THE HOUSE OF DARKNESS

I was in the dark. Darkness. It was one of those narrow paths crossing the forest. It was raining in the dark. I was walking by myself trying to reach a house. It was a wooden house in the other side of the forest. Sadness. Nobody lives in that house anymore. I used to live in that house with all my family many years ago. It's an empty house nowadays. The rain didn't stop. It seemed it was going to rain all night. If I entered into the house I'd have to kindle the fire and the candles. Loneliness.

There was one table and two chairs. Yes, something else: an old bible that used to belong to my grandfather Marius. I knew there were two abandoned rooms. I wouldn't go in. The rooms keep the ghosts inside. I took my sandwiches from the backpack and I sat on one of the chairs leaning my arms on the table. I was starving. The wolves howled in the deep night.

Suddenly, I'd realized there was a stove in one of the corners. I grabbed the wrapping of the sandwiches, crushed it forming a wag and buried it with a handful of charcoal I'd brought with me. I tried to light a fire as best I could. I soaked the charcoal with gasoline from a can. Then I stroke a match. Yes, the fire was on. It was alive. The walls now glimmer with the light of the fire. Ghosts. Loneliness. Sadness. I'm scared. Why did I come here? I asked myself, because I knew the ghosts were in the other rooms. The bedrooms. My grandparents, my parents, my two aunts and uncle Jimmho died there. Many years ago. It all had happened many years ago. But I still felt them there, still finding their place in a world they'd never understood. I opened the bible and read Ecclesiastes under candle light. My father used to tell me that in case of fear and confusion that was the best book to read in the Bible. I never understood why. I couldn't finish the reading because an overwhelming anguish devoured my whole being. Absolutely loneliness meant madness.

I put my backpack on with trembling hands and slowly left the house. I held my flashlight beaming the intense light on the almost forgotten path that led back into the dark forest. Darkness. Loneliness. Turn the light of the spirit on before darkness and loneliness eat your life away.