“Look at how the little candle both defies and defines the darkness.”
I could hear the rain outside, it’s eerie how all life outside goes silent except for the sound of rain itself and the occasional sound of thunder followed by those loud crackling sounds… The evening was pretty cold and I snuggled in my chair feeling a void in my chest, feeling empty inside lately.
Reading a book as a distraction from my own feelings, I stared at the candle-flame and my thoughts started to waver like its shadows on the wall, not still yet remained centered around and focused on the candle light. I felt a cold chill creep up on me as I was looking at the light. Sounds fazed out… the room got darker and the sound of rain getting louder and painfully sharper until I suddenly hear something, something outside my house!
A monstrous blood curdling scream! something moving fast in my direction! I try to look at what it is through the window but the sound goes mute as soon as it came to be. The city outside being eerily cold, cloudy and silent. I can’t see anyone around me so I grabmy candle and book, climb downstairs..descending deeper and deeper.. till I reach the ground floor. I go outside to look and see if anyone is around and what the noise was but nothing.
I hear more screams and shudders off in the distance and run towards them into a forest. I ran! As fast as I could but I felt like I was constantly being followed somehow. The ground behind me seemed to be moving and the skies grew to be unsettling, gloomy and restless… and soon I find myself atop an elevated landscape and noticed a deep chasm in the ground a little way off.
I feel tremors and there I see something that is deeply horrifying… A chasm with hundreds of snakes crawling and hissing loud! But no! these aren’t just snakes, they’re massive!! Way larger than any living creature I’d ever seen before!
They looked to be at least a 300 feet each! They looked to be rising up from the bottom, wrestling each another and some trying to make their way to the top; they made sounds that chill my bones and have cold shivers running down to my very core. I feel tremors once again underneath my foot! I looked around and there was something moving underneath!
Horrified and knowing what that could be, I try to run again and this time, in front of me appeared a pedestal and what resembled a pyramid but made of three concentric layers of wood stacked atop each other with a candle-stick shining bright on top of it!
I climb it all the way to the top to safety. Mud being pushed up from the ground slowly leaving a trail behind, the tremors seemed to pause for a moment and then I see eyes! Giant brown eyes from inside the mud! It sprang up from underneath explosively and it appeared right in front of me with its jaws open wide! Staring deep into my soul with those eyes… that massive scaly head… blocking out all light in front of me. Its mouth large enough to eat me and the pedestal I was standing on in one big bite.
With heart pounding, preparing for the worst, I noticed in between those giant eyes there is a void and it was like time itself slowed down and just as its about to swallow me alive, instinctively my hands reached out for the candle, I hold it firm and stab it into that empty void in its head. The Titan immediately looked to be in deep pain and it shrieked loudly! I feel a cold gush of air from its breath nearly push me off the pedestal before it lets out a blood curdling scream followed by a loud thud as it falls… Light emanating from the void, mouth open with its giant fangs sticking out; the scales from its hide starting to glow and then the snake, it disintegrates into nothing…!
Healing the ground where it falls and it’s gone! With the only thing remaining being the candle, still burning bright in the mud. I climb down from the pedestal and pick up the candle wondering to myself how this tiny candle in my hand was able to completely destroy that monster of a creature. I feel safe… The skies seemed to become calmer and I grin and hold the candle tight in my palm. It gives me warmth and a feeling of security now in the chaos of the forest.
And then I hear trees falling over! And I see the giant bodies of more snakes crawling along in the mud underground but I have no fear! For I know how to get rid of them now!! If one of them comes for me again… I know what to do! Come!
But then I once again hear a scream, I turn around and see one of them drag a man into a hole it came out of. He screams as his legs are stuck inside its mouth, half dead already yet trying to crawl out with every ounce of strength he has in him. I run toward it preserving the candle flame yelling for it to let him go!! It looks at me with a grin, an almost cunning look on its face… Pulling the helpless man down with it as if to say, “Try as you might I’m out of your reach, You can’t save him in time…” and it starts to swallow the now lifeless man slowly and tastefully, hissing as it did. I feel cold and miserable from what I saw. I feel incredibly sad and start tearing up but then I took a deep breath and let it go… The candle-flame glows even brighter than before now in my hand. I feel a great warmth from it. I feel much stronger and at peace.
I start to see more of them off in the distance… They were everywhere now, rising up from that chasm, making their way into the forest.. I wanted to get out of here! I can’t take on all of those monsters at once! There were too many! And so I made my way back home and I get into my car, start it and try driving further away from the heart of the city to find anyone else that is still alive, remembering the faces of the people I adore keep me going.
Their support kept me going in such times, I don’t feel so lonely when they’re around. I’d moved further away from the snakes now… But still hear constant hissing making it hard for me to drive and concentrate on the road ahead. Not a soul around as it grows darker by the moment until I needed to turn on the headlights.
I move away from the city to try and find safe place away from there, to find some peace and calm somewhere and soon I drove to a stop at a dead end, a chasm… a cliff end. I couldn’t go any further down that road, I can’t see ahead much further either… it keeps getting darker and darker… something was blocking out the light!! I get out of my car and I look at the sky and what I see now makes my heart sink to my stomach… my jaw drops in awe of it… Off in the distance it’s one of those snakes again but this… this one is so big that it completely dwarfs all the others I’d seen before it…! I only assume it could be the mother of all the snakes.
It’s hood blocked out the light from the moon, leaving an outline of its shape to be seen. It is utterly terrifying how large this Titan is but I can see its eyes, it has piercing crimson eyes… There seemed to be other smaller creatures around it, but I can’t quite tell what they are.
The skies become violent and stormy again. Now I see what looks like a middle aged man standing atop a glowing pedestal! He is weeping hopelessly and begging for it not to kill more people. I turn off the headlights, thankfully It didn’t notice me! I hear his cries! It responds in a weird thunderous voice, with loud crackling sounds accompanying the voice… In a language that I can’t understand but know exactly what it’s saying! From what it seems, the snake made some kind of deal with the man that he couldn’t deliver and it smiled when it knew he couldn’t. That smile was the most evil thing I can remember.
I take out the candle from my pockets and looks at the snake’s head wondering to myself how I’d ever be able to get up that high to kill it… it looks impossible from here…
Everything went dark. I was staring into plain darkness now, the candle flame had died out! I must’ve lost track of time! It’s dark now… Still raining outside… I get up from my chair and light another candle. The book still opened to the same page. A book on depression and mental illness.
“A restless and chaotic mind can be made still… learn to control your fears before they control you. You may lose faith, lose people around you but Knowledge… Beaming Knowledge can be your best friend in times of darkness! and of course a burning will to survive, don’t lose faith!”
The book gave me hope but I always fear that someday I’ll be faced with a dead end. A problem so insurmountable that I won’t have the strength to deal with it. With an empty feeling in my heart I fear that day would be my last.