𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐞𝐫

Shadows and Whispers

 Darkness.

 It was everywhere.

 Deep, infinite, swirling blackness.

 Under my feet was silent, rippling black water. I took a step, and the darkness seemed to shift, like smoke. There wasn't a noise to be heard. The absolute silence was suffocating.

 My heart pounded slowly, but strongly, in my chest. I looked around me, hoping to find some way out of this place... I raised a hand in front of my face. It was so pale it looked skeletal as I moved my fingers. My throat bobbed. Where was I now?

 This didn't feel like Somnium.

 It wasn't magical, and it didn't have the same allure. It was dark and heavy, and seemed to want to swallow me whole. Goosebumps rose along my neck, and a shiver scurried down my spine.

 A sudden faint splash sounded in the distance and had me turning my head in the direction it had come from. The silence returned, and I waited, my blood pulsing.

 Then, a sound.

 A sob.

 Then another.

 "Hello?" I whispered, my muscles locking tight. The sobbing continued. It was such a horribly sorrowful, raw sound. I looked around again, trying to figure out where it was coming from.

 But it was everywhere. All around me.

 As if it were within the darkness. Part of it.

 White light flared ahead, so far away it looked like just a speck. My heart started beating faster, and I took another step forward, towards that light. It was pure, like a piece of fallen starlight in a sea of blackness.

 Something told me it was important. Maybe it would lead me out.

 Or maybe I was dead and was now walking into the light.

 I really hoped it wasn't the latter.

 One foot in front of the other, I walked towards that light. The sobbing  in the background kept growing, louder and louder, until the sound seemed to consume me, making it difficult to draw breath. I needed to get away. I needed to get out.

 My slow pace shattered as I broke into a sprint, running towards the light. The shadows seemed to pull at me and try to drag me back, their grip growing stronger with every step. The sobbing was so loud now I swore it reverberated in bones, my skull.

 That light was my only way out. It had to be.

 And I was so close.

 The flare of white seemed to get bigger, until it became a bright, blazing pillar of pure energy. I was so close, when the crying abruptly stopped. The silence returned like a clap of thunder, somehow feeling louder than any sound. I froze in my tracks. There was rustling in the distance. And whispers. Whispering voices speaking of sorrows I would never understand. Then came the voice.

  It was dark and soothing, but cold as ice. And it whispered in my ear.

 "You do not belong here, little bird," it said. "Do not come back."

 The ground beneath my feet caved, and I fell into a pit of darkness.

_____________

 My eyes wrenched open as I sat up, ramrod straight.

 I brought a hand to my chest, to calm my heart which felt ready to shoot straight out of my body. 

Breathe.

 Calming myself took a minute, but I managed it quickly enough. The sun was setting over the ocean, and I was lying on a pile of blankets on the docks.