There is Nothing in the Dark

A Story by graphichaon

This is the tale of a young boys encounter with a strange creature, a thing, and the temptation that follows.

THERE IS NOTHING IN THE DARK

1973

FOOTSTEPS SPLASHED ALONG the pavement. They kept at a steady pace for a while, the sound of splashing remaining constant. The boy at the end of the footsteps squealed gleefully when he saw the murky brown water rising to eye level as he slipped slightly, his bare feet dunking deeply into the gutter. He slowed to a stop, panting, at a loss for breath. He watched the stream in the gutter flow smoothly, longing to be at such a fast pace, but still remaining calm. He had been looking out his window when the rain stopped, and the glassy, somewhat s****y water immediately caught his eye. It had seemed so perfect, and yet disgusting as hell. The contradiction attracted him, and his love for opposites drew him to chase it, and try to match its speed.

“I’ll be as fast as the stream, and at the same time as still as water.” He had said to himself.

“But I’ll also be as horribly dirty and disgusting, too!” and with that historic statement, he had begun his chase.

And so, he stood here now, completely winded, and his previously relatively clean clothes were now completely mussed up. He flicked his bangs out of his face, and then continued on his run. He ran, and he ran, and he ran. He ran so fast, he was even starting to beat the flow of the water. He spotted a nice leaf that took his fancy, and despite what his mother said about never going too far away from home, he followed it when it floated over a sunken part of the road. He was now running with the water, as in, his feet being completely submerged up to his ankles. He felt that this made him more “at one” with the water, or something. He swerved to the right, where the gutter continued, and approached an unseen open grate. His feet slipped, and he skidded, flew into the air for a brief moment and then collided with the ground. The water seemed to grow around him now, it was either that, or he was shrinking. But nevertheless, it surrounded him, swallowed him up briefly, and then spat him out. Everything seemed to be the right size now, except for the fact that the open grate that was rapidly growing closer to the boy seemed bigger.

“Oh, f**k!” The boy yelled,

“I’m gonna die!” for a boy his age, he seemed to have a rather large, yet rather inappropriate vocabulary. He was only eight, after all.

The hollow blackness seemed to grow larger as the boy grew closer, or perhaps that was just because of the fact that somehow things always looked bigger closer up. But there was little time to ponder this, as the large mouth in the gutter opened wide, swallowing the poor child whole.

He collided with the very deep sewerage watery s**t stuff, which at the moment was up to his chest. The sewer was surprisingly rather small, and for an adult male, would have proven to being very uncomfortable. It took a moment for the shock the boy felt to wear off, and it was then that he noticed it was very dark down there. He looked up, longing for some kind of light source, but it seemed that somehow the grate had been moved back over the hole, and it didn’t look like it was moving out of the way any time soon. But the water didn’t even slow, and the sudden realization that he may die very soon scared him, and his surroundings made him think of his time as a younger boy.

He could remember being back at his old house when he could just barely string words into sentences. He could also remember a great fear he had, a fear not uncommon among small children. For this seemingly nameless boy, had been afraid of the dark.

He had grown out of it of course, around the age of about five or six, but he feared that this might somehow rekindle the phobia. He knew now that he wasn’t actually afraid of the dark per se, but instead of what may be hidden in the dark, of what creatures could be waiting for a small boy to walk into a shadowy place, (where all the monsters lurked), and kill him.

“Come on!” he spoke to himself,

“You’re not a little kid now. You’re practically a man.” And although eight wasn’t a particularly manly age, he thought it might somehow make him feel better.

He stuck his chest out, preparing for his journey onwards, feeling like a man, and he took his first step.

Or he would have, if his feet could reach the bottom. But children aren’t exactly known for their height, and so he briefly fell underneath the water. It was surprisingly heavy water, but I suppose it wasn’t entirely water at all. He swum up with all of his might, and his head emerged.

‘All right,’ he thought,

‘Now all I have to do is stay afloat. Or rather, stay afloat and find a way out of this damned place.’

And stay afloat he did, and quite easily too. It seemed that the rising water level was both helping and hindering him. He had been learning to swim at school, and had already learned the doggy paddle. He had been quite proud when he had finally made it across the pool and back using it. He had never thought that it might be so useful one day. He paddled for a while, and a while, and then some. He paddled for quite a long time, but soon realized that he wasn’t making much distance. He felt his clothes weighing him down, and so he undressed. It wasn’t a particularly easy thing to do, him being in the water and all, but he managed. He immediately felt a noticeable difference in speed, and a rather small ray of hope shined above him. But his feeling of joy was quickly squandered when he hit his head on the top of the sewer.

“Ow!” he shrieked.

He heard his little girly outburst echo throughout the long tunnel. And so did someone else.

“Having a little trouble, boy?” a small voice asked. The boy looked around, and saw a pair of big, red eyes.

His heart jumped up his throat, and he almost quite literally spit it out. But he worked up what little courage he had left, and managed a small, affirmative sound.

“Uh-huh” he whispered.

“Oh, dear…” the voice said back. “We can’t have that, now, can we?”

The boy didn’t particularly like the raspy voice, or the eyes that came with it. But as the eyes grew closer, he began to make out a shape. A little bit closer and he saw that the shape was in fact a body, not a human body, but it was a rather small, humanoid-like creature’s body. Of course, the boy was far too young to process this, so he just assumed it was another boy, like him.

“Did you f-fall down the drain, too?” He stammered.

“Indeed, I did.” The creature replied. “A long, long time ago.”

“So you’re not a boy, like me?” the boy asked, his voice sounding slightly more confident now.

“I was. Oh, yes, Indeed I was…” the creature stopped for a second his eyes growing more evil-looking.

“Until I fell down the drain just like you, it was raining, just like today.” The creature nodded. “And I swam, and I swam, just like you are right now.” The strange thing continued, “And then, after much swimming, I saw a thing. And this thing, it started talking to me. I noticed myself being sucked into its eyes.”

“Really?” the boy asked curiously.

“Yes. And when the sucking stopped I looked down at my reflection. And do you know what I saw?” the boy shook his head. The creature continued, “I saw what I had become.”

“What had you become?” the boy was trembling now.

“I had become a thing.”

The boy now felt a bit uncomfortable. He wanted to run (or rather, swim) away, but the things eyes were too alluring. They grew bigger and bigger, or so it seemed. But actually he was simply falling into them. He fell faster, and faster. The eyes grew bigger, and bigger. And then, everything disappeared around him.

What was once the boy was now back in the sewer. It seemed that all of the water had dried up. He suddenly remembered what the thing had said to him, and he looked down. He wasn’t a little boy anymore. No, the little boy had now become a thing.