By Elise Flagg, TIWP Student

As the day fell into a restless sleep, Night emerged from the shadows of the trees, waiting until Day turned the lights off. As her golden locks fell upon the pillow, the blue sky’s hues began to shift. Night was not the typical beauty. Her only fans seemed to be drug addicts or people addicted to video games. Not her forte. Her long black hair made her fair skin shine like armor and her ice blue eyes could scare anyone away. She preferred solitude though. The workers gone to sleep, the children dreaming, she liked this life. Watching the teenagers gamble away their years with partying and rule-breaking, she smiled at them as she passed in silence, continuing with the stars behind her. The passing-by of cars here and there. Some voices from some houses. But silence surrounded her. She lay her dark blanket across the town, tucking in the children and protecting them from the nightmares that inevitably came with her. She yearned for the day when she would wake them up from those nightmares that tormented their thoughts. But for now, all she was, was a bystander in an awful crime. Her eyes shed a tear as she watched the final people fall asleep, some passing out in places they shouldn’t be, some trying to stay awake but falling to Night’s powerful slumber. She crept back across the town, back to the forest, watching from the shadows. Day was waking up, beautifully and effortlessly, ready for anything and everything. She would wake the children from their sleep. She would bring new opportunities for them all. And so Night’s job was over. There was a quick exchange of glances between the two, but they knew not to talk to each other. They were too different and would never meet at the same given moment. And so, with that, Night crept back into her dark forest, waiting to come out again.