Season of Darkness

The sun broke the curve of the planet and momentarily blinded him in his slow descent through the outer layers of the atmosphere.  Below him was a roiling darkness through which light could not penetrate effectively but rather bounced along its surface looking for a way in.  As he approached what appeared to be the boundary between light and darkness tendrils of ash began licking at him as they separated from the clouds below.  He flew through them quickly to render their dissolution with the whoosh of his passing.  

He was nearing the point of penetration when he sensed a surge in the electromagnetic charge of some nearby clouds.  He watched with a bit of interest and curiosity as the lightning skipped  through them in a game of tag that sought him out as someone to be “it”.  He was not completely sure he could absorb such a thing without consequence and so dropped into the darkness like a heavy stone in a muddy pond.

***

The darkness of his immediate surroundings was nearly absolute except for a pale light emanating from the small orb that flitted about his head. By its light he found the building he was looking for, its silhouette a dark gray on the only slightly less dark gray of an ash-filled sky.  The front doors were long gone and its interior absorbed what meager light existed making for a blackhole that he felt drawn to.  His feet pushed through ash like drifting snow that dwindled as he entered the building.  The foyer was littered with detritus blown in by a cruel wind that could not touch him inside the shimmering bubble that surrounded him like a translucent egg.  

He sent the orb forward a foot above the floor to guide his steps.  Overturned chairs and furniture created a kind of maze or obstacle course.  He ignored the side passageways even as dark shapes flitted in his peripheral vision amongst the shadows.  The sound of his footsteps began echoing which gave the aural sensation of a much larger space.  

This was the room he remembered.  It was the common area of his former town library where he'd spent time reading, writing, and looking for love in virtual worlds through a screen the size of a standard piece of paper as a much younger man.  He headed for the corner with the book shelves, hungry for old habits, and entered an aisle.  A skittering sound well above him on the high ceiling gave him pause but only for a brief moment.  They were here, but they were everywhere weren't they?

The orb circled playfully around his head until he made it stop and float in front of his face.  The bubble took in the shelf closest to him as he stepped toward it.  A few rows of once dusty books lay within his reach, spotless now having passed through his protective perimeter, if not yellowed a bit and smelling of time.  It was an old pleasure that his senses remembered more keenly than his actual thoughts and memories could capture.

The book had heft in his hand, so cumbersome a thing, yet so satisfying.  He gingerly opened to the first page and read, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way..."

***

A whispery sound slithered down the aisle and into his ear.  The orb immediately positioned itself between the reader and the sound revealing a shadowy creature with barbed limbs groping in front of its clouded eyes standing at the end of the aisle.  It was a miserable thing that begrudged him his light.  

“Whyyyyyy” was the sound he heard as it extended an appendage to tap the air at the edge of his glowing shell.  He had not heard them speak before (if that was what this was) and he waited for more, the book still lying open on his palm.  

The creature began bobbing up and down in a motion that began to accelerate in frequency making a rattling noise.

“WHYYYYYY” it suddenly shrieked, energizing the darkness.

He calmly laid the book down on the shelf and walked back out into the center of the substantial space, found a table, and climbed up on it.  Movements were now all around him just at the edge of his light, random dots of unwinking circles and restless limbs.  He could feel their malevolence like a self-pricking wound.  When it seemed the room could no longer safely bear him and their presence in such close proximity he opened his mouth wide and the glowing orb entered into him.

The glow was now coming from him as he pressed his palms together for a moment and then pushed them outward and upward, the circle of light expanding and pushing all before it in response.  The dark things scurried and fell over themselves trying to avoid contact with the growing brightness.  When it seemed there was nowhere else for them to go he collapsed his fingers into fists and a brilliant flash of light obliterated all signs of the creatures.

Darkness once more enveloped him except for the small light dancing in the fore leading him from that lost place.

***