The Eternal Sleep: A Collection of Short Stories

The Eternal Sleep

"Pa, can you tell me a bedtime story?"

"Hush, Rose," the little girl's Pa chided. "Now is not a time for stories. Now is a time for sleep."

The little girl twisted her head suddenly, and burst into another fit of hacking and choking. When the episode had passed, her Pa, with a honed gentleness, wiped at her small nose, the skin cracked and caked in a thin layer of inky blood.

"I've been sleeping forever." The little girl drew out the word, as her grandfather would when he talked. "And you didn't tell me a story yesterday." The girl put on her best pouty face. That she had learned from her Ma.

Five years old, and the resemblance was unmistakable. Rose's Pa smiled, the candle light cast from the little girl's bedside table dancing somberly in his eyes.

"And I haven't been outside in ages." Another drawn out word. "And neither Cate nor Gwyn have invited me to play with them since..." Rose's Pa stood slowly from the downy bed in which the girl lay feverishly.

"That's because they are asleep in their beds, too," he lied, choking back the tears that threatened the false safety he had concocted for his daughter.

The girl pouted, again. "Babes."

A long silence followed - typically rare in the presence of the bubbly little girl, but, these days, painfully familiar. Her Pa went to the window. Night had fallen on the small village of Emblem. Through the bedroom window, the hamlet was dark. Mist clung to the sky, washed the few more distant, deserted houses in a layer of concealment. They could have never existed. They could have always been abandoned. But they weren't. Even now, they were not truly empty.

"I want to see!" the little girl squealed at her Pa's side.

"Rose!" he scolded. "You're not supposed to be out of bed." Without a word, her Pa sighed, and lifted her into his arms. She was lighter than she had ever been, only skin and bones.

"It's dark," she remarked innocently. "Where is everyone?"

Her Pa carried her back to her bed. "I'm going to tell you a story." The girl's eyes lit up as her father went on, tucking her in cozily. "Once upon a time, there was a small village named Emblem. Although small, this village had the heart that no other village on the East Shore did."

The girl began another spasm of coughing. Her Pa continued. "But one day, after many happy days, the villagers began to go to sleep."

"Why?" the girl asked sleepily.

"It was their time, that's all." Her Pa kissed her forehead. "And before they went to sleep, they promised that when they awoke, they would all see each other again."

***

It was midnight when the little girl's Pa retrieved the shroud from the closet. He wiped the blood from his own nose, and draped the sheet over her carefully. "Goodnight, Rosenna. I will see you when we all wake again."