Dark As Night

Dark As Night1

"Why do they never stop working, Daddy?" Pandora asked her father, as she gazed up at the blue sun that hovered above the slaves2

"They will stop when the sun goes down," Pandora's father replied as he added blue fire to the sun.3

"But the sun never goes down."4

"Exactly."5

Pandora walked among the slave as she watched them work. "What do you want, girl?" a slave near her asked.6

"Oh!" she said. "I was just..."7

"Just watching us work under the hot sun while you get to rest. We work day after day, not that we can tell the difference. We get no sleep, no rest. We slave away under this sun so that we might please the slavemster, so that he will bring night to us. Our eyes water and tear. We are so tired, yet sleep will not come with that damned sun above us. So, we work. We work so that it will go down, and we may finally have the rest that we are deprived of."8

"But why?" Pandora asked. "Why do you work for something that will never come to be?"9

The slave grunted, as if he was asking himself that same question. "We hope that if we work hard enough, we will be able to go home."10

"Home?" Pandora asked curiously. 11

"Yes. There is a world apart from this one, where the sun rises and sets, and sleep comes easily."12

"Tell me more..."13

"PANDORA!" Pandora's father called.14

Pandora turned to the slave. "I'll be back."15

"Mom, Daddy," Pandora asked at dinner. "Is there a world where the sun sets?"16

"Oh, yes," Pandora's mother said. "You remember the stories I used to tell you."17

"I thought those were just stories."18

"Oh, no," Pandora's father said. "They are very real." 19

"Will I ever be able to see this world?" Pandora asked.20

Her father pondered for a moment. "Maybe one day, but not before you're ready for the evils that lie there."21

Pandora became enchanted by the slave's stories of this other world. Every day, she would bring water, and listen to his tales of something called "night." He told her that night was the time when the sun disappeared below the horizon. He tried to describe darkness to her, but she just couldn't grasp the concept of it. When they were done talking, the slave asked Pandora what it was that kept the sun burning, but Pandora refused to say. Her father's secrets were not hers to tell.22

The slave told her of beautiful things of the night. He told her of tiny pinpricks of light called stars that filled the sky when the sun went down. He told her of creatures called wolves that howled to something called the moon, which was supposed to be like a miniature sun that was not as bright, and of crickets that accompanied the wolves' song. One again he asked Pandora the sun's secret, and once again, she refused to tell.23

The day came when Pandora heard the last tale from the old slave. He told her of shadows, that were images without features cast on the ground when the sun was in different places in the sky. He told her of evil living shadows with blood red eyes that went around killing innocents, and keeping others from sleep. He told of saviors, who went around stopping the shadows.24

"We are those saviors," he said, looking out at the other slaves. "We were mistaken for the shadows, and now we must endure the torment they place on others, while those above endure it as well. I beg of of you, tell me the Slavemaster's secret to the sun."25

Pandora hesitated. She hated the thought of her father making a mistake, but hated even more the thought of innocents being punished for no reason. She agreed to bring the slave a bit of the sun's fire.26

Getting the fire her father used to recharge the sun proved more difficult than Pandora could have imagined. She obviously had to wait until he was asleep, but sleep never came easily when the burning blue sun was tormenting you overhead. After three days, her father finally went to sleep, and Pandora managed to get some of the fire.27

She brought the fire to the slave, filled with excitement. She wanted to know what darkness would be like. The blue fire turned red the moment it touched the slave's hands. He smiled, and hurled it at the sun. It hit it's mark, and the sun turned red, and began to go down.28

Pandora felt a wave of nervousness as she saw the sun go down. What would it be like not having that bright blue ball in the sky? Little did she know that that wouldn't be her problem for long.29

Pandora looked at the slaves, and her smile turned into a frown. They were all losing their form, becoming less solid... and their eyes... their eyes were blood red.30

Pandora called out, trying to wake her father, but the darkness only made him sleep deeper. She looked at the old slave she had "helped."31

"Thank you," the slave, who was now a shadow-thing, cackled evilly. "You don't know what you've done for us."32

As the shadow-things soared through the sky, back to the world they once terrorized, Pandora sat on the ground, and sobbed.33

End34