Parcel tucked safely under her arm, the young woman carefully made her way through the dark forest. Gnarled roots slick with rain caught hold of her feet, her shoes already soaked through with moisture, and she kept untangling herself from their grasp. Thankfully, the rain had stopped, but mud was everywhere, just waiting for a chance to suck her foot into its grimy surface. With every stop she had to make, every foot that needed to be freed, the temperature kept dropping and dropping. Soon, her breath came out in visible puffs, the moisture turning to ice and stabbing into the ground when it fell. The woman paid no attention to the cold, she barely noticed it. Her thin red cloak somehow kept the cold out, the little insulation it provided being enough to warm her.

The woman knew that she could stay out all night and deliver her parcel in the morning, yet something deeper in the forest kept calling to her. Without hesitation, she kept moving deeper and deeper into the forest, the moon creeping higher into the night sky. Yet, or such a vibrant forest in the day, not a sound could be heard from the woodland creatures at night. Well, except for the few that scurried out from under the woman’s feet as she blindly followed the invisible trail that led her into the darkness that swallowed her up.

Suddenly, the trail stopped at wrought iron gates. What would such elegant and ominous gates be doing in a forest? More importantly, why were the gates dry? Hadn’t rain been pouring down on the area since morning? Surely the gates had been caught in the downpour. Still, the iron was dry as though sun had been shining on it all day, or like the gates had just come into existence.

The woman felt along the iron, feeling around for even a hint of moisture. When nothing wet met her hand, she stepped away from the gate in confusion. The trail had lead her here, but for what purpose? When nothing else happened the woman turned to leave but was startled by the gates slowly opening. The trail was back, pulling her down the path that slowly became illuminated with lights. Each step down the path gave her more and more lights further down the length. How convenient this was for her! A path that lit itself up so that she could walk with ease, it was a lovely thing to have.

The path was not that long and soon she came to the manor that gates guarded. The cold had finally begun to seep in and she hurriedly hopped up the steps and knocked on the large double doors painted a dark navy blue. “Hello, is anyone home?” Hopefully these people would let her stay until morning.

The doors swung open to a young man dressed in a butler’s outfit. Short red hair was sticking up in some places, matching burgundy eyes, “Ah, welcome to our home. Please, do come in.” He stepped back smoothly and extended his arm outward as to welcome her. A maid then came across the scene, her blond hair was cut short at her chin and her eyes were sparkling jades.

“A guest, how nice; really, you must come in! I’ll go prepare a room for you,” she bowed to the woman before scurrying up the grand staircase directly in front of the doors. The woman did not move, too taken back by just how nice these people were. Their scrutinizing eyes were not missed, however.

Ever so slowly, the woman inched into the manor, smells of baked goods floating through the air. It was also wonderfully warm, warm enough to send chills down her spine. How odd that a place so far out in the woods would have electricity and how odd it was that she had never heard of such a place. The entrance was lovely, though a bit outdated. In fact, no one would know that the house had electricity were it not for the lights sparingly set on the walls. The uniforms seemed quite odd as well. The woman had seen many maids and butlers in her life, yet the outfits the man and woman had been wearing before were only seen in books from the very beginning of the time of electric lights. The lights themselves looked dusty, and she noticed that the butler inched around them, as though they would burn him.

Two children, not above the age of ten, came barreling down the grand staircase. “Can’t catch me, Boy,” the girl called in glee as she jumped down to the floor. Black hair mostly held back with a purple ribbon that matched the girl’s eyes fell into her face as she missed the landing and fell to her knees. The barrettes holding her bangs back clinked to the floor and amethyst eyes welled up with tears. “Boy, look what you did!”

“It wasn’t my fault, Girl. You should have watched you were going.” Her twin landed beside her gracefully. “Come on,” he sighed, brushing dirt off of his suit, “I’ll help you put your barrettes back in.” Boy, as the woman took to calling him, held out his hand to Girl. After his female counterpart had been set to her feet, and her dress brushed off, the pair moved into one of the hallways to fix Girl’s hair.
The butler bowed to her, a sheepish blush coloring his face. “My apologies, ma’am, the two aren’t usually so rambunctious; banquets just have this effect on them.”

“No, no, it’s quite alright. They seem like lovely children. Are they the young Master and Mistress,” she began nervously playing with the end of her braid, feeling scrutiny from all sides.

“Yes,” the butler mumbled to himself, “they are lovely, quite lovely indeed. I wonder when the Master and Mistress will come out. Surely the Mistress must have noticed that Boy and Girl are out. No matter, I can handle this woman on my own.” The woman thought it was quite peculiar that the man talked to himself in such a way. A lot about this man was strange though, not at all bad, just strange. “Now, ma’am, I’m sure that Missy has prepared a room for you. I do implore you to stay up for the banquet, it will be quite a party, if I do say so myself.”

“Al,” a raven haired man called from the top of the staircase, “why didn’t you tell me we had a guest?” Dressed in royal blue with eyes to match and a regal manner, this man must have been the Master of the household. “I do apologize, my dear, I had no idea that you were here or I would have come down sooner.”

A small brunette in a viridian dress followed the Master, “Yes, yes, we would have come down much sooner had we known you were here. We hope that you did not have to wait long.” The woman was beautiful, sky blue eyes held innocent warmth and kindness, and she seemed to be off in her own naïve world.

The young woman who had intruded upon their kindness blushed, realizing how rude she was to have never even thanked these people for letting her stay. “No, it was just a short wait, too short to even be called a wait, actually. I must thank you for letting me stay, it’s just getting so cold outside an-” The freckle faced woman was cut off.

“Nonsense, we would love to have you stay. The more the merrier, we say,” the Master laughed quietly, “you will come to the banquet though, right? It’s a wonderful time, a terrific time, in fact! Al, isn’t it just the best time of the year?”
Al, the butler, nodded, “Banquet time is my favorite time of year, sir, nothing better.”
“You see? I’m sure we would all love to get to know you some more. What do you say?” How charismatic the Master was! How charming and handsome he could be! The woman soon found herself nodding, a silly smile plastered on her face.

The Mistress nudged her husband, “Dear, you’re getting the poor girl caught up in your charm. Will you ever stop entrancing the women?” Even her laugh was beautiful; everything about the Mistress was regal and perfect, well, except for her obvious naivety. “Come along, my dear, the banquet is just about to start.”

What a banquet it was too. All of the residents sang and danced and ate and drank. While the woman had trouble playing at first, but soon she filled her role perfectly. Al and Missy danced to songs from nearly every nation, the pair not skipping a beat as each song flowed into the next. The Master walked around to everyone, making sure that everyone was having a wonderful time and enjoying themselves. Boy and Girl ran around the banquet hall, laughing and playing games that only they knew of. The woman and the Mistress talked quietly, chatting politely over the weather, the other residents, and the banquet. Time went on and on, and everyone but Girl, Boy, and the woman were intoxicated to the highest extent.
It was nearly midnight when everyone went to bed. As the woman climbed up the staircase to her room, she saw glistening strings attached to Boy and Girl, maneuvering them as though they were puppets. That’s when she noticed their knees were not knees, but hinges. They were puppets, life-size puppets that were controlled by some unknown force. Their eyes held life and a soul, but she only saw the terrible, horrible, sickening strings. The puppets saw her too.
Her feet could not get up the stairs fast enough. Those puppets had seen her watching them. They knew that she knew their secret. So consumed with the idea that two puppets were chasing her through the hallways, she couldn’t see that something even more sinister was waiting for her around every corner. It was patient, and could wait for an opening for hours. The woman had no idea that puppetry was not just controlling a body, but controlling a mind as well.
She was too slow to defend herself when that single cord plunged into the skin of her neck and grasped her spinal cord, shutting off every function of her brain and body. Never had a more perfect puppet been made.
Shuffling feet rubbed the carpet of the library, dust rising from the unused room with every movement. The tome lying open in the middle of the ancient table let out great puffs of dust and knowledge as nimble fingers turned its pages until reaching their desired destination. The sound of ripping paper, the ripping of a timeline, filled the room and echoed off the walls. Shrill cries came from everywhere, begging for the page to be returned. A small smile flickered on the figure’s face before it shuffled out of the library, the page clutched in its hands. “A lovely night this will be indeed.”
Missy let out a terrified shriek as she came to the old grandfather clock. Tears rolling down her face as everyone came to her aid. Only then did they too freeze and let out choked gasps and cries. “It’s stopped!” Moonlight poured in on the scene, everyone’s faces frozen in terror. Boy and Girl inched away from the scene, calling out to the group, “There might be something in the library!” The others nodded enthusiastically, following the two at a hurried pace, anything to get away from that awful sight. The hands on the clock were frozen at 11:59, only a minute before the night would end.
The library, once dead and dusty, was now full of life as Al, Missy, Master, Mistress, Boy, and Girl all circled the tome. Horror filled all but four eyes as they read the last line of the last page, “and at 11:59, all the occupants of the manor ceased to exist at the hands of-“. “Where is the last page? How was it torn out? Was it fire? A disaster? An act of God? How?” Torn at the seams, the last page was missing.
“No,” Boy said quietly, “who?” The room erupted into chaos as the entirety of the occupants became hysterical at thought of their deaths and that time had stopped. The culprit could be there, in that very room! Who was it? Who could have done it?
“Maybe if we go back and read it all, we’ll have a clue as to who took the page,” Missy offered, already turning back in the book. Al scoffed and led everyone out of the room to search the manor, certain that it was somewhere among the dusty halls.
Empty-handed and empty-hearted, the group came back to the library. “Did you find anything, Missy?” A last ditch effort before the little hope left dissipated.
“The culprit knew what was on that page. They knew what was in that scene. You knew what it was. It was you!” Missy spun around, her finger directed at none other than the woman who wore a distorted grin.
“….I fooooound it.” Girl let out blood-curdling scream as the parcel the woman had been carrying fell open to reveal two gold daggers. The two puppets’ strings had been cut, and now they felt the true terror of dealing with one of their kind. Her scream was cut short as the dagger was plunged into her throat.
Boy ran to his fallen sister, meeting his end as well when the other dagger sliced open his skull. The remaining four froze terror, not reaching their senses until Al had been taken down by the murderous puppet. Missy ran at her, hoping to give her Master and Mistress more time. The puppet was too fast, and Missy died slowly, blood choking her as her jugular spilled more and more of the liquid.
Nothing would save the Master and Mistress, not if the puppet had anything to say about it. Sadly, the puppet had quite a bit to say about it. With deadly accuracy, the two daggers flew at their targets, striking both man and wife between the eyes and sending them flying back onto the tome, blood dripping onto yellow pages. Three words glowed white, “A Never-ending Night”.
Pages tore themselves from the book and created a whirlwind around the woman, the string having snapped and left her as herself. The three glowing words widened into a portal, sucking the six deceased into it. “Wait! Wait! It wasn’t meant to end like this!” The final page was ripped out of her pocket and into the vortex. Al, Missy, Boy, Girl, Master, and Mistress all watched her with hateful eyes. “Please wait!”
“Again, again,” a booming voice shook the vortex and all that were in it, “we haven’t reached the end yet!”
“Again,” they all cried, “another night, have we not had enough?” Their question went unanswered as they were all sucked through the vortex once again.
Letter tucked safely under her arm, the young woman carefully made her way through the dark forest.