CHASING SHADOWS
"Nathaniel Quinn! I promise if you're not in bed in five seconds, I'll go open that window and make sure it stays that way all night long!"
Nathan didn't need telling twice. He dropped his train set at once, turned off the lights, and jumped in bed, quietly trembling. He knew better than to gamble with this threat from his mother. Calling her bluff might mean it could very well be the last time he ever sees her, or his train set, or his bed. For every child knows that an open window is nothing less than a cheerful invite to the one who steals children in the night, who sells them off to the band of murderous men aboard the Jolly Roger. The one called Peter Pan. Several minutes passed until Mrs. Quinn quietly opened Nathan's bedroom door to check on her son, and found him sobbing into his little pillows.
"Oh, Nathan, you know I didn't mean it." She approached his bed and touched his forehead gently.
"Mother, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, please don't let him come!" Young Nathaniel was drowning in his own tears. "I promise I'll be good! I'll listen! Just don't let him take me! Don't let him sell me to the pirates!"
Mrs. Quinn's expression said it all. She knew the way he was feeling, for she too, as a young girl, was told the awful tales of a the boy who stole bad children away from their homes to sell to the murderous pirates as a slaves.
"Sleep, child. You are safe." She said as she stroked her terrified son's hair. This seemed to calm him, and within minutes he was snoring. She tucked Nathaniel in tightly and kissed his rosy cheek, still warm from the excitement and wet from his tears. Mrs. Quinn took a few steps toward her son's bedroom window and turned the tiny metal latch. The creak of the window was quite loud, but she knew Nathan would not wake up. The cool air brushed by her face like a soft kiss. It was a clear night, with no cars or any pedestrians wandering the dimly lit streets beneath her. Several small clouds scattered quickly across a low hanging moon, while thousands of little stars blinked happily down at her. After admiring the scene for several more minutes, she closed the window and stepped out of her son's bedroom, forgetting about the latch.
A quiet gust picked up slightly outside, causing the unlocked window to shake. If anybody in the room was awake, and paying attention to the moonlight reflected across Nathaniel's floor, they'd find the silhouette of a young boy, no older than twelve, lying across it. The silhouette appeared very curious of its current dwelling, taking in all it could from the perspective of a cold wood floor.
The window trembled slightly once more, and opened up to a boy whose skinny frame granted him easy access through the window, as he climbed through quietly as so not to disturb any sleeping souls. Analyzing every corner of the room with his dark, emerald eyes, the boy appeared to be looking for something, or rather—someone. Standing in front of the window, his messy locks of dirty blond hair grew even fainter in the moonlight. Suddenly, red and yellow sparks grew in the boy's eyes as bright as sparklers. The silhouette lying across the moonlit floor took note of this, and quickly vanished under Nathaniel's bed, just before the strange boy could reach out and grab at it.
He then drew out a small dagger, and lifted Nathaniel's bed sheets that were dangling off the side, obscuring the view under it. Pitch blackness. It was impossible to see anything underneath without a source of light. The boy then reached to the other side of his belt, withdrawing a bit of what looked like glow in the dark sand, and blew it all over the floor underneath the bed. The silhouette was immediately identified, as the glow precipitated out from under the bed and onto the walls of the bedroom. The boy reached for it's ankle, and wrestled quietly with the shadow, but could not grab a firm grip on it. The shadow abandoned the room and flew out through the window, knocking over several stuffed animals and a photograph of Nathaniel's Father.
At this action, the boy with the firework eyes followed suit and chased his shadow, rousing the bed and causing Nathaniel to wake up. He could not believe, however, that he was even awake. For here was the boy who haunted his nightmares, standing right in front of him. For a long moment, Nathaniel could not breathe.
The strange boy gazed deeply back at him, and spoke softly, with a cocky smirk, "I'll be back! You'll fetch me a fair price!"
And at these words, the boy leaped into the air and flew out the window quick as lightning. Nathaniel lay sitting in his bed for several moments, his hear pounding rigorously inside his tiny ribcage. Finally, he hoarded enough oxygen in his lungs to scream out to the one person he desired most.
"Mummy! Mummy!"