BLACK by Liu Sha
Aaron was walking on the street when he saw a black box lying in a corner. It must be left behind by someone.
“Whose box is this?” he looked around and shouted out.
The sky was dark, the outline of the sun blurred as the warm yellow rays blended with the flaming red. People trudged along the street with tired bodies. It seemed that nobody noticed him. Aaron looked around and then stepped forward to have a closer look at the box. It was a small delicate palm-sized wooden box with beautiful brown rose pattern on the cover. Dark-colored words covered all over its surface. His gaze was locked on those words. They looked like some ancient holy imprecation. Aaron took the box in his hand, it was light.
He wondered what was inside. Some treasure? A map of a secret island? Or some thing with holy power? Or maybe some evil things? He felt that there was a power that prompted him to open the box. Or maybe it was just his curiosity. He felt a little nervous. His put his shivering hand on the box paused for a hesitant moment and opened it.
Nothing was inside. Aaron was surprised and a little disappointed.
“OK, at least I got a beautiful box.” He stood up and brought it home.
Aaron woke up to the irritating ring at eight in the morning as usual. He grabbed his green alarm clock and attempted to silent it with his icy stare. He was shocked. Something was not right. His alarm clock was not green, it was black! He immediately got up from his bed and opened his eyes widely. He was now fully awake. There should be golden sunlight, blue curtains, red sofa and colorful paintings on the wall. But he could not see those colors; he could only see white wall, grey light rays and black furniture.
“No! No! This is not true. I must be dreaming!” He murmured repeatedly.
He closed his eyes hardly and opened them again. But it was still the same. All he could see was a gloomy world. He felt the cold sweat streaming down his back. He was shivering, not because he was nervous, not because he was cold, but because he was frightened.
“NO! NO!” he shouted out. He did not know why it became like this, his mind was blank. There is reason to explain this abnormal thing happened to him. THE BOX! A thought suddenly appeared in his mind. Maybe there was some power inside that box, it was some evil thing, and it destroyed his world..
“No, that is impossible! This is just temporary. No, it can’t be like that!” He put his head between his hands and cried out in despair.
As the time passed by, Aaron felt increasingly hopeless. He went to see many doctors, but the only result he got was that there was nothing wrong with his eyes and his body. Doctors told him that it might because he was under great pressure. They suggested him to see a psychologist. All the doctors said the same things to him.
But Aaron did not believe the doctors. It must be the box, the black box! It was the box that destroyed him and brought him the horrible life! It was the evil, it was the source of his black world! He tried to destroy the black box. But it never broke apart, no matter how hard he smashed it.
He could feel that the black shadows were eating his soul. His world became darker and darker. He saw no colors expect in gradients of grey and black, he had no feelings besides gloominess and fear. No one cared about him, no one understood him, and no one believed him. It was a world with no color, it was a world with no love. It was a hopeless world with only horror and nightmares.
He had nightmares every night. He saw a woman in black laughing loudly at him. Her face was distorted and scary. And she said “There is no way you can escape!” He saw monsters moving in the black shadow and staring at him with their bloody red eyes.
All he wanted was color. Red color – the color of life, the color he could see in his nightmares in the bloodshot eyes of the monstrous beings. He asked the shop assistant to bring him everything in red. Red balls, red caps, red paints…But all he saw was the endless black.
BLOOD! He suddenly smiled. Yes, he could see red if there was blood. He rushed into kitchen crazily to search for a knife. He held it with his quivering hand and put it to his wrist. He cut into his veins with no hesitation, as if somebody was controlling the hand with the knife. He waited expectantly.
But all he saw was the black liquid flowing out from his body. His pupils contracted.
