A Cold, Dark Night

Ivy stood at the back of the large room, wishing she could just disappear. She shuffled a little closer to the large plant next to her, which was almost as tall as she was.

She was in the middle of a party, a party which she really didn’t want to be at. And she also had to dress up, which Ivy did not like at all. She was wearing a light dress down to her ankles, which was colored blue. It was plain, but it was still a dress. Ivy couldn’t run in a dress, not that she was allowed to at this party. No running there, Ivy’s parents had told her before they left.

It was so boring, and Ivy just felt ridiculously awkward, especially since there were no kids there. None. Except for her, of course.

Everyone was dancing, except for Ivy. Not that Ivy liked dancing that much. Everyone was having a good time, except for Ivy. She felt as out of place as a whale in the middle of a hot, dry desert.

Ivy glanced out the window. The last little sliver of the sun was disappearing over the tips of the dark, shadowed trees. Ivy wished she could disappear as easily as the sun over the horizon. But she couldn’t, of course. I wonder if I could slip outside for a minute… nobody would notice I’m gone… besides, the garden was open to anyone, right? Then at least I could breathe, Ivy thought. The room was stifling. And I wouldn’t feel so awkward.

She looked longingly at the door to her right, farther down the wall. Then her gaze switched to the clock on the wall next to it. 8:32 PM. The party was supposed to end at nine-thirty PM. So she still had an hour before she would finally be able to leave.

Ivy cautiously started inching her way towards the door, praying that no one would stop her. She was just slinking along behind the food tables when she heard, with a sinking heart, someone calling her name.

Ivy stopped, sighed, and looked up to see who had called her. It was her aunt, Aunt Dorothy. Ivy tried not to sigh. Of course she failed.

“There you are, Ivy. I was looking everywhere for you!” she said, a little too enthusiastically. Ivy moved another inch towards the door, which seemed to be openly inviting her.

“Hi!” said Ivy, trying to match Dorothy’s enthusiasm. It ended up sounding way too fake. Enthusiasm to rival a snail. Once again, Ivy wished she could disappear, even more so then before. Of course nothing happened. She couldn’t magically wish herself away.

“Do you want to come dance with us? I can dance with you, if you like,” suggested Dorothy.

“Uh… no thanks. I’ll be okay.” Ivy moved another centimeter towards the inviting door. Dorothy was a terrible dancer, no offense intended.

“Are you sure?” Dorothy didn’t wait for an answer. “If you change your mind, though, come and find me!” she danced off, tripped over her own foot, and nearly ended up falling flat on her face.

Before anyone else could stop her, Ivy darted to the door, jerked it open, and stepped out with a sigh of relief. She eased the door softly closed behind her, and the music and din from inside the room faded.

She turned, another grateful sigh escaping her lips. The hall stretched out in front of her, family pictures hung on the wall (not Ivy’s family, they were pictures of her parent’s friends’ family, as they were at the friends’ party) and there was a soft red carpet on the wood floor.

Ivy padded down the hall on silent feet, for the carpet silenced any footsteps walking down it, to the door at the other end. Then she would be outside.

Finally, Ivy stepped out into the cool, refreshing, summer night-air. She breathed in deeply. There were trees surrounding the large yard, all dark shapes against a black sky.

She turned to the right, where the gardens were located, at the side of the large house. Like everything else on the property, the garden was large, with short fruit trees, fountains, flowers, shrubs, and benches everywhere. The walkways winding between the garden was of paved stones, and there were short lanterns on the ground lining both sides of the walkway, giving off a faint yellowish glow. Ivy breathed in deeply again as she strolled slowly along the paths through the bushes of roses, clusters of marigolds, and rows of lavender plants. Vines, ivy, and other climbing plants grew up trellises. It was so… peaceful. Ivy wished she could stay there for the whole night. The crickets were chirping. Ivy couldn’t imagine anything going wrong in this peaceful night.

As she wound her way along the stone paths, Ivy spotted a dark figure leaning against a tall fountain ahead. She paused, then slowly Ivy made her way towards it. As she walked towards it, she stepped on a twig and it snapped. The figure jumped, startled, and let out a little yelp of surprise when he spotted her. His hand came up as he jumped and he hit it on the rough stone of the fountain, which prompted him to give another yelp, this time one of pain.

“Sorry!” Ivy exclaimed. “Sorry, sorry, sorry.” she hurried over to the stranger. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah. You just startled me, is all,” said the stranger, inspecting his hand. Ivy guessed he wasn’t much older then she was. Maybe I’m not the only kid at the party, she thought, delighted. Ivy looked at his hand as well. It was hard to tell in the faint light, but from what she could see it was only a few scratches, but not bad. The boy tucked his hand into the pocket of his pants.

“What’s your name?” asked Ivy.

“Seth Rider. What’s yours?”

“Ivy.”

“That’s a pretty name.” Seth smiled at Ivy. She smiled back.

“Did you come out to escape the party too?” asked Seth, looking out in the direction the sun had set.

“Yeah. I didn’t see you before, how long have you been out here?”

“Oh, a while. I came out shortly after dinner,” Seth replied. Ivy nodded. Dinner had been a few hours ago, which was only half an hour after all the guests had arrived.

“I thought I was the only kid,” commented Ivy, joining Seth in leaning against the fountain. The soft spray wet her face, which felt good, despite the cool breeze and chilly air.

“So did I,” said Seth with a little laugh. “I guess we were both wrong. Thankfully.”

“Yeah.”

They lapsed into silence.

“I’m guessing you don’t like parties or big crowds?” queried Seth after a few minutes.

“I’m not a fan of big crowds or parties, you’re right about that, but I wouldn’t say, ‘ack, let’s do whatever we can to avoid big crowds and parties!’ if you get what I mean.”

“Yeah, I do. I feel the same way.” Seth nodded, although it was hard to see him in the dark. They both fell silent again.

“How old are you?” Ivy asked after another heartbeat. “Just to keep the conversation going.”

“Eleven. You?”

“Eleven. Now, when’s your birthday?” asked Ivy, grinning mischievously at Seth, although he probably wouldn’t be able to see her grin. “Then we’ll know who’s older.”

“April second. When’s yours?” said Seth.

“Aw. You’re older. My birthday is on August the sixteenth.”

“I guess—” a shout interrupted Seth. “Ivy! Are you out here?”

“Oh! I’m sorry, I have to go! That’s my parents!” exclaimed Ivy.

“Are you leaving already? I didn’t think it would be time for people to start leaving yet,” said Seth.

“I don’t know. I’ll come back out if we’re not leaving and if I can, but if not, bye! I’ll probably never see you again!” Ivy jogged off.

“Great optimism! I’ll see you later!” called Seth.

“Coming!” Ivy shouted to her parents. She hurried inside, where her parents were standing with another couple.

“There you are. Aunt Dorothy said she saw you go out,” said Ivy’s mom. “We’d like you to meet some good friends of ours, the Riders, Aaron and June Rider. I believe we’ve told you about them. They have a son your age too, Ivy. His name’s Seth. Also we wanted to make sure you were out here.”

“Nice to meet you.” Ivy shook hands with June and Aaron. Yes, now that her parents mentioned it, she did remember hearing about them.

“Good to meet you too, Ivy. And, uh, did you happen to see a boy out in the

garden? Seth went out after dinner,” said Aaron.

“Yeah, we were talking.” said Ivy, nodding.

“Oh, you’ve already met?” June smiled down at Ivy.

“Yes.”

“Can I go back out now?” asked Ivy.

“Why not? Have fun! And don’t get hurt! Oh, another thing, we’ll be leaving pretty soon, so don’t get too comfortable or go too far!” called Ivy’s father, Jason, as she darted back outside. Ivy returned to the fountain where she and Seth had been standing before.

“So you didn’t have to leave,” Seth smiled at Ivy.

“No.” Ivy shook her head.

“What did you parents want?”

“They wanted me to meet your parents and tell me we were leaving soon. I guess they’ve been friends for a long time,” replied Ivy, shrugging.

“Ah. So now, where were we? Oh, right. We were just saying that I was older.” Seth stood straighter and imperiously straightened his jacket.

“Meh. Only by a few months.” Ivy shrugged, trying to hide her amused grin. Not that it mattered. Seth wouldn’t see it anyway. She hoped her voice didn’t give her amusement away.

“Where do you live? If you give me your address and I give you mine, we could write to each other. Our parents know each other, anyway. Unless you have an email, or something,” Seth said.

“No email. As for my address, my parents have very specifically told me not to give my address to people I’ve just met,” Ivy said, trying to sound innocent.

“But our parents know each other,” said Seth, apparently not recognizing the

fact that Ivy was teasing him. “So they probably already—oh wait, you’re just teasing me. Argh, it’s so annoying when people do that! And then I fall for it.” Seth groaned. “I always do.”

“Ooo,” started Ivy.

“Don’t get any ideas!” moaned Seth.

“All right, fine.”

“Promise you won’t trick me again like that?” asked Seth.

“Nope,” Ivy grinned. “Besides, you caught that pretty quickly, anyway.”

“Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine,” groaned Seth, putting his hands over his eyes in mock despair. “But then I’m doing the same to you.”

“All right. We’ll see who’s more successful,” challenged Ivy.

“Oh, oh! Wait! Look! There’s a moth on your shoulder! Hold still, let me catch it!” cried Seth suddenly. Ivy twisted to see.

“No, you can’t see it! It’s on the back of your shoulder!”

“But then why did you say ‘look!’ like that?” Ivy questioned.

“I don’t know. Hold still.” Seth moved his hands slowly towards Ivy’s shoulder. Then he stopped and returned to leaning against the fountain, gazing at her expectantly.

“What? Did it fly away?” Ivy asked, straining to see over her shoulder. Seth started cracking up. “You totally fell for that! There was no moth! Ha!” Seth couldn’t stop laughing. Ivy immediately realized she’d been tricked.

“Of course you did that!” she laughed. “Nice job.”

When they finally calmed down, Ivy wiped her eyes and sighed. Wow, not that long ago, I wanted to disappear. Now I don’t. This is great. And then a group of people came out. Apparently one of the hosts wanted to show some other people the new fountain they had just gotten. Which just happened to be the one Ivy and Seth were at. When the group of people reached them, one of the ladies said brightly, “Hello Ivy! Enjoying the night air, eh? Pretty nice out, huh?”

And just like that, Ivy wanted to disappear again.

“Ooo, you’ve got a new friend, too? What’s your name?” Aunt Dorothy turned to Seth.

“Seth,” he said simply. Another lady called Dorothy’s attention away just as she was about to respond to Seth.

“I’m sorry,” said Ivy, turning to Seth, embarrassed. She had never wanted to disappear more in her life then during that moment.

“It’s okay. Let’s go somewhere else.” Seth led them to a bench on the edge of the garden, facing out, far from the fountain they had just been at. They sat down.

“So, what do you want to talk about now?” questioned Seth after a moment of

silence.

“I don’t know.”

“Know any good jokes?”

“Uhhh… what has four wheels and flies?”

“Hmm. I have no idea,” Seth said after a moment of thought. “Four wheels and flies… it couldn’t be plane, those have three wheels… birds don’t have wheels… what is it? I give up.”

“A garbage truck.”

“What? Garbage trucks don’t fly,” Seth said, confused.

“No, silly. A garbage truck has flies, the annoying insect. You know, buzz buzz.” laughed Ivy.

“Ohhhh, now I get it!” Seth laughed. “Good one. How about this, why did the woman go outside with her purse open?”

“I don’t know.”

“Because she expected some change in the weather.”

“Ha! Nice.” Ivy was just about to open her mouth to voice another joke, when a soft snarl came from behind them. Ivy closed her mouth and looked at Seth. He looked as alarmed as she felt. A chill crept up Ivy’s spine. She was suddenly quite sure they weren’t alone any more. She felt like she was being watched.

They heard the snarl again, low and menacing. Together, Ivy and Seth looked behind the bench, where a dark shadow with gleaming red eyes stood hunched beneath a tree.

Seth grabbed Ivy’s arm tightly and dug in his finger nails. Ivy was too scared to react. It reached out long arms to grab them… Ivy opened her mouth to scream, but no sound would come out. And then everything went black.

Not long after, as the guests were starting to leave, Ivy’s parents came out with Seth’s parents to find the children. They searched the whole garden and more. There wasn’t a trace of either kid anywhere.

Jason, Ivy’s father, ran back to call people over to help search for the missing kids. All those who were still present came to help look. But Ivy and Seth were never found.

They were gone.

They had disappeared into the cold, dark night.