The Candlelight

Filipe Silva

Dark stories, lost videos, haunted stars… New nightmares every day. 🔥 Subscribe before the next curse drop   #scary #helpmemakethismakesense #horrorstories #theothersideofmakebelieve #theothersideofmakebelieve #horror #giveusourstolenmoneyback #giveusourstolenmoneyback #dothingsyoudontwanttodo #facts #butifyoucloseyoureyes

Transcript

00:00The city lights winked out one by one, plunging everything into an abrupt inky blackness.

00:05Not the gentle stardust and dark of the countryside, but a heavy, oppressive void that swallowed sound and sight.

00:10In my apartment, the silence was suddenly a physical presence, a weight on my eardrums.

00:15I fumbled through the kitchen drawer, my fingers brushing against cold metal and smooth plastic until they found what I was looking for,

00:21a single, forgotten candle and a book of matches.

00:23With a scrape and a flare of sulfur, a tiny flame blossomed in the darkness.

00:27I touched it to the wick, and a soft golden light pushed back the suffocating black.

00:32It was a small victory, but it felt monumental.

00:34The candle's glow was warm, alive.

00:37It danced and swayed, casting long distorted shadows that writhed on the walls like living things.

00:42I placed the candlestick on the dining table and sat down.

00:45My world now shrunk to this small, flickering circle of light.

00:48The silence outside was unnerving.

00:50No distant sirens, no hum of traffic, no murmur of the city that never sleeps.

00:55It was as if the world had held its breath.

00:58I watched the flame, mesmerized by its constant, hypnotic motion.

01:02It was beautiful, in a way, a solitary beacon in an ocean of nothing.

01:06The shadows it created were less comforting.

01:08My coat on the back of a chair became a hunched figure.

01:11The houseplant in the corner grew into a gnarled, reaching claw.

01:14I told myself it was just my imagination, overactive from the sudden quiet and darkness.

01:19But then, I saw it.

01:20It wasn't a shadow cast by any object in the room.

01:23It was a shadow asterisk of asterisk something, reflected in the polished surface of the dark

01:27television screen across the room.

01:29I saw my own silhouette, and behind me, another.

01:32It was tall, impossibly tall, and slender.

01:34Its form indistinct but undeniably present.

01:37It stood perfectly still, a column of pure blackness just over my shoulder.

01:41My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic drumbeat in the profound silence.

01:45Every instinct screamed at me to turn, to confront whatever was standing behind me.

01:49But a paralyzing fear, cold and sharp, held me in place.

01:53My breath hitched in my throat.

01:55I couldn't move.

01:56My eyes were glued to the reflection.

01:57The shadow didn't move.

01:58It just stood there, a silent, menacing sentinel in the candlelight.

02:02Who was it?

02:03How did they get in?

02:04The locks were all bolted.

02:05The windows were shut.

02:06My mind raced, trying to find a logical explanation, but there was none.

02:10This was impossible.

02:12This was the stuff of nightmares, not a Tuesday night blackout.

02:15Slowly, painstakingly, I gathered every ounce of courage I possessed.

02:18My muscles screamed in protest as I forced my head to turn.

02:22The movement felt like it was happening in slow motion.

02:25The creak of my neck impossibly loud in the still air.

02:27I braced myself for a face, for a weapon, for the terrifying unknown.

02:31I finally snapped my head around.

02:33There was nothing there, just the empty space of my living room.

02:36The coat was still a coat, the plant just a plant.

02:39The air was empty.

02:40Relief washed over me so intensely it made me dizzy.

02:43But it was shrug-lived, a cold dread, even deeper than before, quickly took its place.

02:47If there was nothing behind me, then what had I seen?

02:51Was I losing my mind?

02:52My gaze drifted back towards the table, back to the source of the light, back to the solitary

02:57candle.

02:57And that's when I saw it.

02:59My heart didn't just stop.

03:00It felt like it shattered into a thousand icy fragments.

03:03The shadow hadn't been on the wall.

03:05It hadn't been a reflection in the TV.

03:07It was asterisk in asterisk the flame.

03:09Trapped within the tiny, dancing teardrop of light was the same tall, slender silhouette.

03:13It was no longer behind me.

03:15It was contained, imprisoned inside the fire itself.

03:18It wasn't a shadow cast by the flame.

03:20It was a shadow asterisk within asterisk the flame.

03:23It writhed and twisted, not with a natural flicker of the candle, but with a desperate,

03:28silent struggle.

03:29Its form was clearer now.

03:30A humanoid shape made of pure, living darkness, contorting within its fiery prison.

03:35I stared, unable to look away.

03:37My mind refusing to process what my eyes were seeing.

03:40The candle, my only source of light and comfort, had become a cage for something.

03:44Paranormal.

03:45Something that was supposed to be in the dark was now trapped in the light.

03:48It's silent.

03:49Frantic movements were a terrifying ballet.

03:52Was it trying to get out?

03:53Panic seized me again.

03:54Raw and primal.

03:55I had to put it out.

03:57I had to extinguish the flame and whatever was inside it.

03:59But what would happen then if I blew out the candle?

04:02Would it be released back into the darkness of my apartment?

04:05Back into the room with me?

04:06The thought was more terrifying than seeing it contained.

04:08The candle flame wavered, and for a heart-stopping moment, the dark figure within it seemed to

04:13lunge towards the edge of the fire, its form expanding as if trying to break free.

04:17I scrambled back, my chair screeching against the floor, the sound ripping through the silence.

04:22I was a prisoner in my own home, held captive by a single, tiny flame.

04:26How long did I sit there, locked in a silent standoff with the entity in the candle?

04:30Minutes, hours, time had lost all meaning.

04:32My world was this one horrifying tableau, the oppressive darkness, the single point of

04:36light, and the nightmare trapped within it.

04:39The wax was melting, the wick shortening.

04:41The candle wouldn't last forever.

04:43With each passing moment, the figure's struggles seemed to grow more frantic, more violent.

04:47It beat against the walls of its fiery prison, a silent scream of rage and desperation that

04:51I could feel in my very bones.

04:53The flame flickered violently, casting the room into a strobing, disorienting chaos of light

04:58and shadow.

04:58The entity was weakening the flame, its prison, it was going to get out.

05:02I had to do something.

05:03I couldn't let it escape into the darkness with me.

05:06My eyes darted around the room, searching for a solution, for salvation.

05:10My gaze landed on the glass of water I'd left on the table earlier.

05:13It was my only weapon.

05:15With a surge of adrenaline-fueled desperation, I lunged for the glass.

05:18My hand trembled, sloshing water over the side.

05:21The figure in the flame seemed to notice, its movements becoming even more frenzied.

05:24It knew what I was about to do.

05:26For a split second, I hesitated.

05:28Was I trapping it, or was I setting it free?

05:31There was no more time to think.

05:33With a choked sob, I threw the water onto the candle.

05:35There was a sharp hiss, a final, convulsive flicker from the flame, and then absolute,

05:40total darkness.

05:41Deeper and more complete than before.

05:43The silence that followed was deafening, heavy with dread and anticipation.

05:47I stood frozen.

05:48My breath held tight in my chest, every nerve ending screaming.

05:52I listened, straining to hear any sound of footstep, a breath, anything to signal that it was now

05:56in the room with me.

05:57But there was nothing, only the frantic, terrified thumping of my own heart.

06:01Did it work?

06:02Was it gone?

06:02Or was it just standing there, in the impenetrable blackness, invisible, silent, watching me?

06:07I would never know, and as I stood there, alone in the dark, a new, more terrifying thought

06:11began to form, that blackout wouldn't last forever.

06:14Sooner or later, I would need light again, and I had a whole box of matches.

06:18The thought sent a fresh wave of terror through me, colder and more permanent than anything

06:22before.

06:23Every source of light, every candle, every match, was no longer a comfort, it was a potential

06:28cage, a potential window, a beacon calling out to whatever lurked in the shadows, waiting

06:33for an invitation into the light.

06:35From that moment on, I knew I would never look at a simple flame the same way again, and

06:39I began to suspect, with a certainty that chilled me to my soul, that I would forever

06:43be more afraid of the light than I ever was of the dark.

06:46The city remained dark, and I remained motionless, a statue carved from fear, waiting for a dawn

06:51that I wasn't sure I wanted to come.

06:53Thank you so much for watching.

06:54This one was a bit different, a slow burn horror to hopefully get under your skin.

06:58If you enjoyed this story and want to see more like it, please hit that like button, and consider

07:02subscribing to the channel, and turning on notifications so you don't miss the next one.

07:07Let me know in the comments what you thought, and what you would have done in this situation.

07:11Stay safe, and see you in the next video.

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