//------------------------------// // The Darkness // Story: When Angels Call // by The Ranger //------------------------------// There was a faint light coming from underneath the door in front of him, gleaming across the wooden floorboards and tossing small shadows as it hit grains of dust and sand. The light seemed to move slightly, pulsating like waves of water. Or maybe it was a shadow on the other side of the door breaking the light ever so slightly, he couldn’t be sure. With his heart pounding in his throat, he reached out and nudged the door carefully. It didn’t make a sound as it slowly slid open, yet he could have sworn he heard a faint whisper travel round the room as it did. The light on the other side hit him straight in the eyes, momentarily blinding him. He shied away from the burning light as he felt as if his entire body was on fire. Then he saw; saw what was in the light, what was beyond the door. He could see… See… “… See what?” The sound of her own voice reached her ears as she spoke up. She didn’t recognize it. Except the two words she uttered, the room around her lay silent and in shadows, nothing but her face and hooves lit up by a small candle placed on her desk. It flickered slowly, and the words she’d written on the paper in front of her seemed to dance before her eyes. Everything on the paper, every single letter and word seemed alien to her. She’d written them just a few seconds earlier, yet it felt as if she’d never seen them before and was just now reading them for the first time. It was impossible to focus, as the words refused to stay in one place long enough for her to construct a readable sentence. A sigh of disbelief shot out of her mouth, shattering the silence around her like a battering ram against a weak wooden gate. On the other side, ponies waited at the ready, only to be sliced in pieces as the enemy advanced upon them. The gust of wind that left her mouth with her sigh blew into the candle, snuffing out the light in the blink of an eye. The darkness surrounded her, pulled her into a tight embrace. It furiously licked her body like flames, trying desperately to burn its way inside her. Unlike fire though, there was no pain. Just the feeling of emptiness slowly seeping into her, pushing itself into every strand of hair on her body, nestling into her mane to make its way into her mind. Her flesh peeled off like charred paper as the shadows crept inside her, up through her stomach and into her lungs. Then it slowly made its way down again, pushing deeper, trying to enter her the way a lover did. She shook her head violently to get that thought out of her mind, but to no avail. The shadows nestled its way inside her despite her attempts to stop it. A muffled thud echoed through the thick darkness as she slammed her forehead into the desk. “Stop it…” She whispered, even though she knew nopony would answer. There was nothing there, just her and the shadows around her. Dead shadows. Immobile and silent, not trying to violate her the way she imagined. The paper rustled against her face as she pushed herself harder into the wooden board in an attempt to clear her mind of... those thoughts. She didn’t want them, not now. “See what?” She asked herself, her voice distorted thanks to her mouth being pressed down unto the desk. “What… does he see?” She didn’t have an answer. It was impossible to think clearly as the shadows twisted inside her like eels. A low curse escaped her mouth, followed by another thump as she brought her face down hard into the desk once again. A slight shiver of pain burst through her brain, moving across her skull like electric cords. Another thud and another singe of pain. Attempting to shut out the darkness, she did her best to focus on nothing but the pain inside her head, hoping it would cause the shadows to withdraw. To her relief, it seemed to work as the presence slowly pulled away from her, replaced by her headache. But then, sensing her weakened defense as her mind instead got clouded with pain, it saw its chance to win this battle. Once again it pushed inside her, forcefully and with confidence, fully aware that it had won over her, knowing that it managed to break the walls she built up around her and made way for guilty lust to build up in her. And she could feel it. Feel it build up, ready to burst out of her, ready to... She shivered and opened her mouth to let out a scream. She didn’t even know if her voice would be that of terror or satisfaction. “Mommy?” The darkness disappeared in an instant, leaving behind no trace, no evidence of it ever existing. Scared away by the sound of a filly. “Yes? What is it, sweetheart?” Her voice was frail and shallow, about to break into a thousand pieces as the darkness she both loved and hated left the broken fortress of her mind. “I can’t sleep.” The filly said through the darkness. “Can you read me a story?” The mare sat up straight in her chair, looking down to where she believed the papers to be. “I’m sorry, but mommy needs to work..” Without a sound she reached her hoof out, getting ahold of a small box on the desk. She opened it and use one of the small wooden sticks inside it to light up a small flame. She touched the candle with the match, and it flickered to life with a low sizzling as smoke rose up from the wick. “Pleeeeease?” The voice pleaded. Probably gave her a pair of massive puppy-eyes as well. “The one about the angels?” “Sweetie... You know I have to work. I need to get this done by next month...” A deadline she already knew she was doomed to fail. She would never be able to write an entire book by next month. Not in two month, not in six. Not in a year. Once again, she wanted to hit her head on the desk. Crack her skull open and let her thoughts drift unto the paper. Anything would be better than the nonsense about the light beyond that door... “But I want to hear about the angels...” She sighed at the voice’s persistency. Maybe it would be best for her to do something else, seeing as she probably wouldn’t be able to write a single word tonight. And so she caved in to the filly’s demands. Her career had gone downhill the last year, for reasons she couldn’t understand. Ever since her last book, she’d been unable to put anything coherent down on paper, and failed deadline after deadline, shifting between publishers the way one shifts between day and night. But nopony wanted her works anymore. A writer unable to write. “Okay, then...” She whispered as she turned to face the young filly next to her. “But they’re Alicorns, not…” Her voice died down slowly. There was no filly to be found in the room. No trace that she’d ever been there. The broken writer drew in a deep breath in a futile attempt to hold her tears back. She wasn’t there. Her daughter wasn’t there. She never talked to her. With tears streaming down her cheeks, Flying Free slouched down over the desk, sobbing into the paper she was working on. Didn’t care about it anymore. A miserable wreck of a mare. Once again, the candle flickered and died. The shadows made their move, pushing themselves into her without hesitation. She let them. “… They’re not… angels…” If only they were.