Have Mercy On Me Night Creatures

• Mia Livingstone, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2016

The rain that hit the bedroom windows made the soft sound of tapping, every so often two would combine and fall in a sleek trail down the glass. It caught the eye of the girl who lay wide awake, unable to sleep as the night wore on. Her thick blanket, passed down from her mother, wrapped her warm and tight. This would usually grant the girl sweet peace, feeling safe in the warmth. Not tonight, or not any night for the past month. For ever since she had moved to this country home, she’d seen little night creatures. Some danced across her window ledge, tiny hooves soundless, their white furred bodies a bright eye catcher, and their dragonfly wings intriguing.

Centaurs, centaurs with wings and fluffy white fur. Strange eye colours, and little hiccupping laughs. These creatures she found adorable, but it were the others that soon followed. The larger flying creatures, with bat wings and all, their fangs like sabre teeth, and their head with ram horns. These creatures with pig skin, and short, short legs. These creatures with big snouts, all yipping with joy. For they were free at night.

Creatures with paws, and creatures with big, big claws, they chased each other round, their horns clashed together, their teeth bared in snarls. They yipped and they kicked, their howls loud as their lion tails lashed. Her eyes widened as she watched the creatures and beasts. birds with teeth and loud, loud calls.

They flew to her window, they flew up higher, and they flew to her garden, but never touched the wire. They soared and raced, between the home’s poles. They raced underneath, the howls of their fellow beasts loud to their ears. Her dogs cowered and hid, retreating to their shed. For other beasts roamed the ground, and they wished not yet to be found.

Trembling and shaking, she slipped out of bed, trembling and shaking, she lowered her head. Resting her chin, upon the window edge, she stared at the creature, with the small goat head. The centaur fairy danced as she watched, dancing to the music, that reached her ears not. A smile crossed her features and her trembling stopped, for the music now reached her as she knelt and she watched.

These creatures, they smiled, beaming for her to play. She stood and she nodded, running outside. The cold night rain hit her skin, drenched her hair. But she cared little, for she now joined the game.