The Battle

By Tracy Huurman

The battle rages on. Light against darkness, clashing like warriors in the fields. The darkness is heavy, oppressive. It smothers the light, tries to choke the life from it.

The light dims, flickers...has darkness won? Has the light been snuffed? Has the very breath of life been stolen from the light, never to shine again?

The darkness lies heavy, still and unmoving. It's weight is powerful, painful, crushing. Occasionally the darkness pulsates, but it is not a heartbeat, no. For the darkness does not have a heart.

Tendrils develop and become entwined and entangled, pulling, tearing, pinching, scratching. The darkness is ever-moving, ever changing, ever torturing.

But wait, what is that? A flicker of light? Was it not extinguished? Did the darkness not triumph? No, the light was merely weak, immobilized.

The light is slowly gaining strength, burning brighter and stronger every moment.The tendrils of darkness begin to lose their grip. They become disentangled. As the light reaches them, they grow weak and fall away. The blanket of darkness loses density as the light reveals it. It melts in the warmth of the light, the throbbing drumbeat of darkness is overcome by the gentle lapping of waves.

At last! The darkness has been banished! Gone forever, never to return.

Alas, not so, my friend, not so. Like the light's hiatus, the darkness too has only temporarily stepped away from this conflict. But today, we shall bask in the warmth and the glow of the light, and pray it stays another day.

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