Hello Darkness

The air traveled in an almost predetermined path, bringing with it a deep chill. A breeze which would send a deep shiver down the spines of all those who were foolish enough to wander in the darkness of night. Bones thrust into a deep freeze that would leave the being caught in such a condition feeling like a walking corpse. The streets baron of any life, silent with the deep nights calm. The bustling town was brought to a halt as everyone who was wise was deep in slumber leaving a motionless world to await their revival and revitalization of the world. A car in the ignition, alarms being sounded, and people preparing for another day, unaware of the world which sits outside the safety of their bed in the night. The world that had long been feared by so many. The warnings through childhood, booklets sent home, and tales of monsters which leaked in the darkest of corners.

This was the exact time which Zander felt like he was truly alive, a time when comfort found him and wrapped around him. A feeling of safety and welcome he could only feel at these exact times. A blanket of acceptance and freedom which he was stripped of in the daytime when the sun and light exposed all. Where he saw the light as a way to pull the mistakes too close to be seen, whereas in his darkness, nothing could hide and be unseen, anything was within reach. Zander preferred to wander his world after the sun had set, when the moon was near gone, and the streetlights which once offered safety and comfort to the many trying to find their way into their beds past the sun’s fall. In total darkness was where Zander knew he belonged. Where all signs of light were vanquished and darkness reigned over the world. The silence which came along with his time was only a benefit, as he would forego the silence if the darkness could remain. Without the need to fill the space, he would walk and hear the smaller details which are so often spoken over by the rest of the town. A town who had long turned their backs on the darkness. Trained to have a hatred towards it.

He wandered the streets which he had long claimed as his own as midnight fell. Where all creatures were pushed into their own safety, Zander would be the only being to freely move through the pitch blackness, unafraid of what lurked where light would not tarry. This had always been his way, to await the night to fall and light to eradicate before he would exit his room and wander the suburb which he had lived in since he can remember. Sneaking out of his second floor window of the cookie cutter house where the O’Conner family had taken residence. Escape the confines of a home where those who lived in the light had raised him and shaped him.

He held no grudge or anger towards his family, as he knew it was not on them which had made him the way he is. He had simply always been the way he was, only able to express it once able to escape the routine which so many others called life. Able to find his safety within the darkness. Welcomed by a friend he had never met.

Unlike so many, Zander never had a fear of the dark, even as a child. He requested in place of any nightlight, his door be shut and blackout curtains be placed over his window to stop the moon from spoiling the dark. He would run for darkened closets as a child for safety in place of the light which would expose the monsters after him. For in his darkness, the monsters would only have him to fear. Power stripped from them and given freely to him. His parents, while concerned about their son’s odd behavior, felt guilty for the way he had turned out. A guilt which echoed through the home and into Zander. He felt no ill will or resentment of his parents as how could they have known, changed, or done anything more than they had for him. But since the moment he entered the world, he was different.

Born at 3:37 AM on a Friday in 1992, Zander was brought into this world different from his family, unlike his peers, and unique in every way. Where his mother was an average height woman, standing at 5’4”, her body in better shape than most would imagine a working woman of 35 would be, her skin a tanned masterpiece which was naturally earned through her many activities and outdoor work. She held long and wavy dirty blonde hair to match her light amber eyes which would be the first to see what had been born that day. Eyes which radiated their own loving, warm light to all who surrounded her. A smile which sparkles as if designed by the Gods to be perfect. She was everything a person could want with love and compassion for all she touched, Yet Zander was  the odd puzzle piece which fit into no set.

Zander’s father was a man of great handsomeness. He stood over many at his height of 6’1” with the build of a lumberjack, arms bulging with muscles and ready to handle any challenge. As if training to carry the weight of the world with ease. His chiseled features and body would make many believe he was what ancient masters had worked to produce in marble. Tan skinned naturally darkening and lightening with the seasons, yet always present. His deep hazel-blue eyes spoke of pools of calm and relaxing water, inviting and mysterious. Chestnut hair, thick and trimmed neatly, coated his head. He emanates the energy of a protector, who would fight to protect those he loves. Carrying an inner light which would send the darkness running in fright of being vanquished.

Both his parents shone with the love and compassion they held for each other and for their children. A beacon of light and love for all those who orbited within their auras. A complete opposite of what Zander was. Where light came from them with passion, it came at him with violence and pain.

Zander was born with pale white skin closer to the color of marble in contrast to his parents' caramel tonality, a ghost of what his parents were expecting. Their hopes that this was only a momentary coloration, and he would quickly develop into their rich skin tone. A change which never occurred. His pale skin remains as a part of who he was and always would be. His hair grew to be dark brown, almost black, with a single band of pure white running over the left side of his head. A look which made it appear even from an early age that he had chosen to selectively bleach his hair to match his skin appearance. This was a trait which had never appeared within Zander’s entire lineage of relatives. His thick dark brown hair sat with minimal waves which would only appear when his hair got wet, otherwise to the public it would appear to be as straight as it could be. But the most striking feature which Zander held was his pale gray eyes, which at first appear to be completely white. At this birth, the doctors and nurses believed he was born blind without any color to his irises. His parents saw his nearly completely white eyes with small black pupils which denoted that he was not blind. But to look into his eyes was a hard task, to see no color in comparison to his parents' beautiful colors, his was as if bleached and drained of any color. It took time for anyone to notice that his eyes did hold a near transparent gray tone and not the pure white which was first believed. Much like his skin, this aspect of his being never changed.

He had grown up in the same house as his siblings, both of whom more closely resembled his parents. Glowing tan skin, luscious hair of dirty blonde, and eyes which were vibrant and inviting. The comment his siblings made was that he was born without the spark of light inside him. Leaving him hollow and transparent to the world, where their souls were bright and shone through them, tanning their skins and allowing beauty to shoot from their eyes. They ensured that any chance of Zander finding comfort in his sibling was quickly eradicated and destroyed, as he was always outcast even by his own blood. Quickly realizing that when confronted with light, his eyes are unable to handle it. They would shine lights of all sorts at him simply to watch him struggle for their enjoyment.

He had grown up with his pale complexion and toneless eyes. A walking ghost to the world, forced to change his appearance to simply exist in the world he was born into. His eyes, without any color, took any amount of light as a harsh and nearly blinding amount, burning his pupils until they nearly closed to avoid the onslaught of brightness. For years, he had been forced to wear sunglasses wherever he went simply to be able to have his eyes open, able to look at the world through the darkness. Knowing that this was a fake reduction, that without these glasses he would be assaulted by the sun that all his peers relished being in. Tortured from being able to even partake in normal and expected activities of children his age. No matter how hard he had tried to fit in, his appearance and need for coverage always made him the outcast, the weird one, the diseased one among the kids. Solitude soon became his only friend. His imagination runs free.

His mind was the only place he found solace from the daily torment from both the world and the people within it. A constant reminder of how he was not like everyone else, how he was not meant to walk the same world as they did. So his mind is where Zander went to hide, a place safe from the constant harassment by the public, his peers, and his siblings. His imagination became as vivid as the world his family and the world enjoyed. Sights no one had seen were created in his own mind space. Yet he was unable to exist outside of his mind and rejoin the normal world without constant pain and fear. It was not until Halloween of 1996, where he found his true light, his world, the world of darkness. From that moment he knew it was exactly where he belonged, what called to him, and the location where he was the strongest. Tables turned and the public which had tormented him became the weaker of the two of them with this change. All it took was for lights and power to be cut, a single night thrust into darkness for mere minutes. It was the dark beacon which called for him. The one which still pulled at him every night to wander his own world.