The Darkness of Night

“Bring them in Alfred.”

    Alfred opened the doors releasing a throng of women rushing into the room causing a flood of bodies to engulf the room. All had dropped their colorful robes to reveal the scant clothing underneath, just enough to both cover them and to spark that dreadful fire inside his body. His eyes were ravenous and empty as they walked in as if he were a barbarian stalking his helpless prey. He walked into the center of the room and ordered them all to form a circle around them. They complied submissively and formed a wide circle around him. Behind the provocative faces they tried to hold was an emptiness that mirrored the emptiness he felt. He knew this as he began to survey each girl in the circle and when he saw the holes that were within them a wave of pity overtook him. Pity for the girls, pity for himself, pity for the world. He tried to put that out of his head as he continued.

    “Dance,” he said the words rolling quietly out of his mouth.

    As soon as the words found the girl's ears they broke out into sensual but somehow robotic routines. Their hips swayed almost uniformly to some inaudible beat. All types of women were in that circle, just as he had ordered. Women of all nations and backgrounds and shapes and sizes populated the circle, and he thought one of them had to be the cure for what he felt inside.

He moved around the circle almost unconsciously now as the cacophony of thoughts he had in his mind before broke down into one singular voice that seemed to only catch the girl’s imperfections as they passed.

Too tall.

Too petite.

Too familiar.

And so on until he stopped in his track, looking at one intently. Her blonde hair cascaded just past her shoulders and simply by looking at it he could tell it was soft to the touch. Her eyes were a deep, innocent blue and her lips had a slight pout and were accentuated to be an almost unbelievable red. Her face was wonderfully painted reaping the fruits of her time and precise effort in getting ready for the event. Her bosom gushed out from her clothing and she seemed to be full-bodied only in the places it mattered and slim only in the places it didn’t.

She was the woman the world wanted him to love, the unattainable qualities somehow all attained in one woman, so he desired her fervently.

    “What’s your name?” he asked leaning to her ear.

    “Sophia.” the woman swooned back to him.

    The fire within him roared as he marveled at this perfect woman. He nodded at her and ushered her out of the circle and towards his bedroom. The pounding within his heart quickened with each step they took closer and he had to close his mouth to proactively prevent drool from spilling out. In his heart though he was happy, the hole within him was finally to be filled by the passionate fire of the love that he would make.

    Closing the door, he laid her down with the care and reverence saved for the sacred and he did it intentionally. As soon as he saw her she had become his religion, the beautiful savior to save him from the outside world. She seductively disrobed herself of the last of her clothing as he did the same and for a few moments he simply looked on her with avid rapture. He could think of nothing else but how beautiful she looked in those moments and how much he wanted her. Able to withhold himself no longer, he begun the service baptizing every inch of her with the fire that raged within him.

    Many moments later though his emptiness persisted. After the first couple minutes of their time together his thoughts had switched back on and the obsession with the hole had begun again. While still with her physically his mind had traveled back into the hole and marveled at its size. The hole seemed to destroy everything in its path, sucking in parts of his being with a voracious hunger that never seemed to be satisfied. He had lost so much of himself within it and had tried every earthly joy to escape it: the pleasure of food and drink, the wonderful detachment of drugs, notoriety, riches, and power and nothing seemed to stop its horrible march. He had concluded that appeasing the fire that raged inside him could be the only cure. But the hole was not receding but gaining strength.

He was brought back to the physical world and looked up to the woman who had found her way on top of him. He had expected to find the ecstasy of fulfillment in her eyes. Instead he just found the now dull blue eyes looking down on him with a vacant stare.

“Alfred! Send in another!” he cried.

Another girl this time with golden brown skin and deep hazel eyes walked in a few seconds after his order.

“Join.”

She quickly got onto the bed and joined. He had hoped bringing another soul into the service would bring him fulfillment. The hole continued to grow.

“Two More!”

Two girls who looked almost like twins from his vantage point entered the room and moved to the bed turning what was once a moment for two into a living mass of sensuality and pure energy. The hole continued to grow, threatening to engulf his whole being. He tried to resist.

“More Alfred! More!”

It appeared every girl from the circle had found their way into the room. Everyone was with everyone. There seemed to be no end or no beginning to the limbs that lay scattered over the room. The room seemed to be exuding life but the vacant looks of everyone involved betrayed the scene. They were all dead, they were all empty. He was trapped under the weight of an innumerable amount of women. Pleasure waves filled his body as the fire within burned bright and strong. However the hole continued to grow until it itself was his being, large, dark, and empty. All of his fear and passion and self-hatred and pain turned to that black emptiness as he lost consciousness.

When he woke up he found himself naked sprawled across the bed. Pulling on his clothes he walked out of the room to find Alfred waiting with a breakfast platter.

“Was everyone compensated?”

“Yes sir everything is in order.”

He walked past Alfred and sat down on a couch that overlooked the living room. He remembered surveying all the woman and with that all of the night's actions.  

“Why am I so empty Alfred?”

“What do you mean, Sir?”

The sun was rising in the distance and the light shined into the room giving everything a bright orange glow.

“I’ve tried everything this world has to offer Alfred why aren’t I happy?”

    He turned back to Alfred and the sun glinted off of his wedding ring. Alfred looked at him and saw the desperation in his eyes and smiled softly.

    “You’ve tried every Earthly remedy?”

    “Yes, money, sex, food, riches, fame, rich-”

    “And have you forgotten that we humans aren’t just holes that need to be filled?”

    He stared back at Alfred his mouth still gaping in bewilderment.

    “The emptiness comes from your body and this unforgiving world,” Alfred said looking out the window.

    Alfred stayed silent for a few moments and he turned to look out of the window too. The rising sun drenched the world in light bringing it out of the dark confusion.

    “Fulfillment, true fulfillment, only comes when you remember the soul.”

“And where does the soul lead, Alfred?”

“To real love, the only light in this whole damned universe.”