Amazing Grace

The darkness encircled me. Its torturous, enslaving claws ripped at my face, my heart, my soul until I cried out in anguish. The heavy darkness was seeping into me until I could no longer distinguish between myself and it. It settled on my heart, weighing it down with grief and guilt. An endless, eternal horror. I knew that was what was in store for me. The darkness told me so. It made sure that I could no longer feel hope.

Wisps of the black smoke encircled me. The sounds of sadistic laughter echoed around us, silent though it may have been. The darkness was taunting me.

“You have no reason to live,” the words danced dully in my head. “There is nothing for you to look forward to in life. You have no one to love you, no one that cares about you.”

“That’s…that’s not true,” I tried to struggle against this terrible darkness that was holding me captive. “I have friends, and family.”

“Your friends don’t truly care,” it taunted. “They spread falsehoods about you when you know not.”

A puff of black formed a circle in front of me, and suddenly, I could see the images of three of my friends. They were gossiping, as per their usual. But a gasp rose up in my throat.

“Esther’s such a moron,” one said. Both of the others laughed cruelly as they agreed.

“That can’t be true,” I whispered. “My friends…they wouldn’t.”

“Oh, but they did. And continue to do so,” that voice reverberated through my mind.

“But, my family,” I feigned bravery.

“You have no family,” the darkness replied simply.

I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the voice. But it continued to laugh.

“You are a wretch Esther,” it told me. “And you belong to me. You are a child of the dark.”

“No!” I cried. “I won’t.”

“You have no choice in the matter. You are a sinner, and sinners belong to me,” it said, a strange note of pleasure in its voice.

“But I-” I began feebly, stopping suddenly when I noticed that the darkness was beginning to assume a form.

“Only the good God above can save you now, I’m afraid,” the darkness stood before me looking like a shadow of a human man. He shook his head, leaving trails of smoke as he moved.

I could try praying, I thought. Prayer was a relatively foreign thing to me. I hadn’t done it since I was a child in Sunday school. But it was worth a shot.

Please God, deliver me. Save me from this evil, I prayed silently. I don’t want to be a sinner; a wretch. I don’t want this darkness to overtake me. Please help me…

“Praying?” the shadow man mocked, his back facing me. “How infantile. You are mine now, child. It is the path you have chosen. You are the reason for your own undoing. And nothing can help you now.”

But I had stopped listening to him moments before. I was straining to hear beyond his sneering voice. There was something here. Something besides the darkness and I.


*Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.*


I gasped. I recognized what I heard. It was a song, a hymn.

“What is that?” the shadow man whipped around to face me. “That…noise.”


*I once was lost, but now I’m found.*


“Stop,” commanded the shadow man. His eyes darted around the room, searching for the source of the music.


*Was blind but now I see.*


And then, in a sense, I saw. This music; this worship of God, was destroying the hold the darkness held on me.

“Amazing grace,” I began to sing quietly. The music beyond me was strengthening. “How sweet the sound.”

“You may not sing!” the shadow man strode up to me and gripped my forearms. But he had not been touching me for a second before he yelped in pain and released me.

“That saved a wretch like me,” I continued, looking down at my arms in amazement. I was radiating a pure white glow from the tips of my fingers. “I once was lost, but now I’m found,” the glow grew brighter with every passing word. “Was blind but now I see.”

The white glow had consumed my full body. The shadow man had been cowering in a corner, but as soon as he saw the puzzled look on my face, he transformed back into his original form; a dense, inky blackness that covered the majority of the room.


*Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.*


I knew what I had to do. The hymn urged me on. Taking a deep breath, I summoned my strength and stepped into the midst of the darkness.

The room reverberated with the darkness’s cries of agony. The white rays of light pierced every corner, destroying the darkness


*I once was lost, but now I’m found.*


The darkness writhed as the last of it was destroyed by the light.

“Gone in a puff of smoke,” I muttered, laughing slightly.

In my newly found view of the room, I could clearly see a door. Taking one last look at where the darkness, my darkness, had been I firmly gripped the doorknob and turned. The door offered no resistance.

My face cracked into a wide smile. I could hear the last strains of the hymn Amazing Grace fading into the walls. Where the song had come from, I could only guess. But it had saved me, and for that I would be forever thankful.

I stepped through the door, and humming Amazing Grace softly, I shut it behind me.