It was at the edge of her vision. Amber felt stupid, because she couldn't even see what she was afraid of. Whenever she tried to look at what was moving, she could only see a dark hole in the wall, or perhaps a dark shadow. But when she looked away, she could see something move in the blackness. She never heard anything. Just a slight nudge at the edge of her vision—not enough to make her certain she saw anything, but enough to make her crazy.
She didn't really get scared of these visions, though, until one day at her then-boyfriend's house. They had been upstairs, saying sweet things to each other and making out. Then, the shadows in the room seemed to move.
"What's wrong?" her boyfriend said. She could still remember his concerned face, and the way his right hand held her shoulder softly. "It's another of those panic attacks, right?"
"The shadows. Turn on the lights, Brandon," Amber said. She remembered her heart beating fast.
"Listen. There's nothing to be afraid of. It's just shadows," said Brandon. He wrapped his arms around her, and drew her close. "I'll keep you safe."
He drew her in for a kiss. But then Amber saw the shadows rush into her vision, and she couldn't see. She screamed hysterically, and accidentally scratched Brandon.
"Damnit, Amber! I'm trying to help you!" Brandon said.
"Just go, please," Amber said. Brandon walked away in a huff. He was angry, and Amber knew he had the perfect right to be. She was a mess.
Then the lights turned off. Amber reached for the light switch, but after flicking it on and off, couldn't see any light.
"Brandon? This isn't funny," said Amber.
No response.
Then the darkness begin to recede. Fingers of darkness unwrapped around the room, revealing the lamp's light, as well as Brandon's body on the floor. Amber checked for a pulse. There was none.
Brandon was just the first victim. The shadow took her father next. Everyone said it was a stroke, but Amber had been there when the darkness swept through her father's room, leaving a lifeless corpse. Her best friend Mandy had been the third. Josh. Ben. Ozzie. The list of names was burned in Amber's brain. Eventually, she just stopped having friends. She knew there was whispers of her as the "weird one", as an antisocial screw-up who might have killed her boyfriend. She didn't care—as far as she was concerned, she was saving their lives.
Despite her mother's protest, Amber decided not to go to college. It was the best way to keep her from coming into contact with people. She did a simple job at McDonald's, until the customer who would always chat her up disappeared in the woman's bathroom after a mysterious blackout. Now Amber worked at home. Her electric bill for the light was always high, and she had her groceries taken to her, but she was able to survive.
She was typing at her computer, when her doorbell rung. She ignored it. No one she cared about knew where she lived, and she didn't really care for new friends.
The door bell rung again, two times in a row.
"Go away," said Amber. She shook her head at whoever was trying to get in. Probably a telemarketer.
As she looked back at the screen, the black text shimmered and seemed to jump out at her. She screamed and jumped away from the screen.
Her door was kicked open. Inside came a man with a leather jacket and black hair. He ran up to her with a concerned look. "What's going on?"
"Nothing," said Amber. She was embarrassed, not just because she had been caught screaming, but because she was still susceptible to the Black. Years of years of meditation and building herself up, and she could still be brought down to a simpering wreck.
The man's eyes were searching deep into hers. He said "It isn't nothing. I know when humans are just spooked. But you're not just scared. You were frightened beyond your wits just now, like the boogeyman himself came through your door." The man looked back at the broken splinters of wood he had just made, and scratched his head. "Speaking of which, sorry about the door."
Now that the fear had gone down, Amber saw the damaged door, and nearly punched the smiling idiot in front of her. "How dare you come rushing in here! Do you realize how much that'll cost me?"
The man took on an offended expression. "Of course I don't know. I'm the Doctor, not the Accountant." This "Doctor" wagged his finger at the girl. "Typical humans. You come to tell them "Happy Halloween" and try to save their life, and they complain about the bill."
Amber was about to tell the Doctor where to stuff his "Happy Halloween" (she hadn't even realized today was the holiday), when the shadow from the desk began to sway.
"Oh no. It's starting," said Amber. "You need to leave, Doctor."
The Doctor instead looked around the room, and said "What do you see?"
"The shadows are moving. The Black's twisting just outside my blind spot," Amber sputtered out. Her body felt cold with fright. "You need to leave. Or it'll take you like it took the others." She already knew he would be staring at her like she was a loon, but she had to warn him.
Instead of looking at her like she was crazy, the Doctor was instead examining her with an intense concentration. She saw him reach into his pocket (the darkness in the folds of the pockets slithered in and out) and take out a small metal wand. "What others? Have these shadows shown up before?" asked the Doctor.
"Yes, they've shown up before!" shouted Amber. "They show up every time I get close to someone. They've plagued me for my whole life, killed almost everyone I love, and will kill you too! I know you don't believe me, but you have to leave!" The Black was covering the room, and oozing off the Doctor's jacket.
"Please, take off the jacket," said Amber. To her surprise, he didn't ask why—he just threw it off. It fell into the darkness, and was swallowed up. "I'll have to find a new apartment. Maybe I got too comfortable."
The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "That's why you won't answer the door. You're scared of these shadows."
The shadows was now covering the light from the lamp.
The Doctor continued "Listen. You can't keep running from this thing. I don't know you, but I do know what's it like to be scared. Whatever these things are, they've done quite a number on you. You don't even answer your door—on the day when everyone answers their door. I'll help you stop them."
The darkness suddenly swooped over the Doctor. Amber stared helplessly, knowing she would have to add another to the list of victims.
Then a hand reached out from the darkness, and dragged her in.
Amber yanked out of the hand's grasp, and tried to run. She couldn't see in front of her face through the darkness. Her room seemed far away, and she was just walking through shadows. Her feet slipped, and she found herself falling through a ground that no longer seemed tangible. The hand grabbed her again, and pulled her up.
Amber found herself face-to-face with the brown eyes of the Doctor, which were illuminated by the glow from his wand. He was muttering to himself "Oh yes, Doctor. Go on a stroll on Halloween night. Nothing could go wrong. Bloody fantastic." He focused on Amber, and said "We're in the belly of the beast now. Whatever has been pestering you hides in here."
Amber shivered. The darkness circled the glow of the wand, making it blink in and out. "Then why are we in here with it!"
"Would you rather hide for the rest of your life?" snapped the Doctor. "Here, we might be able to get some answers. Tell me, how did you first meet the shadow?"
"I never had a first meeting," said Amber. "All I remember is always being afraid of the shadow in the edge of my eyesight. And one day, they began to move. I always had boogeymen hiding under my bed when I was young—it's just that my boogeymen ended up being real."
The Doctor fiddled with his wand, and it began to glow with even brighter light. Soon, Amber saw a room—but it wasn't her apartment. Now, it was her childhood room. Amber saw the old toys she would always play with, the teddy bear she used to keep; even the place where she hid her journal back then.
"I haven't seen this place since I was young," she said.
"I don't think that's a coincidence," said the Doctor. "I think that you've been used as a conduit."
A window opened up with a slam. Cold air rushed into Amber's face, and made the Doctor's hair rustle a little.
"What do you mean?"asked Amber. She closed the window, and tried not to notice the writhing shadows outside.
"Imagine how scared you must have been as a little girl in a big, dark room. All that unknown space. Minor movements of dust suddenly seem like the hints of horrific monsters. Now, most of the time, young girls grow out of that phase. And you did," said the Doctor. Scanning the shadows with his wand, he continued "But a scared little girl's got a lot of emotion. And there are creatures that exist only on the emotional plane, just like we're on a physical plane. I think one of them latched onto you when you were young. I think they're using you as a way to effect this universe."
The window flew open again. The room upstairs began to creak quietly.
"That's why they won't kill me. Because they need me," said Amber. "But why? Why kill my friends, or make them disappear? What did I do?"
"Maybe they need food. Or...I really don't know. Those creatures don't quite think in the same terms we do. Maybe they're feeding on your distress," said the Doctor.
"How do I stop them?" said Amber.
"I'm still working on it. Don't worry, I'll have a brilliant plan eventually," said the Doctor, grinning. Amber wasn't amused.
Glass from the window shattered onto Amber and the Doctor. The wood of the ceiling broke open, and shadows so thick they looked like oil to Amber seeped through.
"I think they're getting angry," said Amber. She yanked the Doctor out the way of the shadows, which swallowed up the bed. Bizarrely, the Doctor jumped up and grabbed the teddy bear out of the way of the shadows.
"You're an idiot," said Amber, smiling despite herself.
With one teddy bear in his arm, he waved his glowing wand at the darkness. Another blast of wind from the window knocked the wand out of his hand.
"Oh, now you're not even playing fair," complained the Doctor to the rapidly self-destructing house.
The room was blasting to pieces. Under the holes in the floor was just blank air. On the other hand the holes in the wall showed what Amber recognized as the street where she lived on. Amber peeked up, and saw an odd...flying thing above. This place was built from her subconscious fears, and since she had finally decided go try to face her fears, it seemed like the shadows were getting furious. Amber suddenly had an idea.
"This thing runs off my emotions, right?" pointed out Amber. "Maybe if I give them a different emotion, it'll stop them."
The Doctor's eyes opened wide. "Yes! You're fantastic, Amber. Here, take the teddy bear!"
Amber took it. "Now what?"
"You brought these things out by your fears of what lurks in the dark. Now think of the light. Think of what lurks in the sun. Don't think about the shadows. Focus on the teddy in your hand, and what that represents to a child. Call out to the light. And do it quick, because it's starting to get windy." The Doctor could barely be heard over the wind.
Amber closed her eyes and focused. She ignored the sound of the wind, and the darkness all around, and chills down her spine. She thought about teddy bears, and security, and being tucked in bed, and the warm sun on her face, and Brandon, and how he looked when he was cold and lifeless-
A crash caused her to open her eyes. The Doctor was hanging on a ledge. Amber moved to pick him up, but he waved her away. "Keep on focusing! Doctor's orders!" he said.
She closed her eyes, and focused on light. She focused on warmth, and on sunny days. She remembered playing in the field of a park in summer, and how good it felt to wake up to the first day's rays after a rare good night's sleep.
And then she felt something answer back.
Light pierced through her eyes. She opened them, and saw light climbing through the walls. Yellow light snaked around her room, and her walls and ceiling rebuilt themselves. The floor slowly slotted into place, and she could hear the buzzing of insects outside . She jumped when she saw something moving in the light.
Then she was back in her apartment. The Doctor was on the bed, lying down.
"What just happened?" asked Amber. "Is it over?"
"The plan worked. Well, I'm not clear on all the details, but I think you contacted something else from the shadow creatures' dimension. Except these things fed on, or were made of, happy emotions. Not too surprising, really. Where there's darkness, there's light," said the Doctor, smiling.
"You act like you had this plan from the beginning," said Amber.
"If anyone asks, I did," said the Doctor conspiratorially.
Another ring came from the door. Amber opened the door slowly, and saw a blonde girl looking around sheepishly.
"Is there a Doctor here?" said the girl.
"Ah, that'll be my cue. Time to go trick-or-treating," said the Doctor. "You know, Amber, you can come with me and Rose. I wouldn't mind an extra companion."
Amber nearly said yes, but decided against it. "I'm not really ready for that yet." Seeing the Doctor's disappointed expression, she added "Next time."
"You know what? I'll hold you to that," said the Doctor. Grabbing his jacket off the floor, he walked to the door. "Good bye, Amber. And Happy Halloween."
"Good-bye, Doctor. Happy Halloween," said Amber.
Then Amber was alone. She sighed, and flopped onto her bed.
Then the light bulb blew out.
Amber shrieked.
Then she calmed down. Turning her flashlight on, she looked around her room. It looked black.
But that was okay. Amber breathed out a sigh of relief, and laughed.
Because that's all it was. Just darkness, and nothing more.