The night, I literally met night..

The sun melted into the horizon, its final glow brushing the tops of trees. The heat of the day relented as the cool breeze of night began to seep in. I stood on her balcony, watching the first stars prick the indigo sky. Tonight felt different, though I couldn’t say why. It wasn’t the kind of night where darkness merely blanketed the world; it was something alive, something with weight.

For me night had always been an unspoken refuge. The day demanded too much, it was so fucking loud! Too many emails answered too fast, meetings overlapping, sounds of nature going about its business. But when the sun set, the world quieted, and so did I. It was as though the night wove a soft blanket around my shoulders, pulling me closer to it, just asking me, What do I love, or what do I enjoy?

I always felt that the day was too loud, always demanding, with work, family business, etc, but the might was the only thing that asked, 'what do you enjoy', 'what makes you feel alive', the day never seemed to ask this.

Tonight, however, the pull was sharper, deeper than I have ever felt. I felt it tugging not just at her stillness but at the secret corners I kept hidden, and I even started to smell the ocean, like it knew the moon as a close companion. I felt the ocean rise as I took a breath, and watched its recess as I blew it out, it was waiting.

The wind shifted, and I felt it before I saw anything—like a breath on the back of my neck

“Finally,” a voice said, smooth and low, carrying the hush of waves between syllables and a thousands lovers that i felt I know, and also, have never known in a thousand life times.

I turned, but there was no one on the sand except me. The streetlamps behind me seemed to dim, their gold halos melting. And then, from the line where sea meets the sky, someone stepped forward.

He- though the word felt too small, was taller than the horizon, yet he moved like he’d always belonged here. His hair was the deep black of the water at midnight, his eyes shimmering with starlight. The salt wind curled around him like it recognised his.

“You needed me?” he said.

I should’ve been afraid, but I wasn’t. He didn’t feel like danger. He felt like the crispest of breaths, like that very freedom of night.

“What the F**k" I said. At this point, I was too confused to sugar coat it.

He laughed at this, but his smile was patient, almost knowing. “I’m the one who waits for you when the day’s claws let go. I am the pause between your heartbeats, the slow tide in your lungs. I am the one who asks, What do you love?”

I swallowed, tasting the truth in my mouth like salt, but also afraid, I knew this feeling, I had spent years escaping to it when no one knew,, and yet I had seen many people run from it also. “You’re Night.”

He came closer. His presence was a weight, but not the kind that crushed, more like a hand resting firmly between my shoulder blades, steadying me. “And you,” he said, “are someone the day will never understand. The day pulls you outward until you fray. I pull you inward until you remember.”

The sea sighed behind him, as if agreeing.

“Why tonight?” I asked.

He tilted his head, the stars in his eyes tilting too. “Because tonight, you were ready to hear me, so soooo lonely. For once (he giggled- like I had been a lifelong joke). And because you need help.

Something in me broke open at that. I had been lonely, so much so I’d stopped noticing it, the way you stop noticing a lit candle until it sets fire to your favourite items.

Night reached out, brushing a strand of hair from my cheek. His fingers were cool, but warmth bloomed where they touched.

“I’m not here to take for you,, I'm not death tonight” he said. “I’m here to give. Stillness. Desire. The permission to want without rushing toward it. You’ve always listened to my voice in pieces, but tonight I wanted you to hear it whole.”

I realised then that every evening walk, every lingering staring at the stars, every quiet moment with the sound of the sea, maybe, it had all been him. He had been my constant. My refuge. My silent confidant, and for some reason, I knew this, like a long-lost lover. Like a refuge that actually heard my cries over the years. Like it was a silent thing, hearing me as I screamed and cried into my pillow. As I sat there emotionless avoid of emotion, wanting to die. I always knew night was this strange salvation, something that knew me better than anything, but I always thought it a delusion.

“Will you stay?” I asked.

“I never leave,” he said simply. “The day may blind you for a while, but I am always here, waiting for the light to let go.” "Day is light, but without night it has no meaning. Without night, it simply does not exist. But without the sun, night is constant. We're always gere for you, and maybe people should have always accepted the personal night first, without expecting the day to be their scapegoat, maybe they shouldn't have looked for other things to distract them from their problems so they were afraid of the dark: this is where night became 'dark', or bad, becuase people no longer could see the dark in themselves, and started blaming the night.

And then he did something I never expected, he stepped close enough that his forehead touched mine, and for a moment I wasn’t standing on sand anymore. I was standing inside him, inside Night. I felt the cool brush of shadow, the ache of secrets kept, the thrill of desires unspoken. I smelled the faraway rain, the dark sweetness of jasmine blooming unseen, the salt on the skin of someone you’ve kissed too long.

When he pulled back, the horizon was already beginning to pale.

“I’ll see you again,” he murmured.

“You mean tonight?”

He smiled like a tide that had known every shore. “Always my dear, or have you forgot all those lifetimes..”

And then he was gone, the waves folding over the place where he had stood. The day would come soon, but I felt different now, full in a way the sunlight could never make me.

Because I knew the truth: the night was mine, and I was his, and yet I think every person knew this feeling, like night was there for all. And yet I wanted to be special to it, and yet it felt like a tease, trying to drag me in to learn, but never be my lover.