Goodnight Sweet Princess

Into the Fog

A flame flickering in and out of the world, guiding lost souls wandering through the void.

A girl stood in the middle of a thick fog. With nothing but moist dirt all around her, she began to walk aimlessly into the blankness. She felt the cold white brush through her skin, her hair, her face. As she walked on, the fog started to darken until it was an endless gray, but through that grey she saw a faint light. The light looked warm and inviting, so she started to run towards that light.

Soon, the dirt beneath the girl's feet became a brick path, and the warm light was closer than ever. Her loud steps echoed into the emptiness of the world as she ran faster. Then the girl stopped. She stopped by a pole off the edge of the path. It was made of metal, and on top of it was the light she was chasing. It was a lamppost. She looked back at the direction she was running in. Standing a few meters away was another lamppost. The girl walked towards it and found another lamppost about the same distance away. She followed the odd trail of lampposts that seemed to lead to nowhere.

Soon, more lights came into view. The trail of lampposts ended at a small circular plaza surrounded by more lampposts. There were benches around the perimeter of the plaza, and a fountain right at the center. The fog was still thick but the girl saw more lights down the path just beyond the fountain. Lampposts were on both sides of that path, and seemed to be safe and inviting. She walked to it and continued her journey down the path.

A couple minutes later, faint lights came into view, but they certainly weren't lampposts anymore. They seemed to be outlines of buildings. The girl looked back at where she came from, trying to understand the slight change in scenery. Somewhere in this world a grandfather clock began to chime, and it echoed out into the vastness. The sound reached the girl's ears. She looked back at the buildings. The lights shone brighter and the fog has lifted oh so slightly, but something else was different. There were people moving through the street, but they didn't quite look like people. Was it the fog? The people looked more like figures, all identical but lack distinct features, as if they were walking shadows. They all seemed to be busy and paid no attention to the girl, as if she was one of them. She looked at her hands, she looked at her feet; she was now certain she was not a shadow.

She walked down the street, making her way to another small plaza, but it was much bigger than the previous one. There was a large fountain at the center, but instead of water, it had mist coming out of it, and that mist mixed with the fog. The girl sat down on a nearby bench, tired from her long walk through the fog. She leaned back on the bench, resting her head on top of the backrest. She closed her eyes, ready to doze off.

"Hello."

The girl lifted her head to look at whoever said that, which was strange because at that point the girl was convinced she was invisible. Whoever greeted her was not like any of the shadows walking around. In fact, he wasn't a shadow at all. He looked human, to say the least. "Hello," the girl replied. "Who are you?"

The boy smiled. "I am the keeper of this world. Are you a guest?"

"I..." the girl thought for a moment. She tried to recall how she got there. She remembered the dirt under her feet, the brick path that came from nowhere, the first lamppost she saw, the empty plaza. She wondered how she got there, and why such a place existed in the middle of nowhere. She looked at the boy standing in front of her, with uncertainty in her eyes. "Yes. Yes I am."

"In that case," the boy said. "May I give you a tour? Here's some money so you could buy some things. You might get hungry along the way."

The two walked to a dark shop that smelled of old books and...petrichor. There were lamps everywhere, as well as old living room furniture. There were shelves on the walls that strongly held several books. Several ticking noises echoed through the entire shop. The boy clapped his hands and suddenly all the lamps were lit to illuminate the room. There, at the counter, was a shadow, much like everyone else outside.