May's Workshop Stories

Dark Days

The scariest days are those that start out normal and then suddenly turn into your worst nightmare.

Yesterday was that day.

In the morning, everything was just fine, another dull day of being who I was never meant to be, of following other people's expectations, of living a life that was not my own. Even though it was a sad existence, I was used to it. I accepted it.

Then, in the afternoon, with one tiny thing, everything started changing. How could one seemingly insignificant item change so much in a person's life?

It all started rather innocently, I would say, with a key.

A strange little key suddenly appeared on my keychain. Of course, at the time, I assumed it was just something I had forgotten about, the key so insignificant that it couldn't really mean anything. Yet, I was proven utterly wrong.

Let me go back to when I first found that cursed key.

As I tried to unlock my apartment door that afternoon, I noticed a tiny key that I could have sworn wasn't there when I left the house. However, because of my horrible memory, I ignored it until my roommate returned.

"Tea, did you put this key on my keychain?" I asked her after a while.

"No, why would I? I have my own," she said while a peal of thunder rumbled in the distance.

"It's strange. I don't remember putting it there, yet I must have because it's clearly there now," I said, rubbing my temples that had been pulsating since the afternoon. "I must be getting old."

"That must be it," she said mockingly, as we were both only in our thirties, and getting old was just a running joke between us because we didn't truly feel old. "Anyway, I won't be sleeping here tonight. I am going on a two-day trip."

"Oh," I said dejectedly. "Thanks for letting me know."

"Are you sure you will be okay?" Tea asked, looking through the window at the gathering clouds starting to paint the world black even though the sunset was yet to come.

"I'll be fine," I said hesitantly. "You are my roommate, not my babysitter. I can't expect you to stay home and change your plans because I am foolishly afraid of the thunder."

Truth be told, I didn't think my fear was a foolish one. However, it was strange because I was not afraid of the thunder but what it carried with it. I always felt there was something in the lightning and thunder themselves...something sinister waiting to be released.

Waiting to be fed by our blood.

I quickly shook off the gloomy thoughts and gave Tea my best fake smile that was bound to fool her because she wanted to be fooled. She was eager to convince herself that I was okay when I clearly was not, so that she could go out there and live her life.

"Okay, then call me if you need anything," she said as she started putting her shoes on.

Her tone suggested that she didn't really mean it. It was something you said when you wanted to be the good guy or convince yourself that you were one. Even though you were leaving your roommate behind to hide under the table and imagine the worst-case scenarios that got worse when thunder and lightning played their vicious game outside my window.

"Sure, see you," I said half-heartedly.

"See you," she said, closing the door behind her, leaving me alone, trapped in my fear.

At first, it wasn't so bad as the rumbling was still some distance away, so I tried studying the strange little key to distract myself.

There was something off about it.