The End Of It All Part 1

We are the dark unpleasant,
we are the creep and crawl;
we are the shadow of shadows,
we are the end of it all.

The damned weather had become more unpredictable, despite all the climate change naysayers. Dugald heard the wind pick up. Then the balcony door banged and he sighed as he got out of bed to go shut it. Maggs didn’t move but she could sleep through an earthquake.

It was colder than he thought and an involuntary shiver shook him. Summer had definitely retreated as the air had a real nip to it. The house was very dark but he moved through it easily, confident he wouldn’t run into or step on anything.

He caught the door just before it slammed again and gently closed it instead. Then he stood in the dark, admiring the view he loved so much. He looked down to the docks and clear across the valley on the right. To the left, he could make out the Esplanade and the ocean beyond; waves frosted with street lights reflections.

In front, Ferguson Road ran from the distant docks to the beach. A large container ship push out through the heads, bound for some distant port. There was a time he thought he might join the navy and see the world but ended up going in a different direction.

A late bus pulled itself along Ferguson, heading to the terminus at the beach. It had started to rain, thick and inky in the moonless night. Dark shadows ducked and weaved in the sky. At first he thought these were birds or maybe fruit bats, disturbed by the wind and rain.

A number of these swooped down on the bus. It went off course and crashed heavily into some parked cars. The driver and a passenger appeared and started running away up the road.

More shadows detached from the night sky and went after them. Unsure of what he was seeing, he watched as the shadows caught the running figures. He thought he heard a scream before the wind cancelled it out. He stood frozen as more shadows broke off from the dark sky and fell on the homes below. A fear unlike anything else he’d experienced forced him into action.

He made sure the door was locked before going to Maggs. He wanted to kiss her and tell her how much he loved her, even if it meant waking her up. But as he turned away, the balcony door rattled and flew open. A cold darkness reached out but when it touched him, it burnt like a thousand suns. For the first and last time in his life, Dugald screamed.