Lost In The Dark

It seemed the sun had disappeared, and with it, all the warmth and security that I had ever felt in my life. There was no moon. The darkness seemed to have strangled light from the world, and from my heart, leaving behind an empty blackness that I couldn’t seem to fill. I knew I shouldn’t have been out so late at night, I knew it was a mistake to go, I knew I would be endangering the lives of both me, and my daughter, but, the disappointed look on my daughter’s face when I arrived home late on her birthday was just too much to bear. So we went, anyways.
The events of that night raced through my head again. The pain it caused me to relive this memory, was I imagine, similar to being shot with a gun. So many times I have thought about it. So many nights I have lain awake. I had become a changed person, no longer the cheerful young man that would go down to the park, once a week, and play with his baby girl. No longer the enthusiastic manager that somehow turned up with enough Christmas presents for all his staff, every year. It had been yet another day at work, working, working, working, then coming back home late again, and the face of my daughter. She was standing there, outside the door, her tears mingling with the rain as my car drew up. I went and parked inside the car park, then came out and shouted to her that I was sorry. But she turned away, crying heavily, and ran back inside the house. It had been me that had insisted to go; it was after all, completely my fault. I was the one who had come home so late, even when we had planned this night out for so many weeks. I was the one that had insisted to take her to watch the movie. For the thousandth time, I had come home late, but, as I insisted, we went anyways. The movie had been good. Although, at this time of the night, the cinema was almost empty, apart from us, and the kind old man that had sold us