From Inside The Walls

I remember feeling a bit uneasy just moments before the lights went out. Everything felt different, even the air. I was walking back home when it happened. I heard sudden screams from the walls and I felt the ground beneath my feet tremble, or maybe it was just my own feet shaking from the unknown. People ran with their hands in the air in the form of surrender. So I just followed the crowd and ran, to where I didn’t know. Why, I was unsure of as well. 

But that’s when I saw it. A giant, hairy figure with teeth that shined as bright as the lights I’d been so used to. I hid behind a plank of wood in a nearby shack. For only a moment it’s body stood still. It’s nose pointed up in the air and inhaled a scent I could have sworn to be mine. But it ran, so fast that I thought I’d just dreamt it all. I’d never thought I was capable to have held my breath for as long as I did. I crouched down with my hands over my ears and tried to drown the screams and sudden thumps. I didn’t know if they were bodies or more of those monsters that jumped the walls. I thought we were all done for.

No one told us what was out there. All I knew from the moment I was born, is what is inside these walls. But with the Watchers always on patrol, I knew there was something in the beyond. They had to be looking out for a reason. Now, it is all clear. The walls exist to keep us in, and those whatever-you-call-it out. The lights were on to keep us from the dark, because we always needed to see.

I’ve never witnessed The Colony in such fear or chaos. I isolated myself behind that piece of wood until I saw human bodies creeping out from hiding. We all gathered for a meeting and that’s where it was announced. There was a surge in the tower, which caused the lights to go out. But we all had the same thought. The lights never went out. And when it did, look what happened. 

We were all ordered to go home after the Household assured us that everything will be okay. However, I knew that was not the truth. The Colony is no longer safe and in a sense we’ve been living like it always was; but that’s another lie we believed. Even in such a fearful turn of events, I want to deny all my worries. Maybe knowing we have an enemy will wake everyone up. Maybe we can prepare. Maybe we can find a solution to the lights. Maybe we can continue living. Because to fear means you’re still alive. To live, means that you are willing to fight.