I wandered that twisted path once. Surrounded by the crooked branches of blankened trees and the tenebrous haze of the night, I wandered, the road ahead clearly defined yet the ending unclear, infinitely obscured. Time passed unknown to me, and eventually the path came to a fork, a jagged division of the path by the gallow limbs of gnarled bodies. One direction led into a stagnant, bleak darkness, a thick shadowy ooze, suffocating and stifling. The other direction leads into light, bright, ardent, burning; the immensity of the heat such that it melts flesh from bone, the glare blinding, the flares sudden and abrupt.
From the undergrowth I heard whispers, dark maledictions, malignant voices on a still wind. Walk into the light - one voice beckoned me with vile tones into the fire - no, walk into the darkness - another voice clawed at my mind to drag me into the void. I stood for a time, a timeless second, an infinite moment of consideration. To choke or to burn because of my choice, or to remain forever lost. I turned to walk back the way I had came, only to find the trees had closed ranks on me, forming a menacing barrier to block my path. From their branches swung the ragged corpses of hanged men who's desperate eyes warned me to run. The darkness laughed, harsh, breathy mirth.
I ran, forgoing the sanctity of the light for the concealment of darkness. As the shadow grew deeper and I descended into my mind, the ground seemed to vanish beneath my feet, the feeling of falling continuously. Suddenly colour erupted from around me, a kaleidoscope of fury, ribbons of energy encircling me like feral, starved wolves. The colour coalesced into one spectral mass, a spectrum of raging power, with a great golden eye in its centre, staring at me, through me, past me. In the darkness I felt naught but fear for the entity, but it emanated a chilling warmth.
Then it spoke. An abyssal maw gaped open beneath its eye, and from it erupted an earthquake bellow. 'Falling child, falling child, falling child - best keep falling else you might run deeper into the dark'. The voice laughed and echoing chuckle then dissapated leaving only the gold of its eye, startling in its clarity against the black but shedding no light. The hideous voice had shuddered out a call of 'Watching you falling child', when suddenly I slammed into the ground. The whispers began again, sounding frantic, frightened, fleeing beyond the tree cover.
I trembled to my feet, my legs shaky, and when I stood I surveyed my surroundings. The whispers stopped. The drums began, a rhythmic thud, thud, thud drawing ever closer. I looked back, and saw the ribbons of colour charging in great swoops through the shadows between the trees. I ran. I ran. I ran. The allegro beat of my feet on the path interspersed with the heavy drumming, and the sick melody of my ragged breaths catching in my chest played out the symphony of a stalked man. The coiling tendrils of the night wrapped around my ankles and wrists, dragging me down, pulling me back into the airless pit. I saw a light.
A clearing, an opening, freedom to the beyond, it was there before me, but just outside of my vision was a great golden eye. I ran, my footfalls, erratic and unsure, tumbled one after the other into the light. I was in a bright clearing, a perfect circle of burned trees centred on a single white flame, tiny and minute, hovering delicately at the top of a short candle. I looked beyond the light and saw the colours dancing menacingly, just past the lit circle. I reached out and took the small dish the candle sat on and raised it carefully.
Now defended by the beacon I walked more confidently, keeping a wide stride but not allowing the candle to blow out. The whispers had become wimpers as the ribbons stroked the edges of the light, retreating from it as if burned. A serpentine hiss lingered behind me at all times as I walked, keeping my face straight ahead of me. I walked, and walked, and walked, unsure of whether the way I was walking was the right way to go, deeper or out of the forest.
I saw an opening where the trees stopped. It led to the side of a road, and past that I could see buildings. I began walking towards it. The candle was burning low and the protective cirlce had shrunk dramatically so now the colours were slamming towards me, stopped only feet from me. Thud, thud, thud, the drumming rang out louder than ever and I began to move faster, faster, faster. Wax spilled from the dish. The candle extinguished.
I saw darkness.
The darkness surrounded me. The darkness held me frozen even as I tried to walk. The darkness consumed me. The ribbons reached out, as if fearing the flame would reappear. When it didn't, they stroked down my arms, down my calves, and around my waist. They spun and wrapped themselves around me. I kept moving, almost at the border to where a street light glowed its dull yellow.
I was at the border. I went to make a jump for it. The ribbons tightened, and pulled. I flew backwards screaming into the night to the sound of drumming and triumphant whispers, and the calling of wolves to an invisible moon.
'Deeper into the dark, come fall with me child.'
I am swinging, backwards and forwards when I see another child. My voice catches in my throat as I try to tell him to just keep running, or to choose the light. My sunken eyes try desperately to point him in the right direction as I swing, forwards and backwards. But the ribbon noose around my neck stills my warnings, and the child flees into the dark.
