Darkness

Darkness



“Lydia, Get yourself out of those woods right now! I don’t want to have to come in there and get you. You know your dad said not to go in there. I swear! I don’t know why I even watch you. The pay isn’t that great.”



I looked around the huge yard that the Nelson family owned. They were one of the more well to do families in the neighborhood. Tonight was their night out and I got stuck with the great pleasure of watching their 6 year old, Lydia. Don’t get me wrong she can be a great kid. She never really causes me much trouble, except when she gets this hair in her to go out back of their house and into the woods. The woods is several acres and probably one of the most beautiful sites in our town. For a babysitter though it isn’t so beautiful. The beautiful green leaves just help the child to get away from me. It is almost like they put a dark mask over her and protect her like she is their own child. The trees always seem to be willing to help her out to hide from me. They almost look like they are laughing at me. They look like they are mocking me. The woods always scared me and that is why I hated when Lydia would go back into them.



“Lydia, Please come on out already. This is seriously getting old now,” I screamed into the darkness that made up the woods. I slowly placed my foot into the woods and began walking into the darkness. I let the darkness envelope my very being. It was like it beckoned me forward. There was something calling me into that woods at that exact moment.



I fully emerged into the woods and began calling for Lydia again. I began looking around through the cobwebs and the tree limbs. Searching for this little girl that I wish would understand my fears. When I got into the heart of the woods I looked up into the sky in frustration. I could see the beautiful afternoon sky. The clouds were their normal white and fluffy selves. The sun was its normal glow, but something felt off suddenly. I didn’t know what it was, but I continued my search for my client.



As I went further into the woods I started hearing a child’s laughter. I was sure that I had found Lydia after searching for her for the last several minutes. I was sure that the child’s laughter would be revealed to be Lydia, but I was wrong. I followed the laughter further and further into the woods. I came across a cottage that was in the woods. The laughter was coming from within it appeared. As I got closer to the cottage though the laughter no longer appeared to be that of a child though. It had a more sinister and evil sound about it. I wanted to run back out of the woods, but I found myself going forward. I knocked on the door of the Cottage.



A voice rang out, “ Who in the world would be knocking on my door? I ain’t got no friends.” The door flung open and there stood a hunched over old lady. Her face had many warts and wrinkles. Her hair was the same quality of a million fine spun spider webs. Her body was cloaked in very worn cloth garments that you could see in some places her thin and frail bones through, “What is it you want girly?”



“Have you seen or heard a little girl playing in the woods?”



“Dear I hope she was in the woods. I hope with all my heart.”



“Why? Why is it so important that she have been in the woods.”



She looked gravely and moved into her house. She went over to a candle she had in one corner and lit it. She turned her face to me, “Something horrible has happened on our planet this very day. Something that has made us into the nearly extinct.”



I laughed and began to walk away from her door to leave her to her insanity, but I remembered that feeling I had when I stepped into the woods and when I looked up into the sky. I remembered that I had a feeling that something had drastically changed. I couldn’t place my finger on it then, but now I wondered if that was why I stepped into the woods.  I turned back around and faced back towards the old lady and my face must have said I believed.



“I am sure that the moment that you stepped into the woods was the moment that the darkness took over the world. Did you feel anything? Did you notice anything?”



“I felt like something was different, but I wasn’t sure. I was too busy trying to look for the little girl I am suppose to be babysitting. The Nelson family is going to be mad at me.”



“You have nothing to worry about my child. The Nelson family are no longer with us on this planet. I fear that the little girl isn’t either. I fear it got her as well.”



I was puzzled as to what she could mean. I found myself coming into her house further and looking around. It was a weird place. The walls were covered in thick ivy vines and the only thing that appeared to be of any normal human dwelling was the pantry of food and the stove to cook on. It was very unlike any place she had ever seen in her life. “Where do you think Lydia has gone?”



“I don’t think that is what you really want to ask me right now. I think you wonder why I live in this manner. I knew that this day would pass when the darkness would envelope the world. Lydia has succumbed to the darkness I am almost sure of it.” The little old lady said as she went over to stove and picked up a kettle that was sitting there. “Would you like some tea? It might be the end of the world but we still have to have some luxuries.”



“You are telling me that the world just practically ended by some “darkness” and you want me to drink tea. You are crazy. You are insane. Why should I believe you?” I screamed at her. I walked towards the door of the house and as I began to approach it the door flung shut. “What are you doing?” I flung myself to face the old lady and was shocked to see Lydia standing there instead of the little old lady.



“I am sorry Michele. The only way to protect you was to use this disguise of this child. I knew of the darkness and how it would change the very landscape of our planet. I knew the time was quickly approaching for mankind to become extinct. I knew that the woods due to the very nature of its wildlife would be the only way to save you.” In front of my eyes Lydia changed again into a mirror image of myself. Right down to every single detail.



“What is going on? This is not making any sense,” Hot tears were streaming down my face and the outlines of clothing were moving so fast that it was obvious that my nerves were getting the better of me.



“Michele, Have you not always felt like there was a connection you had with someone else in the world? This connection you couldn’t place, but you knew existed. I am your twin sister. I can’t explain everything to you because I don’t know it all, but the darkness could not enter into the wooded areas. They couldn’t destroy all of creation. Those in the wooded areas they were safe from the danger, so I had to make sure that you were safe my sister. I had to make sure you survived the darkness.”



“But how did you know about all this?” I was truly bewildered about what this all meant. The world was different now. I had a sister, but the rest of mankind very well could not be in existence at all. Though I doubted what she was saying I knew in my very soul that she was not lying to me. This darkness had destroyed the human race. We were not the superior species on the planet any more. I was scared what this could mean, but mostly I was scared that my sister could have had something to do with it all.



She reached into the ivy vines on the walk near the stove and pulled out what appeared to be a rather large book, “This book tells of an ancient prophecy. One that will have the darkness come into our lands and destroy everything. This is only the first wave. If the darkness has its say the entire world will be destroyed. All of human kind will be erased and only it will live.”



“Can the darkness be destroyed?”



“The book speaks that there will be several interpretations of the events that have caused the extinction of man. Some people will say it was God taking his children back. Others will think they are being punished for being bad people and they are in hell dead. Others will think they are in paradise. One though will rise out of the ashes of their despair and fight the darkness. One will destroy it and make the world whole again.” She opened up the book and turned it towards me. She pointed down at a picture that was in it. I was shocked at what I saw on the page. It was a picture of myself. The only reason I knew it was myself and not my twin sister was because along the bottom written in beautiful script font was the word MICHELE.



“Only you can save the rest of humanity.”



THE END