Everyday is a battle.

The days that I lived in this world are spent in a never ending fight for life. It may come across ridiculous to anyone but my life was just too normal.... so normal that it suffocates my very being. Plain, simple, and definitely not unique, my life was so average I couldn’t help but think that I have no hope but to live in obscurity. Forever reaching nothing, forever living like nothing. However, everything seemed to have changed so suddenly.

It was a very normal day. The same old day that I spent like any other. Walking through the darkness, I gulped in suspense as I scanned the surroundings around me.

It was night time, the very time where flesh-eating monsters are said to appear in the folklores and fables of the old. I gripped hard on my only weapon: a wooden stick I picked up along the way.

Why did I felt danger? In fact going home at this time shouldn’t even surprise me anymore. I am very used to this already but this time just felt too different... too eerie, too quiet. Even the crickets hiding appeared to have been silenced, only the cold wind of the night whispered to my ears. I couldn’t help but get myself a weapon to protect myself from an enemy I couldn’t see. Then again, maybe it’s just my imagination?

With every step, I could loudly hear my own footsteps, steps that sounded different from normal... dissonance? Or maybe the sound echoed through the walls of houses around me? It sounded like there’s an extra foot walking along with me.

It was a torture, one that hurts me mentally and emotionally. Why? Why do I felt as though something was watching me from behind? My back felt a little hot as I sense the gaze of someone I didn’t know. Breaths becoming hurried and heartbeats increasing in tempo, cold sweat perspired on my back as goosebumps assaulted my skin. I wanted to turn around and face whoever it was but a feeling of danger creeped on. I could only describe it as one of my foot being on a grave, with a simple turn resulting into a shovel hitting and brutally crushing my head. My heart tightened, even gritting my teeth didn’t calm it down.

I pleaded for everything to just stop as I couldn’t endure it anymore. Please, whoever it was behind... Please stop!

My prayers howbeit are left unanswered. The gaze behind me started to intensify, like looking at a fat and savoury prey served on a plate. The footsteps became ever dissonant, as if it was not even hiding its presence anymore. Announcing its confidence that I’m already dead meat, a delicious dead meat.

Would I even make it out alive? I understood that this was probably retribution to me thinking that everyday wasn’t worth living anymore. For me not being thankful enough to be able to eat three times a day and sleep on a comfortable shelter. However, was it really my fault? Am I in the wrong for thinking that things aren’t worth living anymore? I may have suicidal thoughts but I didn’t want to die like this! I, Darman Moplesin, refuses to die like this!

For a moment, I felt my heart go ablaze, the will to live on sparked embers on my thumping heart. Once more, I tightened the grip on the stick I’m holding, similar to a sword unsheathed, adrenaline pumped into my veins. Was this bloodlust or survival instincts? It doesn’t matter anymore as my head succumbed to my fiery emotions while I wielded the stick into a deadly weapon.

I pivoted my foot and although clumsily, I was able to smack the nearing monster in what I thought of was its face. I thought victory was in my hands because of that successful strike but I was awakened by the roar of the monster which I still couldn’t see because of the darkness. It was a piercing screech, like a shriek of an angered evil witch, akin to the scream of a deadly banshee.

This sound was like a rock that shattered the glass of illusion which I have, awakening me from my daydream. My eyes became pins as fear overtook my very being. With all my might, I turned away from the monster of the shadows and sprinted away, dashing through the dark.

As I was running through the night, I couldn’t help but think of why it was so dark. Of why the moon was gone. Of why the houses that I passed through doesn’t even have any light in them. It was as if they were abandoned, was it always like this?

I shook my head. I should focus on the current situation first. Although It may have looked like I escaped the monster, ambushes are still possible.

I slowed my sprint down to a normal jog in order to conserve stamina, thankful that I am not holding a bag. I heightened my senses as a preparation. Breathing steadily, I regained my calm once again.

The moon at the horizon of seemingly never ending houses finally shone at my face, it was faint but it was enough. My heart was relieved as I finally saw light, something which I thought of as hope.

My relief however was short-lived as with the little light that the moon provided, a group of humanoid silhouettes appeared ahead. These deep black shadows released murmur-like sound waves, deranging my mind and giving me insanity. The dark monsters stood there without moving, awaiting for my arrival, like multiple clones of Anubis waiting for the inevitable time they would drag me to the River of Styx.

Although fear plagued my heart, seeing the moonlight seemed to have empowered me. Bravery or recklessness, I didn’t think any more further as I readied my wooden stick. My jog turned into a powerful sprint as my momentum increased, I’ll hit them with my full power!