The Girl in the Dark

Her silhouette left a black stain on the sparkling velvet of the night sky. She kneeled forward, reaching gracefully for a dead leaf floating between stars mirrored on the lake’s surface. As spirits of the dark whistled through the forest, the water rippled in response. The leaf veered sideways as she reached for it, and was swept away further into the lake, and into darkness.  Not even the light given off by the lantern she held could penetrate the realm of the night’s shadow.

 Even the moon was scared to exhibit its beauty tonight. It winked from between the army of fireflies dangling from the sky. The stars were her only comfort. They were both a guide and a friend. She knew them very well, and gave them names. There was the Red Giant and the Yellow Snake, and the brightest star, she called The Owl. Then there was the one that never moved. She named it The Sentinel, and the three stars that looked like brothers sitting beside each other on a wooden bench, the Three Imps. Giving names to the stars made her feel at ease at night, so that she could call out to them, and ask for forgiveness and help when the spirits of the dark murmured from the forest beyond the lake.

For in darkness lurked beasts and hungry ghosts of forgotten kinsman. In the lake, she knew, lived the ant-fish, with jaws so large, they cut down trees to build their nests in caves below. And further in, where the realm of the night’s shadow shaped itself into a forest of black wood and heavy mist, slept the seven hounds of Cérese, the maiden of the realm.

 And so it was, that tonight, Ophelia, the girl that lived in the white house on the hill beside the lake, ventured out to watch the brown leaves of Spring as they danced silently down to their sleep onto the waterbed. With a small copper lantern and a small brave heart, as the dead leaf disappeared from her view, she dipped her finger to touch the Yellow Snake, and for the first time in her life, felt the softness of the water of the lake as it wrapped around her finger, like a warm serpent coiling itself around her, inviting her to explore.