminish, my eyes started drooping, I start to learn forward. THUMP! Now I can sleep in peace.
*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
At the coldest part of the year in December, a boys birthday is coming up next week.
He is turning nine soon, so his mother decided it was time to take away his nightlight.
The boy complained, but had to sleep without it.
Frustratingly, he threw his heavy winter coat into the closet and stormed out of his room.
He didn’t know what to do, he couldn’t live without his nightlight.
*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
“Wake up!” my eyes flash open. This time I can see light in my room, not just entering my room, but coming from my room. My mother at my side, shaking me. “Why were you sleeping on the floor?!” she exclaimed. I looked around me, and she was right, I am on the floor, as well as my blanket, as if it were thrown off. What did happen? Why am I on the floor, why is my cheek covered in dried blood, why was the–memories of the night before flashed through my head. The shadow in the crack, the exploding light, the thuds, the monster, the suffocation. My eyes widen in horror, I begin to breathe very heavily, my mother sitting beside me panicking and telling me to stop heaving. I calmed down, “I must have sleepwalked or something, but I’m fine, mom. Really, I’m fine.” She exhaled a breath of relief and walked downstairs, considering about keeping the nightlight just a little longer as the aroma of maple syrup flooded into the room from the kitchen.
I have survived the night full of horrors, and can now live another day. The sun will set, another beast of the dark will emerge, and I will be rendered defenseless. But now that I know I have defeated one of them, I know I will be able to handle another, and send them back to the shadows in the dark.