The Face of Darkness

Torben first noticed the ringing in his head and the pain emanating from multiple parts of his body. He knew he fell a substantial distance. As an expert in taking falls, he could almost gauge the distance of the fall based on the pain in his body. This was a record for Torben. He had been known to take a beating and keep going as if nothing had happened, but his head throbbed with pain. Torben didn’t want to move at all. He forced his eyes open to gain a visual understanding of his location.

At first, he thought he heard a voice, then opening his eyes, it seemed like the room faded from a dim blue light to darkness. Torben figured it must have been blood rushing through his head as he rubbed his eyes, opening them again only to reveal pitch-blackness. He gave his eyes a second to adjust. They didn’t adjust. No ambient light to give any clues to reality. Only pure darkness.

Torben lay there for a few moments, readjusting his position to give any form of relief to his bruised body. Any movement caused pain. It fueled an anger of unfairness.

“Why me!?” he mumbled through angry emotions.

  As he lay in the darkness, his mind tried to divert his attention away from the negative emotions. Thinking through his options, he figured things couldn’t get any worse. He did not know how he would get out, and rationalized that a few more minutes of rest wouldn’t affect his ability to escape. He closed his eyes to compose his thoughts and emotions.

Then a slight sound made his heart race. Unsure of what he heard, he could tell something or someone was there in the darkness.

“Whose there?” Torben held silent, holding his breath, listening for any hint of what might lie in the pitch-black.

Torben quickly became aware of anything that made the slightest noise, to the point where he began imagining noises in his head. He reached for his sword at his side, but it was gone. His memory cringed at the choice to draw his sword before exploring. Then he heard the noise again. A wheezing sort of breathing. It sounded close to his vicinity. Torben called out again. His heart raced. No answer. His fear made him shake. With trembling hands, he felt the surrounding surface. If fate favored him, possibly his sword landed nearby. He wanted to run, but did not know how he could move in the darkness of the underground cave.

A wheezing, raspy voice spoke from the darkness. “Why do you fear, creature?” The voice spoke in a heavily accented and slurred speech.

Torben’s throat closed. He nearly gagged as a shot of anxiety and fear pierced his soul. “Who are you? Where…. where am I? H… help…. help me, please!” Torben could hear slow movement, the sound of thick skin dragging along rocks. The being did not answer. “Who are you! What do you want?” Torben called out in a quivering voice.

The being did not respond to Torben’s questions, although Torben could hear it moving. Then the voice spoke back. “You see nothing, yet you tremble. Tell me… creature, what is it... you fear?” The voice sounded slow, focused yet slurred, with a thick purr-like wheezing.

“Who are you?” Torben shouted back.

After a long wheezing pause, the drooling voice spoke. “I am …. darkness.”

Torben’s stomach cramped with the revelation of the voice’s dark nature. “No…. no… I need help!” Torben mumbled to himself in heavy breaths as he crawled on his hands and knees, trying to feel a path away from the voice.

“Your fate… is inevitable… creature.” the voice spoke in short, slurred yet delicate deliveries, “I am here... to… watch.”

Torben let out a strange cry of fear and anger as he tried to collect his emotions and project his hatred toward the voice. He couldn’t give in, but didn’t know what to do.

“Your… fear,” the voice spoke from the darkness, “… entertains… me.”

Torben knew he needed to escape. He could tell the being moved back and forth in a half circle in front of him. He waved his hands around in the darkness, moving away from the source of the voice. Only a few steps into his escape, his head smacked into a rock wall above him. Torben collapsed to the ground in pain, doing his best not to vocalize the hurt and expose weakness. He rolled on the cold ground in the darkness, holding his already painful, throbbing head. Overcome with fear, he could not control his shaking. He forced himself up on his hands and knees and continued his escape at a much slower pace, touching every wall and edge, feeling his way to retreat.

“Why… creature… do you try? You see nothing, yet you attempt to move about… why?”

Torben ignored the taunting voice. Unable to move at the pace he hoped, Torben frantically waved his hands and legs across the uneven terrain to find the most suitable route of escape in the dark. Fear controlled his body, causing him to gasp, vocalizing his efforts as he fumbled around, banging his fingers into the rock walls, skinning his knees and shins on the inconsistent and rocky pathways. Torben knew he couldn’t stop. He had to keep moving despite the pain and difficulties.

Torben wished for light. Any form of light. Or even if he had his sword, he could at least have a fighting chance. He kept thinking that he would bravely face the invisible foe if only he had some amount of light and a sword. Torben made progress in his escape, finding what felt like a pathway. He now used a consistent system of feeling along the wall and his surroundings, feeling the pathway, and then taking steps. His escape increased in speed. He could tell the darkness followed him by the sound of the rough skin dragging along the rocks, claws clicking and scratching with every step.

“Your fate… is inevitable… creature… why do you try to change it?”

Torben’s fear burst, fueling a newfound rage. “STOP CALLING ME CREATURE!” Torben frantically felt for a large rock, but only found a few pebbles and threw them toward the voice. “I AM TORBEN!”

A deep, growling laugh followed. Then slow growling words spoke out. “In this darkness…. you… creature…. are whatever I want you to be.”

Torben yelled at the darkness, feeling again for a large stone, yet once again only finding small loose rubble. Again, he threw the scattered pebbles toward the voice. He reached his arms out behind him, trying to find his way as fast as possible. Distracted by finding stones to throw at the voice in the darkness, Torben trusted too much in the path and forgot to feel for his footing. The ground suddenly dropped, sending him stumbling down a slope of rock, dirt and rubble, tumbling towards an invisible fate.

Torben wildly grasped and dug his feet in, trying to control his fall as he rolled down the steep cluster of dirt, rocks, and rubble. He could not decrease his speed. He felt like the slope would never end when his body crashed into a cluster of larger slabs of stone at the end of the slope. Torben reeled in pain. The pounding in his head made it difficult to focus. He feared the creature above would follow in pursuit.

Torben lay in utter hopelessness. He rolled over, moaning in pain, still fearing the creature following him. He tried again to feel his way to a path, to any form of escape. But his shaking, coughing, and moaning from the pain of the fall blended into uncontrollable sobs. Torben broke down crying. He couldn’t stop. With any strength he could muster, he pushed himself along the floor through the darkness. Torben hit a wall. He collapsed, nestling up to the cold wall, which he accepted would be his ultimate resting place. Something followed him. He had no way to fight it or outrun it. He curled himself into a ball, doing his best to hold back the sobbing, and waited for what he expected to be his inevitable demise.