Between Light and Darkness

[Degorram]

I sat with my back to the cold concrete slab of a bridge support. The concrete flooring that chilled my legs and numbed my butt was soggy in places where the recent rains had leaked through the roof that the bridge above my head created. The steady growl of cars zooming over my head was like a sedative and I stared death-like at the slight vegetation that grew on the side of the interstate at a distance from my shelter. Scraps of newspaper, food wrappers, and other trash floated about in the cross winds that blew off the roads.

 

I sensed movement through my reverie, but didn't look to confirm it. My imagination had told me hundreds of times before now that I wasn't alone, and I had stopped checking. But I couldn't ignore the steady, casual footsteps that were steadily growing louder as they echoed off of the concrete.

 

A shadow stepped in front of the sun's piercing white rays and I squinted, glancing up at the figure there. A tall man stood before me, scrutinizing me in absolute silence. At first I was startled by how thin he was, but the paper-white cheeks were not hollowed. He wasn't starving, like I was. His outfit was simple elegance: long black pants and shirt, all shrouded by a short black dress coat. His shoes were similarly nice looking and the sun glinted off their polished surface. Long, straggly dark hair framed his face and caressed his chest. A pair of full lips and a slightly flat nose adorned the visage, but had an appearance of being diminished by shadow. A ragged top hat was pulled over his eyes; a few small holes could be seen near its top. In his white gloved hands he held a black cane.

 

It didn't take but a few tiny details to give the man a macabre countenance. The wind blew little strings that were attached to his belt around his feet. This same wind blew his hair away from his cheeks. Either painted or tattooed upon the left was a large tear drop, and on the right was a pair of dice that seemed to sprout from the corner of his mouth. His lips were traced and accentuated with dark coloring, the sides turned up in a sardonic smile. The newspapers swirled around his feet.

 

I found my throat refused to make any noise, and even the breath in my chest was arrested as I felt him stare into my very soul with dark eyes that I could not see. His appraising gaze suggested of a pessimistic nature and an even more terrifying rage. In the same leap of imagination I could see him offering to trade my soul or smudging me from the face of the earth with one terrible word.

 

He leaned on his cane and crossed one of his ankles behind the supporting leg. His lips barely moved, but I heard his deep, velvety voice speak to me. His words flowed like liquid in a language I did not know, but the musical quality of the words entranced me. I stared, still dumb in a suspended animation.

 

He crouched before me and held his cane over his knees. Even at a closer distance his eyes were still hidden by the tattered brim of his hat. Again he spoke, the breath of his words making his long hair flutter. My own shaggy locks blew away from my face as he leaned in and chanted against my cheek. By the tone of his voice I felt he was asking me a series of questions.

 

At last my voice cracked into function. "Are you death?" I asked stupidly, eyes dull.

 

The man leaned back on his heels and observed me from that angle. His face did not crinkle into emotion, but I felt I had amused him. "Eeyeh," he said. I did not understand the word, but his attitude bid me know that he had answered in the negative.

 

"Who are you?" All sorts of fantastical ideas had jumped into my imagination already. A demon? A goblin of some sort? Simply a nightmare that I would wake up from? Perhaps a vengeful spirit bored by its own presence.

 

He did not respond but held out one of his sleek, gloved hands to me. Not understanding, not in control of my own body, I watched as my hand joined his own and I stood by his side.

 

The man was much taller than I, and looking up at him I felt I was gazing into the depths of a well, the darkness cast by the brim of his hat never ending. And yet as if he willed it, the shadows disappeared and I stared into his eyes. Lined in dark coloring, like his lips, triangles had been drawn at the bottom and top of his eyes. The resulting effect was the rage I had seen in my mind's eye. Strangely, though, I felt no fear, only resignation.

 

Suddenly before us there was another man. He had come from nowhere, but stared at the man in black with a gaze that I thought was at once as dull as mine and as fierce as the man's beside me. His white shirt and pants fluttered only slightly in the wind, but the strings that hung from his belt blew like grasses around his ankles. His hair was a dark brown that hung into dark brown eyes They were accentuated by a slightly flat nose and full lips. I felt I was looking at an opposite image of the man in black to my left.

 

He spoke, in the same musical language I had hear before, but instead of the dark murmur of the man in black, his voice was full of life and hope and sent thrills through my spine.

 

At his words the man in black cocked his head ever so slightly and tapped my shoulder, questioning the man before us with a phrase that sounded as if it feigned innocence. The darkness had shielded his eyes once more.

 

The man in white nodded softly and answered. "Hai."

 

Again I sensed the amusement of the man in black, but this time it was mixed with a terrible feeling of danger. He patted my shoulder and stepped towards the man in white. At his touch my legs became frozen to the ground. My thoughts of fleeing the conflict disappeared from my mind.

 

The man in black drew close to the man in white and began to circle him, pouring his words into his ears as he had done to me. His breath stirred the other man's hair, and his words were persuasive as well as questioning. The man in white ignored him, unblinking. Unanswered, the man in black became enraged and his movements were quicker, more filled with desire to inflict damage. Yet he did not touch the man except for with his breath. His frightful eyes were once again exposed to pierce him. He breathed raggedly and his questions were filled all the more with hate.

 

At last the man in white stepped into a break in the other' rage and inserted his own voice. Again the hope in his voice and the beautiful melody of his words caressed my spine. There was no trace of frustration or anger in his attitude, just firm reasoning and command. I felt some feeling touch my toes, freeing them from the ice of the demon's touch.

 

The man in black stilled as the man in white spoke and listened, drawing back from his tirade a fraction of an inch. When the other had finished he began to ask another question but was cut off by the man in white, who spoke again with the same tireless patience.

 

Disgusted with the answer, the man in black turned to gaze at me from darkness and turned away. He flung his shoulders, as if tossing a burden off his back, and strode into the darkness.

 

For a moment I met the soft eyes of the man in the white, and then he too was gone. I was completely oblivious to what had transpired between the two men. And yet the sun seemed to be shining a little brighter now. At last on my feet, I turned to face the vegetation at a distance and took a few faltering steps towards it. As I grew used to the movement again, my steps gained confidence until I was on my way again, leaving the area of conflict behind me.

 

 

 

 

Inspired by Libra, by Mucc.

Edited March 26, 2008 by Degorram

[Wyvern]

Nice piece, Dego. :-) I really like the thorough descriptions of the man in black (who I'm guessing represents Darkness for obvious reasons) and the way that you make him a very sly and seductive presence to the narrator. While the man in white's voice may have uplifted the narrator, overall I feel like he left less of an impression and didn't have the persuasive qualities of the man in black, which makes for an interesting statement about forces of light versus forces of darkness. I felt a strong anime influence in certain parts of this story, which I'm sure at least partially had to do with drawing inspiration from that Mucc "Libra" video. :-) Anyway, thanks for sharing it here Degorram!

[Degorram]

Well, honestly I had less to go off of from the video for the man in white, so yes, Light was subdued a little, even though he did win. Thing is, the forces of light don't have to work very hard or make themselves very persuasive to win over the darkness, don't you think?

 

Thanks for commenting Wyv. <3