A Window to Darkness.

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. She wasn’t supposed to be in his room. Not ever. She was simply supposed to put the day's food ration in front of his door and leave. Like everyday before, ever since she could remember. Unlike every other day though, his door had been left open slightly, letting a sliver of strange light flow into the otherwise dark hallway she had come from.

She walked down the hallway towards the last room. She was the one who passed out the rations to the Elders who kept watch over them. She was proud of her job and she was praised for it. Elder Kaya would always say “Ollie, you’re such a good girl!” Then pat her on the head. She did her duty and never asked too many questions. Everyday was the same and that was ok with her. Wake up, exercise, wash up, pass out rations, eat, then survival lessons the rest of the waking hours before bed. Her world was simple and she got everything she needed from the Elders. All the kids knew the rules and they all listened as if their lives depended on it, because it did. The Elders would go to the outside, the bad place, that’s what the kids called it because sometimes the Elders would get hurt or even die when they went there. She never thought about it too much. Why worry when the Elders had it all under control? They brought back food and water and that’s all that mattered.

She hummed a little tune as she held the last bag of rations she needed to pass out for the day. Her stomach was growling and she wanted to finish up and head back to the kitchen to get her portion of food. She turned the corner to Elder Marlin’s room and that’s when she noticed the open door. Something had to be wrong. She slowed her pace and squinted to look closer. She didn’t hear or see anyone else. No one else seemed to be down here. Just the slightly opened door at the end of the hallway. She stood still and stared at the vertical line of yellowy-white. There was a strange sort of light emanating from it, not the yellowish light she was used to from the common room, or the dim light from the flashlight in her hand. It didn’t even have the flickering qualities of firelight from a candle. Her first instinct was to turn around and tell one of the Elders, maybe Elder Gina. She always knew what to do. Something else crossed her mind though, what if Elder Merlin was hurt? She rushed forward and placed the small bag of food down where she always had before, old habits die hard, then stepped over the precious food gingerly and pushed open the door into the oddly lit space.

There it was, the source of the light, the first time in her short 13 years of life that she had ever seen a window uncovered. Not only was it uncovered, it was open, wide open to be exact. Her stomach dropped and she gasped then quickly covered her mouth. Rule number one in survival class was to breathe as little outside air as possible. She looked around, eyes darting here and there until she found an outside mask. She lunged for it then clipped it around her face, covering her mouth and nose. She looked back to the window and squinted, it was so bright. The brightest thing she’d ever seen before. She managed to pull her gaze away from the blinding light to see a pair of dark goggles on the bedside table. She rushed over and donned the eye covering, her eyes adjusting quickly to the protected vision. Rule number two of survival class, protect your eyes.

At that point she was so focused on the source of the odd light she hadn’t noticed that Elder Merlin laid on his bed, still as a board, foam spilled from his wide open mouth. He was dead, and whatever killed him had to be something he’d been breathing. Ollie looked to the window again knowing that had been where the bad air came from. She snapped her attention to the open door and without thinking, ran over to shut it and lock it. She couldn’t let the air contaminate the rest of the compound. She looked back to the bed and got the light sheet that was still folded at Elder Merlin’s feet. She unfolded it while heading back to the door and shoved it into the gap between the floor and the bottom rail to seal the gap as best as she could. Rule number 10 of survival class, don’t let the compound get compromised.

She stood up and looked around again, letting her mind take in the whole of the room. It was immaculately tidy, Elder Merlin was known for his strict candor and proper dress. Nothing was out of place except for the window. The window! Ollie hurried back to the open window, she ran up to the sill, grabbed at the bottom of the window and pulled down as hard as she could. The loud slam of wood to wood reverberated through her arms and she panted with the effort, her breathing was a bit more difficult through the ventilators in the mask. She glanced up after a moment and was in awe at the sight before her.

The glimpse from halfway across the room earlier didn’t do it justice. It was so bright and green as far as the eye could see. Her vision inched upwards and all she could view was the brightest blue she’d ever seen in her life. How could this be so bad? How could the Elders keep this from all of them? It was beyond anything she could have ever imagined. The colors alone were beyond her wildest dreams and that light, it was so magically bright, even with her dark goggles on. In the middle of the blueness was an impossibly bright spot, looking at it pained her and she had to look back down to the green. The green… what? What was that flowy stuff? It looked like hair but also like spinach? It moved like hair being blown by a fan. Her brain wouldn’t really let her comprehend it. There was a floating green thing in the distance with a brown scraggly tube that came from the floating green and went into the ground. It looked pretty big, but from this distance she couldn’t tell. It was really tall, like an adult among children. She went to glance back up at the blue, a moving glint of something caused her to squint to try and make it out. Her curious reverie was cut short by a dark figure that moved in the lower corner of her vision. She looked down too late, and a person in all black clothing, like her, ran up to the window and slammed their gloved palm into the glass.

“Merlin!” The voice was muffled by the glass and mask. Their face was completely covered like hers, but the outsider had a helmet on instead of a hood. “Open the window Merlin!” They yelled louder this time, looking back behind them then to the window again, pounding on the glass now. Ollie fell back in surprise and shock, she didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t open the window again plus she didn’t know this person. There was no way she was going to let them in. The pounding got harder, desperately harder.

“Merlin, please! The drakes were right behind me and they’re hungry!” They practically screamed. Ollie stumbled onto her feet then went towards the door again and froze, she couldn’t leave the room or the bad air would get into the hall.

The pounding stopped, the sudden silence created a space for Ollie to hear her own ragged breathing. She started to turn back to the window then hesitated, she didn’t want to look back at the unknown figure behind the glass. Her mind was already racing with so many questions, she needed time to process. She couldn’t focus on the other person who was clearly breaking survival rule number 9, do not leave the compound without permission. Why would they be sneaking through a window? Why was the window not boarded up in the first place? Was Elder Merlin a traitor?

Ollie looked back to the bed, maybe she could help Elder Merlin, maybe he could be saved. She stepped up to the bed and looked at Elder Merlin a bit closer. His eyes were closed and his facial features were slack. There was a bubbly white foam coming out of his loosely open mouth. He was still in his daily black uniform, not the white nightgowns for bedtime. It had to have happened this morning or late last night? She looked down his body and saw the hand closest to her. His fist was clenched, a dark string peered out against the whiteness of his pale skin next to his pinkie finger. He was holding something… She went to reach for it then the sound of glass breaking filled the silent room and a gray brick landed at her feet. Ollie looked up to the window again, fear welling up inside of her. The window had been shattered and the intruder was starting to climb through the ruined glass.

“What did you do to him!” The intruder's voice was clearer now but there was a hoarseness to it. Ollie couldn’t look away from the figure shrouded in black menacingly crawling through the portal to the outside world. Her whole life she’d been told that it was bad, evil, the worst place imaginable and this figure was coming from that word and defiling hers. She was frozen in fear, despite the brilliance of the green and blue she witnessed earlier, all she could think of was the bad air getting in. The dark figure had allowed the putrid outside to flow into her clean, safe insulated world. Ollie stammered back grabbing at Elder Merlin’s chest reflexively, the Elders were always safe, he would… something slithered under his clothing. She pulled her hand back both in disgust and in pain. Had something just shocked her?

The dark figure let out a curse and fell into the room with a flat thump. Ollie whipped her head back towards the newly brightened space, the figure no longer blocking the onslaught of light. The mystery person went to get up then hissed and grabbed at their side, they seemed to have cut their side on the jagged portal to the outside. The stranger sat up more then fell back into the wall just below the window, dark liquid began to drip down the side of their dark leather jacket between their gloved fingers. The stranger seemed to steel themselves before lifting their free hand and pulling off their glasses and helmet in one struggled movement.

Their long auburn hair fell free and their piercing blue eyes looked into Ollie’s goggle covered face. She had no idea who this person was despite them wearing the outsiders gear of her people. All she could tell was that there was pain in their eyes, not the obvious pain of their fresh injury, but a deep sadness that looked as if it could spill into tears at any moment.

“What did you do to him!?” They yelled, their voice was still muffled by the ventilators in their mask.

Ollie didn’t know how to respond, she just took another step back, her lower back bumped into the bedside table. She reached behind her to grab at whatever she could use to protect herself as the stranger in front of her began to stand. She felt something that was flat and made of leather, then pages. A book? She fumbled and grabbed it to throw in front of her when a loud rumbling filled the air. The stranger froze mid crouch and looked back at the window, the light was being blocked again, this time by something much bigger than a human.

Strikingly black, beady eyes looked directly at Ollie. The animalistic fervor from those eyes made her knees buckle and she fell to the floor with barely a squeak of fear. She was so overwhelmed she lost all sense of self preservation as the creature in the window reared its head back to make another loud rumbling noise. It was deafening, Ollie stared blankly, her limbs not responding, her heart racing. She had to run. Lucky for her, the stranger leapt to action and grabbed her and the body of Elder Merlin then dove to the right and pulled all three of them towards the door just as the hottest feeling Ollie had ever experienced blasted the air where she had once stood. Thank the Elders Ollie was wearing those goggles and mask or else the molten heat would have burned her face.

The next thing she knew the room was full of fire, there was a pool of what looked like molten, liquid dirt in the middle of the room and from it erupted fire. The loud growling noise happened again and Ollie covered her ears both to protect her eardrums but also because she was so overwhelmed with everything that had just happened.

The stranger shook Ollie’s shoulder violently, “Hey, pull yourself together kid!” They yelled, “What happened to Merlin?” They asked again.

Ollie just shook her head side to side vigorously, she didn’t know how else to convey herself in her current state.

“Fine, I’ll just have to take you with me then.” The stranger glanced at the window then looked towards Elder Merlin’s body with the same pain as before. They gently touched their own forehead then Elder Merlin’s before closing their eyes briefly. “Love beyond death.” They muttered before hurriedly taking the black string out of Elder Merlin’s hand. A glint of something silver was tied to the end of the black string but Ollie didn’t get a good enough look at it before it was out of sight and into one of the strangers' pockets. They laid Elder Merlin’s body down as if they’d done so before then the stranger turned back to the window, a regained sense or purpose in their tear filled eyes. The stranger swore under their breath again as the creature from before brought its face back up to the window, searching for the two of them.

“We’re going to have to go through the compound.” The stranger's voice was strained, Ollie noticed red drops of blood on the floor now, the reflection of the fire on the liquid brought out its bright red hue. While she looked at the floor, a flicker of golden yellow caught her eye from the direction of Elder Merlin’s chest. What looked to be a large, vibrantly golden, lizard crawled out from under his black coat and let out a small squeak of rage. Ollie couldn’t believe it, it was a Salamander. Not just any Salamander, a female Salamander.

The Salamander looked around then spotted the intruding creature and scuddled towards the window so quickly Ollie could barely register the movement. It dashed up the wall to come face to face with the other creature. It cried out in a high pitched roar then opened its mouth wide as a flash of lightning struck out and a boom of thunder cracked into the air. Ollie clapped her hands over her ears again and cried out, a loud ringing encompassed her entire being. The creature from outside bellowed in pain and pulled away from the window allowing the room to fill up with the outside light again as well as feed the growing fire the fresh air it so desperately needed to burn. The stranger grabbed Ollie by the back of the cloak and ran past the raging river of flame towards the window.

The salamander squeaked out in glee at its accomplishment then looked back at the two humans rushing towards it. It hopped in excitement then jumped towards and latched onto Ollie’s shoulder as the two made it out of the now blown open window. Ollie couldn’t fight against the stranger pulling her. She couldn’t even hear anything that was going on around her, only murmurs from the stranger. Maybe she was talking to her? Her vision started to blur. The warm sensation of something crawling around the back of her neck creeped her out but seemed comforting at the same time.

Ollie heard the faint high pitched tone of a whistle which startled her just enough to flutter her eyes open and see an unbelievably large shadow drift down towards her and the stranger. The shadow’s arms spread out wide but seemed more like sheets blowing as the fans dried them out after a wash in the common room. However, unlike the pure white sheets of her bedding, there was an odd green tint to the shadow. She let the almost protective shine of lime light carry her off to sleep as she fell unconscious. Her body finally succumbing to the overwhelming affairs of that late afternoon.