Dark Room

A short story characterizing the bondage and redemption of sin.

     Samantha was unknown to the world. She lived in a pitch black room with nothing but a chair. All day and all night she would do nothing but sit in her chair and stare out into the darkness. She was not alone though.

     Samantha could imagine things, and those thoughts would come alive. The creatures talked to her...whispered to her.

     "Soon," they would say, "soon we will take over and free you. All you have to do is make more of us...your friends."

     Oh how she wanted to be free, for she knew not what freedom was. She had known darkness her whole life. Darkness was her friend.

     Sometimes she could hear a voice...calling. Calling for her.

     "Samantha, Samantha!" the voice called. "Come to me, Samantha!" It was a warm voice, not that she knew what warm was. The voice continued to call her, but would be drowned out by the groans and laughter of the creatures.

     Her curiosity grew within in her until she decided to ask the creatures, "Whose voice is that?"

     "Why, my dear Samantha, it is just one of us," the creatures would say.

     "No, that can't be," she replied. "I have created each of you, and I know every one of you, so surely it is not one of you."

     "Just ignore it then, for we are your only friends. We will free you," they sounded irritated. "How could he be your friend if he has not freed you?"

     "He is calling me though," she said. "What if he wants me to call out to him?"

     "NO!" they shouted. "You must not do that! You must never do that!"

     The creatures were starting to scare her now.

     "I want to call out to him though," she said in a whimper.

     The creatures started murmuring to each other. They said nasty things like, "Let's just kill her now!" and "Don't let her call out to him!"

     She started feeling something that she never had felt before: pain. The creatures were on top of her...biting her.

     "What are you doing!" she yelled. "Get off of me!"

     Samantha instinctively started to swat the creatures off of her.

     "Samantha! Samantha!" the voice called out.

     "Where are you?" she cried out.

     "Come to me, Samantha!"

     "Where are you!" she screamed desperately. "I can't find you - I can't see!"

     The creatures were causing her a great amount of pain. She started to cry: a first.

     "Samantha! Samantha! Come to me!" the voice yelled out.

     "I need you, COME TO ME!" she shouted.

     At that moment, something entered into the room, something that Samantha had never seen before, because the fact was that she had never truly seen anything before. That thing was light.

     As the light rushed about through the room, it shot through the creatures, causing them to burst and evaporate into a black mist. Samantha looked at her "friends" for the first time, and her heart sank. They looked so hideously horrible and grotesque. She buried her head in her hands began to cry.

     "Samantha, come to me," the voice said softly.

     She looked up, eyes red. In a blurred vision she saw a man. He smiled at her. She smiled back. She stood up and walked to the source of the light, the man.

     "Welcome home, Samantha, I have been waiting for you," the man said as he guided her out of the dark room.

Reviews

[Catherine Night]

great story - very powerful and well-written. The character of Samantha is developed very well for such a short story too. I like the idea of her being confused by her "friends" as sin has always confused people. For so dark a plot the ending is uplifting - realization of God's love. nice job.