In The Dark

by Kate England

Darkness. The Void. All That is Not.

When you’re a being of ultimate darkness, whose very existence is the antithesis of life and color, there aren’t many people who want anything to do with you.

Well, there’s the crazies. Aren’t there always the crazies?

Teens who listen to a little too much death metal sacrificing chickens while listening to Korn, or entire civilizations who built pyramids all around blood sacrifice to keep him appeased. As if the contents of a George Ramero movie was of interest to him. He’s Darkness, for fuck’s sake, he doesn’t need your blood. Give it a rest.

But there was always someone who assumed that because nothing could survive in the vacuum of space, that he enjoyed killing and blood.

Idiots.

Another opinion that didn’t make him incredibly popular. And then there were those who assumed he was evil and would take up noble quests to destroy him. As if.

He had to shake his heads at Knights of the Eternal Flame of Enoch. One of that order had set himself on fire to “keep out the darkness,” which pretty much summed up his thoughts on the matter.

Morons.

All told, he was fine with never interacting with anyone, gods or mortals.

Which was all the more surprising when he got her voicemail, asking him out for waffles. He’d never had waffles.

He’d long since given up texting, since he always screwed it up. But Google’s voice-to-text had come a long way.

“Ok, Google.” he said, his voice was soft, but his phone chirped to life.

“What time should I pick you up?” he asked, and then hit SEND. He felt foolish, almost giddy. He tried not to look in the direction of his phone, and just focused on existing. Spreading the vast nothingness as far as he –

-DING-

I’ll pick YOU up, darlin’. See you at 10 😉

Google read the text for him, and he played it back a few times.

Sounds good. He sent back. And it did.

And now all there was to do was wait. Which was something he was really good at. He had waited for millennia before creation and would be waiting long after everything had ended. But suddenly it was harder. Much harder. He wanted to do something that wasn’t simply existing.

He wanted waffles. Waffles with her.

Time passed, and for the first time in eternity it seemed to take forever. And he knew what forever felt like. He was forever. He was the cold dark of eternity.

And then he saw her pulling up. Rays of light piercing the veil of his realm, and colors he’d never known existed melted all over the landscape he’d never seen. He put on his sunglasses. But it didn’t stop the warmth spreading through him – it felt so alien, but also… lovely.

She stepped out of her car and smiled at him. He had to shield his eyes.

“You look radiant,” he said. “But everyone tells you that.”

She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, and his heart fluttered in his chest.

“I always love to hear it,” she said. “You ready to go?”

He hesitated, but only for a moment.

“I can’t wait.”