When Darkness Falls

When Darkness Falls

A story by Dare Richardson.

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When Darkness falls we are reborn. Never a truer word has been spoken in my opinion. The darkness seems to bring things out in people. It can force deep seated fears to surface, or simply make somone feel uncomfortable. Our imaginations can carve things out of this darkness, and if we let it take control, we can think of anything. The dark can hold mystical beasts, gangs of thugs, faraway kingdoms. Though for some of us it just holds mystery. Being unable to see well in the dark, most people chose to keep it at arms length, we choose not to embrace it as we do the light. But not me...

I want to share with you. This is not a work of fiction, this is not a fable told by me, a storyteller at best. This is merely a chapter from my own life. So if you will, sit a while whilst I endulge you. I embraced the dark at an early age. For me it held not fear, but intruige and a bizarre sense of invitation. I welcomed the dark, more so than I ever welcomed the light. At the point darkness fell I was born again. I was no longer Darren Richardson, school student or college student. I lost all sense of Identity and simply became 'Shadow', a nickname affectionately given to me by a girl I will never forget. The darkness held intruige and invite, and also a sense that it could teach me things. And it did. Under cover of darkness I learned everything I know now, and used it to expand my knoledge.

Let me elaborate, if you will endulge me for a few seconds while I sidetrack. Ever since I was a young child I was interested in martial arts. Anything to do with fighting excited me. Though I never did anything about it until I was 17, (and quite frankly, very out of shape.) But before this age, before I took it upon myself to enlist under a sensai (a great man who has taught me much in a short time), I made the decision to practise some skills alone. I trained to yellow belt level in Karate through online courses and practsed any martial skill I could get my young, eager hands on.

But it lead to the problem. Where should I train? Being from a large family, there is very little privacy. And being the youngest of 3 boys I was always smaller and slighter than my brothers. Anytime I tried to practise something one of my brothers would undoutably want to test out a new rugby tackle or wrestling move, and me being the youngest made me the target. Of course I fought back, but usually to no avail. So I began my search for solitude, a place away from the eyes of strangers and family alike. The first one I found was perfect, a place that over the years has become a second home to me. But it is in the middle of a dense forest and becomes almost impossible to find at night (a trait which should have helped me, but alas, it was impossible to see anything to train there)

The second place I came across was the local park. It is a small, dimly lit area of grass, with a football field. It has a few swings and not much of a climbing frame. But to me it was perfect. Quiet, sparesly populated, (I had to put up with the occasional local passing by from time to time, but thats perfectly acceptable.) And so I began to train, 4-5 nights a week I would spend at this park practising my Martial Skills.

Thus far, the darkness had offered me so much. It offered me Mystery and Excitement. Intruige and Invitation, and now it offered me teaching and sanctuary from (Most) prying eyes in which to study it. This bizarre force has offered me so much and I had nothing to give it in return, yet it asked for nothing but my company which I was glad to give it. Imagine how suprised I was when it offered me more.

More? you ask? What else could it possibly offer me? The night offered me a friend in more ways than one. Now you can read this and assume that I thought of the cover of darkness as my friend, which I do. I feel more at home at night than I do in daylight hours. It has always been there for me, and even though I know it will never respond, it always listens to my problems. Of course, this isn't the friendship I am talking about. It offered me someone. As you have read this far, I beg your indulgence a little longer while I tell you the story about the mystery girl.

One night, about a year ago I was practising the first Karate kata I ever learned. I was incredibly proud of the simple 'Kihon' kata I had learned. I walked through its steps over and over and over again until it was burned into my memory. Forgive me for going off subject again, but I must talk of my senses. Normally when someone is watching me I can almost *feel* it. I am not sure how, but people have looked at me and I have instantly turned around to see them doing it. I can feel peoples presence, be it me subconciously hearing breathing, footsteps or any other signals. Though this time I didn't.

"What are you doing?" The voice pierced my concentration. Looking over towards the climbing frame I saw an oddly moving sight. The sillouhette of someone standing against the moon. It was oddly etherial as I saw this body and it leaped from the climbing frame to the floor below. Despite this person overriding my senses, I felt no threat from them. I had an odd inkling that this was a woman. She was a clear foot shorter than me (Which I'll be the first to admit, is rather easy.) but there was something about the way she stood. "Looks like Karate, but I don't recognize the style." The voice said. Now I wasn't startled to hear it, I actually listened. It was a feminie voice.

"Its Wadokai Style Karate." I explained to her. She stepped forwards and into the light, but instead of seeing any features I just saw a bandana tied around her face, though her eyes were incredibly feminine. They were blue and pierced the darkness like a knife. "What are you doing here? Or sneaking up on me for that matter?" I found myself asking.

"I just moved around here. So I decided to look for somewhere to train." This woman said. She suddenly turned to me and asked a question I hadn't been expecting. "How old are you?" It is safe to say I look older than my years. I have often been likened to a 23-24 year old, despite only being 18 at the time. But she seemed to pick up on this. "You look about 18" She said.

"How did you know?" I asked her.

"Just a guess." She shrugged. "Listen, I know some people can be very territorial about where they train. Even I'll admit, where I trained at home I would have chased someone off with a spear if they interupted me. But its a long enough walk to get here, I was hoping."

"Its a free country." I interrupted, understanding her question. "Train where you like. As long as you don't point that spear at me." I joked. I've always been a joker, though usually bad jokes they get a laugh. This time was no exception. "So whats your name?"

"Whats it matter, Big guy?" She asked, as she produced a pair of what I know now are Kali sticks from a holster on her belt.

"I'd just like to know what to call you." I explained weakly, looking at her in amazement as she began to fire lightning fast strikes against the bars of the climbing frame that made an awesome array of metallic echo's through the night.

"I'd rather keep this on a no name basis." She explained. "Why do you think I wear a mask?" I was slightly deflated, not wanting to refer to this person as 'Hey' and 'You there'. Again the darkness answered my prayers. "Why don't you think of something to call me?"

"Why? Isn't there a single name you can use for yourself?"

"Well, My dad always called me Chris... Christina is my middle name. I suppose you can use that." I smiled at her willingness to confide in me. "So whats your handle, big guy? Got a nickname I can call you?"

"People seem to call me Shadow." I explained with a shrug.

"Cool. Nice to meet you, Shadow."

"Nice to meet you too, Chris." And many nights passed. I saw this girl almost every day, as we seemed to be on exactly the same training schedule. One night was an exception though, she didn't show up and I felt oddly sad. Considering I knew so little about this girl it was strange to apparently miss her. I dismissed it, and came back to train the next day and she was there. Only she wasn't training, she was sat on the top of the climbing frame, with a sad look in her piercing blue eyes. I walked as quietly as I could over to her, but she still noticed me.

"Remind me to teach you to moved quietly." She said, and by the way, she did.

"Sorry." I appologiesed.

"No, I should say Sorry for not being here last night. Things were crazy at the house..." Her voice was reclusive.

"Its okay." I said, climbing up the frame and sitting next to her. "Anything you need to talk about?" She turned to me, looking straight through me with those blue eyes.

"I came here last night, you know. But I got here too late. By the time I was here you were already gone." She began to explain. "I wanted to talk to you. I get the feeling your someone I can talk to about this. You know... you don't know my name, I don't know yours, its kinda like calling samaritans or something." I nodded in agreement.

"So whats up?"

"My mom and her new boyfriend argueing again. Its driving me insane." Chris sighed. Something clicked inside my head.

"What happened to your father?" I asked. She turned to me, an unreadable emotion in her eyes.

"He died about a year ago. How did you know?" I was about to comfort her, but realised it would be no comfort. She seemed to have come to terms with it. Instead I answered her question

"Just something you said. you said your Father 'Used' to call you Chris. You know, coz its your middle name." She nodded for a second.

"Its not, you know. My name is Christina. I don't have a middle name." The smile on her face was obvious despite the covering over her mouth. "So how about it, Shadow? Got a name?"

And it eluded me. In this time I was Shadow, and always had been in the cover the darkness provided for me. But I couldn't tell her it was my real name, that made no sense. I had to think. "Darren..." I said softly. She nodded.

"Well, Darren," She seemed to take great pleasure in saying. "were sat here at one in the morning on a kids climbing frame. We've been training together for months and only just learned each others names." She laughed sweetly. "And I need some excercise. Wanna spar with me for a while?"

And we did. We spent the best part of an hour sparring with sticks and fists. A sparring partner, one more thing that the darkness had supplied me with. So much for so little, it amazed me. As we said goodbye to each other that night she handed me a business card. It had simply her first name and a phone number on. "So is there a number where I can reach you?" She asked. I nodded and reeled off my cell number to her, as she wrote it on the back of her hand. And now on top of everything else the darkness had given me a friend, who worries and checks up on me.

The darkness gave me so much, and now a friend I am incredibly close to, despite never seeing her face. I could see this person day after day in my life and not recognize them. But it left me wondering what else the dark had instore for me. Unfortunately I must leave you wondering too. What happened with Chris? You want to know if there was some secret love affair that took us across the world and lasted forever? Who knows, that chapter of my life has yet to play out. Even now as the darkness falls around me, I feel strangely invigorated knowing that soon I will be going to the local park to train and see those piercing blue eyes once again. Maybe one of these days I will see her face. And until then all I can do is train and thank the darkness for everything it has given me.