The Dark Abyss

By Sara Fathima

Something is wrong. Terribly wrong. Something has changed. It was all okay until yesterday. They have finally come for me, after all these years. The time has come. They always haunted me from afar, taunted me from the sinister darkness that is their home, their body and soul.

But now they've crossed the threshold to me. And it won't be long before they drag me into the deepest pits of hell.

They've tormented me for years, delighting in my tears and getting drunk on the fear that consumed me.

The world is a frightening place for any kid, but for me, it was as if I was living in a made up world of a fictional book. It toyed with me as if I was its personal plaything.

It darkened its shadows around me. The bright moon that fascinated everyone, bared its ugly teeth at me and threatened me with its darkness that wasn't brightened by the sun. The sun, almost lighting me ablaze, drew closer as if needing a closer look at the sweat that soaked my clothes and the panic that made my heart hammer against my ribcage. The trees opened their eyes and tried grabbing me with their talon like branches, always one step behind me, snickering. The ground opened up and threatened to swallow me whole, the screams of its previous victims ricocheted off its walls, their souls forever stuck and their screams forever unheard.

The clean waters of the lake and the sea were not clear to me, they showed me their true colours. They showed me things, my own private show, they showed me scenes of war and gore, the blood sometimes seeped into the water and dyed it a light red. The sky that looked over the vast land held tight to the thousands of bodies that hung from it, decapitated, decaying fly-infested ornaments that melted in the sun, the drop drop drop of melted skin and flesh a melody, a song, a rainfall that wilted the flowers it fell on. The air carried whispers of evil and sin all around me, tickling my skin.

I cried about it to my mother, buried my head in her welcoming arms but she just smiled and said that it was all just a terrible dream, my silly little brain imagining things, said that I have a peculiar mind but her warm smile and her reassuring words did nothing to quell my terror as I could still see hear the whispers that told me to wrap my little hands around her throat and squeeze until her mouth hung open and the light left her eyes.

How could no one see this? How could no one see the dark souls of the sun and the moon and the land and the sky, of the earth? How could no one see it for what it was? Was I the only one who could see the evil that tainted the earth's so called beauty?

The thought brought me a sense of superiority and a sense of loneliness. I hoped and prayed that the former would overpower the latter, but on some days loneliness triumphed and the evil smiled as it dug into me deeper.

It was one of those days when I was 13, when I first saw them, when they first came to haunt my reality and my dreams. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't tune them out or get used to them like I had with the other evils.

I heard its voice before I saw it. Its voice struck against my eardrums with such ferocity that I clutched my ears. It scratched my eardrums. It was high pitched even when it was whispering. It only whispered my name over and over.

Then I saw it. It clung to the ceiling, its dark body seemed to consume the light around it with the hunger of a starved beast. It dripped black, sticky fluid that collected in a puddle on the floor. It didn't have a definite shape, it stretched and shortened at will, giving itself whatever shape it desired. When it stretched, it covered the whole ceiling, its body like a thin membrane, when it stretched, the black faded a little and I could see its insides more clearly.

Veins, millions of thin white veins formed an intricate design in its body, it was as if they were alive, they moved and slithered over one another like thin snakes, linking themselves to each other, making a pattern and then breaking the linkage a second later and making a different pattern, they did this over and over, each pattern different than the one before it. It was mesmerising, watching them move so effortlessly, so at contrast with the abomination that they created.

The black fluid coursed through them, each time, with each pattern some veins were left without a linkage and they spit out the dark fluid, no matter how much fell to the ground, the veins never ran out of the black liquid. It was infinite.

Another one crawled out from under my bed and another from my closet, one slithered out from the crack under the door and they stretched and stretched and covered my whole room except for the spot I was standing on, frozen, convinced that they would swallow me and spit out my bone and flesh.

But they didn't, they just drew closer and closer to me, the air carried their weight and when they were inches away from my face, they screamed, they screamed my name over and over until my ears bled and they fluid filled up to my knees.

I kept my eyes shut through it all, praying and begging for them to leave me alone and after what felt like an eternity, they left, vanished along with their dark fluid. I thought it was all a dream at first but when I looked in the mirror, I saw that I was covered in the dark sticky fluid.

I saw them everywhere after that, there were thousands of them, they clung to every surface and whispered my name over and over, the fluid was everywhere, hiding the ground beneath it. Everywhere I went, all I could hear was my name.

"Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi. Numi"

I couldn't hear anything but this constant ghastly repetition of my name. I couldn't hear my family or friends speak, all I ever heard was this. Over and over again.

And then they started hanging onto people, some clung to shoulders, whispering my name over and over until the person's ears bled and they cried, all the while never stopping their activities, they showed no sign of emotion in their eyes as they cried ugly tears.

Some sat on heads and whispered my name into their skulls, the liquid dripped down the person's bodies and eventually their heads burst and bits of flesh and bone went flying, blood gushing out, but they never stopped what they were doing, they walked around with no heads, without a cry or a word.

Some were swallowed whole, the being stretched over every inch of their body, the veins on full display, they never let go of the people, trapped them in their dark bodies for eternity.

They were taking control of everyone, shattering lives and it was all just to get to me, what had I done to deserve this? Why did the earth hate me so much? The guilt of these lost and trapped souls ate through mine. I tried my best to warn people of them but they looked at me with disbelief whenever I talked about it. I gave up on warning them all and hid my family as best I could, I'm selfish, I know, but I had to save someone, anyone.

I bolted the doors and windows. I filled every gap and hole and it worked….for years.. 5 years…it worked. They took over the outside world, every inch of it, took everyone but my family.

My family hated me for confining them, despised me for caging them but I didn't mind, as long as they were safe, I didn't mind. I convinced them in every way I could, I begged them and the madness and fear in my eyes made them listen.

It happened when I was sleeping, in the dead of night. It all crumbled to the ground as I slept.

I always heard the whispers of my name. All the time. But this time, the whispers were closer, a thousand times closer. Panic rose through me as I made my way through the living room. They were all sitting in the living room. My parents and my sister. I breathed a sigh of relief when I caught no sign of the black beings.

I sat down next to them on the sofa and tried to relax. Then all of a sudden I felt something shift in my peripheral vision, I turned to see Maya, my sister smiling at me. I smiled back and tried to focus on the movie that was playing, but she moved closer to me, closer to my face and whispered my name.

I turned once again to look at her and this time, I saw it in her eyes, the way they were nothing but black shiny orbs, no white, only darkness that seemed to feed off the light around her and then the liquid started falling, it gushed out of her nose, her eyes and her mouth. Her lightless eyes bled darkness, yet she never stopped smiling or whispering my name over and over, but this time, it was her own voice that spoke my name in a hushed tone.

Then mom and dad followed, the liquid gushed out of every hole in their body, their pants were completely soaked and stained black. They moved closer to me, closer and closer and stood mere inches away from me. And then it happened, those beings came out of my beloveds, they forced themselves out from the holes that leaked black.

Their eyes fell out of the sockets and fell to the ground with a splat and blood mixed with the black. Their mouths tore open, their lower jaws held on with thin strips of flesh that would soon give away, yet they never stopped whispering my name.

Their brains were forced out through their tiny nostrils and ears and they fell to the ground in a heap, still the blood was not enough against the ever flowing black. Their abdomens tore and their insides fell out with a heavy plop, still the blood wasn’t enough to show itself against the black, still they didn't stop whispering.

And when the beings were out, protruding like snakes of different sizes, they wrapped themselves around my family, covering them head to toe like a mummy and squeezed.

I heard the crack of every single bone that made the framework of their bodies but the sound was not enough to drown out the whispering of my name. My name in my family's voice.

"Numi

Numi

Numi."

They fell to the ground, their mutilated bodies a pile on the floor.

"Numi

Numi

Numi."

I ran then, ran out the house, desperate to save myself, I ignored all the chaos around me. But I couldn't get far, I couldn't save myself after all these years, and all those tears. They caught up to me and merged together into one and swallowed me. As I struggled in their bodies, drowned into a void, forever gone, I saw something in the sky through their membranous forms.

I saw me, going into the welcoming waves of the calm sea and staying there, letting the waves take control of my body, letting the sea carry me forevermore, as I fell into the deepest sleep I've ever known. A sea with no blood or evil intentions and as I felt myself sink deeper and deeper into the dark abyss, a single tear escaped my eye.

By Sara Fathima