Night

• Brooke Ellis, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2017

I peered through the still darkness, hoping I could find it quickly. Mother had told me never to go out after sunset, believing that I would be kidnapped by fairy folk. I had laughed and dismissed it as superstition because, obviously, that was what it was. And now Mother was in no position to stop me, lying cold and lifeless beneath layers and layers of earth.
I brushed away the tear that pricked at my eyes and focused on the task at hand. I crept down the dank alleyway, slowly and carefully so I wouldn't scare the dog I was searching for. The dog that had arrived on the day Mother died, and sat with me through the worst of my grief. The dog that I had put food out for every night since that day.
My shoes were soggy because of all the puddles I had stepped through to get here. The biting wind cut through my thick sweater and made me shiver uncontrollably. Still, I didn't stop until I got to the end of the alleyway, the dog's home.
As I approached, the dog stood up. She trotted up to me and nuzzled against my freezing legs. I didn't speak because I couldn't. I had no tongue. Mother always told me it was the fairy folk that did it, but I knew that was rubbish. I had heard Father telling her it was a birth defect. On those days they would shout a lot, and then fall silent and not speak to each other again. Father disappeared a few months ago.
I pressed my face into the dog's warm, glossy black fur. In my head I had named her Night, because she came and went just like nighttime. I felt like she had been missing my whole life, until the day Mother died, when she suddenly appeared. Suddenly, I couldn't stand it anymore. The tears came pouring out, and I hugged Night, the only one who I felt truly understood me. When I lifted my head, her fur was soggy, and she licked my face.
I curled up in the pile of assorted soft things that were Night's bed. A tattered, raggedy blanket that I assumed she had scavenged from the trash. Some moss, that she must have gotten from the nearby woods, which my Mother had said were occupied by fairies that would take you if you got too close. There was even an old, ruined, couch cushion.
Night lay down beside me so I could share the warmth of her body. I put my arm around her and she licked my face. Before I knew it, I was asleep.
The next thing I was aware of was that Night was gone. I was alone. My heart beating faster, I got up and searched.
I never found her. I knew inside me that she had left because her job was done. I didn't feel so alone anymore. I smiled and fingered the black fur on my jacket.