Twister of Darkness

1.

      It was probably not a very foggy morning for me. Out of some kind of fright, shortness of breath haunted me, as if I had been running non-stop for several hours. And here’s what’s strange: there was no fatigue as such; on the contrary, there was a feeling that my body, after a long time, finally had a well-deserved rest. There have been a lot of sleepless nights lately.       Ahead could be seen a row of private dilapidated houses with vegetable gardens, sheds and everything else. It cannot be said that this area was unfamiliar to me, since, when I was very little, I passed here more than once with my parents on the way to the dacha. “That’s right, they were getting water over there,” I looked at the other side of the road, passing opposite the “well.” It’s hard to call it such, because it looked more like a sewer made of tires with water not suitable for drinking. Frankly speaking, the water there was also not first class.       I had no desire to linger on the road: in addition to the feeling of nostalgia, everything connected with this place caused serious anxiety. Suddenly, silently, which was wonderful for our old gate, someone opened the door from the inside. There was such an unreliable hook there, and as soon as I decided to lift it, the door opened at an angle without my help. I really started to be drawn there. No, literally delay!       I didn’t even have time to take a step to go inside when a black hand, or something similar to it, without characteristic outlines, grabbed me. I wanted to close my eyes in surprise, scream, or at least pull back my own hand. Nothing like that followed my thoughts further. Sharply raising my head to the object, which was already a few centimeters from my face, I concluded that it was something similar to the shadow of a person approximately my height. She had no face, nor any visible clothing — just blackness, darkness, formal darkness. — the last word now suited the creature just right. This something leaned towards my ear and advised in a worried, completely human boyish voice: — We need to get out of here as soon as possible!       I just glanced askance at the alarmed shadow, not yet feeling the fear of the unknown. Intrusive curiosity grew, and I didn’t want to wake up at all.       A moment later, there were even more questions. Two shadows approached us, similar to the first, only a little higher, and with even brighter light in their eye sockets. I forgot to say right away that they all had eyes like hypnotizing light points — one was human-sized, others were much larger. The shadow guy (we’ll call him that) immediately moved away from all of us at a decent distance, to the porch of the house, watching the others. They tried in every possible way to establish close contact with me: they came too close, touched my hair, the sleeves of my jacket with their hands, and took my hands. — noʎ̿ ̒ɹőɟ͠ ͝ƃuı̐ʇıɐͅʍ ǝ͝ɹɐ͛ ǝʍ — the taller one stammered.       “What, what?”. — ˙sǝ͊ɹɐɯ̋ʇɥƃıu͗ ̑ůı ̾ʁ̊ƍǝɯ ͘ǝ͝ʌɐ͒ǝ̿l̈ llı͛ʍ́ ̌ɐẅq̍ɯͅ — said the second one, threw his hand on my shoulder and led me along the path towards our small shed.       The shadows said incomprehensible things, either in a language unknown to me, or simply in attempts to push lumps of their inner darkness out of their throats, I don’t know. Having walked a little further forward, I began to catch the gaze of three more creatures, eagerly looking in my direction: one stood by a stump, the other two next to a cherry bush. They slowly, in the creepiest way, tilted their heads to the side.       As expected, they took me exactly to the barn at the end of the summer cottage. A little tense was the fact that the clots of darkness did not want to come close to him, as if they were afraid of something. At such moments you ask the question: what could be the subject of fear of something that in itself causes fear? However, one creature was still an exception, because it was sitting right on the roof of the barn, swinging its legs over the doorway. Even though there was nothing on their face except eyes, in place of a mouth I drew an incredulous smile in my head. It was clearly excited, as if expecting something unprecedented. I felt a little uneasy.       Finally, when we came very close to the barn, the creature pushed me forward and disappeared into the distance. “If this is some kind of sacrifice or party foolishness, I’m not going to participate in it!” — Before I had time to think about it, my legs immediately stopped obeying me. Maybe you know, maybe you don’t… This is the feeling in a dream, when you slowly move from a normal dream to a lucid one, with the ability to speak and move freely, only on the contrary: you are deprived of this very freedom of action. This is what annoyed me for the next minute.       Instead of the usual tiny place, I saw something like a closed, abandoned parking lot. There were even more glowing eyes inside the room. They were getting closer.       Now I’m on their territory.       “Run!”, — I immediately remembered the warning of the first creature that met me, “He said that you need to run as quickly as possible!” I had just come to my senses and turned towards the door, when creatures with some force quickly began to push me deeper into the darkness. I was lucky that I managed to break free for a split second, make a jerk and grab the doorway, although this was of little use. A whole crowd of monsters had already gathered on the street, eager for the end of the nightmare. Among them, I recognized the same guy who was looking around cautiously. — Let go! Who did I tell?! I don’t like this at all!       It became warm and pleasant from the Darkness wandering throughout my body. — I don’t… like it, — my hands loosened their grip and were ready to treacherously let go of the opening. — What is this! — the creature exclaimed irritably and helped me get out, as if without making any effort.       After that, the silence seemed even more dead. Some of them stared at me, others hurried to leave as quickly as possible. The guy, cursing quietly, splashed out information about Darkness, vision and danger that was incomprehensible to me until tomorrow. From the first minutes of the story about this, the difference between the beginning of sleep before entering the barn and after became significantly noticeable: it was getting dark; It seemed to me that the clouds had thickened, but there were… them in the sky. All just as frightening and mysterious. — L-look up! What the hell is this?! — I was scared and could not take my eyes off the “tangles” of creatures in the sky.       By “plexuses” I mean the way they connected their limbs with each other, forming strange clumps, with bodies barely visible there. Some contacted in groups of four or a little less, but mostly these were large groups. The guy tried to convey something else important to me, but everything he said fell on deaf ears.       But then something happened that plunged me into complete horror. Since childhood, I have been afraid of hurricanes, tornadoes and all that other stuff, although I have never encountered these phenomena in real life. And imagine how the Darkness in the distance forms this very Tornado. They demolished everything in their path, which is not at all surprising. — sǹ p̕ǝ́ʇd͘nɹɹ͝ ǝ͋ʇ͒u͠ı͌ n͌oʎ! — the guys remaining here, less than a dozen of them, screamed in anger. Their mood was definitely not friendly towards the two of us. — Run to your car! “I can handle it,” he helped me up and began to speak to his brothers in their native language.       “What? I seemed to have gotten better on foot,” in confusion, I ran out through the gate and saw our old car, battered by life. Because of the dark, for some reason broken glass, it was impossible to see who was sitting there. But I didn’t really have a choice, so I had to take my place in the back seat.       The car immediately started moving. — What are you doing here? Why did you come? — as it turned out, my family was here. There was no answer to my question. We drove in silence. After some time, I decided to check how things were in the sky. Turning around and leaning my elbows on the pillow above, I watched the Tornado, so rapidly approaching here. When I was still on the street, he was three kilometers away, if not more! An idea came to my mind: open the window and listen to see if the Darkness was screaming anything, but as soon as I reached out to the window regulator, all the windows instantly cracked. The fragments scattered throughout the cabin, hitting my brother and mother, who was sitting behind the wheel. I probably did too, but I didn’t feel it. — Are you okay?! — Leaning closer to them, I staggered and returned to my place, clinging to the chair as tightly as possible, because both of their bare arms and heads were bleeding from the many fragments that had flown there. The mother’s only reaction to what was happening was manifested in heavy breathing and pressing harder on the gas pedal. No matter how we rushed, the destructive Tornado from Darkness was faster. Eventually they caught up with us. As soon as I realized that the car was rising up, I closed my eyes and covered my head with my hands. A bright flash, ringing in the ears and the incomprehensible muttering of those creatures speaking as if inside the head.

2.

      Even in my dream, I heard my brother’s screams coming to me behind the closed door. He finally woke me up, continuing to grumble displeasedly already in the room. — What’s the matter? — I muttered dissatisfiedly and buried my head in the blanket. — Get up, Mish! I called so many times, but you are always unavailable. Is it so difficult to always keep it on sound? I had to go get a spare key to open the door. — But you’re already here. Why shout? — Sorry for interrupting our sweetheart’s dreams. Get up, mother will arrive soon.       As soon as Vlad said about dreams, today’s nightmare began to take shape in my head, piece by piece. It flashed in my memory only in small fragments, but with every second it became clearer and clearer. — Mom, you say, is coming? I’d better go then. — You can’t always avoid topics that are uncomfortable for you, and especially with your parents, — he sighed heavily and, going to the window, parted the curtains.       It was already evening.       As soon as my brother left, I sat down on the edge of the sofa, putting on my pants and at the same time collecting my thoughts in one pile.

***

      I finally managed to come to my senses only when surprisingly cold air hit me in the face, blowing my windbreaker in different directions. It was summer outside, but the impression was that it was the middle of chilly November.       I’ll be honest with you, my life is not a fairy tale. I’m not the main character of a popular teen novel. I can’t tell you about those same friends who are ready to stand up for me. And for some reason, everyone as one tells me, as if they had agreed, that there is something wrong in my head. But it has always been like this. Everything “strange” in this life is always the most ordinary things, so familiar that they should be accepted without question. Without a doubt, the words I have spoken will not be entirely clear to those who have only known me for a couple of days. Or maybe a week. Or maybe even all my life. Take Lisa, for example. — Hello? Hello?! Can you hear me well? — the girl shouted, adjusting the microphone.       We video call her if we find time. Previously, we talked almost every day, but as the years go by, one of us doesn’t find time in her busy schedule for a friend, and the other doesn’t have enough energy, and sometimes she doesn’t see the point in retelling the latest news of the week to the screen. Much to my surprise, there was a lot to talk about today. — Don’t shout, everything is okay. — Well, that’s wonderful! How are you there? — Quietly, as usual.       Further, our conversation from empty, uninterested questions addressed to me turned into a monologue by Lisa, in which she, waving her arms, very emotionally boasted about her love affairs during her studies. What didn’t I hear from her: she spoke mockingly about the young teacher who bestowed an indecent amount of compliments on her, about the silent quiet man who also followed on her heels — in general, boring nonsense, as for me. “Do you really like talking about this so much?” I thought and smiled at my friend, sometimes nodding or inserting short comments. It’s a little base and disgusting, but it’s not customary to judge friends for the characteristics of their character. — You know, Liz, today I had such a terrible dream…       She looked at me questioningly and fell silent, waiting for the story. — In fact, I vaguely remember how it ended. There was a huge tornado of something dark, and something that looked like people was intertwined in the air into a single whole. — And how often do you dream about black men? — The creatures had bright white dots instead of eyes, and they also spoke an incomprehensible language and tried to drag me into my grandmother’s barn. Well, at that dacha, remember?       Lisa was typing something on her smartphone. She asked to wait a minute. — Found it! The dream book says that a tornado means future changes and travel. — Well, wow, — I said skeptically, — it’s about time for them. — Of course, you look at you and it’s immediately clear. — And what is wrong?       She probably didn’t want to offend me in any way and was referring to my tired appearance. Be that as it may, Lisa continued: — And it also says about the barn, listen. You feel a certain tension in the relationships between yourself and others. Failures and nervous breakdowns are also possible. — You know that I don’t believe in that. — But last time we didn’t make a mistake with the varnish we dreamed about, remember?!” So it’s always better to play it safe. — As you say.       My friend and I discussed our plans for the near future for a little while and agreed to meet soon. But there was no point in this: no matter how many times we negotiate, no one ever arrives first. Only in words it will happen soon, but… — I have to go, — I said and turned off the call.       It was almost dark outside and everyone who was sitting next to me on the benches was slowly leaving. This darkness reminded me of one shadow from a dream, unlike the others. I didn’t tell Liza anything about the guy, and he somehow flew out of my head, although now he doesn’t come out of there at all. “What was it anyway? The dream seems to foreshadow something new and therefore terrible. Maybe Lisa was right about something not going according to plan soon?       I didn’t want to go home at all.

🎵 ZHS “The pain of the whole world”