I feel like being dark today.  Maybe it's inspired by Obsquatch reposting his Devilmas video.  Maybe it's because last night I was reminded of how incredibly hopeless this world can be sometimes.  Maybe it's because I've simply exhausted my supply of happiness and need to retreat for a while.

The story that I've posted after the break is title Peter & the Dark Wolf.  It's something that I've been periodically working on here and there for the past year or so.  There is nothing spectacular about it and certainly nothing brilliant in a literary sense, but every now and then you have to embrace the Darkside and this is one of those times.  Leave me good comments and I'll keep posting the rest of what I have written.

I've been on the surface for much too long now. I had almost forgotten what it's like in my dark lair ... Almost.

The surface is, admittedly, quite the agreeable place to be. There's very little stress on the surface--probably the single greatest allure to it and why so many spend their lives up there. On the surface, you can find pleasure in the insignificant; the mundane becomes engaging. And when a person lives their entire life on the surface, it becomes unnecessary for them to peer beneath and acknowledge the monsters that lurk in the darkness below.

It’s true. The surface is a good place to be. Especially if you aren’t accustomed to the depths to which the darkness can--and does--sink.

I won't lie to you--that’s not what this is about--I’ve enjoyed my time passively wandering the surface and letting my cares and worries melt away. But it's not where I belong. And to be honest with you, well, I miss my lair. There's something imminently comforting about the solitude and quietness of my dark lair--a comfort heretofore unmatched by anything the surface has to offer.

In my dark lair, I’m free to embrace the truth about these things that surface-dwellers would deny themselves. It’s true that within my dark lair the joys and pleasures that are abundant on the surface are virtually nonexistent. It is also true that the pleasures I am afforded within my lair are infinitely more exquisite than anything a surface-dweller can ever comprehend.