Sun of darkness

Layla had a very hard time understanding why her parents were so frightened. She overhead them talking about the fear of the unknown. Being five years old, much of the world was still unknown to her. It was just a change she thought, so why are my parents acting super anxious and keeping me inside? Keeping me from going to school and seeing my friends. Every time Layla’s Dad came back from outside he seemed fine, Layla was sure she would be too. She didn’t think the change was menacing, although she couldn’t articulate that.

Layla’s mother Ashley was constantly tense, and extreme anxiety would bubble up and then subside. She sat at the kitchen table, with one hand gripped intensely over the edge as if she was hanging on for dear life. When Layla looked at her, she smiled, not all that convincingly.

Ashley’s husband Ryan was wondering if he should encourage his wife to go outside, he presumed that because he had been out in it already out of necessity that he was coping better. He was still worried and intensely curious, but was overall quite well. He needled back and forth between letting her come to terms slowly in her own way, and worrying that he’d already waited too long.

It had been exactly two weeks since Ashley had woken up at dawn and noticed a faint green glow inside her bedroom. She crept to the window expecting to see that someone had set up lights for some reason, for what she had no earthly idea. Instead, when she pulled back the curtains she saw something her eyes could not comprehend. She shook her head, hoping to wake herself up if she was actually still asleep.

“Ryan, Ryan wake up,” Ashley shouted.

“What honey?” Ryan asked as he awoke.

“Something is really wrong, the sun is green,” Ashley explained, her voice waivering.

“What?” asked Ryan.

“This can’t be right, how can that possibly happen?” Ashley asked.

Ryan got up from bed and walked to the window. “What the hell?” he asked.

“It’s gotta be like an optical illusion of some kind right? The sun can’t just change colour, it’s always the same,” Ashley babbled anxiously.

“It’s gotta be just something off with the sky is making it look like it. Just hold on a second I’ll see if anyone has said anything,” Ryan reasoned. He typed on his phone and scrolled through the results.

“What is this?” Ashley said, more to herself than Ryan.

“You probably shouldn’t be staring at it babe,” Ryan suggested.

Ashley jerked, realizing that Ryan was right and it could be dangerous to look at. She walked slowly to the bed where Ryan was looking at his phone, wringing her hands.

“Yeah a lot of people have noticed, started about five hours ago looks like. News sources don’t have any concrete info, they’re saying no radiation warning systems went off but it’s being double checked,” Ryan explained.

“We have to stay home today, until they figure out what’s going on,” Ashley barked.

“Fine by me,” Ryan said as he tucked himself back under the duvet cover.

“I’m going to check on our daughter,” Ashley said in a cutting tone. She resented Ryan slightly for the times he acted immaturely.

Ashley rushed over to Layla’s room, and went directly to her bedside. She touched Layla’s face to wake her up.

“Wake up honey,” Ashley said gently.

Layla stirred and sat up.

“Do you feel okay this morning?” asked Ashley.

“Yeah mom,” Layla said in a sleepy voice.

“Let’s go get some breakfast, and then maybe you can go back to bed for a bit,” Ashley explained.

“Back to bed?” Layla asked. She followed her mother to the kitchen for some cereal.

Ashley hoped for nothing more than an answer, and a fix, for three years. Most people had moved on, they chose whichever scientific or religious theory made the most sense to them and continued with life.

“You’re going back to bed?” Ryan asked sharply.

Ashley didn’t acknowledge her husband, and kept walking down the hall. She turned not to go into the master, but the third bedroom where she had been sleeping the past six months.

“It’s Layla’s first day of third grade, what you just don’t care?” Ryan asked.

“I already explained to you, it’s not about not caring,” Ashley responded. She crawled into bed and pulled the blanket over her head. She grabbed her flashlight with the yellow bulb. She liked to make her own proper yellow sun, on the sky that was the underside of her white duvet cover.

Ryan stormed back out to the kitchen. “Come on baby, it’s just us,” Ryan said to his daughter.

“You didn’t pack me a lunch,” Layla reminded her Dad.

“Ah sorry, hold on two minutes, I’ll make you a sandwich,” Ryan apologized.

Layla gazed down the hallway her mother had retreated into. She barely had memories of the way her mother used to be, although she knew quite well that she had changed. Layla sympathized but didn’t understand why her mom couldn’t accept the new sun. She would talk about how it was fundamentally wrong, it had to be artificial. And how everything had a tinge of green colour, there was no doubt to her that the original sun was natural and right as it didn’t colour everything.

Ashley got out of bed just before noon. She walked into her master bedroom and looked around for a minute, sorrowful. Then she entered the closet, where she got down on her knees and ducked under the shirts hanging there. The knob of the safe clicked with each notch as Ashley dialed in the combination. With a thunk, she released the handle and opened the door. Ashley grabbed Ryan’s nine millimeter pistol out of the safe.

She had only been outside eleven times in the past three years. Five were her attempting to adjust to spending time under the green glow, four were her going outside at night because she needed a break from the house, and the other two were back and forth between the hospital on one occasion. Ashley stepped onto her front lawn and felt disgusted. She used both her arms to lift the gun to the sky. Ashley took aim at the emerald ball of light and began to fire. After she emptied the gun and a few moments went by she heard shouting. She knew it was directed at her, she could see someone in her peripheral vision waiving their arms. Ashley held the gun up in their general direction to get them to leave. Then she grabbed a lawn chair out of her garage and waited for the police to arrive.