The Night

Chapter One

        I am in love with the Night.  “Well, aren’t we all!” you might say.  No, you don’t understand.  I am in love with the Night.  He is a person, you see.  He is the one who creates the night.  He pulls the sun down from the sky and puts it to rest.  He lifts the moon with its faint glow and flings the shining stars into the dark violet blanket of the sky.  He is the one who awakens the nocturnal creatures from their daily slumber….and he is the one who noticed me.

            Rather, I noticed him.  You see, night has always worked better for me than the daytime.  There is always too much bustling about and noise from everyone at that time, but night is just so peaceful; it’s perfect for me.  Every night I just go outside and walk about while I think.  I’ve seen him several times before; he had his long fingers stretched out to the sky but he’d disappear before I could get to him.  The first time I saw him I thought it was just my imagination but it wasn’t: because I kept seeing him after that.    

            He was a shadowy figure dressed in black.  His charcoal colored hair fell down his neck and close to his shoulders.  He looked not much older than I.

            His pale face turned to me when he first spoke to me with a low and husky voice and all he said was “Why?” because I kept trying to follow him.  I just asked him who he was, for I knew that he was no ordinary man.  So he told me.  Granted, he used very few words but he explained to me who he was.  I asked him for his name but he simply replied “I am the Night.”  It was safe to assume he wasn’t talking about a knight in shining armor.  I asked him if I could walk with him and he reluctantly said “You may.”  We walked for miles.  As we’d walk he’d touch all of the plants and trees, softly hushing them to sleep and he’d call the owls to wake them.  With a flick of his hand the temperature dropped and with a whistle from his grey lips the winds began to soar.  He brought the night to life; even though night has always been associated with death it meant life for me.  

            I told him my name and I told him about myself.  As I said before, he didn’t talk much that first meeting but he seemed to appreciate my words.  I started to get to know him as well through the few things he said, even though he wasn’t human.  However, he wasn’t fully spirit either because he was touchable.

            As night drew to a close (I’m an insomniac so I don’t sleep much anyway) he walked me home.  I asked if I could see him again and he gently lifted my hand with his surprisingly warm fingers, breathing a “yes” into it after he kissed it.

            Right before I drifted off into the few hours of sleep I’d receive before the sun would pry my eyelids open, I could see him reaching his arms up toward the sky as he drew the moon to him.