The Last Candle

It was a cold night in December, when the lights went off in his house. Blaming and cursing the damn electricians for their treacherous work, he came out of the front door to examine the junction box. No faults. Even more frustrated, he walked back inside, thinking where he had kept his candles.

For a city like Mumbai, blackouts weren’t usual. Considering it being one of the most populated cities in the world, it had its power issues figured out. As a result, inverters and generators weren’t something people invested in.

Stamp. He slammed the door loudly and began ambling towards the kitchen. He knew the path but his house being messed up all the time, he was not sure if the path was clear of obstacles.

He just had to follow the wall as he passed through the living room and take the next right towards the kitchen. He took a few steps – fuck. He stopped dead in his tracks. A horrified look took over his face and stuck there like a chewed gum on the bottom of the shoe. He hadn’t seen anything like that in his lifetime.

He came to the window. The wonderful view he adored through his 17th floor window had disappeared. There was not a visible light that could reach his eye. Not even the moon had anything to offer. The entire horizon, blacked out. Only a few windows that had backups lit again.

It was quite overwhelming for him but he liked the darkness. Immersed in the deafening silence of the never sleeping city, he forgot what he needed to do. He sat there, staring into the black abyss for another hour or so. The outlines of the buildings started to disappear. He went inside and got one of the two packets he had of candles and a matchbox. He lit three candles, placed them strategically around the house and returned to the window in the living room.

What could it be? How did the entire city black out? That’s strange.

A train of thoughts overtook his conscious. This was bizarre over the limits. ‘Is this even possible?’ he questioned while trying to deduct the plausible cases including if it was an elaborate conspiracy to earn profit by selling electricity at higher rates after the blackout. It’s not, he concluded.

After what can only be referred as eternity, he emerged from his thoughts to reality. The candle burned with all its might as it tried to light up the room. He picked up the phone from the table and unlocked it only to find out that the service was down too. It’s a cold day in hell. With a last thought, he dozed off.

The alarm rang harshly in the deep quiet of the morning. However he did not wake up to snooze it like every day. It rang again. And again until it died off.

With his eyes still closed, he regained his consciousness. The first thing that came to his mind was the surprisingly darkness of last night. He’d always say he admired the dark, but this was something even he couldn’t fathom. Fuck it, he said.

With bliss of glory he opened his eyes, rubbing them as he yawned. He blinked vigorously, but to no avail. Everything was as dark as he had seen before sleeping, if not darker. He checked his watch. 11:56 am. He checked his phone. Still no service. Panic began to take over. What is happening?

The quiet air from last night had turned into a record of screams. It was as if panic and darkness had signed a truce for doomsday.

He quickly lit 3 more candles and sat down to think for the next course of action. None. Another set was lit. And one more. He was as blank as the black.

The only logical explanation to this was that the sun had disappeared. And that telecommunications and other electronics were down as well. But how is that even possible? Had someone done it purposely? But the sun isn’t something one could turn off. Had the earth stopped spinning? But it cannot stop abruptly!

He decided to go outside. The elevators weren’t working. He had to climb 17 floors down. But that wasn’t the hard part. He would have to climb up 17 floors.

He went outside the building gate with his flashlight on. That granted him only a few feet of visibility. The trip was a failure and after a long trek, returned to his flat.

The darkness stayed for three more days. Fourth day had just stared. Every last one of the backups some had been out. Phone batteries, torches had all died out. The only thing that remained was the candles and the matchboxes and they were on short supply. This was how it was going to be. This was the end.

It was the last candle he had left before the eternal blackness. Somehow, it was getting darker and darker. His vision blurred as be desperately tried lit it. Could I be anymore lucky? He thought as he realized there was just one matchstick left as well. He didn’t cook so lighting the candle from the stove was off limits. He calmed himself down, adrenaline still rising as his anxiety topped the charts.

Scratch! The matchstick caught fire followed by the candle. He let out a sigh of relief.

He didn’t want to miss this. He watched the candle as it burnt through the layers of wax until it was just micrometers apart from the case. This was it. He was ready to embrace it. He was ready.

With a quick swish, the last hope of light disappeared to never return again. In that moment, he knew he’d never see light again. Speculations were made that all light had disappeared from the universe and the big crunch had begun. Nevertheless, it was only a matter of days and he’d be dead. Just like the rest of the world.

They say “darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can.” But when you think about it, light needs a source to even exist. Is it wise to give it so much credit?