Midnight, and outside, street lamps cast menacing shadows across the front of the house. The wind rustles the leaves like a thousand scuffling feet and there’s a rhythmic tap-tap-tapping at the window.
In your room, the darkness is almost sentient. The only illumination comes from the street lamps outside and the gentle movements of the curtains causing strange, shifting patterns to dance across the walls. An air of oppression grows steadily heavier and heavier pervading the confines of the room to the sound of the ticking clock which becomes more and more exaggerated.
Your soul feels progressively heavier as the atmosphere darkens, becoming more sinister with each passing second. Every sound adds to your feelings of unease and you can perceive the empty depths opening before your very eyes. A sudden chill creeps across your body like a hundred tiny fingers exploring every nuance of your frame whilst voices from your past echo through your mind accusing you, taunting you, berating you.
Your breathing becomes laboured and your heart starts to race, as you can feel yourself falling into the yawning pit where your personal demons live; the well-spring of your darkest despair. You sense your life-essence draining from your body, leaving you helpless to resist the denizens of this foreboding realm tearing at the very flesh of your soul with every pass of the metronome. Tick – another cut from their razor-sharp claws, tock – another silent scream issues from your lips. Tick-tock, tick-tock – the infernal orchestra.
You close your eyes; still falling into the endless abyss, afraid of what you may see and praying for the nightmare to end, you can keep them closed no longer. With a certain amount of trepidation, you open your eyes, blinking back the tears to see the sun coming up but, still, just out of your reach because the darkness remains.
Welcome to my nightmare…
* * * * *
Depression can be an intolerable burden to a sufferer so spare a thought for those whom everyday is Halloween as you go ‘Trick-or-Treating’ or partying the night away.
Happy Halloween!
