"And don't stay up too late now, sweetie." Mollie's mother flicked the lamp off, allowing the darkness to fill the room.
"I won't," the child said cheerfully, with a small smile. She pulled her black covers, decorated with bloody unicorns, over her face and waited for the sound of her door closing.
"Because," she whispered to herself, "it's never too late to stay up in the night."
When some minutes had passed in the warm silence, Mollie carefully removed her blankets and got out of bed, trying not to make too much noise. It was tough for how excited she was. With practiced technique, she quietly crept under her own bed and felt for the latch, getting it open and crawling down into her tunnel. The girl closed the trap door above her.
In the narrow passageway she made her way through, wearing only her favorite violet nightdress. The dirt smeared over it and onto her hands. The tunnel was narrow enough that an adult could not fit inside it; this was hers, a lightless, soundless cavern of her own creation. Only touch guided her along to her destination, and she knew she had reached it when she faced a dead end.
Hidden in the corner of the blackness was a key, which she felt around for and grasped. She slipped the long tool into the lock above her and turned. Once she was sure she heard absolutely no sound above her, she lifted the ceiling, and the soft violet rays of the night crept into her cave.
The other side was an alley, nestled between two crooked buildings that closed in on each other so closely that there was scarcely an alley between them at all. It hid from sight of the street where the buildings converged, shielding any passersby of its secrets. She emerged from the opposite side, a dim silhouette in the early night.
"Mollie..." she heard in an eerie whisper. Her head swiveled to the left, where she spotted another silhouette, with its hair tied into short pigtails, faint eyes staring straight at her. Saying nothing, she walked forward and took its hand, and they giggled as they walked with bare feet down the cobblestone road.
"What are we gonna do tonight, Beatrice?" she asked, waving her hands back and forth in the air, taking Beatrice's with it.
"Uhhhmm... I dunno. I just want to see them again. Do you have any ideas?"
Mollie looked up, the bright waning gibbous partially shielded by dismal clouds in the purple sky. A smile appeared on her face, framed by her long, ebony hair. "I want to know how to make the night last forever. Forever!" she shouted, jumping off the ground at the very thought.
"Ssshh! There's a grown-up over there!" Beatrice hissed, not waiting for Mollie to spot the figure by the streetside lantern at the curve of the path before retaking her hand and hurriedly leading them away to someplace hidden.
The children crouched behind a large tree trunk, sprawling along its roots. "Sorryyyy," Mollie said. "Ugh, grown-ups always ruin everything."
"Yeah. But, what did you mean before?"
"Don't you think it would be wonderful if the night lasted all the time?" Mollie said longingly, the twisted, dead branches of the tree coiling around her as if to stab her. "Then we'd never have to go back. We could play forever!"
"That does sound fun," Beatrice admitted. "But we have to sleep sometime. And eat. Besides, do you think they'll really tell you how to do that? Maybe they can't even do it."
"I don't know. But I'm gonna ask 'em."
Beatrice nodded. "Okay. Let's go."
They sneaked through the streets, blending in with the gloom. Past the bush of lilacs, left at the pale blue light, right at the black record store, across the pumpkin patch, hiding from any adults along the way by crouching behind trees or buildings. Finally, they reached Wistful Woods. With only lunar and stellar light to guide them, they floated through the forest, the pointy swirls of the branches forming archways overhead.
"Hello?" Mollie quietly called out as they approached.
"Hi!" called out a voice. The two emerged into a small clearing surrounded by tall, thick wild bushes. Amongst them were two other children laying in the cool grass.
"Mollie, Mollie!" one of them called out, a boy named Bone. "I saw a black cat on the way here!"
"Awww, I wanna see it!" she pouted.
"Maybe you will later tonight. We can look for it."
She nodded. She was satisfied with that for now, but she really would like to find it.
"Wait, aren't black cats supposed to bring misfortune?" the last child said, a girl with long brown hair.
Beatrice snickered, walking up to her and giving her a casual hug. "Where did you hear that, Alice?"
"Uhhhh. I don't remember!"
"Then it's probably not true!" Beatrice concluded victoriously. She fell to the ground, rolling in the undergrowth carelessly. "Even if it is, that's not a problem for us anyway. 'Cause we can use it."
"You can, but Alice still needs some work," Bone teased, looking over to her from where he was resting his head on his hands.
"She's getting better though," Mollie offered. "By the way, where's Umbra?"
"She's climbing up a tree, agaaainnn," Alice pointed. It was difficult to make it out in the darkness, but with concentration, Mollie could discern the figure of Umbra, sitting on a high branch of one of the surrounding trees, looking as black as a shadow. Suddenly, the shape dissipated as Mollie presumed she was climbing down.
Soon, the five of them were all playing together. Hide and seek was one of their favorites. There was no lack of obscure spots in the shadowy underside of the canopy. They had played together so many times that they practically knew the whole area by memory. Each time they played was a new search for a spot that was even more shady, inconspicuous, and concealed than the last. More often than not, instead of staying out of sight until spotted, they would wait until the seeker was close by and had their back turned before jumping out to scare them. It wasn't malicious—the fright was part of the fun.
After a few lengthy rounds, they convened. "I think it's time," Beatrice said, rubbing some dirt off of her blonde pigtails. "Shall we go? Mollie has something special tonight."
Mollie smiled half out of excitement and half out of nervousness. It may have been a silly thing to wish, she thought, but it was her wishes that she held most dear.
They made their way back to the clearing, shielded from the outside world like a solitudinous dimension. On the opposite end, directly across from the entrance, a hole in the foliage had appeared, blacker than any shadow they had ever seen.
Each of the children stood in front of it, staring at it with wide eyes, before Mollie stepped forward. She closed her own as she outstretched her arms, the position one takes as if they are about to receive a hug from their best friend. She chanted:
"Darkest One, please hear our call
Guide us to a dismal fall
Teach us of your wicked ways
Teach us of that which decays
Darkest One, please hear us now
Show us here and show us how
To take our dreary, tragic hearts
And turn them into magic arts"
After a brief moment, from the void emerged a form as black as its origin. It was fuzzy, like fog, and seemed to seep tendrils into the air around it before they dissipated, as if the entity were fighting off its own natural instinct to consume the very space of the universe with its blood. Its shifting, semi-amorphous substance nevertheless carried with it a distinct impression of consciousness, of an entity that thought and felt. It was this creature that the children knew only as the Ghostly Monster.
"I told you," they spoke in a genderless voice, whispery yet heavy, as if speaking ominously from a far distance. "You don't have to do the whole poem thing every time. Also, it could use some work."
"AHAHAH! Ghostly Monster is making fun of you!" Bone laughed.
"No, just a bit of criticism, child—too much repetition. Although I do fancy that rhythm, simple as it is."
Mollie pouted. "I like it..." she grumbled as the Ghostly Monster hummed the rhythm to themself.
"Anyway, Mollie, ask them!" Beatrice encouraged from behind her.
Mollie looked up at the monster sheepishly. She could tell they were looking back at her patiently, awaiting her request.
"I wish to learn how to conjure eternal night."
She heard dual gasps from behind. (Umbra had stayed silent, as she tended to do.) The monster watched her, searching for a hint of humor in her countenance, and finding none, responded. "Eternal night?"
"Yes."
"Why do you want that?"
"Well, because... it's beautiful. I love the moon, I love the darkness, and it feels right to me. I don't like the sun. I don't like going to bed when I'm supposed to. And I like having fun instead!"
"I believe you," the monster said. "That's not a bad thing. But what about people who prefer the day?"
The girl considered this. "Umm..." she stalled, not knowing what to say. The Ghostly Monster gazed at her expectantly, waiting for her response. "I guess I wasn't really thinking about them. The night is just better, isn't it?"
"To you, it may be. But not to everyone." The Ghostly Monster shaped itself into the loose form of a snake, looping around her personal bubble. "If you were to make the night time permanent, those who prefer the light of the sun would never see it again. It would be just the same as if they made the day permanent, leaving you to melt in the sunshine."
"I wouldn't want that!" Mollie exclaimed in horror, shuddering at the thought.
"And that, dear child, is why we have both the day and the night. They are balanced, and one cannot exist without its opposite."
Mollie understood, even if she disliked it. "Then, can I make it just for me? My own darkness?"
"Yes," the Ghostly Monster said. "You can, my little witch."
"Oh, I'd love that too," Alice murmured.
"Then gather around, and I will show you the secrets of shadow magic."
Within the deep, dark morning, from midnight to the witching hour, Mollie, Beatrice, Bone, Alice, and Umbra learned to master the shadows. Intensifying them, creating them, controlling them. Where to move their arms, which incantations to whisper. They giggled and flourished with their newfound abilities, thanking their guide for their generous lavishment. And as they each crept back to their askew homes before dawn, and as they found the black cat which looked so adorable as it rested on a carved stone fence, and as they skulked back into their beds for another drowsy morning, the children, Mollie most of all, and the world around them, looked just a bit darker.
Written May 26 to 28, 2024. If you steal it I will rain darkness upon your soul forever.