Darkness lives in the closet. Or so thinks the hero of our story. And

Darkness must be a bad fellow since he is the cause of so much nighttime

fear. This is the story of a boy who is afraid of the dark and his quest to

confront and master the personification of his fear.

 

As he cowers under the covers of his bed one night, our hero decides to

confront Darkness once and for all. He gathers all the necessary items for

his task - a flashlight as a weapon, a cape to give him Superhero bravery,

extra set of batteries for the weapon, and a cardboard box in which to

imprison Mr. Darkness. Thus armed and ready to do battle, the boy bursts

into his closet and is instantly transported into the Land of Darkness.

 

The Land of Darkness is a swampy, tree-infested, gloomy land devoid of all life, or so it seems at first. Our hero quickly discovers that the Land is very much alive with animate trees, bridges, mine carts, boats, and furniture. In fact, as soon as our hero enters the land, he gets captured by some Guardian Trees who strip him of his “weapons” and run away with them.

 

Without his three special items, our hero doesn’t feel quite so bold. In fact, in his explorations, he discovers the house and even the bedroom of Darkness, but is reluctant to enter unprepared. Thus our hero must find his three special items which have been scattered throughout the land.

 

The Land is composed of three distinct areas - the House of Darkness, the river system, and the underground mines. The House of Darkness is a grand tree house in a gigantic sprawling tree. The river system is a series of rapids, waterfalls, and underground caverns which our hero traverses in a friendly little boat. The mines are dark dirty tunnels which are navigated with the aid of an amicable little mine cart. Each area has one of the three special items in it. Our hero must figure out how to retrieve them.

 

 

 

Once the three items are in his possession, our hero makes his way

back to the bedroom of Darkness. Once again, prepared for battle he

bursts through the door into the bedroom which, coincidentally, looks

an awful lot like our hero’s own. Darkness is nowhere to be found. But

there is a closet door… Our hero opens the door to the closet and

bursts in as before. Indeed, Darkness is here in the closet, cowering

in the corner.

 

Now a violent conclusion to such a story just wouldn’t do at all. Instead, our hero softens his heart a bit and discovers to his delight that Darkness is actually quite a personable fellow. In fact, Darkness is just a lonely and misunderstood person. You see, at night when Darkness comes out to play, all the kids of the world go to sleep, so he has no friends at all. Our hero decides to be his friend and no longer fears the dark. He goes back through the closet, emerging into his room, unplugs his nightlight, and goes to bed.