[url=https://youtu.be/Z0kGAz6HYM8]In the Dark[/url]

Most children have probably been afraid of the dark at one point or another.

I still am.

Even though I'm almost an adult, I can't sleep in the dark. There must always be a light, somewhere. I'm not afraid of monsters. No, I'm afraid of people. The desperate that lurk in the dark, those who have nothing left but a stubborn will and a starving belly. Those who do not see a child, just as stubborn and starving, but a mark. A victim. Those that don't see the child sleeping with one eye open and a stolen switchblade...

This dark reminds me of a time I can't forget. I wonder if anyone else can smell the long unwashed bodies, untreated illness, raw human desperation...

I feel, rather than see, things coming at me. Shapes in the dark. Hands, reaching for me. I know they're enemies. There's never any rescue coming in the middle of the night.  I learned that first.

[b]Can you state your name?[/b]

My hand searches, gropes, grasps for defense. I need a weapon. Give me something, there has to be- My hand closes around a sharp point. While I cuss, I point the business end of this, this... arrow outward. Not a knife, but good enough.

“Fuck off. You don't want my name. You want my money.” I don't know my own voice. In fact, I'm not exactly sure of the answer to the question. Who... am I? “You want my food. You want my life!” I may be small, but I've got a will bigger than my body. They all learned that pretty quick, not to pick on the small one. “You can't fucking have it. I've faced more scary shit than you when I was a little brat. If you're gonna come at me, have the balls to look me in the eyes.”

And it did. I saw the shadows take a face, eyes that were unreal and wrong and looking right through me. Then it had a mouth. Too human, too many teeth...

[b]Can you state your name?[/b]

I lunged, screaming defiance and burrowing my arrow into an eye that had appeared.