A Collection of Short Stories

11: The Garden of Dark

The darkness swallows me up whole as we enter the dark woods. The frosty leaves crunch underneath our feet. I watch my breath unfurl in the night, examining closely as it fades into the darkness.

Suddenly, a bright flame appears in front of a small fountain. Kind of suspicious, I think.

"Don't go near that thing. It could be a trap," my mentor says from next to me.

A young girl steps out from behind the stream of water. Her clothes were some black pants and a black turtleneck. She had white hair that was completely soaked. It was shoulder-length, but it still suited her well, nonetheless.

Just as quickly as the fire had appeared, it disappeared. I knew the fountain was still there. Through the darkness, I could still see a glow emanating from the girl's hair. I knew the fountain was there because of the distant rushing of water.

Apparently, the girl had spotted us earlier because the faint glow was making its way towards us. I took a couple of steps forward, but my body slammed into a tree that was standing right in front of me.

"Hello?" a voice called. Another torch lit up.

This time, the torch lit up a couple of metal gates. A small boy was standing in front of them. He was calling for anyone and shaking the metal fence desperately. I wanted to go help him, reassure him, but I had to keep on walking. The detail I noticed about the boy was that he, too, had the same shade of hair as the girl. This torch, too, extinguished quickly.

The darkness engulfs us once again. The glowing hair of the boy starts to follow me. The third fire lights up the entrance to a prestigious-looking school. A boy takes a deep breath and huskily knocks on the door. I doubted that the people inside had heard him. He was wearing a school outfit, his shirt neatly tucked into his pants. Although his tie was slightly askew, the boy looked like he was part of the school, unlike the dim glows that were passing by him.

The boy was scared out of his mind. He takes another deep breath and knocks again. His knock echoes throughout the darkness. A couple of glows peer at him in curiosity. I watch his white hair vanish momentarily as he sticks his head in and mutters a few words. He gently pushes the door open and disappears inside.

My mentor gives a sigh from ahead of me as this fire extinguishes as well. "We are almost at our destination," he says.

"Why did you want me to tag along?" I ask him.

"I wanted to see how much you had learned," he said. I could hear it in his voice that he was shrugging.

"I have learned a lot, though. Have I not, Master?"

"Well, yes. The question is, how much have you learned and how can you interpret it."

"What are all these people with glowing white hair?"

"Glowing white hair? What do you mean by that?"

"All the people in these scenes have glowing white hair."

"I suppose you were always the One. You were never really 'like the other kids', were you?"

"I suppose not."

We continue walking in silence.

Shortly, we arrive at a vast mansion with pillars and other things. I look over my shoulder and see that the three glowing hairs have not stopped following us. I tap my mentor on the shoulder. I point at the three locations of the mysterious glowing hair. He stares at me funnily.

"There are no glowing haired kids in this area."

"Did you not see the torches flick on and off?"

"What torches?"

I stare at him in disbelief. There was nothing I could do, so I let them follow us into the dawn.