12 Days of Xmas: The Creeping Darkness

There was a hole in the wall. It was near to the corner and it had started as a crack running down. Now there was a gaping blackness bulging out of the crack, as though something had been working its way out from behind the wall. Gnawing through the wood and drywall. Forcing its head out with the expectation that its body would soon be able to follow, squeezing out to fall to the floor and scuttle around the room in the darkness while the human occupant slept.

From the tight confines between the wall, it would take over the room first, then later spawn an army to take over the rest of the house and force the humans out. It had no deeper thought than bettering its own life.

No concept that once its existence was noticed, it would no longer be allowed to exist.

Traps and poisons would take its life and the lives of its young. Any survivors would have to learn the fear that humanity brought everywhere they went.

The way that humans would creep into every corner of the world and beyond. Writhing and twisting to fit their way into even the smallest of spaces, then expanding outward as they spawned their way from overabundance into bleak scarcity. Pissing and shitting everywhere, fouling the water and spoiling the food they chose not to eat so that the excess could not go to other people. Jealously guarding what they had while those around them died with nothing at all.

From the darkness behind the wall, the creature worked through the night, tirelessly gnawing away at the crack to widen the hole. A nose poked through, nostrils expanding and contracting as it drew in the scent of freedom.

From darkness to light, it would creep. A better life was a breath away.

=END=

~Harper Kingsley

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