Too Dark For Black: Case File 1 [Fiction: Horror]

Having a "gifted" mind is sometimes viewed as a blessing. What this "gift" actually is can make it seem more like a curse. I am one of those gifted people. When I sleep I see things. You may be thinking that is but a dream. No, this is not what I am referring to for I have those as well. This is something different. At times not of my choosing(I would choose never if it were a choice) I see darkness and with each breath I suck in that dark becomes darker. Eventually right after it has become something beyond black things begin to change...

When black is a thing of the past and it has become a color so dark that it sucks in all light there is a moment when a phase shift occurs. This shift is similar to passing through a window of blackness and coming out the other side. On that side is where the things I would rather not know occur. It begins with twisting dim filaments of light that move in the distance and occasionally coalesce to form silhouettes of object, people, and things. I try not to dwell on the things.

I entered this place beyond the black numerous times in my youth before that first time it became more than these shapes and vague images. Then there was that one night that everything changed...

The colors became more vibrant and soon I was someone. I was tied in some damp place. I could hear the crashing of waves in the distance, yet I was underground. There was also this strange sonorous droning sound that was almost too low to be audible if you were not paying enough attention. This sound was ever present. I was tied to a rock pillar and I could see dimly the outlines of what looked like natural walls of a cavern that flickered in the faint light of various candles that had been placed around the room.

Terror. I knew my people had chosen me. The pact was made and I was to seal it in blood.

There stood the wise man. The one who made the deal. Standing in his scrawled symbols, those that he would dare not show to the public at the henge. He had begun his guttural barking chants that were unique to him. I secretly suspected I was chosen just for voicing my challenge to some of his practices. When a sacrifice was needed, he managed to convince everyone that I'd be the best choice.

Something responded. I could feel my belly twist into knots and my skin went ice cold as the fear gripped me. Through a dark rip in the air walked the black humanoid shapes. These shadow beings.

They approached and when they struck it rended more than flesh. It rended first my spirit, then my flesh, and lastly my mind. It was three pronged attack that was more brutal than any normal passing, or even the passing from normal violence.

I returned to the dark, and then through the beyond, and then I awoke shaking and drenched in sweat in my bed.

I thought this but a horrible dream at the time as it was so real, and that is all I wanted it to be. Over time I would learn that this was but the beginning. I was shown the beginning, before I was shown many other things.

The things that were too dark for black.

Steem On!