I am the Dark

The corridors have darkened to the low glow of fluorescent lights for the evening. I have been here for a long time. I watch the white-clad nurses with their clipboards pass. They usually turn and look to see if someone is in the hallway with them when they pass me by.

I silently laugh and am amused by their sense of me that they shake off as imagination. I am the night, the terror in nightmare. Tonight I will feast on their horror as I have from the beginning of time and will until the end.

Who will I taste tonight? Hm, room 114 has a lovely morsel to explore, she sees monsters. Maybe 202, he has been a great joy for me in the three years he’s been here. His dreams were prodded with a drug? Do they call it Heroin? It makes it easier for me to come in. No, there is a new one in 210, isn’t there? A dream I have not yet tasted. Ah, yes, she sleeps in peace. Not for very long.

I enter the room and touch her still form. Ah-hah! Twisting her mind is so easy to do, so supple. I love the new ones. There was hope before she came here, but no more. I will take away all chance of her to be among the ‘normal’ people, like the nurses. I have tried the nurses, and have even gotten through to a few. They go away from here never to return, but are never the same. I take pride in my work.

They call me any number of names: schizophrenia, psyhconeurosis, insanity, paranoia. I like the term Madness. I enjoy the way it flows from the tongue, if I had one, that is. Very few are safe from me. They think to make them better in this place. How can they? I am here. My brothers and sisters are in other places like this. We feed upon the terror, bask in the screams.

Ah, she senses me. I can toy with her a while. Visions of horror to her, whatever she fears most. Ah, her uncle? Yes, I like those. Now, scream for me! Yes, that’s it. Does that hurt? I know, I know. Ah, the silky screams. I cannot linger, the screams will bring the nurses. They will give her drugs to make her sleep, but she will still dream my dreams. And I will watch. She is mine, it won’t take long. Her damage was done before she came here. So much easier for me.

I am content with my lot, it is a great joy to be, to do, what one is most suited for. I am the dark night. I am the noise you hear when no one is there. I am, Terror.


Word count: 469