Dark Stranger

I remember a time when I believed that the world was no bigger than my own back yard. Things were simple, I believed everything I was told and trusted absolutely everyone I knew. I wanted for nothing and knew that I'd always be given exactly what I needed. Ultimately innocent, sheltered and naive.

Then something happened that ripped my belief, trust, naivety and innocence violently away.

Once upon a time I was a little boy, young enough to forget, but old enough to remember. Somewhere in between fantasy and imagination and tactile reality. A place where memory is blurred and real space and time were indeterminate.

A dark stranger entered a fragile, safe and sweet place in my innocent space and brought with him some dark demons. These dark spirits brought fear I had never felt before, so unfamiliar that I quickly slipped under my bed and buried my face in my hands, curling myself into a tight protective ball. 

They waited for me there, beside the bed. I remember feeling nauseous and terrified. I couldn't cry out, I was petrified. Frozen in space and time, tender, alone and too young to understand what was truly happening. 

A brilliant ball of immaculately bright, white light surrounded my body. A transcendent peace and tranquility engulfed my young soul, saving me at a space and time when I undoubtedly needed saved.

I emerged from under the bed to find my world entirely changed. No darkness, only light. Yet nothing from that time forward would ever be the same again.