Eve Faces the Darkness

Eve stepped into her bedroom, walked over to her bedside table, then turned on the small bat-shaped light plugged into her wall. She yawned, stretched, and walked back to the hallway. After turning the hallway light off, she dashed back to her room and the safety of the little bat light before gently shutting her door. She had been up later than usual researching Sikeri after two showed up in her house earlier that night. The racket woke everyone in the house up, but now things were settled. She was convinced the two little creatures wouldn’t cause any more trouble tonight, seeing as how they were as exhausted as she was. The little one was already asleep in her sister’s arms, and had been for hours now. Eve then realized that she had no idea where the bigger one had gone. For a moment, she pondered wandering back into the dark hallway, but then decided that she would rather clean up any messes the critter made in the morning instead.

Eve then heard a sound coming from the bed behind her. For what felt like hours, she was paralyzed by fear, but finally found the will to turn around. Two glowing eyes peered across the room at her. It took her another fear-filled moment to realize that the eyes belonged to the big Sikeri. She sighed in relief.

“You almost gave me a heart attack, little shadow,” she said as she walked across the room. The Imp was curled up on her bed, clearly already at home in her room. “I guess you’re going to sleep with me tonight, huh?” she said softly. She hesitantly reached an arm out. The Imp glared at her hand, so she stopped and let it hover for a minute. Just as she was about to pull her hand away, the Sikeri leaned his head forward and closed the distance between them, putting his head under her hand. She stroked him, though softly due to the very pointy hairs he had lining his body. Outside, thunder rumbled.

“Chirrup!” the Imp squeaked. He suddenly darted forward until he was curled up against Eve, tucked firmly under her arm.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, patting his head. He realized what he did and scooted across the bed, putting a few inches between himself and her. “Don’t be shy, little shadow.”

“Hrumph,” the creature replied. Thunder sounded again, this time much closer and louder, and again, the Imp flew forward, this time straight into Eve’s arms.

“Afraid of thunder, huh?” she laughed. “Don’t worry; everyone is afraid of something.” She cradled the Sikeri close and pushed herself up to the head of the bed. As she wiggled her way under the blankets, she whispered to him, “I’ll tell you a little secret: I’m afraid of the dark.”

“Brrrup?” the Imp burbled.

“I know, right? The spooky girl is afraid of the dark. Who knew? It’s true. I like all sorts of scary, spooky things, but the dark just makes me,” Eve shuddered. “It’s very scary.”

Thunder pounded, this time right on top of them, and lighting flashed. The Sikeri dove head first under the blankets and curled up. Eve pulled the blanket over her head and laid down beside him. She stroked him again, murmuring words of comfort. Through the blanket, she saw the warm glow of her bat light. Then, she saw the whole room light up as another round of thunder and lightning filled the air. Rain was pounding against the window by now.

“There, there, little shadow. There’s really nothing to be afraid of,” she said to the now-shivering animal. “It’s just a passing storm.”

As if in reply to her remark, the storm rang out once again. This time, however, when the lightning had dimmed, Eve found herself plunged in absolute darkness. The storm had kicked out the power, and her bat light was lit no more. Eve’s body tensed up and she couldn’t move.

Beside her, the Sikeri stirred, sensing something was wrong.

The little shadow chirped nervously at Eve, patting her arm. She didn’t respond, only whimpered. Thunder sounded overhead, but the Imp ignored it, focusing only on Eve. Eve slowly opened her tear-filled eyes and saw the critter staring at her with concern. He didn’t even flinch at the sound of the thunder pounding around them. She nodded at him.

“Okay,” she choked out. “I get it. If you can brave your fear, then so can I.” Eve pushed the blanket off of the two, hugged Shadow close, and faced the darkness.