Ever since the nightmare, darkness seemed to have lost its appeal to Simba. That cursed nightmare that had plagued Simba for weeks and weeks ever since Hago's death. It was gone now, but the memory still lingered, like a sickening taste in his mouth.
If anyone asked Simba before he first had the nightmare what he thought of the dark, he would have replied that it was great! It was thrilling, exciting, adventurous! Anything could happen in the dark! It was the total opposite of day, where everything in sight was visible and nothing could surprise you. However, when day was absorbed by the night, the world seemed to change. When it was night, things weren't visible, and all too many things could surprise, shock, and even frighten you. The darkness was very unique in that sense. Anything was possible.
However, Simba didn't exactly see all that much excitement in the darkness of the night anymore. Not since the nightmare. Not since Hago showed him what all the bad people got when they died. If you were cruel – if you were evil, then you would be subject to an eternity of darkness once you passed on. No Heaven, no Great Beyond and no afterlife. Just darkness. That was all you deserved if you were an evil person.
The mere thought of being subjected to such a thing when you died frightened Simba. Actually, it terrified him. He certainly knew that he didn't want to go into the darkness. Not ever. He couldn't be a bad person. He wouldn't be a bad person. He was good! After the nightmare, Simba knew he would never be tempted into doing something the least bit evil. He wasn't going to let that happen.
Unfortunately, the dark still frightened Simba, no matter what he thought and knew. He was at his most nervous right now, lying in the middle of a grassy field, with Nala snuggled up right next to him, looking up at the stars in the massive blanket of darkness that most people knew as space.
He just wanted to go back to the den and sleep. He really did. That darkness made him feel so anxious. It was as if it was coming to get him. It was as if Hago was teasing him at every possible moment, wanting him to suffer every day of his life. In death, that was all Simba's worst enemy could do. Make him suffer.
"Simba, what's wrong?" Nala asked, concerned, noticing the uneasy expression on his face. Something was clearly troubling the poor guy. Nala knew that he had a very pure heart, and there wasn't the tiniest speck of evil inside of him.
He worried about everyone and everything, and Nala really admired that. She just felt sorry for him that he worried all of the time. He never seemed to be able to rest.
Simba sighed. "Oh… it's nothing. It's just that… I'm kinda scared of the dark," he admitted, causing Nala to raise an eyebrow in response.
"Since when?" Nala exclaimed, surprised. Simba never seemed to express a fear of the dark. At least, not a fear she herself knew of. She knew quite a few of Simba's fears – spiders, exile, fruit – but she didn't think he feared the dark. She and Simba had spent many a night watching the stars, but not once had Simba ever expressed uneasiness about such a thing. It was just one of their little things they liked to do together.
"I don't know, it's just that… nightmare," Simba replied, turning to her and staring into her teal eyes. "I can't get it out of my head. I keep seeing that darkness over and over. It won't stop."
"Simba, I thought you didn't have that nightmare anymore?" said Nala, narrowing her eyes at him. "The last time I checked, you stopped having it ever since that time when we lost three days of our lives. Three days of our lives which were so fun that we overloaded our brains so we couldn't remember."
"Yeah, I did stop having it," Simba agreed. "But that still doesn't stop me remembering it. It's so bad that I can't stop thinking about it!" He groaned loudly, hitting the ground angrily with a paw. "What is wrong with me? It's all that Hago's fault! Why couldn't he just die and leave me alone?"
Sighing sadly, Simba rested his head gently on Nala's chest. She stroked the tuft on top of his head softly. "Come on, Simba. There's nothing wrong with you. You're just… worrying too much, that's all."
"I know, I can't help it!" Simba exclaimed in an agreeing tone. "It's just that everywhere I look there's always something I have to worry about! Maybe it's just because I'm a bad person," he said, frowning.
"It's just because you're a good person," Nala explained, smiling at him. "You are the most generous, kind, caring, thoughtful, loving person I've ever met. There's nothing bad about you, Simba. I love you."
Simba looked up, stared into Nala's eyes, and their muzzles slowly met for a kiss. Simba felt his heart warm up by what Nala had told him, and for the first time in what felt like for ever, he realised that he truly was a good person.
When they broke away from the kiss, Simba was grinning at Nala. "Just where do you learn how to say things like that?" he asked, amazed. Nala really had a way with words. In just a matter of seconds, she'd cheered Simba up – in the dark, no less. Simba would have figured such a thing was impossible. Not for Nala, though.
Nala shrugged and giggled. "What can I say? My Mom liked to talk a lot. Some of her skills rubbed off on me."
Simba chuckled as he lay back down on the ground, looking up at the twinkling stars in the sky. "At least… there's a little bit of light in the sky."
"What do you mean?" Nala asked as she lay beside him.
"Well, there's the stars and the moon," Simba replied, pointing to each of them with a claw. "I'm trying to look on the bright side. Not the… dark side," he said with a little laugh.
They lay there in silence, looking up at the stars, the only sound being that of the crickets chirping.
Nala rolled over and looked at Pride Rock in the distance. "It's probably getting late," she told Simba. "We'd better get back before our parents kill us."
Simba nodded in agreement, and got to his paws. "Yeah, you're right." He opened his mouth wide and yawned. "I'm tired anyway, and if I stay out here too long then the dark is gonna make me go crazy."
Nala got up, and together they began walking back towards Pride Rock. "Since we're still on the subject of looking on the bright side, we haven't had to fight any bad guys today."
Simba narrowed his eyes, and nodded. "Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. It's actually been pretty quiet lately."
"Have you noticed that we do most of the pride protecting?" Nala asked. "I mean, your Dad should be the one who fights off the bad guys. Instead, it's always us who has to do it! That's kinda weird if you think about it."
"Yeah, but Zazu has him running around doing a lot of boring things. In fact they're so boring that just saying them makes me fall asleep for a whole day," he joked, smiling.
"Well, at least we won't have to fight any bad guys until tomorrow," Nala said. "For once we can get a good night's sleep."
"Yeah," Simba agreed, nodding. "That'll make a change."
Unfortunately, Simba and Nala were wrong, because they were going to have quite an eventful night indeed…
