Silent Night, Murky Night

Do you fear the dark, the lightless, the all-encompassing night?

Today, my secondary school CCA had a camp and I went back there with Iggy in the evening for fun. When we got there, they were playing war-games (which is a pretty fun method of making students run around the school chasing each other for frivolous reasons such as finding cards scattered in all places.)

We went around and accidentally found cards and gave them out with general indiscretion, probably tipping the balance of the game randomly (and likely ruining it for some teams but who cares ahahaha). Along the way, we went to see our old classrooms and the offices and all that sort of stuff at night. Pretty fun.

Along the tour of the school and finding cards, Iggy and I went to the science lab areas and the third floor of the school which was lit only in a few places. The bio lab areas, reputed to host ectoplasmic stuff like glowing and flying foetuses at night, were generally just pitch black. (Well i've seen the foetuses but they were generally floating in liquid and encased in a glass box at the time and my bio teacher was showing us, if it matters at all.)

The lab areas are an extended block, with a staircase linking the three levels at one extreme end and the main classroom blocks at the other end.

We went up by the second floor staircase, entering a tunnel of darkness with a faint fluorescent glow of the open dimly lit area at the end to guide us. It was sort of like a horror-house ride with the stairwell being the transition area from light to darkest night. I didn't look back. Didn't want to.

No torches. I didn't want to turn on my handphone's light in case it ran out of battery.

Twas pitch darkness, a silent sea of murky obsidian all around. Shrouded in inky vapours, we treaded carefully towards the beacon at the end of the dark passage. Devoid of sound, no whisper, no rustle nor swish-swooshing breeze ruffled the blanket of silence cloaking the area. Our footsteps echoed hesistantly an abyss below.

I walked slowly, then more quickly. Towards the light. Light! Warm, safe light! I couldn't even see Iggy walking beside me. I doubt I could have seen any Thing more than a couple of centimetres away from me at my sides. Sensory deprivation of vision and sound.

Well, it was fun in a zany kind of way. After that we walked around the school once more and came back again.

Then later on, the security guard said that the third floor was out of bounds because they wanted to keep the lights off there and the kids shouldn't be running around up there. So Iggy and I went to be helpful and find the cards stashed around the bio lab area. I used my hand phone light. Iggy's hand phone's light was much weaker. See? Sony Ericsson > Nokia. ^.^

Up the stairs again. Flash, shine. The minute arc of light swept the peeling doors and the concrete floor. No cards. Walk, walk, walk, shine, shine, shine. Near the photonics laboratories, Iggy suddenly switched off his light, and said "just go." I switched off my hand phone light too and we sprinted out of the lab areas. Haha. Chickened out.

Safe under the lambent embrace of fluorescent lights, Iggy said that when we were at the photonics lab area, he had an intense feeling that he was being watched acutely by something in the darkness nearby.

Well, you're probably scoffing at the story by now, but it's an interesting thought to have.

Imagine if our world wasn't as straightforward as science makes it out to be.

Imagine if there was some unholy being, fiend, ghoul, lurking in the inky darkness nearby. You don't feel nor hear the breath because it has no breath. It just.... lurks. And watches.

It may seem weird now, but the darkness tends to strip the logic from your mind. All that's left are hanging possibilities and you get gripped in the fearful thrall of the moment. Terrifying. Addictively exciting.

Then you freak out and run in case any thing really happens.

And you go home and blog about it past midnight while the experience is still fresh in your mind and the atmosphere, so vivid.

When you feel anything can happen at the stroke of midnight.