The last time he saw the sun he was still a boy. Before the dark happened he would still have been considered a boy today, but now, in this world, in this life, he was a man. He had to be. There was no other option. Grow up and survive, or don't. There was nothing in between.
The sun was up high in the sky that day it happened. Burning bright overhead. It was summer. It was perfect.
In an instant it changed. Everything changed.
At first they thought it was a regular eclipse. His friends were pointing and laughing with excitement at the show in the sky as the bright spot of the sun became black.
That was the last time he remembered laughter. That was the last time he saw the sun. That was the day the world he thought he knew ceased to exist. The real world was dark. This was the real world.
The scientists and astronomers were frantic talking heads on every channel, as they debated with pundits and news anchors and religious zealots. Every channel was a variation of the same drama playing out on the screen.
No one had a good answer. No one could even begin to comprehend it.
The religious talking heads couldn't understand why we were still alive and well if this was the end. Their messages to their congregations rang hollow because there was no answer that satisfied.
The scienctists had no answers. The years of writing peer reviewed papers and preaching over their own pulpits in classrooms now seemed a waste, because they had been wrong all along.
The people of the world realized that no matter which dogma they had followed, they were left without a guiding light in the darkness that remained.
The only true thing left was the darkness. Someone or something had turned out the light on the world. The game was over.
And the boy who was still a boy had to become a man.
There was no rules left. No laws. No order and no peace.
In the dark was that remained there was only survival.
The day the darkness began he was 8 years old. It had been 10 years of dark, and today he was a man.
