In The Dark

In the dark there’s a creak and it’s closing in. In the dark, I can’t move, I can’t breathe, and the creak, it’s closing in, getting closer.

Nothing…it stopped, the creak stopped. What does that mean? What was it?

…the silence…”Make it come back!” I finally scream through the dark. My voice bounces off the walls of what must be an empty room and slowly it all fades back into silence…into the dark.

I can’t take another moment, my body’s dying and my mind is starting to go numb. This darkness, this silence, it’s going to kill me. …and then the creak…it’s back, in the dark, right behind me. My mind begins racing again and this makes me feel more alive in the dark, all alone…at least I think. But then there’s the creak, right behind me. No longer getting closer but not moving away, just a slow steady creak. One after another; not a tap, but a creak, in the cold wooden floor that’s all around me.

I slide my fingers slowly over the wood beneath and around my body, small soothing motions while I lay in the dark listening to the creak. As my body begins to relax I come to the realization that I should be fighting this. I don’t know where I am, who brought me here or why. And for a second I start to panic, my heart begins to race and a hundred torturous thoughts sprint through my head…but then the creak…it calms me. My pulse slows and all the thoughts of the things that could happen fade away.

I allow the creak to wrap around me, making me feel at peace, at peace with being alone…in the dark. Eventually all thought fades away…everything just fades away…except the creak in the dark where I lie.