Nightfall

by E.L. Middleton

  David and Kate were well aware of the rules and also didn’t want to be at The Point after dark. They felt it would’ve made them look like they were up to no good, like the others. David’s father would have called it necking, and he was absolutely sure that that was what the campus security would think they were doing. Only they wouldn’t have called it necking. Not in this day and age. He had heard stories of couples making out at The Point after dark and being discovered by a large, unbelievably bright light emitting from a campus security guard’s flashlight. As if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, they had then been escorted in their vehicle back to campus with full on flashing red lights.

  That was why, when they had needed a break from studying for midterms, he and Kate had decided to head to The Point during the afternoon. That way they wouldn’t have to worry about campus security, blinding flashlights or the rest of the university thinking they were breaking several cardinal rules.

  They parked about a half a mile away from the entrance to The Point and trekked up the hill alongside the road, with a small cooler and a green blanket. When they got there they spread the blanket, used the cooler on one of the corners to weigh it down and stretched out, admiring the view. There was a slight haze hovering above the city that afternoon and the buildings looked patched with the incredible mixture of clouds and sunspots. The sun had been trying to break through within the last hour and although they had hoped for a perfect sunny day, the battle for sunlight that was going on in the sky was just as entertaining, as long as it didn’t rain.

  “I love it up here,” Kate said, unable to take her eyes away from it all.

  David looked over at her, admiring her beauty with a smile.

  “It almost makes midterms and studying disappear,” he said.

  “Almost,” she quipped.

 

  He reached over and grabbed her hand, placing it in his. She was so beautiful. He had never been with anyone like Kate before. She was unassuming and fun. She had long, straight brown hair and hazel eyes that seemed to always know what he was thinking, sometimes before he knew himself.

  He had met her in his sophomore year, just outside the local cinema. They were the only two purchasing tickets to see the revival of Citizen Kane. It had been a special one night only showing for a dollar and both had rushed into the theater to get good seats, quickly realizing that they were the only ones that were going to be in attendance. As they sat there in the dim light, waiting for the movie to start, their eyes met. She seemed to be inviting him to sit with her the way she was looking over at him—although, later that night she would reveal she had been looking at him because he looked familiar. It had been a night he would never forget, although they had been blessed to have many more since. They had been dating now for over two years and David had secret plans of heading to the local jewelry store and purchasing the best ring he could find—and afford.

  “I can’t believe we only have one more semester after this and it’s all over,” Kate said, sighing.

  “I’m glad. I’ve about had enough of all of the—”

  David stopped, feeling something cold on his shoulder. He looked to his left and a putrid and damp smell hit him, instantly making him nauseous and gag. He couldn’t make out what was on his shoulder but out of the corner of his eye he could see something crawling.

  He tried to get to his feet but the force on his shoulder was too great. Kate looked over at him, noticing his struggle, and a look so horrifying spread across her face. She began to scream, her terror echoing down the mountain. She stood up and started to back away as David began crying out for help. Suddenly he was forced on his back by a large, rotting creature.

  Kate had just stepped off of the green blanket they had been sitting on when she was attacked from behind. This other creature, dressed in a withered suit filled with holes and covered in mud and sludge, seemed to wait for her to back up to him before he reached his arms around her and tried to bite her. The two creatures let out unearthly moans, filled with fluid, as they struggled with David and Kate. Within minutes their cries for help were silenced and their bodies lay lifeless on the ground.

  CHAPTER 4

  It was almost eleven and Ewen had made it through Mr. Foxcroft’s class as well as his English 200 course. Between the dirty looks during Foxcroft’s lecture and the assignment he had forgotten to do for English it was turning out to be a miserable day. “It’s not even lunch yet, he thought.

  He trekked his way down a slight incline and followed the road toward the Romero Center. All of the students were required to show up for church service at eleven o’clock on Wednesdays. This being a Wednesday, the crowds were filing out of the academic buildings and down the road with Ewen. He used to be enamored by the large crowds on campus when he was a freshman—thousands of young men and women entering into the dome through several double doors talking to their friends—but now, as he made his way into the building he barely noticed.

  The noise level inside was absolutely incredible. The stadium was filling up fast and all of the inherent chatter echoed inside the giant, steel dome. Way down below, where the basketball court was, a platform had been put together. A podium with a microphone attached to it was placed in the center and three microphones on stands were just off to the left. Three chairs, filled with the chancellor, the dean of students and an overweight man in a black suit, were sitting on the platform.

  As Ewen made his way around an open hallway that looked out across the crowds, he searched for a place to sit. Finally, after walking halfway around the dome, he found a seat near the back. He walked a few steps down and took an aisle seat, throwing his book bag in the space beside him. Relief washed over him as he tried to get comfortable in the hard, plastic chair. Trying not look so alone he began to scour the Romero Center, examining its details as he waited for the service to start.

  An enormous monitor hung from the top of the building, hovering right over the platform. Speakers on all four of its corners surrounded it and the display lights—used for keeping score during the basketball games—were turned off. At too many services to count Ewen had imagined the steel cords that held the display to the top of the dome snapping, the entire thing falling on top of the platform below. It probably would have seemed a little sadistic to those who didn’t know him better, but it entertained his mind when there was a particularly boring speaker.

  At a little past eleven three members of the campus worship team, two girls and one guy, approached the microphones to the left of the platform and began to lead the crowd in several songs. Ewen had always let his fears of what others might say interfere with the praise and worship side of going to church. He enjoyed the music, especially the contemporary songs, but at this point and in this place it would’ve taken a miracle to get him to be like the others. There was something about a large crowd singing praises to the Lord that broke chill bumps out on his arms.

 

  Even though people surrounded him and he could feel God’s presence, he still felt alone. He knew he couldn’t justify it—not with the way he knew God was working in that place—but he also couldn’t deny the way he felt, whether right or wrong.

  The worship team slowed the music down a little more and began to sing a song Ewen had never heard. The music softly played as the lyrics glowed on the monitor over the platform. As he watched some of the students raise their hands in praise Ewen noticed something striking out of the corner of his eye. His head turned and his eyes immediately fell upon a beautiful young woman just three rows down from him in the next section. She had shoulder length brown hair and was wearing a navy sweater with a skirt that had a flower print. She turned her head briefly to brush her hair from her face and as she did Ewen felt the chill bumps rise on his arms again. Just a glimpse of her face was enough to move him in such a peculiar and fantastic way he had never felt before. As the crowd began to sing he noticed that she was sitting alone. He felt the pressure to shift his gaze, just knowing that at any m
oment she would turn around and see him staring at her, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

  A student in front of him raised their hands in the air, praising the Lord while they sang. It immediately drew his attention away from the young woman. He saw that most of the crowd in the building had their hands raised now. Growing up in church it had never seemed out of the ordinary to see people worship like this and in fact he rather admired it. He used to think it was just the older people that attended services that were free enough in spirit and without hesitation to praise how they wanted. He couldn’t have imagined a married couple with two kids being concerned with how they looked to others when they lifted their hands and raised their voices. He had been sure that it was just a typical feeling for the under twenty crowd to constantly be worried what others would think. But like most of what he had learned or experienced in high school, his ideals were changing. Parents no longer stayed together forever, soda could kill you and the excitement you had the first snowfall of the season was now just a lightly falling hope that class would be cancelled.

  One of the ideals that seemed to stay no matter what generation you were from was the notion of labels making it easier to identify someone. Ewen was reminded of one of those labels as he watched some of the students really getting into the service in an almost showy, performance driven way. Most of the students on campus were charismatic, as his Dad would’ve said. There wasn’t a day that went by where he didn’t pass someone who wasn’t singing a praise song as they made their way to class. If he hadn’t seen some of those same students acting differently when they thought no one was looking he would’ve started to question his own faith.

  He was, and had always been, a very private person. He kept a lot of his personal problems to himself and tried to find his own ways of dealing with things. Somehow, he had translated that privacy into his religious beliefs. He prayed quite often, but only in his head. Sure, he prayed aloud over a meal or when called on during class—the few times that had happened—but for the most part he kept his prayers to himself. He knew there was nothing really wrong with that; and how could there be, considering how many times he prayed during his long walks to his classes.

  He had unfortunately developed bitterness over the past year though, and it had been directly related to how private his religious beliefs were. He prayed consistently, sometimes constantly, but because no one saw him get down on his knees, fold his hands and speak aloud to God, he had been cornered one afternoon by his resident assistant. He was about to head out for the evening and grab something to eat off campus—maybe head over to the movie theater and see what was playing—when Geoff, his R.A., had knocked on his dorm room door.

  “Come in,” he said, wondering which one of his roommates friends it was.

  “Hey, buddy. What’s up?” Geoff said, with a slight smile.

  Ewen had never really had much opportunity to get to know Geoff but from what he could tell the general consensus around the dorm was that he was a nerd. There seemed to be an unwritten handbook that was taught starting in middle school about the differences between a nerd and a geek. Geeks were categorized as occasionally outcast and a bit obsessive about pop culture or trivia and generally reveled in their uniqueness. Nerds, on the other hand, were superior in intellect, however had no grasp on pop culture—for the most part—and tended to project what they thought cool was. Of course, their idea of what was cool was most certainly not the majority of society’s.

  Now a nerd, like any other person, had extra adjectives or traits that followed their nerd persona based on their upbringing or life experiences. A nerd could be angry. A nerd could be naïve. A nerd could be just about anything, along with being a nerd. In the case of Geoff the R.A., he was a nerd who seemed sweet natured but had a knack for being condescending.

  Right off the bat Geoff had made a big mistake in approaching Ewen—beside the fact that Ewen had been on his way out the door and Geoff’s timing was fairly horrible. Ewen wasn’t found of being called “buddy.”

  “What’s up Geoff?” Ewen replied, sliding his jacket off of his bed and putting it on.

  “Headin’ out for the evening?” Geoff asked, his hands on his hips and his head nodding a little in an agreement with nothing.

  “Yeah. I thought I’d grab something to eat off campus tonight. Sick of the cafeteria food, you know?” Ewen said, trying to be as pleasant as he could.

  “Oh, not me. No way. Too expensive out there. I’d rather save my money.”

  “I guess I’m just not as frugal.”

  Geoff forced a bit of a laugh.

  “Well, I wanted to talk to you about something if that’s alright? You have a second?”

  “Sure,” Ewen said, wanting to desperately bolt for the door.

  Geoff took a seat in a nearby chair and Ewen, noticing him do this, sat down on the bottom bunk amidst his roommate’s disheveled sheets. He wasn’t quite sure what this was about but the way Geoff was acting was a little strange, even for him.

  “How’s your walk with God, man?” Geoff asked.

  Ewen couldn’t help but smile and his face even flushed red for a bit. To him, the question was ridiculous. He had been saved since he was eight years old and to this day couldn’t see him living his life without God as a crucial part of it. He wanted to laugh at Geoff but decided it wouldn’t have been appropriate considering the look on his face was quite sincere.

  “It’s just that, I see you walking around campus sometimes and you look so alone. You never show up to any of our Bible studies here in the dorm and I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay and that you knew God is there for you anytime you need Him.”

  Ewen wanted to tell Geoff the truth: that the reason he walked around campus alone was because no one had made any effort to reciprocate his friendliness or reach out to him and try to honestly connect. Again, he decided against saying that. He didn’t think Geoff would take it too kindly and he didn’t want to start trouble, especially not in his dorm. The last thing he wanted was for the guys on his floor to look at him with the same anger and disappointment that most of his classmates did.

  “I’m fine, really. Yeah, I mean, I don’t have friends here. But I’m good with God.”

  “You sure? Because we can pray right here and you can accept Him into your heart. I’d do that with you if you’d like?” Geoff said, pushing a little.

  “Seriously, I’m good.”

 

  Geoff stood up, his body language expressing something more like irritation now. He let out a deep sigh.

  “Well, you’ve got an attitude from what I hear, if you don’t mind me saying so? You come across like you don’t want anything to do with your fellow Christians and any time any of us in the dorm try to approach you, we get little to no response.”

  Geoff made for the door, turning back to Ewen who was still sitting on his roommate’s bed, now with a look of complete shock.

  “All I’m saying is, if you truly are saved then I think you’re sending out the wrong signals,” Geoff said.

  “So, let me get this straight, okay?” Ewen said.

  Geoff stood at the door, shifting his stance a little.

  “You think that because I don’t have any friends and because any time someone has come up to me to talk—which has been few and far between—that because I have very little to say, I’m not saved?” Ewen asked in disbelief.

  “Well, you kind of boiled it down there, didn’t you?”

  “Well, you kind of asked me a pointed question.” Ewen said, managing to keep his cool.

  “This is another example of how you come across like someone who needs the Lord. I came in here to try and help you and you’ve basically closed your mind to me.”

  “First of all, Geoff, there’s no reason for me to have an open mind on something that we are both in agreement on. I need God. You want me to have God in my life. I’ve got Him in my life.

  “Second of all, you didn’t come in here to try to help
me. You came in here to get me saved. I’m already saved. Just because you don’t like who I am or the way I do things doesn’t mean I’m not saved. It just means I’m not you.”

  “Well, that kind of elitist attitude is not going to get you any friends around here, buddy,” Geoff said a bit flustered by the conversation’s immediate shift.

  “I’ve noticed that, Geoff.”

  “Whatever, Ewen. Just remember, when you’re ready to talk about your walk with God I’ll be around.”

  Geoff turned back around and opened the door, heading out of the room and into the hallway.

  As the door shut behind him Ewen fought with himself to not be angry with Geoff. He knew he was a good guy, deep inside, but he certainly didn’t have much tolerance for anyone who’s faith he couldn’t wrap his head around