The Night
That night. I can recall it very well. I have good Christian parents. They taught me well. A lot of things. Taught me right from wrong, disciplined me when I disobeyed, did not show favoritism to me, loved me for the miracle I am in their lives, and they never stopped loving me.
But one night made my life different from what we might have ever believed. The funny thing was that I was the only person to hear the noise. I am a hard sleeper, but this was a dark point in my life. I was staying awake and then powering through the day, abusing the youthful energy within myself, and, for a guy who disliked the dark, I was strangely feeling comforted by it.
I began to wonder around high school about what it was that was hidden away from me. The forbidden things. A flaw all too many of us are giving into. The dark began to call and whisper. Over here. It wasn't an actual physical voice, rather, it was something felt within. I began to isolate myself from others. I was like the Terminator, so cold and detached, and within something very disturbing locked underneath. I had secrets, my own little world, and nobody existed in it besides me.
Meteors. Never encountered any before in my life. But this one night things, were different. I heard some kind of distant thunder. For some reason that I still cannot comprehend, my mother had not locked the door that night, as in the alarm to our house was not set. It was a simple matter to sneak out. I had perfected this very well. All too well I must confess.
I am scary in how quiet I can be. College-level reading even from a young age. Actually read Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea in one whole day once. True story. I am the quiet guy always in the back of the room. I like that. Feels empowering at times to be invisible.
To be unknown, to almost be perhaps that which might be feared, even if its only my imagination, it actually feels nice, to let in that dark feeling. How I snuck out I still find odd when I think as clearly as I can. It was almost like something was helping me that night. Something dark.
I found my way past traffic, to a place that for some reason was being ignored by everybody else. How come there was an impact site an nobody was taking note of it except me? It was as if I was meant to find the spot.
It was not the biggest of craters, but there was an object in the bottom. It was a small thing, but somehow I could see it despite the fact that it was black. I reached out to wave my hand back and forth to clear the steam and smoke. I suddenly fell back screaming as the flesh burned. My hand! My hand was on fire! Something latched upon my hand and began to crawl to my fingers. It then clamped down on my ring finger upon the left hand. This was a faint perception upon my part for the pain was terrible. Burns are the worst of pain because they so easily reach through the skin to the sensitive muscles, tendons, and nerves underneath. I had suffered small burns from the stove, but never anything severe or close to second-degree burns
This was different. I must have blacked out. Somehow, I jerked awake with a yelp. It was midday. I was in my bed clothed in my sleep shirt and boxer shorts. How had I gotten to there? Last I remembered was… my hand! I jerked the left up with fear. Nothing? No scars or anything? What in the world? I know that last night was not a nightmare. You don't feel nightmares. At least I don't. I never go that deep. But something must have been going on last night because there was something on my left hand. It was a perfect black circle, a thick band that was as solid black as a lightless room. The sunlight seemed to swirl and refract off of it, almost in a smoky effect as if it were the vapors breathed by the sheiks of Saudi Arabia in movies.