• What do people fear most? Is it The Darkness?
    The Darkness spread through town like a black plague. It was searching. It whispered through streets, alleys and houses, leaving a cold touch on anything it passed. In the end it found what it was looking for.

    In the middle there walked a lady. Once she had been beautiful, but years of imprisonment had painted her skin white and she was wearing a constant frown which made the lines on her face more pronounced. With the bones almost poking through her skin and her long golden hair smeared with dirt, she looked dead. On either side of her there were two guards, each of them incredibly nervous. They’d been told she was a witch, and everyone knew that it was bad luck to touch a witch. So they let her walk in the middle whilst the two young men edged uncertainly behind her.
    The guards led her through a small side door which led into a large room with no windows. There were five people waiting in the room and in the middle stood the gallows. The five people were a judge three witnesses and the executioner. None of them were talking and they didn’t look up to meet the vacant eyes of the lady. She was quickly led to the steps of the gallows by the two guards, both of them careful not to touch her wrinkled, bloodless skin. Then they hurriedly disappeared through the side door again, relieved that they didn’t have to see the execution.
    The judge waited until the door had slammed shut, then hesitantly read out loud to the assembled.
    The words were lost in the massive room, and the lady didn’t appear to hear them anyway.
    The executioner started leading the lady up the steps and put the noose around her neck.
    The judge finally uttered his last sentence: “Do you have any last words?”
    The lady’s eyes finally cleared and she stared at the man. Then she whispered three words.
    “Go to hell.”
    The lights started flickering and then went out, The Darkness filling the whole room. The judge fell to the floor and started praying, as The Darkness enveloped him.
    Then it started to gather around the gallows and disappeared everywhere else.
    The lights went back on and the four people stared as The Darkness slowly vanished. The lady lay on the floor, looking almost as though she was sleeping. The executioner was swinging from the rope, dead. And the small girl standing in the corner of the room ran through the side door and out into the streets.