When darkness became light.

      She woke up nearly half past an hour before midnight in a sudden darkness, denser than usual, with a man she hardly knows. Who was this, she asked in her mind but she knew she could not have an answer. The man took her into a dark street where people seemed to be queuing outside a large ancient-type building of Baroque style. She did not feel anything out of the ordinary yet she did not know what lies ahead. The man was covered with shadows of the trees surrounding them so that they were almost blocked from view and still they continued to walk on the way to the building.

      But they stopped and he looked behind. “Who’s that?” he called. There was no reply but he knew there was someone following them. They continued their night walk as if nothing happened… yet they knew something really happened.

      He was a guy of somewhere between adolescence and manhood; eighteen years old by the looks of it. He was carrying a camera usually used by professional photographers and seemed determined to follow this couple. He knew something was wrong yet he did not know what it could be. They strolled impossibly slower than they ought to. Or has the world seemed to be a lot slower than it should?

      He was hiding behind a car, beside a thicket and had geared up his camera, ready to take a photo of them without having a purpose of doing so yet ascertained by the feeling that he was about to do the right thing.

      Hearts beating fast.

      The man still swallowed by darkness appeared to envelop the girl in his arms as she reluctantly came closer. She was looking away; apparently knowing what he was about to do and evidently seeing no way of escaping this time. Then there was a flash of bright light. “Who was that!?” growled the man of darkness.

      The camera guy never felt as dumb and stupid as he was in his entire existence until that evening. He forgot the flashes… but he was able to capture the dreadful scene. Then he realized that there were silent scuffles and the strangers were approaching. He had no escape. He closed his eyes, praying for dear life…

      And then a deafening silence.

      He knew he did the girl a favor.

(R)