Dark Side of the Heart

Short story written around 5 years ago. Describes a young man going into his "inner world" and combating the darkness in his heart.

            It all started that night in my bedroom…when the whole world fell away. I had been doing very poorly in school that year and had recently developed a habit of being gloomy. Not even I understood my depressing mood. My parents thought more time together would help, but it did not. After that came the psychiatrist. It just made my mood worse if anything and it continued to grow gloomier until that night. It was dark and the rain was pouring heavily on the window. I was lying in my bed hoping tomorrow would never come. Little did I know I was about to get my wish.

            My bed was abnormally comfortable that night and I could feel my eyes growing heavy. Despite the cold rain falling outside, I slept on top of the bedcovers.

As time dragged on, I thought I heard something. It started as a low scratching noise that I passed off as the house talking. As the decibels increased and the noise became more distinct, however, I realized it was the sound of glass cracking. I heard the sound once more before all went silent, save the rhythmic drum of the rain outside. A glance out of my window told me that was not the source of the sound.

Well, what could it be, then? I thought.

I sat up and looked around. The sound was too loud to be coming from downstairs, so it had to be in my room. I took a chance and threw my feet over the side of the bed and stood up. This was greeted by a loud sound, like a giant piece of glass shattering. Simultaneously, the floor disintegrated underneath me in tiny square tiles.

Once the last speck of color disappeared from my room, I began to fall. Darkness was all around me. Presently, the air turned cold as an odd sensation ran through my body. It was as though my consciousness were separating from physical body. Gradually, I began feeling my descent slowing. At last my fall reached a snail’s pace and my feet lightly touched ground-or what I thought to be ground.

It was still dark and I had no idea what had just taken place. I stood there for a moment wondering what I should do. Tentatively, I planted a foot in front of me. To my relief, the surface I was standing on remained intact and did not dissolve as my bedroom floor had. Feeling a little safer, I cautiously began walking-unsure of where I was going.

My eyes wandered of their own accord despite the inability to see my surroundings. Looking around, I noticed something odd: it was faint but I could definitely see an outline of something ahead of me. It gradually became more defined and I could soon tell that I was looking at a tree. The same thing was happening all around me. From the darkness, an entire forest emerged.

Well, that’s a little better. I know I’m in a forest now…but I still don’t know where I am. I thought.

Then, the last thing I expected happened: a girl emerged from the tree in front of me. Her skin had a green tint to it and her ears were pointed like an elf’s. She was wrapped in a garment of foliage-an assortment of flowers leaves and vines all woven together. Around her head, a wreath of lilac flowers was delicately placed. As I stared slack-jawed at her, she smiled.

“Greetings, Michael Vorins.” She said.

The whole scene left me speechless.

“I am Lilac.” She continued. “I’m sure my presence is a bit…shocking to you. And, as you might have already figured out, you are no longer in the world known as Earth.”

The only thing I could say was, “You-You’re a nymph…”

She took a step towards me.

“Correct. There are many creatures similar to me in this world.”

I was not sure if I wanted her too close to me, so I inched back a bit.

“What is this world…?” I asked. “It seems kinda…familiar…”

She seemed to float as she walked across the small clearing to another tree.

“This world is Almatter. The world you created.”

Then, she walked right up to me-obviously not aware of personal space-and put her right index finger to my forehead, “The one you live in up here most of the time. We’ve had many adventures, you and I. Do you remember?”

I stumbled backwards.

“Almatter…? My world? You…You’re Lilac! Then…I must really be in…Almatter?!”

Unable to remain standing, I sank to my knees.

It was true, around the time my mood began to become more and more dark I made a world I called Almatter in my mind. Whenever I could, I would go there and have many adventures with Lilac and a few other fictional creatures. But that was all was all Almatter was-fiction! Every time my adventures ended, I found myself back in the miserable life I lived on Earth.

“This…This is real, though!” I exclaimed.

She floated over to me and dropped on one knee so she was at eye level with me.

“Yes, this is quite real, as is the danger. In your many adventures with us, do you recall the evil entity always causing trouble?”

I looked up hardly believing she was asking me this.

“The Evil Kizer? What’s he at now, Lilac?” I asked before I could stop myself.

Her eyes filled with what looked like sympathy.

“He’s dealing us a rather personal blow: he’s after your heart, Michael.”

All the information was swirling around in my head. Everything was swirling. I grew dizzy, slumped to the ground, and lost consciousness.

Lilac sat on her knees and turned me on my back and rested my head on her lap.

“Don’t worry, Michael, we have some time.”

 

When I came to, I found myself in a bed of leaves. Lilac was nowhere to be seen. Pulling myself up, I rested against the tree at the head of my bed.

Almatter…wow. Never saw this coming. I thought as I listened to the peaceful sounds of the forest.

A few moments later, Lilac emerged from the underbrush and brought me an assortment of fish and berries in a basket of woven branches. I dug in like a ravenous animal. When I had my fill, I stood.

“I suppose we should set out now. He won’t likely wait for us.”

During my adventures in Almatter, I had taken the path to the Evil Kizer’s castle many times. Everything was as I had imagined it along the course to the castle. We reached it in little time at all.

            The black beast of a castle loomed out of the now dark world of Almatter. We approached cautiously for we had had rough encounters with his guards before. There were times when we had almost not made it out alive.

The emptiness of the castle was out of place. Not a single guard did we encounter the whole climb to the Kizer’s throne room. The large double doors leading to the throne room reared up in front of us. As I started to push the doors open, Lilac stopped me. She looked almost sad or perhaps it was fear.

“No matter what happens…” She said in a wavering voice. “Don’t lose sight of the objective-annihilate the Evil Kizer once and for all.”

After that she tugged me to her for a brief kiss.

“Don’t die, ok?”

She took off toward the door with me quickly following behind her. Immediately upon entering, shackles rose from the ground and bound Lilac. As I tried to pry her lose of her binds, a swirl of black smoke appeared in front of the throne. As it dispersed, the Evil Kizer’s grisly figure emerged.

“Ah, how good of you to come, Michael.” He said.

I could not free Lilac and had no other choice but to stand and defend her. The Evil Kizer took a couple paces towards me as he spoke, “Michael, for some time now I have been trying to steal your heart. You might have noticed the foul mood you have been in as of late. That was from my trying to convert your heart completely to darkness. But, for some reason, I have been unable to do so. Your heart is putting up a valiant fight for you, Michael Vorins. I have come to the conclusion that it will not give up until I have manifested myself in it in the real world. Only then will I have control of you.”

Everything suddenly fell into place. The reason why the darkness in my room grew darker every night, the reason why I had been shying away from the world lately, and why I had created Almatter-it all made sense! I now had a full grasp on the desperate situation I was in.

Presently, I began filling with anger. It wasn’t a dark anger, but rather a zealous anger. It was not fueled by the darkness in my heart but the light I was filling with from the want to protect Lilac and myself. A light showed all around me as I let these feelings sweep over my being.

I watched as the Kizer cowered under the intensity of my light and I smiled. It felt good to smile again. I glanced back at Lilac with a reassuring look to tell her everything was going to be ok. Then, I returned my gaze to the Kizer.

“Kizer, I do not want you to harm neither this world nor Earth ever again.”

Out of a nowhere, a sword appeared in my hands. It had a golden hilt encrusted with rubies and emeralds and a giant sapphire in the middle of both sides of the hilt. I somehow knew exactly what had to be done.

I took a running start directly at the Kizer. He made a lousy attempt to get up but fell back down as the light overpowered him again. Time seemed to stand still as the sword pierced the Kizer’s body.

What happened next is a little fuzzy. I remember a falling sensation after stabbing him. Apparently, I also lost consciousness because I the next thing I remember was opening my eyes to find Lilac’s face over mind, teary-eyed. When she saw my eyes open, she smiled and the tears started flowing. She knelt down and hugged me.

“I thought I would never see your eyes open again.” She said through her sobs.

I wrapped my arms around her.

“It’s ok, Lilac, I won’t ever leave you.”

At this, she loosened her grip and turned from me.

“Michael, you and I both know that we cannot be together. With the Evil Kizer gone for good you can leave this place…and return to the real world.”

She bent over and gave me a final kiss. I felt as though I was rising into the air. Suddenly, I could feel ground beneath me, but it wasn’t right-it was soft.

I opened my eyes to see I was no longer kissing Lilac but a giant stuffed bear. I immediately tossed it aside and looked around. None of my surroundings looked familiar. A table beside my bed was filled with flowers and all sorts of cards and presents. I could not comprehend what I was seeing. Then, my mother’s face appeared over mine and I knew for sure I was in the real world again.

“I thought I would never see your eyes open again…” She said through her tears. “When I found you lying unconscious on your bedroom floor, I was so worried!”

She bent over and hugged me tightly, continuing to sob into my pillow.

For some reason, I began smiling.

“Mom, it’s alright. I’m not going anywhere.” I said with a slight laugh.

My head began throbbing and I lifted my hand to it. There were bandages wrapped securely all around my head.

My mother pulled away from me with a shocked look on her face.

“I haven’t heard you laugh in so long…” She said in a voice slightly above a whisper as a small smile crossed her face.

I laughed again, a bit softer this time to spare my head.

I guess it worked… I thought to myself.

It was at that moment that I realized something: I was no longer depressed.

Author's Note

Unless there's a huge outcry to expand on this story, it will probably remain as is. It was one of my first works, and for how it turned out, I think it's rather great (as is to be expected from it's author, I suppose). If you have questions, I would be glad to answer them as best I can.

Reviews

[The Knightly Programmer]

Very good story; Makes me want to know of the adventures that Michael Vorins had before this one. I have to agree that it did turn out very well, especially if it was one of your first works.

[Mason Rayburn]

Yeah, it was definitely written very vaguely. I think I had to make it that way to streamline the story so it would fit within the 10 page mark at school. There's definitely room for expansion, though.