The Darkness, The Light and the Grey In-between

The Last Light

I walk along a long, dark, bending road. The bricks of the path underneath me crumbling under my feet creating another hole for the darkness to creep up through. I speed up, running, sprinting .... panting. I am now out of breath, but the Darkness still comes. It still hunts and longs to devour the light... to devour me. But it will not win. I won't let it. Soon I come to a large crack in the ground, I can see the Darkness slowly creeping up the sides of the gaping hole. Suspended across it I find two bridges. One is a single strong steel beam, the other an old, rotten, misshapen, wooden footbridge. As I look towards the bridges I see a plank of the rotting wood from the old, wooden footbridge crumble and fall into the empty black void below. I listen, to see if I can hear it hit the bottom of the seemingly bottomless void, but I hear nothing as it falls, nothing but silence. I see nothing but black behind me.  It appears as though, I have a choice to make.

During the time I spent running away from the Darkness, I have come to many places upon my journey where I have been forced to choose between two things.  And through it, I have learnt that the ones that appear safest are normally the ones that lead you on the most dangerous paths. That the nicest and safest looking paths are like shapeshifters. Once you start down that path they change and shift into dangerous, long paths full of trials, suffering and pain. Which only helps the Darkness creep up on me more. The further ahead I get, the more wrong choices I make the faster it comes. Almost as if I am playing game chess with Death. I have run out of moves to play, knowing that the end result is almost certainly death, my only more is to run.  I ran far from there to the safest place I know ... The Field of Light.

I decided to learn from my mistakes and to walk across the old, rotting footbridge. I walk carefully, hearing the Darkness behind me laughing wildly as if my demise was definite. Thinking I don't know the path in which I walk. I know I walk on a path of broken glass, a path of sharpened knives, a path on the tips of swords and I know my demise is almost inevitable. But I  also know one very important thing and that is that I do not know the meaning of "Giving up" only the meaning of to "fight". 

As I walk across the bridge I think of what I have accomplished during my journey. For if this is my last day, hour, minute or second, then I will go down fighting with no regrets. As I reach the end of the bridge, I stop and stare at the horizon. It is so dark, it reminds me of all the fear and pain in the world ... but in the darkness ahead there is light, I can feel it. It feels as if someone has turned on a heater inside me. I feel it's pulsating warmth as if it is a pulse of a heart.  The last heart in the world ... my heart. "Light cannot exist without darkness" all around me is the darkness but without it, I wouldn't be able to see the light in me and in the world. Now... there is just too much darkness, I feel the warmth inside me slowly getting colder and colder with every second that the darkness is left to take over. It has devoured almost everything. The ground and sky turning more and more grey, the ground slowly cracking and crumbling allowing the darkness to come from deep underneath my feet. I hear the distant sound of wood breaking and steel falling, as I look back I see that both of the bridges that once provided a way of passage across the deep, dark canyon to have crumbled and fallen into the canyon its self. The things in which provided a way for me not to fall into the canyon, have now both fallen into the canyon. These bridges may have fallen to the Darkness, but I have not.

I take one last look at the horizon, ... at the light that still remains. I turn around and plant my feet into the crumbling greyish black soil. I stare at the Darkness, as it slowly continues to chase me even after I have stopped running. I feel as though the world is stuck in slow motion and yet I am not. I see the Darkness slowly catching up to me, but I don't care. For in those few brief moments I feel in control, not the Darkness. I close my eyes focusing on the light inside of me. Focusing on the power within me, I can feel the warmth slowly growing again. The feeling of freedom, of happiness and joy flowing through me. The warmth continues to grow, so does the light. As I open my eyes all I can see is pure white light. The colour still so innocent, no matter what has happened, no matter how dirty I feel I know that this light is pure, that this light is clean and blessed. I look at my reflection upon a puddle of water forming in at my feet, my eyes are completely white. They are full of the same pure light from inside of me. They are full of hope, strength and courage. For even if the world has fallen I haven't ... and I won't. The darkness looks at me, at my eyes and stops. For once the Darkness is the one scared not me. Stunned by the purity of my light the Darkness stays where it is as if it is too scared of what will happen if it comes any closer. My mouth slowly curves into a big grin. Then I scream letting it all out. All the fear and pain, all my worries, my struggles and my immense exhaustion, letting out ... the light. 

I stand there looking at the world. The light, the joy, the happiness finally returning after such a long time of darkness. Now I understand how God felt after creating Earth. I feel exhausted but proud. For I did this with my light, this is my work, my creation. It almost makes all the pain, sorrow and suffering worth it. I can see no more darkness, no more fear, not even the tiniest shadow behind the rocks. With this thought in my mind, I close my eyes. Listening and focusing on the constant Beeping of an alarm clock and the murmured sound of someone yelling at me to wake up. Reluctantly I slowly woke up back in my cozy, warm bed on a Monday morning. With the right amount of light shining through my windows. Filling the room with the warmth of this bright, Summers day. With only the smallest bit of darkness in the shadows as the sun shines above. I know that no matter whether it was a dream or not. I know I did this, I was the one who brought the light back and got rid of the Darkness, who once wished to consume and devour me and my world. I did this for I am ... The Last Light.

First Published on the 6th of March 2019