Midnight Garden......

"Mother, read for me a story, please....." his big, beautiful aurora eyes looked pleadingly towards Elvyra. She could not possibly say no when he became like this. But while it was heartwarming to see him like this, in her heart there was another feeling that was not motherly joy.

Inside her heart, surly there was joy but then there was fear. Her heart palpitated at thought of the gruesome pains she would have to go through as she read what he assumed were stories to him.

She had never liked this part of the day when it came to raising Kean. 

The bedtime tales he thought were just scary stories, were actually taboos. Some of the most menacing knowledge there was. it was corruptive and destructive, because it could lead to ruin of the soul. 

Obviously, this knowledge did not come from this universe. It was brought along by the cult who helped her to sire Kean.

It was among the arrangements they had made when they were coming up with the terms of the cooperation. And this knowledge was part of her bargain at the end of the deal.

She was not specific about the knowledge she wanted and that led them to bringing things they keep in their heinous archives. At that time, she thought she had finally gained something worthwhile but only to realize when she looked through her first book, that things were never as simple as they seemed.

That day, she ventured into this forbidden territory, and she then wished she had never sought it out in the first place. The amount of misery she went thorough just to survive that onslaught was unimaginable.

She had never felt fear like that, well, unless maybe when compared to the darkness that had covered the entire universe at the inception of the child's name. But other than that, she had never truly felt fear.

But this time things were different, she felt like as if she would drown in the silent waters of tainted blood and gore if she dared venture too far into the forbidden occultic knowledge.

From that day onwards she never touched such forbidden knowledge again, well that was not until by some luck, Kean laid his hands on one of the books that contained forbidden knowledge as he played in the books.

That day he cried until she gave in and read him the book. He was insistent on wanting to read the book and she had no way to refuse him, she could not bear to see him cry.

But luckily, the book contained mild stories of things that had happened. Which caused them to have an almost nonexistent power over reality. Most likely had it been another book then it was certain that terrible things would have begun to happen, Afterall she knew better than most what terrible power taboo knowledge had.

The book happened to be like a record of short stories, containing the harrowing experience of certain individuals, their lives and how they came into touch with the things that dwelled in the darkness. To him they were stories, to her they were a matter of life and death. She would read them in pain, but the child would seem unaffected every time, and so she would read for him after every two weeks.

Why two weeks, well at her current state, that is just how much she could handle without recoiling from the backlash.

This knowledge was so deadly that her ancestry, otherwise beings known to be called The Collectors, did not dare to dabble too much into it.

There was a popular saying among her race, Ye Seek Knowledge, But ye Knows not the price ye will have to pay for it. Knowledge is the cornerstone of reality, seek it out and be prepared for burden that will be placed upon you. In layman terms, There was always a price for the knowledge you sought. 

She sighed to herself, resigning to her fate. "Okay, mommy will read you a scary story, but you have to promise to go to sleep right away, okay? Promise mommy"

"Yes mother, i promise to sleep right away" Kean said excitedly.

She begun, her voice, soft and graceful, regal and entangling, warm and loving.

"This tale is called..... The Midnight Garden."

"Once upon a time.....

---------------

In a quiet village on the edge of a forest, children loved to play to from sunrise to sunset, and only when the last light of day disappeared would they go back to their homes, running to the embrace of their mothers and fathers.

Quite a joyful place to live in, the village's population was not much to begin with and so everyone knew each other, all the children even played together, well they all played together, apart from one.

Her name was Lilly, she was a girl of about ten years old, she was an image of what you would call a next-door neighbor. She was neither small nor fat, she had big round brown eyes that would glow with a spark of childhood. She had jolly brown hair that was tied in a ponytail to her back. 

But as others played, she would stand alone and look at them play. Her eyes would be filled with tears as she watched them play, but none seemed to care about the poor girl.

She would wake up in the morning each day and come to the village center, when she would reach, she would say to the other children.

"Can I also play with you? Here..., see, I have brought my toys so that we can all play together."

But the other children would say to her.

"No, we do not want to play with you. You do not have parents. We don't want to play with you because our parents will also leave us if we play with you."

And then they would shout with vigor at her. "Go away from us, we do not want you to come to our playground ever again. You should even leave our village. Our parents do not like you here"

"And then they would shout together in a chant that seemed to have been practiced one too many times

"Go away."

"Go away"

They would leave Lily standing there alone as she shed tears and snot, but as tears streamed down her face, she would not make a single sound. 

She would then stare listlessly at them as they played each day, her eyes filled with sadness and a burden she was clearly too young to carry.

She would say to herself 'It is not my fault that my mama and papa disappeared for five years. I just want to play with you, why do you not want to play with me yet I bring you many nice toys to play with.'

But she was destined never to get any answers.

Lily was an only child to her mother and father, one could say that they were easily the richest people on the village. They even had the biggest house on the village. 

They were really not rich, but by village standards they were rich.

But then suddenly one day, her parents disappeared, no one knew where they had gone or even whether they were alive or not. they left behind their five-year-old daughter all alone.

But no one seemed to have the intention to go out and look for them, the daughter was left to handle things all by herself and for five years that is how it had been.

One could say that Lily had raised herself to be the young girl she was today, she fed herself and looked after the house by herself and the only moments where she seemed to find joy was when she was playing. 

But the other children seemed not to care, she would beg each day, but they would refuse each day. Today they had refused her once more, and once more she had shed tears.

But unlike all the other days, today was destined to be different.

Lily sat outside the gate that led to the house her parents raised her in, she looked on, as the light of day descended in the skies, covering the skies in a blanket of empty dark skies and stars. she sat there observing their splendor and soon it was midnight.

The house was situated next to the forest as one would have to pass by her house to enter the forest. 

The tress swayed and their leaves rustled as the wind glided through them. Lily was enraptured by their movements and soon a silent whisper came into her ears, "come to me child, come and we play together"

Looking for the source of this sound, she saw the forest ahead, and in-between was a path she had not seen in the beginning.

She looked on curiously at the new path ahead of her, and with little thought and more excitement at the chance getting a friend to play with, she hopped onto her feet and followed the path into the forest. 

And as she moved the stars that were barely visible through the canopy of trees, twinkled in delight, as their light seemed to play and giggle with her as she moved.

Lily had never felt so happy and blissful in her life, usually there was only sadness and sorrow after she was left alone by her parents, shunned by the other children and adults in the village. Today it seemed that nature itself was playing with her.

And soon she had reached a small delicate gate that was attached to an equally short brick layered fence. 

Reaching it, Lily was delighted, she had never had of this place in the elders told about when they went out to hunt in the forest.

Placing her hand on the small gate, it opened with a creak, looking inside, all she could see was a dense fog shielding the whatever was inside from her gaze.

At the back of her mind there was a trace of caution and suspicion, but her curiosity ended up winning, and so she entered.

What she saw reminded her of a garden. A garden that looked ancient and yet catered for. The flowers, bloomed with vigor and beauty that would inspire an artistic sense in a person. The trees spurned and grew with a sense surrealism offering their protection to the flowers that bloomed below them.

This garden was known as the Midnight Garden. It was a mysterious place that only appeared on the night of a full moon. It beckoned its visitors with a sense of mystery and beauty and today, Lily happened to be the visitor it had picked.

Going deeper into the garden she could see scattered statues of children, many children. children not older than her. They were scattered throughout the garden like sentinels, they were so incredibly lifelike that she wondered the amount of time put into them.

Suddenly a gentle voice called out, "Welcome Lily" She turned to see a shadowy figure dressed in dark grim robes. In its hands it held an assortment of gardening tools. And by the dirt that she could notice through the little light that was around, she guessed that he was probably from doing some gardening work.

She could also see the unnatural light that his eyes glinted with.

"Who are you?" Lily asked. a shiver ran through her spine.

"I am the keeper of the garden" the figure replied, "This is a special place, where children play forever."

Lily's blood rushed as her heart pounded fiercely "What do you mean?"

The Keeper smiled, and the statues around them seemed to lean in closer, their stony eyes watching her "Each full moon, a lonely child is destined to join the garden. They become a part of it, and in return, the garden remains beautiful and eternal" His tone had taken on a slight maniacal feel to it.

Lily begun to back away, but the gates to the garden had long vanished, and the path behind her was gone, surrounding her were the children's statues, she did not know whether it was her fear that had taken over, but she swears that she could hear them chant.

"Come play with us, stay and paly with us"

"Play with us....."

They repeated this, with each repetition becoming louder than the last. She felt her mind slip into a quagmire of thoughts too chaotic for her immature mind to handle.

The keeper raised his hand and Lily felt an invisible force pulling her towards him.

"Don't be afraid" he said soothingly "You will never grow old, never be lonely. You will be surrounded by friends, so many friends that you can play with for the rest of eternity. Forever young in the Midnight Garden"

And as the first light of dawn broke through, the garden begun to fade. Lily felt her bod stiffen, her skin slowly turning cold and hard. Her last thought was of her missing parents, would they search for her when they came back but never to hear of their daughter. They would come back, and she would be the one gone. She was now a statue a silent guardian of the Midnight Garden.

And so, the garden remains hidden, waiting for the next full moon, when another child would here its call and join its eternal playtime.

----------

The soothing voice ceased reading, as the snores of a healthy child echoed throughout the bedroom. "Goodnight my dear "

"Mother wants you to know, you will never be alone. Mother will always be there with you." Elvyra gritted her teeth in-between silent sobs as crystal colored blood flowed in streams from her eyes.