It was dangerous to enter the Forest around Northwood at night, for a darkness lurked between the trees there, a darkness that hungered and stalked like a beast, tearing flesh from the bones of any creature it courted. It had no call or voice of its own, but took the voices of those it killed, the last thing a victim would hear would be the chatter of the dead, the last thing they would see is darkness and then they would become a part of it. 

The people of Northwood called it the Whispering Darkness, as terrifying as it was they had grown to know it well, the Darkness did not approach light, and it only hunted four months of the year. The first two leading to the winter solstice, and two afterwards, when the nights were at their longest. 

It was unknown where the Whispering Darkness spent the rest of the year, perhaps in some lair deep underground, but during the months it was active, the creatures of the forest either hid or abandoned the forest entirely until it was safe again. There was only one species that lived without fear of it, small creatures that glowed green, the light they gave meant the Whispering Darkness could not get close enough to eat them. The children said they were fairies, the adults said there were no such things, only insects with glowing behinds, whatever they were, they were safe. 

The people of Northwood stayed safe with wood, coal and oil, burning fireplaces, street lamps and hand held lanterns provided adequate protection. Northwood was kept bright at night, and the people slept soundly for the most part, although they rarely ventured out late during the Whispering Darkness’ hunting season.

Despite the safety of the town, there were always those willing to push their luck, especially among the young, on the night of the winter solstice, it had become tradition with the towns youth to use the Whispering Darkness as a way of testing bravery among themselves. The older youths would bring children on their twelve years into a clearing in the forest a short way from town, then once the sun had set they challenge them to walk the path back, alone with only a lantern for protection. 

Tonight was that night, completing this task was seen as transitioning from child to adult, to pass meant being accepted into their social circle, to refuse the walk alone meant being labelled a coward, although the name rarely lasted into adulthood proper. Still every child wants to be accepted among their seniors, and themselves be the ones to test the next generation. 

James, along with his fellows in the trial stood with lanterns in hand. "Tim's turn!" the older kids cried, he was brought forward, holding his lantern close to his chest. He was nervous, but unwilling to fail, walked on, their encouragement was yelled after him until he was out of sight, the older kids then talked, laughed and drank what alcohol they could steal from the adults. A ring of torches had been set up in the snow, and everyone had their own lanterns close by. 

James was left the last one to walk, feeling equally afraid of the Whispering Darkness and of social rejection, lantern in hand until he was told to walk, Tim, and every other child who had gone before him had walked, if he did not do it, he would be outcasted. As far as he knew no one who had walked the path before him had seen or heard the Whispering Darkness directly during their walk, he only needed to swallow his fear for a little bit and everything would be alright. 

“Keep your lantern held tightly, and don't stray from the path” One of them told him as he was guided to the entrance, he received a reassuring pat on the shoulder and began to walk.

He knew that, as long as those two rules were obeyed, he would be safe, the ordeal would be over, and he could join the festivities the rest of Northwood were enjoying and take his place among his seniors. 

This path was chosen specifically because it winded in a way that meant both ends were out of sight for most of the walk, he progressed slowly, snow and fallen leaves crunching underfoot, he could see the footprints of the others who had gone before him. This gave him confidence and he walked faster, if they could do it, then so could he. 

The walk started to become somewhat pleasant, the night was quiet, and the air refreshingly cool. Before long he could see the end of the path. The exit was light up just as the start was, he was almost finished. 

James saw it before it made any sound, the exit vanished as something moved between him and it, causing him to stop dead, a dark barrier now blocked his view, James stopped dead, his blood ran cold as he realised what he was facing. 

He began to shake as it looked into the black abyss, in the night, the moon's light blocked by trees it was hard to tell where the Whispering Dark began and the forest's natural darkness ended, he swallowed as he began to hear it. The dreaded whispering of the dead that it had consumed, they sounded distant and far away, too numerous and quiet to identify any one voice from the mix. Chattering quickly, at each other, at James or at something else entirely he was not sure, it was impossible to understand them. 

He stood rooted to the spot, quivering, his lantern was still brightly lit, it could not get close to the light James knew, but seeing it before him, no more than twenty paces away, paralysed him with fear. He could not just stay here he had to move, eventually he willed himself to take a step, walking towards the danger, extending his arm to hold the lantern further from him, hoping to scare it away. 

He took one, two, three steps, then the Whispering Darkness screamed, the voices all shrieking in unison. James' resolve shattered and he ran, forgetting the path he ran directly away from it as fast as he could. Trying to clear as much ground as quickly as possible, crashing through the undergrowth, twigs scratching his face, catching his clothing. 

The Darkness followed, as James moved further back into its domain, away from safety, away from the Town's lights that kept it at bay, away from people who could save him, James had become its prey.  

The boy ran, he could hear it behind him, that he could not tell if he was putting any actual distance between him and it, he could still hear those incomprehensible voices. He focused solely on running as fast as he could, he ran and ran, then tripped. Catching his foot on a tree root he fell hard on the ground, the lantern flew out of his hands and smashed in the darkness before him. 

Cold dread filled James, he could hear the voices getting closer, he scrabbled, and crawled in almost pitch blackness until he hit a tree, and then moved behind it, unable to see he covered his mouth, back to it. 

Tears ran down his cheeks as the voices, they were no longer screaming now, they were whispering, but they were getting closer. He thought he could hear them calling his name, as he sat in the darkness. 

He closed his eyes, it was almost on top of him now, he knew it would be over soon, the Whispering Darkness would devour him, and add his voice to the cacophony of the dead, he waited, and waited, but nothing happened. 

The chatter did not stop, but neither was he eaten, James opened his eyes slowly, the area around him was illuminated, but not by the yellow flame of a lantern, everything was bathed in green. All over his body, hundreds of green lights sat on him, their combined light made his whole body shine in the darkness. 

"The fairies!" James thought to himself. The Whispering Darkness was still close to him, maybe closer to him than it had ever been, he did not know if it was above him, or behind him or elsewhere, the glow of the fairies only extended a little way, and with the forest devoid of light, the creature was invisible. That did not matter however, their light combined was keeping him safe. 

Slowly, very slowly, he stood up, the fairies remained on his body, a few moved around to his back once he removed himself from the tree. Keeping an even aura around him, he began to walk, he'd lost his way but if he could just find a path, he could follow it home. 

As he walked the Whispering Darkness followed, James could hear its stolen voices, to his ear they sounded like they sounded desperate, he tried to ignore them, and focused on walking as carefully as he could. Afraid to dislodge the fairies on him, eventually James found a path, and following it, he found the Northwood’s walls, lanterns where placed all the way around, creating a barrier of light to repel the Whispering Darkness. James walked towards it and stood its glow, only then did he turn around. 

He thought he could perhaps see it, the Whispering Darkness, its form shifting and writhing between the trees, its voices had stopped now, the night was silent again, James thought he could just about see its dark mass retreating back into the forest, giving up its chase. 

The fairies on James' body began to move, they flew off him, they gathered in the air swarming in a bright display, then flew back into the forest. 

"Thank you!" James yelled after them as he watched them go. 

Short story for 2nd writers Jam finished! I hope you enjoyed it, feedback would be appreciated ether here or DMed on discord. Thank you Jamriot for running this again!

Prompt I chose was Lantern if that was not obvious, defiantly leaned more onto a fantasy horror type story, I love monsters, cryptids and things that go bump in the night style stories. So consider this my first real attempt at creating a creature. (I think I might have a failed SPC floating around somewhere)

"Evil darkness" has defiantly been done before, I had to re-think my monster at one point when I realized I'd largely re-created a Doctor who creature, but I'm hoping this has enough of it's own elements to maybe be it's own thing? Idk let me know if you think I did or if I'm just a hack who needs more originality.

Good luck to everyone that entered!