A World Without Night

20250409

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

It would soon be Sha-noon. While a few people remained in the field, shrugging and pointing out it was the lesser noon, most folks retreated to the shade to nap.
Gib made a show of staying, toiling alongside the hardy crowd for an increasingly agonising half-mark. Until she judged that everyone would be settled and not watching for late arrivals. Then she wilted and declared herself done, slinking away while the others chuckled.
The moment she was out of their sight she ran into the forest to the cave.
It was a lifelong forbidden fascination. While she knew that darkness was unholy, one step from unnatural, that the gods had placed two suns in the sky so that people never had to deal with the dark… she had always been drawn to shadows.
“Anything could be in there!” was the whispered warning to children. And it worked on her peers. But to her, that mystery was enticing.
“Darkness swallows all, so you lose who you are.” It was a scary thought, yet the idea of an anonymising embrace was also… compelling.
She collected the pack she’d stashed up a tree and headed to the entrance. The space around the cave was kept clear of trees so the light could penetrate as far as possible - “Keeping the darkness where it belongs”. So she had to pound in a peg to attach her safety line to.
For the first twenty steps it was mere shade. No different to being under a canopy. But twenty more and the light was dim, like a nap spot at twilight.
Gib’s steps grew slower. Careful and faltering.
Her eyes had been adjusting as she went. (She could almost hear her mother lecturing “See, little one? Your body clings to the light. It knows. You should listen.”) But now no matter how she peered she couldn’t make out shapes.
So she closed her eyes. Groped for the wall and kept her fingertips against it as she walked. Her feet shuffling, probing. Learning to walk all over again.
The dark was cold. A damp chill like rain-breeze. She had to let go of the wall to fumble in her pack, adrift in nothingness until she’d wrapped her cloak around herself and reached out to find her guide again.
Feeling stone under her fingertips reassured her that the dark didn’t go on forever. That she could turn back any time she chose.
It was so quiet. No wind-whistle. No birdsong. No animal chatter. Just the sound of her footsteps, her breathing, her heartbeat thumping in her ears.
How long had her eyes been open before she noticed? It was the feeling of blinking which alerted her. Was she searching for light or revelling in the dark? She couldn’t tell. This was a terrifying euphoria.
Alright. She was almost out of rope. This had to be far enough.
Time to find out what truly happened if you fell asleep in the dark.

Prompt was “In a country where it’s always daytime, a character travels in search of the anonymity that darkness offers.”