A Year of Stories: December

Alder the Mouse

Draft_2

By: Chase L. Currie

“Thy be my name, Alder, a steward of the empty halls, and lonely rooms of a cold house. A house farther then thou wishes to travel. I sit here, in this place of haunted dreams, of fading faces, alone with my pens, dip blackly with ink, and paper, writing to whom or who ever wishes to read these long lines. Thou should know I once was a lonely mouse of a cold house but that is not now.”

There once was a mouse,

Who lives in a big empty house . . .

. . .and in this house, this mouse named Alder lives in the far wall, at the far end of the long hallway, where he sits beside his fire place, reading his books. Alder, the mouse, who all alone, reads and reads all day and all night. For there is no one in the house, not a sound of a footstep from a giants or the running of another mouse. There only one thing in this lonely house and that is the lonely mouse name Alder.

Inside this wall at the far end of the long hallway, sits his little house, with three rooms. One for his fireplace where he can keep warm during the winters and read his books. The other for his paints and his writing desk, where he dreams of everything be on the walls of this big house, where he dreams of a wife to share his stories with. And last is a room where his bed lies. A small red bed just big enough for one and at night he lies there looking up at the black ceiling, thinking, wandering what the stars of Heaven look like.

For going outside of the big house is a deadly task for a mouse so small.

The nights grew longer as Alder couldn't find sleep. He pray to the Giver of Cheese and asked him to send the sand man of dreams to quickly put him to sleep. After all, Alder could recall when giants lived in the house, the mother would play a song talking about a Mister Sandman. Not sure who that was, Alder found a few books on this so called Mister Sandman. And now he wishes for the man to come and put him to sleep but Mister Sandman seem to be busy somewhere else. So Alder stairs up at the darkness dreaming of the stars and a wife to be.

As the nights grew longer, and they seem to drag on forever, Alder stop going to his bed. He would sit in his chair watching the fire dance with the logs, kissing each other, falling deeper in love with one another. When he couldn't take the dancing anymore he would saunter around the walls of his house, wishing he could write or paint. But he couldn't. All his paintings were from those lovely dreams of golden fields and angels running across the sky. No sleep . . . no paintings.

“Agh!” he yells pointing at the shadow on the wall next to the green door that leads into the cold, empty house. “A dream is all I ask! A dream and nothing more. Just let me dream of something that is not here, in this place beside this fire. All I wish for is a dream, all I need is that dream!” But the shadow said nothing. All it does is look at the door and the golden handle. The dark shadow reaches for the door and opens it to long the hallway. Alder stands there looking out into the world, a world that makes him feel so small, so tiny and so weak.

“I can not,” he tells the shadow, shutting the door, “there are no dreams, out there I wish to dream, just haunted faces of endless nightmares.”

But the nights, along with the days, dragged on, until one day Alder threw his dark blue cloak around his body, packing a small slice of cheese and a book of poems and headed to the door. Before he left the his haven, he picked up his walking staff, also a weapon, for he never knows what he might find out there in the house. He checks his watch. He fears the ticking hands would suddenly stop. A fear the mouse had more than he feared of a he knows if the hands stop ticking than that will be the time of his death. And that fear always keeps him watching his watch.

He steps out into the big house, shutting the door behind him, watching the green door turn back into the same color as the wall. “Thy shall no know fear, for my paw is mighty and my staff is strong. Thy shall no know fear . . .” He tells himself walking down the long hallway, trying to keep to his black eyes on every shadow and every doorway. The giants might have left a long time ago but they might have left a cat or a trap in their stead.

He moves like a mouse, fast and quick, holding his staff to his side, watching and waiting for something to try and eat him. He make his way to the master bedroom, walking into the door when out his eye he see the thin little line. Almost as if it was a line of light, white and silver. Almost too tiny and too small for most things to notice. But the dust kissing the little line running across the door makes Alder stops dead in his tracks. He taps the silver line, watching it ring to it's master.

Nothing happens, so he taps it again.

Again nothing happens, so he yells looking above, looking at the corners of the door, “Come out ,monster of the webs. I know you are there, I know you are hiding in the shadows. I do not fear the fangs of doom. I do not fear anything in this house. So I command thy, come out and face your master of the empty rooms.”

One black long creepy leg steps out from the corner of the door and slowly drops the large spider to ground below with a long silver line. The black hollow eight eyes of the giant spider study the mouse in the dark blue cloak as the spider taps it's legs on the floor. Alder ready himself, holding the staff across his body, soon the attack will happen. Soon Alder will have to fight for his life, in the hopes to return to tell the shadow he is a fool. Soon but soon turns into moments and moments turn into minutes and an whole hour passes without either creature moving.

Alder steps closer to the beast, telling the dark brown monster, “Do your worst, creature I am more than ready. Do thou fear a mouse so humble?!”

But the spider said nothing back. Alder not even sure if spiders can talk. He never read any book about talking spiders and never heard of any spiders speaking in the house.

He steps closer once again, “Does thou fear me?” He ask as the spider never moves. “What a dumb thing you must to be,” he tells the spider, “or a fool at heart. Do you not know spider should attack when they are called? Do you not know?” But again the spider says nothing.

He steps backward a way from the eight legged monster, never taking his eyes off of him as he heads back down the hallway. The spider sits, not moving, almost not even breathing, watching Alder head down the staircase and fade from his sight.

The mouse makes it to the bottom of the staircase in a short among of time, looking over his tiny shoulders checking to see if the spider was following. The monster never came down the steps, as far as Alder knew. So he jump down the last step, turn and headed for the kitchen. If he was lucky the giants of the house would have left some cheese before they moved out.

He turn into the doorway of the small kitchen, walking casually in. He knew there were no giants in the house, they have not been their for weeks now. And he keeping his eyes over his shoulder looking for the spider, not seeing the thousands of black ants running from one side of the floor to the other, until it was too late.

He pushed against on one of the ants, knocking it on to it's back, scaring him as much as the ant. He jump back looking all around him, while saying, “By everything that is holy!” He slowly back up. Ants are no friend to a mouse, in fact ants are no friends to anything but it is never wise to attack them. Definitely when you just one mouse and they are a thousand ants.

“Now, now, my friends,” Alder said holding his paws out, “lets not do anything hasty.” The ants all have stopped looking dead at him, waiting for the order to attack and kill. All of their jaws clicking together. “I beg of you, scavengers of the dead, of the lost, leave me be and I shall leave you be.”

But the words fail to stop the horde from moving around Alder. And he had failed to stop them from attacking. Somewhere in the sea of black moving bodies and clicking jaws a loud, dark, long horn blew. Telling the ants to attack, to eat and most of all to kill the mouse.

They jump at him and he fought back with his staff, hitting and breaking their shells as they flew through the air. He jump over their head, for being a mouse gave him great agility, and he landed shooting for the doorway. His mouse legs moving as fast as the winds of a clear summer day. He was close a few second he will be out in the hallway and can run to the end and jump back into his mouse hole being safe from the black horde. But something pulling at his cloak, throwing him back to the ground. A ant, just one, capture the end of his cloak and Alder. He knew it was over. He close his eyes, knowing soon the horde will over power him and not even his magic will save him.

He felt the monsters over top of him. . .

But something wasn't right. It was thousand of bodies it just one. He open his black beady eyes to see the spider standing over him, fighting off the ants. And for a moment of shock he didn't know what to do. Was this monster saving him only to eat him later? Does it matter right now? Not at all, Alder told himself.

He slide out from under the spider seeing the ants wash over the eight legged monster. The spider fought as brave and as strong as any mouse but the ants were just too many. Alder jump on the back of the spider, kicking, bashing as many ants off of his new friend.

“By all the flames,” Alder starts to yell, holing his staff up into the air, pulling all the water in the air to the tip of the wooden stick, “and by all the life giving water, I tell thy to be GONE!” The water, now a pool almost the size of the spider, floating around the tip of the staff, blasts from where it was being held emitting an eerie orange light. As the drops of water land on the ants they burst into flames. The ants at the front of the attack die in number be on count while the other flee from the flames.

Alder falls from the spider's back, landing on the floor, whispering to his new friend, “Home, is at the end of the hall. . .” And the magic took too much out of him. He passed out as the spider pick him up and carrying him to the end of the hall. He land Alder on the floor and than crawling up the wall just a little to keep all of his eight eyes on the kitchen door.

The cold winter sun faded from the night and soon the full moon as cold as the wind outside beat thought the windows at the end of the hallway. Alder finally open his eyes seeing the moon light, smiling a little bit. Night time is a haven for a mouse like Alder. He rolls over looking up at the spider slowly coming down from the wall. He jump to his feet, holding his staff readying for another battle, but this time he knows he doesn't have the magic to win.

When the spider sit his legs on the ground, he bows in front of the mouse never saying a word. Alder lower his staff saying to the spider, “So you are no fool, you are just a solitary creature like my self. Lost and alone in a cold dark echoing house. Oh, how I understand you, my dear friend but why, I must asks, did you save me?”

The spider said nothing. They stood their looking at each other, just light glances between the mouse and the spider. As if their eyes were saying it all. The spider just like Alder long for a friend, long not to be locked away in solitary until his death.

“Oh right,” Alder tells himself out loud, slowly heading over to the spider, still not sure if it will eat him or not. After all, the beast might long for friendship but it's is at the end of the day still a beasts and a beast known for eating mice when he is hungry. He slowly put his paw on the spider head, holding his staff tight and ready to attack in his other paw. “You, my friend can’t speak, but we must name you. How does Hamlet sound? Yes. I think it's great for you.” The spider said did not react to the name and with that for now on Alder had a friend name Hamlet.

The days blended away as the spider found a way to trap a few ants here and there for dinner. And Alder spent time out side his house, sitting in the hallway, with his new friend. He sat there for all hours of the day reading to Hamlet or painting pictures of him. They spent days, almost weeks together not moving be on the kitchen. Alder would help draw some ants out as the spider wrap them up in his webs. They both found enjoyment out of the little game and for a time everything was great.

The long loneliness, the cold solitary they both felt fade from their hearts but it was soon to return. Alder could feel it, like a storm coming over the hill, he knew he could not beat away the dark clouds. He tried for awhile to not give into the loneliness but it was a fight he could not win. He knew it but he had to try.

One morning, Alder never came out of his little mouse hole and Hamlet waited for hours for him. The hours turn into days and the spider just sat above the door waiting. He waited hoping his friend would return soon to him, hoping the mouse still lives in the walls of the house.

~

“The path,” Hamlet open his eyes to see Alder sitting at the door to his house. His staff hanging in the air and his cloak wrap around him as he gazed down the long dark hallway. It was close to mid-night or sometime after, either way it was odd for Alder to be out at this time of night. Hamlet lowed himself to the side of the mouse.

“The path, long and hard, but never did it lead me astray.” Alder said, never looking up at his companion. “Never did I! I, lead myself astray! My faith was strong, unwilling, unbreakable but now, in the dark of this night, the hours that have passed with out a warm soul in my bed, I find myself lost and far down the deep path into the dark woods. Long is the way, my friend but Heaven a waits!”

Alder pull his hood over his eyes almost to the tip of his nose. “Or so I was told by the lying shadow. That this time in my life would be a season passing like all moments of life, they would fade like the racing night trying to out run the bright light. A season that would come and go. The shadow told me so. He said in words darker than the night . . .”

“I almost wonder with the words should be utter again.”

Hamlet nudge Alder a little, telling him to speak if it would help. The mouse grin and said, “I fallen for his lies and you, my dearest friend, a monster just like myself, have also fallen for his lies. We share the same lonely house and we have fallen for his dark lie. That this, what songs we dance to, would end this loneliness. That all we needed was each other. A friendship born in a empty house, is a friendship doom to die.” Hamlet backs a way, crawls up the wall a little, not sure was Alder was saying or trying to say but either way he didn't like it very much.

“How I cherish you,” Alder looks up at Hamlet with burning tears around his black eyes. “And how I still cherish you. You save me from a madness but the madness, the sickness has found me again. I fought to good fight but I have fallen in the muddy field of the battle. I lost the war and I am lost! Don't you see, Hamlet? Can’t you see with all your eyes?! That I am lost and the God above has damned me so!”

Alder pulls the hood back over his head, and looks away. So Hamlet can't see the tears running down his cheeks. “Years. Years, I have spent without her. Years of a season that never ends. A winter that I can't escape and I have pulled you into this empty winter. What a fool you still are, Hamlet!”

Alder stands, knocking the bottom of his staff on the floor of the house and starts to head down the long hallway. “My friend, the beast that saved my life, I tell you this and three passing suns if I do not return, leave this house. Find another, be free from this Hell and do not become lost in the dark lie, my friend. For now, I am going outside, I must see what the angels of Heaven really look like. Three days, just three!”

Alder heads into the darkness of the hall and for the passageway that leads outside into a bigger world with more monsters that can eat him. For a house mouse, being outside a house is asking for a quick and hopefully painless death, but maybe, that is what Alder wants. Maybe, it's time for the season of his life to be over. He heads for the passageway which sits in the room where the giants would gather to watch a box with moving pictures. There where the master of the giant chair would sit, against the far wall is a little hole like Alder's mouse hole. The passageway hidden behind a spell that has not been broken in years. Alder knocks three time against the wall and suddenly a small hole appears. He crawls in the dark hole, hoping it still leads him outside.

~

Alder waited for the sun to hang high in the air before crawling out of the passageway. He spend hours at the edge of the little hole looking out into the big world. A world of giants. Everything tower over him and he wander if his magic, what little magic he knew, would do anything to help him here. “O' what a big world, I have found myself in,” he said with a heavy sigh.

It took everything in the little mouse not to turn around, head back to his little mouse hole where he could be safe. But he knows in his hole lies the shadow and the lies it speaks. He couldn't return, not now, even if he wanted. There something stopping him, something at the core of his heart. Maybe, it was the loneliness that he didn't want to return to. Maybe, he knew he would find himself out here in the big world. He could grow and finally come back to beat the shadow . . .maybe.

He step out into the snow, pushing the white powder away from his feet. He made himself a little path, against the wall of the house. He was going to travel around the house, first and than maybe out into the woods, just a little. Not too much, he didn't want to lose sight of the house out of fear for being lost in the woods. He checked his watch before digging out his path a little more. Ten past one, a good time, a time, he hoped nothing would be out looking for a late lunch.

“Toil and trouble,” Alder said as it took him hours to get half way around the house, “what trouble this snow is and what toil I must go through!” Night fell and he stops, pushing up the snow to make a little cave where he could keep warm for the night. He sat there in the dark, with no fire, missing his fireplace, his bed, his books, and most of all Hamlet.

“O' Hamlet, you are no fool, I am the fool.” Alder said to the dark. “What a foolish thing I am doing but if God wishes for me to sit in the hole alone, in the light, by the warming fire, any longer than I would've gone mad. I know, I heard it be said, by that lying shadow, that I should wait for what I desire, for I am not ready to hold that desire. I am not ready for what I long for most!”

He packs the snow again making sure it is tight thick with the end of his staff, not wishing to get his paw cold and wet. He knows that would be the easy way to caught his death. “So I'll show him and God, that I am more than ready. I am out here, alone, in the world of giants. I'll show them!”

The next day he move a little farther around the house, however, it was snowing again and it became even harder for Alder to dig out his path. He stop, looking down the hill where a small town sits and had his late lunch. The toil taking it's toll on his body. He sat on top of the snow eating a small piece of yellow cheese. He has to stop himself from eating the hold piece of cheese. So he put the the rest of the block back into his little bag, standing up and turn to keep digging his path. When he see the giant green eyes looking at him. He jumps back, holding his staff up in the air, yelling, “By the God in Heaven, I do not fear you, so be gone, you devilish CAT!”

The cat, black as the night, laughs and grins at Alder. “If you do not fear me, o' so tiny mouse, why do you call out for God? Hm?”

“I - - - I said,” Alder tries to say.

“No need, my mousey friend,” the cat said, laying down so it's face is equal with Alder, “to fear me. I am a cat, yes and I should eat you and if I wanted . . .well, that would have happen already. I did after all, get this close to you. But I am not here to eat you.”

“Lies! I do not believe you,” Alder said, holding his staff up to the cat's nose. “All you demons are the same, lairs and killer of my kind.”

“Liars?!” The cat protest. “Now, now, my friend that is cold and hurtful thing to say. A demon to you I might be but please I would not lie to you.” The cat backs up a little and Alder wanders how something so black got so close to him without him seeing it. After all, the ground is nothing but white, even his blue cloak stands out like a fire in the night, but for this black cat to sneak up on him, how was that possible? And why isn't this cat attacking him? “Now, what is your name, my fearful little mouse?!”

“My name?”

“Aye, you do have one, right?”

“Why yes I do . . .it is Alder!”

“Alder,” the cat thinks for a moment, “very nice to meet you, my name is Wunsch.”

Alder gives the cat an hard look, an looks of skepticism. Cat are known for playing games with their meals and if this is what Wunsch is doing than Alder will have no part of it. “Well, good sir, it was nice meeting you but I must be on my way. I have places to go and things to do, I am afraid. So I bid you good day, sir.”

Alder turns around heading back down the path he made hours ago, but the cat jumps in front of him, crying, “Wait, wait!”

“If this is some game!” Alder called out. “Then I'll have no part of it, fight me, eat me but either way be done with it!”

“Oh no,” Wunsch said, scratching the back of his head, “I was never planning on eating you, not at all. But you see, I've been traveling for so long now and I am so board. . .I was hoping for a little conversation, that is all.”

“Conversation?” Alder question.

“Aye, just a little one. You see.” Wunsch said looking back at the town, “I came from a house down there and I have not seen anyone or anything in days.”

“And you do not wish to eat?” Alder question again.

“No, Master Alder, I do not.” Wunsch looks back at him, smiling. To Alder it was the smile of a devil and a smile he should not trust, or so he told himself. “I have taken a vowel to not eat a mouse for a whole year. A little game my friends and I are playing. I guess that is a lucky thing for you, huh?”

“Aye, I guess so,” Alder said sitting down looking at the cat's big green eyes, never letting go of his staff. “So what do you wish to talk about?”

The cat smiles bigger, “Hmmm. . .you know, now that I think of it, none of my friends are around. So maybe - - -” Wunsch releases his daggers from his paw. The mouse eyes grow almost to the size of his face, he looks around but there no where to hide, no where to run and he knows the cat will win the battle if they fight. His body is just too tried from digging. And then there that part of him that knew this could - - -would happen. Outside in the cold, in the snow, under a gray sky, Alder knew he would met his end. He almost when outside to do meet death face to face. “It has been so long, you see. I think a little taste wouldn't hurt, right Master Alder?”

“Then again,” Alder said trying to keep his nerves about him. Everything in his little mouse body is telling in to run, cry but that would give the cat what he wants. So Alder just sits there. “There is your vowel and your friends might not know you broken your word but you will. So when the game is over, you will have lost.”

“I think I can live with that,” Wunsch said slowly moving closer to the mouse.

“Are you sure?” Alder said backing up. “I have heard so many bad thing about cats but I have always heard they are true to their word. Do you want to be the only cat in all of time to be called a liar?”

“Who would know?”

“God!”

Wunsch stop coming after the mouse. He puts his daggers back into their sheaths and the smile he wore faded. “You Mister Alder are a very clever mouse.”

“Thank you sir.”

“The whole point of this game was not to give into one's desires.” Wunsch said, holing is paw up to lick it. “A test of faith one might say. For all the angels in Heaven and the ones in Hell must at some point test their faith. How else does one know what they really believe?”

“I could not agree more,” Alder said, trying to think of a way out of this before the cat changed his mind again.

“Aye, Mister Alder, what is your test? What is that thou desires?”

The question was hard hitting to the point where Alder could only thing about it. At first, when he came out of the house was to not go through the pain anymore. The loneliness of the empty house had won and he knew he would meet his end out here. But the end, would be better than a life of isolation, he told himself as he climb out of that little mouse hole. He couldn't take the days that drag from one to the other anymore.

But now, now things were different. When he saw those daggers all he could think about was his books and how many he hasn't read, or the stories locked away in his mind that he hasn't been wrote down yet and most all of Hamlet. What would he do without Alder? Sit above the mouse's door until he die or until the house fall a part around him? Now, all Alder desires is to be back in the house but that is not what his mouth said. It told the cat, “Not to be alone - - -to be, as one puts it, madly in love.”

“Ah, love, the great desire of all fool, lucky for us, we are all fools in that game.” Wunsch smiled and Alder couldn't help but think, maybe this cat knows something of love. Maybe, even demons can love. After all they envy everything that is holy and love can easily turn into envy. “But one must find love, not sit wait for, even if love will not look for thy. You must seek it, only to know you may never find it.”

“There is no where to seek it,” Alder said with a heavy heart. “This is a empty house and there are no kind souls in it for me. Love has abandoned me like the warmth of the light has abandoned the winter. And God has damned me!”

“Ah, I see and that is why you are out here? Are looking for love or the end?”

“Either, now.”

“Master Alder,” Wunsch said, truing to look down at the town. “It would take you a life time to travel to that town, if could make it without being ate alive but with me, on my back, you could get there in a couple days time. And I give you my word, my mousey friend, there are many mice to meet down there.”

Alder step to the side to see the town. Wunsch was right, there would be some many mice down there. Maybe one of them would be the women he was looking for. Definitely, with all the cats of the town playing their game. But a shadow looms on Alder mind. A shadow telling him, what if the cat gets hungry on the way back to the town? What happens when the year is up? Alder sigh, the shadow was right, there was no need to give into his desire. “I fear, I can not go with you. I must return to a friend of mine and he happens to leave within this house. I fear, I must face my loneliness and the shadow that haunts me. For if I don't than I will never be ready to play the fool's game.”

Wunsch smiles, “Then I am off, and I bid you a safe travels back into your house, and a merry, merry Christmas.”

“Christmas?” Alder asked, being outside, being alone in the house he forgot to keep track of time. Normally, the giants would have a Christmas tree up by now and he would know what time of year it was, but with them gone. There was no way to know.

“Aye, tomorrow is Christmas day,” Wunsch said walking back into the woods. “So have a blessed one and you're welcome for the present.”

Alder watched the cat fade from his sighted. Then the mouse turn heading back to the hole at the other end of the house. He move as fast as he could, never being so happy to get back into the house, thinking to himself, what a gift that cat gave him. Another day of life.

~

He wasted no time crawling back into the house or rushing to see his friend Hamlet. He turn heading down the hall seeing his eight legs hanging above his door, right where he was when he left. Hamlet meet Alder at the door to his mouse hole and Alder told him about the cat. He told about the snow and what he found outside the house. “I tell you my friend, I found hope, faith and most all knowledge of who I am.”

He sat there for a couple hours talking to his friend about anything and everything. And as the hours fallen from the clock Alder grew tried. He was so happy to be back that he did think about how the days outside really took it's toll on him. So he bid Hamlet a good night and went into his little mouse hole. He stood there for a moment happy to see his red reading chair and his books and the thought of his warm bed. He walked over to the fireplace, throwing a few logs on to and starting a small fire to heat of his house.

He turn ready to head for his bed when he see the shadow standing in his way. “You,” he cried, “let me be, just one night, by all that is holy let me be! That is all I beg of you, one night, just one.” But that shadow does not move.

“Why? Why are you here to torment me? What sin did I commit?” Alder falls to his knees. His face hidden in his paws. “I understand, I do. I understand why you are here but I just wish not to believe it. I send her away and I have been damned for it! All I wish for is love and I had it but I let it go. I let it fall from my paws like sand and that is why you, the devil is here. That is why I am in this Hell.”

Then he felt a hand on his shoulder looking up at the shadow. It did not smile, for it does not have lips but there was a joy in the blackness. Almost as if the whole time Alder had been misreading the shadow. What if it wasn't a devil but an angel?

“But thy is not a devil?” He question and the joy become bright as almost to answer him. “By the light of Heaven. You are an angel and I - - -never listen to you. I never understood, what words you were saying were not lies but the truth. And I was too blind to see it. For I did not wish to hear the truth because it was too painful.”

He stands up facing the shadow. “I am not damn to this loneliness. This loneliness is my test and I must have faith.” It hit Alder so hard that he started to cry. He was being tested and now he hope he passed. The shadow let him pass and crawled into bed, wandering what would happen next.

~

Alder roll from one side of this bed to the other, trying to block out the loud crashing sound outside of his walls. He was sure it was just thunder but the sounds grew louder and closer. He jumps from his bed realizing that something was in the house. He rush into his reading room, garb his cloak, his staff, and before opening the door checking his watch. The watch it had stop ticking. He pull his paw away from the door nob. With the watch dead, does that mean . . .?

He couldn't help be think that it's his time. He run his life to the end. He stood there looking at the watch, listening to the crashing sounds outside.

“By the Father thy art in Heaven,” Alder said, “What do I do?” Then he thought of his friend Hamlet. The giant spider, what is he doing? Is he alive? He must know. So he slipped the watch back into his pocket and rush out into the hallway. He looked up trying to see Hamlet but the spider wasn't there.

“Oh no, Lord I beg do not take him from me!”

Out of the corner of his black eyes he saw one of his friend legs. Hamlet slowly move from around a box sitting in the hallway. That is when Alder notice it, the hallway was full of boxes. New giants were moving into the house. He smiled, sure there was some dangers that come along with giant living in the hours but he won't be alone again. He smiled, looking down the hallway at the open front door and into the world of snow outside. The test was over, he was sure of it. And like that, when everything seem as good as it could get. A flash of something small, blonde ran across the hallway. It was furry, just like Alder and there was tail behind the small thing.

“I can't believe my eyes,” he said, “it can be?” And than the little thing ran back across the hallway. After a while it stop, looking down the hallway at Alder, a little blonde mouse. She smiled and he smiled back. The test was finally over.

“In that moment, my friend, I was not sure she was the love of my life. In that moment, I didn't even know if she would even like me. All I knew was the loneliness was over. That I, Alder, a steward of the empty halls, and lonely rooms of a cold house. Was no longer alone. I knew from that day on that life would be different. Grace, she told me her name was, had been traveling with this family for ever a year now. They have been looking for a house to live in and raise their young. And they had pick this house on Christmas day.”

“We spent a year or more getting to know each other, living on different parts of the house. She lived upstairs while I lived a the end of the hallway. As time passed the love in our hearts grew and soon we moved in together. And soon we were married. And that is where we are as of this day. Happily in love, happily married and in a house full children, giants and mice alike.”

Merry Christmas to all . . .

A Night with the Dark

Draft_2

By: Chase L. Currie

Christmas Eve,

The City of Diz,

7:00 at night,

There is never a more perfect time in the year to have snow on the ground than Christmas. Everyone loves a white Christmas and how could they not? The air is fill with the cold clean smell of winter. The land before your eyes is full a magical winter land. Everyone is running to their families or friends house to enjoy each other company. Even angels find this time of year a perfect time to enjoy each other and that is why Envy, the angel who lives with the Soul Walker is heading for the studio of the Watcher.

The Watcher, Thanatos, lives in his studio alone in the great city of wait, as it been called. A city where the dead go to wait to see if their souls have been cleanse of their sins, so they can go to the light of Heaven or cleanse of their virtues, so they can be send to the fiery pits of Hell. He sits in his studio waiting for his friend Envy to come by. Most of his family is either still alive in the Before-Life or are in Heaven, where he can not go. He is the Watcher over the City of Diz and can't never live it.

The black hair women with the crimson stripe hiding her left eye walks down the snow cover streets, loves this time of year more than anyone else. She pulls at the golden halo around her neck. The metal getting a little cold and uncomfortable but she doesn't mind it too much. She know soon she'll be in a warm room with her friend, laughing and talking, and most all drinking something hot. She would be freezing her to death in this weather, if she wasn't for her wearing a long big brown fuzzy coat Lock gave her last year. But every now and than a cold blast of wind hits the side of her and her thin body can’t take bone numbing chill, even if the coat on. So she speed hoping to get to the studio faster.

She throws a hood around her head as she see her friend's studio just a couple of buildings a way.

But then she stop, looking down at the women darning from the studio door. A person in all black and wearing a black hood over their face. The women looks around before cutting into the alley way and that is when Envy is sure she know her from somewhere. And if it the person she thinks might be than that would be imposable. There is no way she could here in the After-Life and here in the City of Diz.

She rush to follow the women in the black cloak, stopping for a second in front of the red studio door. She not sure what to do, go after this women or forget about it and go see her friend. Why should she care who this person is? But something is pulling at her, telling she must find out. The halo around her long pale neck is weighting down on her. So she runs after the dark cloaked women.

The snow in the alley is almost untouched, no one will dares to move thought the alley ways. There is no homeless in the city because there is a room for every soul born in the Realm of Adam. So no one sleeps outside and this makes following the women easy.

Envy can see the women is starting to pick up her pass as if she know she being follow. But that can't be, there is no way she saw Envy. And then she notice it there are more footprints. There is someone, four fact, chasing after this person.

She stops, hugging the wall listening as she can hear the voice said. “You broke the law, you know you can not be here! So before we send you back tells us how you got here.”

The women tries to say something back but the angel is holding her off the ground by her neck, not giving her the real chance to speak.

Angels, in the city, why are they here? Envy questions to herself. Everyone know the laws of the city and one of them being that Angels nor demons can enter city. Unless, they are hunting someone, but who is this persons?

“Who care,” one of the angels yell, “let kill her and be done with it.”

“Fair enough,” the one holding her up by her neck said, pulling his sword out of thin air. “You should have never come back.”

Envy peeks around the wall seeing that the hood has been remove and the women night black hair falling almost to the ground. She can almost see stars dancing her in hair and than she looks up at her face. Twisted in pain and now fear as the women looks at the sword. Her skin as pale and blue as a full moon. She know who it is, Nyx the goddess of the night or well, to be more accurate the angel of the night. Nyx was at one time the best friend of Envy's but things change and change fast.

“Nyx!” Envy yells, throwing herself at the angel with the sword, knocking her free. Envy stands there was the other three reactting in shock. They were not expecting to see one of their one kind nor to see one of their one kind saving a banished one.

“Leave you her alone,” Envy demands.

“Get out of our way,” the angel said picking himself off the ground. “You know the law and she must be killed for being here.”

“The law says nothing about killing her.”

“It does now!” The angel shoots forward trying to hit Envy with his sword. She ducks and moves out of the way, planting her knee right between his legs. The angel fall to the ground almost crying from the pain She quickly picks up Nyx as the other move to attack. “Thank you,” Nyx whispers trying to catch her breathe.

“Don't thank me yet, I am not happy you're here either.” Envy taps her halo three time and a blind light pours from it. The angel shielding the eyes. Envy leads Nyx away from the alley way out onto a street full of people. The angels won't dare come after them where there are souls they could harm. But the fact is they are from a clan not in heaven aynmore. The fact the angels were blinding by the holy light means they live in the Land of the Dead. So Envy take no chance and quickly darns into another alley way. She knows of a place they hide.

“Thank you so much,” Nyx said, sitting a chair with a warm blue blanket over her shoulders and slipping on some hot tea. Not the best tea she ever had but it will do for now. “I was sure I was doomed.”

Envy stand against the window looking out over the city as she ask, “Is Thanatos alright with you being here?”

“He didn't exactly give me his blessing but he wasn't going to stop me either.”

“So, why are you here?” Envy ask, almost screaming at Nyx. She trying as hard as she can to hide her rage within her voice but her bright jade eyes are failing her quickly. They are filled with a burning angry.

Nyx looks down at her cup, not wanting to face her friends rage and said, “It's complicated but I am making for a past sin is all you need to know.” She stands up throwing the blanket onto the chair, smiling a little and saying, “Thank you again but I need to be on my way.” And start to head for the door.

“Hell no,” Envy says garb her by the shoulder sipping her around to face her, “you are going no where. We are going to get you out the city and you are going back to the Realm of Adam.”

“I will, I promise but I have to do something first.”

“No, I don't care what it is, you have to go back.”

“I can't,” Nyx yells pulling away from Envy, “you don't understand, I need to do this.”

“Do what?” Nyx pulls out a little black book and hands it to Envy. Envy look at it, flips through the pages, seeing it a book of poems. “What is so important about this?” She looks up but Nyx is not standing there anoymore. She siting in the chair with her hands covering her face, trying to stop the flood of tears.

“I didn't mean too,” she cries, “I didn't see her, I didn't know she was there until it was too late.”

“What are you talking about?” Envy asks, trying to hide her empathy.

“Read the first page.” Envy flips the book back to the first page with some hand written words on it. All it says is, From: your son, To: his loving mother. “I killed her. It was raining and I was drunk and she step out in front of me. I hit her and killed her. And that book was going to be her Christmas present. Her son wrote the book. It was his first.”

“So you plan on giving it to her,” Envy states, “that is why you are here.”

“Its' the only way I know how to make up for what I did.”

“Ah, dammit, fine, I'll help you,” Envy said. “You can't do it alone, those angels are still looking for you. Do you know where she is?”

“Yes, Thanatos gave me the address of where she works.”

“Than lets get going, so you can get the Hell out of the After-Life and I don’t have to see you anymore.”

~

Envy read the address and knew of the little tea shop, it was half way across the city. If there could be a half away point. The city never ends but at the same time when you wanted leave, you could find an exit. You can stand on a hill outside the city wall and see the giant wall circle the buildings but when you were in it, you could never find the wall. It was always on the horizon, always right out of your reach. She knew how the city work and hoped they would find the tea shop quickly.

However, her hope was soon let down as the walk to the shop turn into hours. It was close to dark and Nyx seem to smile at the night. She always loved the night more than the day. She walked beside Envy as her friend wouldn't look at her. All Envy would do was look at the building lining the road side.

There was history in the building, as if the towers and house were built on top of old bones of the city before it. And than that city built on top of more bones. A timeless history bleed through every wall and every building. Some of the buildings shot high into the sky, almost trying to reach the clouds. The stood higher than any building in the Before-Life and almost has high as the towers of Heaven. But the towers of the city, were dark almost haunting statues witching your every move. Every inch of the towers were covered in statues of angels, demons or people of time forgotten. They all watched you.

Envy loved studying the building, trying to guess what time period they were from. It was a game she only played by herself. She never told anyone about it. A part of her thought it was stupid, the other part didn't want anyone to tell her she wrong and really what time period the buildings were made in.

“I see you haven’t change your hair style at all,” Nyx said.

“Hmm,” Envy protest the idea of talking with her.

“I think you should let your hair grow out a little.”

“I remember,” Envy said, “you were the one who talked me into cutting my hair like this in the first place. I also remember you saying you would never grow your hair out.”

“Yeah, but” Nyx replies, “I was young and stupid.”

“That is the truth!”

“You know what I remember?” She asked not really looking for a answer. “I remember someone bring a lion into the town center after she trained it for a year.”

Envy smiles, not wanting too but couldn't help herself.

“And the guards didn't know what to do as you made the lion sit and play ball.”

“They stood there in shock along with everyone else,” Envy replies through her chuckles. “And they almost pissed themselves when the lion roar.”

“You never did tell me how you got him to do that on command.” Nyx said, smiling as big as she could.

“I didn't, he just did it.”

“And the best part was when he smelled the flesh meat being cooked.”

“That was horrible,” Envy reply laughing at the thought of it now. “I was so scared when he went looking for dinner and wouldn't listen to me anymore.”

“Oh your face was priceless,” Nyx laughed out loud.

“I am glad you found it funny,” Envy affirm, “but I had to spent six months banish from the wilds. I guess they were afraid what I would come back with next.”

“Yeah, they were sure you would come back with a dragon or something next time.” They both laughed at the thought of it. They smiled at each other like nothing every happen and they were still as close as they every were. Envy forgot just for a moment about Nyx's betrayal. They laughed, walked down the street and talk just like old friends. And there was a part of Envy that wanted to forget what her friend did but she couldn't.

She stop laughing and smiling and asked, “What are you doing? Why are you trying to make up for past sins now?”

Nxy move her green eyes away from her friend and back down the street. “I don't know, now feel like a good time to do just that, I guess. I have so many to make up for.”

“Are you hoping this women forgives you?” Envy asked, keeping her coat tightly wrap around her body.

“Yes,” Nyx quietly said, “you and Thanatos seem not to want to forgive me, so maybe there will be someone who can.”

Envy just snarls a little.

“Is that too much to ask,” Nyx said, looking over at her, “to be forgiving?”

“You spent several life times, running away from my forgiveness.” Envy pointed out. “And if would have listened to me in the first place - - -”

Nyx looked away, not wanting to listen to the same debate they had a thousand time before. “We both know where we stand and there is nothing to be said about it.”

“That is your problem,” Envy yells. “You won't listen to reason and I don't understand why!”

“There is so much you don't understand, Envy, so much about everything. Things don't work the way you think they do.”

“Oh, yeah? Then tell me, how do they work?”

Nyx looks at her friend. Her eyes burning with rage as she tell her everything that been bottle up in her heart for so long. She tried not to yell. She tried not scream about all the pain and suffering she seen. At how the children of Adam are nothing more than monster and they don't deserves the Father's love or grace. She screamed about how the angels, all of them, were nothing more than tools. And when the tools got tried of being used they were thrown away. She left her home to be free and now she see there is no such thing as freedom. The word “free” should just mean lies. “And to tell you the truth,” she finally said, “I am here now, doing this because it's the only thing that feels right. I hope you never understand that.”

Envy stop walking, her lips crinkling up from the angry and pain. She trying her hardest to find words to say to her friend. She trying to put them together into sentences and not just yelling sounds. And than her lips open and she said, “You always thing you're so wise, when you are just a fool at heart.” She points behind her friend.

Nyx turns seeing the small tea shop they been looking for. It was close to closing. All the workers were cleaning up and there was only a few people sitting at the table. Envy followed Nyx into the shop as she hasty looked for the women but she was no where in sight. Envy walked up to the counters as the clerk came up to her. “How can I help you ma'am?”

“Is Elizabeth working right now?” Envy asked, turning her head so the clerk can see her golden halo around her neck.

“No ma'am,” the clerk said in awe, “she got off about an hour ago, we were slow.” That was no surprise. There is no money in the After-Life or in the city. So people really don't go out to get things because everything is already gave to them. The only reason they have jobs is because they want one or they are board.

“Do you have her address?” She asked as Nyx join her side.

“Yes ma'am,” the clerk quickly wrote down the address on a scrape piece of paper and hand it to the angel. “Is she in trouble or something?”

“No, not at all,” Envy replies, walking away, “just got to give her Christmas present is all.” They both walked back outside as Nyx wanted to know how far they had to walk again. Envy just said it was a couple of blocks away, but she said that last time as well.

~

They climb the stair cast to the 47^th floor of the apartment building that Elizabeth lives in. The climb taking almost as long as the walk. Their legs should be growing tried and weak but that the funny thing about the After-Life, you don't really get tired or weak. They made it to the floor and almost complete silents. Envy still trying to not be mad at Nyx for what said earlier. Envy knows, with all her soul, that her best friend is wrong. Nyx has no real idea of how things are and all the pain her life has just warp her mind. Envy almost knows there is no point in talking to her about it, she'll never understand.

Envy opens the door to the long hallway of doors as Nyx walks in. The head down the hallway looking for the apartment and right before the find it, Nyx stops. She pushes herself up against the wall, slipping her hand into her pocket, holding on to the little black book. “I don't know if I can do it.”

“What do you mean?” Envy asked. “We didn't come all this way for nothing.”

“I know,” she replies, pulling the book out, “but maybe you could - - -”

“No,” Envy said stepping away. “You can do it yourself.”

“But - - -”

“But nothing,” Envy said taking her hand and pulling her down the hallway to the door. She knocks hard on the wooden door and it quickly opens with Nyx standing in front of it. She looks up at the red hair women, smiling, while asking, “Elizabeth?”

“Yes?” The women question quickly, rising an eye brow up.

“You don't know me,” Nyx said, throwing the book into Elizabeth hands, “but Merry Christmas.” And before the women could say anything Nyx takes off back down the hallway. Shooting in the stair way, garbing the railing, trying to breathe. Envy quickly join her at her side. “Well, that is one way of doing it.”

“I can't, I can't look at her,” she lows her head, almost laying it against the cold railing. “I can’t ask her to - - -”

“Excuse me.” The both turn around to see Elizabeth standing there. She smacks Nux across the face and than quickly hugs her. She pulls her in tight as Nyx and Evny stand there in shock. She lets' go of Nyx as the pale women rubs her face. “I know who you are,” Elizabeth starts to explain, “and I should be angry with you but I am not.”

“Why?” Nyx questions softly.

“Look where we are,” she replies, “we are standing in the After-Life and I know I'll see my family again.”

“But I - - -took you from them.”

“Yes, you did,” the women says, not sounding sad or upset about it, “but I know, I'll see them again. I know we can live a thousand life times together here, what more could I ask for?”

“So what was the smack for?” Envy inquires.

“You shouldn't have walked a way, it's rude, next time face your problems.” Elizabeth smiles, handing Nyx back the book, while saying, “I don't need this but you do. You need to know I forgive you, but you need to forgive yourself more. Just promise me you'll never dive drunk again?”

“I promise you I'll never drink again.”

“Merry Christmas,” Elizabeth said, truing away from the two women still in shock over what she just did. She leaves and it takes a few moment for Envy and Nyx to do the same. They walk back down the staircase, still a little in shock and not talking. When they reach the bottom Envy tells her friend, “We need to get back to Thanatos's studio, we need to get you home before those angels find - - -”

Envy was pulled to the ground by her halo and then kicked across the floors of the apartment building. The attack was unexpected and the angels found them quicker than Envy had thought they would have. She lays on the ground trying to catch her breath or stop the boots from crushing in her bones. She covers her face as some of the angels attack her. The leader of the pack, holds Nyx up by her hair, dragging her across the floor.

“I want you to watch, angel,” the leader command as the group stops kicking her. One of them picks up holding her tight as the leader pull his sword from the air. “Watch your friend die!”

His aim was perfect. The tip of the blade should have went through the skull of Nyx and out the back. The hit would have killed her. It would be a quick death blow but it wasn't. The angel lifted his arm and before he could drop it he was thrown across the room. His body was pick off the ground by an unseen force and throw like a ball of paper.

He picks himself off the ground, shooting his painful surprises eyes at the door way and the man standing in it. “I don't like liars,” the man stands stepping in to the room and the other angels letting Envy go as she falls to the ground. “I don't like angels who lie to me.”

“You have no power of me child of Adam!” The leader yells, puling himself to his feet and stepping closer to the Watcher.

“Oh please,” Thanatos said, smiling, “don't be a fool. We both know I have the power here. And you lied to me. You said Heaven sent you, but they didn't.”

Pointing his sword at Nyx, “What does is matter she should not be here.”

“I am the law of this city, angel,” Thanatos tells him, orders him, ”and it's time for you to leave.”

“I will not - - -” but before he could do anything a blade of a long scythe wrap around his neck. He stop talking as his friends stood there in shock.

“You were saying?”

“Fine,” the angel said easily, “we will leave.” Lock, the Soul Walker should them out of the city as Thanatos helped Envy to her feet.

Thanatos tells Nyx, “The Poet is back at the studio, waiting on you.”

“So that is how you got here,” Envy said, “the angels that carries souls to the Land of the Dead, brought you here.”

“He's a friend,” Nyx replies. “Thank you, both of you, and I hope you have a Merry Christmas.” That was the last thing she said to her friends. Envy still mad at her a little, Thanatos just happy to have her out of the city. Envy didn't say anything about it for the rest of the evening and Thanatos didn't ask. It was Christmas and there was no need to bring up painful moments of the past. So they sat in his studio, laughing, drinking and going outside to have snow ball fights. Maybe in a couple of days he'll ask about it, maybe . . .

Merry Christmas, everyone.