Of Darkness and Innocence

Light shined through the giant windows. Avoiding her therapist’s eyes, she stared out to the busy world. The therapist leaned back as the girl cringed at the wound of the creaking chair. She fiddled with her fingers and her knee was bouncing up and down rapidly, as if any minute she would bolt out the door. She heard a sigh and her eyes quickly darted toward the man waiting for her to speak.

“So tell me Morwenna, what exactly goes on inside your head?” said the man with a surprisingly deep voice as he slowly leaned forward. The girl’s knee stopped jumping as she thought about it. She took another glance at the therapist and looked at his eyes. Soft gray, kind eyes. He would not understand. Her knee was bouncing again. She struggled to find the words that could describe the chaos within her. A small voice came out from the girls lips. “There is Darkness inside me.”

The man’s eyebrows shot up. “Go on, tell me more about the darkness,” he said with sudden interest.

“The Darkness is not depression. The Darkness is Evil. The Darkness is Caligo.”

“Who is Caligo?"

The girl smiled slowly, recalling the memories of Caligo. “Caligo is the Darkness. Caligo speaks to me. She tells me many things. She tells me no one wants me. She tells me that only she cares about me, although sometimes she tempts me with suicide then causes me to leave deep scratches on my arm,”

She pulls back the sleeve of her black jacket. Fading thin red lines were on her arm. She pulled down her sleeve and continued. “She calls them pretty pictures.” She pauses and looks at the clouds. They look like snakes to her, reaching towards her to wrap around her tightly.

“Sometimes Caligo takes over. She controls me. She is me. But that’s ok ‘cause she takes away pain. She makes my heart hard and my eyes dry. Caligo cares for me in her own way.”

The therapist was frantically scribbling on his clipboard. “Would you like to speak to her?” the little girl asked. Such innocent looking eyes. But lo, how dark they looked. The man stopped scribbling enough to say “Yes, I would like to speak to Caligo.”

Seconds ticked by as an extraordinary change was occurring in the girl. The change was so profound that it seemed to change her physical appearance as well. Her skin became a slight shade paler. Her eyes were dark as a black hole as they looked up at the therapist. The bags under her eyes turned darker and she smiled wide, showing her teeth. Her teeth were sharp and slightly jagged, as if it were sharpened recently and in a hurry.

“Roger,” whispered Caligo, “You shouldn’t have called for me.” Her voice was husky and ancient.
She stood up slowly, walked to the front door and flashed a smile of Hunger, of Want, of Darkness, right at the transfixed, trembling therapist. Caligo shut the door behind her and walked out of the building into the world full of souls not yet conquered.

Author's Note

this was written about a year ago

Reviews

[alesuriko]

A very good short story. I really enjoyed reading this. Your grammar could definitely use a bit of work in terms of commas and how grammar works for dialogue - you also forgot to end the story with a period - but other than that, very nicely written. I liked the simplistic design of this story, everything was straight, blunt and to the point. There was definitely a lot of imagery with the visuals and description, but nothing lingered on something insignificant for too long. I also liked how you described Darkness, Want, Hunger, etc all with capitals as if personifying them, a very good technique for this kind of story. You also did well in capturing the essence of someone with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or as it was known before as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). It was very accurate while also being slightly fantastical and nightmarish with the idea of sharpened teeth. This was a great story! Well done!