Children of the Night

Evelynn reached the creaking metal gate in front of Applewood's place. Hoping Elliot was home she walked up to the rose red door and clapped the gold knocker against the metal plate two times as mother always instructed, her voice ringing in Evelynn’s mind like an annoying public service announcement.

“Knocking once is not enough to announce one’s presence and three times is an annoyance beyond any forgiveness from the right kind of people,” echoed her mother’s voice in the back of her mind.

Mrs. Applewood answered the door as cheerful as June Cleaver but dressed more like Clinton. She paused at the door and looked Evelynn up and down like some prize trophy at a pig auction. In Abornia Evelynn was the prize for every mother with a son of rightful age. She was the daughter of the Edgewood’s, the most respected family in town. She was the star of the upcoming debutante ball and she was the dream daughter in law for every mother.

“Hello Mrs. Applewood. I had hoped to inquire if Elliot was home.” Evelynn spoke in the sweetest voice she could muster under the circumstances of her personal frustration. She knew to get the answers she needed she had to play the right cards with the right people. “You know I was so hoping that Mother would have chosen Elliot to be my escort for the debutante ball.”

“Oh Evelynn, that is just so sweet. You know your escort for the ball is not always set in stone as the man you will spend your life with. Elliot is upstairs in his room, feel free to close the door on your way in to see him.”

If she only knew...

“Thank you Mrs. Applewood.”

Evelynn walked past the plastic wrapped couch and up the carpeted stairs of the Applewood’s home and turned down the hall to Elliot’s room. Elliot had been her best friend as long as she could remember. They grew up together, went to the same church, same school, same town functions. He was her person in every form of the word. She had watched him grow from a small hyper kid in the sand box to a tall handsome man with long silk brown curls falling against his face. She tapped open his door silently peering through the crease looking at Elliot in his computer chair most likely writing a new program better than Microsoft. The guy was a genius, a genuinely decent human being. He was hands down the nicest guy in Abornia. He would be a real option for marriage one day.

You know, if he was not batting for the other team or so they say.

“Hey Elliot, your mom let me in,” softly spoke Evelynn as she let herself into Elliot’s room shutting the door behind her.

“Well hey gorgeous! How’s the world treating you today?”

“It would be treating me better if you could give me an assist on a little project I’m working on.”

“What’s the project this time? Oh wait, let me guess, there are more invisible children running outside your house in the middle of the night. I hope you know that if everyone in town knew about your little obsession that they may not see you as “little miss perfect” anymore.”

“Elliot, they are not invisible. One came into my room last night. His name is Jacobi but he called me Avalia. I went into my father’s office this morning and searched the name on his case records and a missing girl’s file came up but with my picture.”

Elliot froze leaned back in his chair staring into the distance like he was trying to compute some sort of answer in an imaginary computer only he could see. All of a sudden like a fast forwarding of a crazy cartoon he jumped out of his chair and grabbed a photo frame his mom had set on his book shelf. Evelynn leaned forward on the bed awaiting some sort of earth shattering news, though in reality what part of a photo that they had walked past most of their lives could really shatter anything after what she had learned today. Elliot started playing with the back of the frame frantically as if he did not go fast enough the photo would just disappear into thin air.

“Elliot, what in the world are you trying to do?”

“I broke the frame on this last week by accident when I was getting a book off my shelf.”

“…and it’s so important that you fix that right now with everything else going on?”

All of a sudden Evelynn and Elliot heard Mrs. Applewood came up the stairs to Elliot’s room and Elliot dove to hide the photo frame under the pillow like it was some kind of explosive bomb.

“Did you both drink your tea this morning? Evelynn your mother just called to check. She thinks you may have forgotten. You both know how important the local tea is and we all do our part to drink it every morning.”

“It is just tea mom,” Elliot replied, rolling his eyes.

“It is the best way to get all your vitamins and nutrients for the day. I will go down and brew you each a cup right now.”

Mrs. Applewood headed back downstairs to make the tea and Elliot grabbed the frame from under the pillow and went back to frantically trying to pry the photo from inside of the frame.

“Elliot! You have to tell me what is going on!”

Finally Elliot got the back pulled off of the frame and both of them just froze at the folded photo shoved into the back of the frame.

“My mom heard the frame drop when I broke it and just snapped it up faster than I have ever seen her go after anything. I knew something was off but nothing made sense until you told me about the photo attached to the missing person’s report in your dad’s office. “

Evelynn stood behind Elliot’s chair as he started to turn over the photo and unfold it when they heard a creek at his room door.

“Mom…” Elliot stuttered “How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough,” replied Mrs. Applewood as Evelynn’s father followed her into the room.

“It’s time we had a talk Evelynn, let’s go!”

“No! Anything you have to say to me you can say right here I am sick of all of the secrets and I will not allow you to make me believe them anymore.”

Evelynn felt sick with everything going on. She wanted so many answers. What was behind the folded edge of that photo? Why would her father be keeping secrets from her? Could she even believe anything he said at this point? She just stared back at Elliot who was now standing in the doorway to ensure that no one left without answers still clutching the folded photo in his palm.

“Evelynn, don’t be so dramatic. We can sit down and discover this over tea like decent folks,” responded her father in an annoyed tone.

“If I agree, will you answer all of my questions without prejudice? You have to promise not to dodge anything and I’m not ready to talk to mom about this yet.”

“Well, how about we agree to compromise on most of that. I will answer whatever you wish my dear, but your mom is already downstairs. It is nearly impossible to keep her out of anyone else’s business, not to mention she wanted to talk to you about Avalia herself. That was something we agreed upon a long time ago.”

“This is about so much more than whomever Avalia is Father!” shouted Evelynn as she stormed past Elliot to get to her mother downstairs.

Evelynn froze at the bottom of the stairs to view in front of not only her mother but the entire town council not to mention Chapman guarding the front door of the Applewood’ home. She had never felt so many emotions at one time; anger, betrayal, sadness, and a sense that she knew this was coming all along. She wondered why there was so much commotion over one missing girl and more importantly, why had she never heard of her before? She stared around the room scanning the faces of the men and women who had shaped her entire life as long as she could remember.

She saw Miss. Orchid, the high school’s art teacher and member of the board due to family legacy rather than her own free will that you could easily tell by the uninterested spaced out face she had whenever the board called a meeting. Now that Evelynn thought about it, all the board members were legacies. The same families had always led her town as long as any history book would record.

What better way to keep a secret than in the confines of blood?

“Sit down Evelynn, the head of the table belongs to you today.” Evelynn’s Mother spoke as if giving the head of the table to her daughter would magically just make everything ok and one would suppose that in Mrs. Edgewood’s society filled mind that it would.

Evelynn would not be so easily played. She knew though that if she did not play along then she would never get all the answers she needed and she may never be able to help Jacobi and the other children of the night. She just had to be certain she was asking the right questions and so she sat at the head of the table as Elliot, her father, and Mrs. Applewood who now had the photo back in her grasp came down the stairs behind her. Mrs. Applewood unfolded the photo and laid it in front of Evelynn on the table. Evelynn froze staring at the photo as if the longer she stared maybe she could unlock all the answers herself. She lowered her hand to her right side feeling the almost non-existent scar she had been told was from falling from the tree next to her bedroom window, but this photo painted a very different story. In front of her was a photo of her and Elliot when they were about five years old in front of the town sign and also a girl who must have been Avalia, but she seemed to be attached to Evelynn at the side. Maybe Avalia was the part of her that Evelynn had always felt was missing but how does only half of a twin go missing when they are literally attached at the hip.

Evelynn watched her father go to the other side of the table to comfort her mother who was just staring at Evelynn with tears welling up in her eyes. Evelynn was at a crossroads on how to respond. She was filled with anger and questions but another part recognized that this was not just her sister but also a child her parents had lost. Regardless of whose feelings were hurt, Evelynn was certain of the first question she needed answered.

“Why keep this from me? Why would you keep such an important thing from me?” Evelynn stuttered through the words not knowing whether or not she would believe the answer even if she was given one.

“It’s complicated,” whispered her mother, fighting back tears that Evelynn had not decided if they were real or a show for the room. Right now Evelynn had no idea who or what to believe but she did know she would not just settle for it being complicated. Life was already complicated; it needed no assistance in the matter.

“What’s complicated about the fact that I had a living sister, a twin, who was physically attached to me and I had no knowledge that she even existed? What is complicated about growing up my whole life feeling like a part of me was missing and all you ever told me was to pipe down? You acted like I was crazy instead of just being reasonable and telling me the truth!” Evelynn stood with her clenched fists burying themselves into the table leaning forward staring at her parents as if to try to pull the truth from them when she felt Chapman’s hand rest upon her shoulder.

“Evelynn, they weren’t trying to hide you from the truth, they were protecting you from it. You did not know Avalia but I did so I am asking you to please sit down and listen to what the council has to say.” Seeing as Chapman had never been a huge fan of the council, it came to reason that if he thought she should listen then maybe she ought to hear what they have to say.

“Well, I suppose the question I would most like an answer to is if Avalia is really missing at all? Is she even alive?” Evelynn eased herself back into her chair hoping to finally get some answers about the part of her that had been missing all along.

“Evelynn, you always were the inquisitive one,” began Mrs. Edgewood, “and you are asking all the questions that I still ask myself every day since your sixth birthday.”

“What happened on my sixth birthday? Well, I guess I mean our sixth birthday…”

“That’s the last time any of us saw Avalia during one of your hide and seek games,” replied Mr. Edgewood knowing that would only lead to more questions from his inquisitive daughter. “I surgically separated you when you were five and Avalia was just never the same. It was as though being detached from you detached her from the rest of us as well.”

“How does a child just go missing during hide and seek and no one ever finds her? Did you even look for her or were you all more concerned with how a missing child would tarnish your precious town’s reputation?” Evelynn was tired of playing nice; it was time to get some real answers!

“Of course we looked for her Evelynn! What kind of parents do you think we are?” Evelynn’s father answered seeing as all her mother could do was sit and sob into her lap. Evelynn was past feeling sorry for anyone at this point. She was going to do what her parents or the council never could. She was going to find Avalia and bring her home. Evelynn grabbed Elliot by the arm and headed towards the door still barricaded by Chapman.

“You can’t just leave Evelynn. If you just go then you’ll stop drinking the tea and the same thing that happened to Avalia will happen to you too. You’ll never be able to come back to Abornia.” Chapman led her sister back to the chair. Evelynn was dumbfounded. What could her brother possibly mean that by not drinking the dumb local tea she could never return to Abornia? Evelynn began pacing back and forth like a dog across the hardwood floor searching her own mind for any long forgotten memories that could give her the answers her parents or the council may never reveal. Those memories had to be trapped inside her mind somewhere but it was like something was clouding them, something was keeping her mind in a sort of protective haze so she could never remember what or who was involved in anything. She spaced out the council and her family shouting at her to sit down and tried to think of any memories of hers that were not blurry or misconfigured. No matter how hard she tried to focus or push past the cloud, something was blocking it. Something was making it impossible for her to think clearly and she finally believed that she knew exactly what it was. The tea!

“It's tea! That’s why I cannot remember anything. What in the world are you force feeding us to drink everyday, council member?” Evelynn shouted as she stormed back up to the table.

“Looks like you lost another one Alan,” scoffed Mr. Rutenburg; the council’s oldest member and also the town judge. “You never really could get any of your children to listen to reason.”

“You really think you have the right to judge my family after what happened with your son Efton and his son, oh what was his name? It was Jacobin or something dumb of the sort.” Evelynn looked up at her father when he spoke with splashes of what she thought was a dream playing back over her mind.

“Jacobi…” Evelynn whispered under her breath looking up across the table watching the entire town council turning their shocked glance towards her at the utterance of the name she had believed merely came from some hazy dream. None of this was making any sense.

“What did you just say little girl!” Mr. Rutenburg was more worked up than usual. He had been searching for his grandson since he was an infant and now this girl says his name out of nowhere. “Where is my grandson?”

“He couldn’t have been your grandson Mr. Rutenburg. He was definitely not from Connecticut and as you should know everything outside the outskirts of Abornia in North America was forbidden long before even any of you were born. He must be from some other country, the boy I met; he was speaking with some sort of scratchy accent.”

“It was not a scratch accent you ingrate. It is called southern and my family has spoken of that beautiful charm for generations. Being forced to speak like y'all northerners has been a harder burden upon me than any other ludicrous event I have endured in these here parts.” All of a sudden Mr. Rutenburg sounded just like Jacobi had when he sat upon the edge of Evelynn’s bed.

“Wait, that makes no sense whatsoever, why would anyone here be forced to do away with any accent? How does having an accent hurt any greater cause for the town of Abornia?” Evelynn had so many more questions now than she had originally and she was beginning to realize that they would never really be answered in this room. Just like the rest of her life, all she was going to get by listening to the council was a whole lot of smoke and mirrors. She shot Elliot a look across the room, she knew that the both of them had to get out of here and stay away from whatever was in that tea long enough to get their minds right. Chapman was still guarding the door but she knew her brother well enough to know that she meant more to him than her parents ever would. She shot him the same look that she had given to Elliot and he thrust open the door so the three of them could make it to Elliot’s truck outside.

The three of them raced down the stone path knowing they had to make it out faster than the council could follow. Elliot jumped into the driver’s seat while Chapman threw his bike in the back and himself right after it. Evelynn jumped into the passenger seat with no time to even fasten her seatbelt when Elliot started gunning it for the town line. They all had one common understanding; the real answers they needed to find were not going to be found in Abornia. Evelynn looked out the back window at her brother sitting in the pickup, a part of her still scared he was only coming with her to report back to the town. She could still hear the cars chasing behind them, thankfully Elliot was an excellent map reader and knew all the side roads to lose their tail. They finally reached the town line and Elliot screeched the truck to a halt almost flying Chapman through the back window along with his precious bike.

“A little more warning next time buddy!” shouted Chapman as he tried to readjust himself and the bike in the back. “I didn’t exactly have time to tie things down back here.” Evelynn reached behind her and slid open the pickup’s back window.

“Everyone throws their phones out here. I do not want any chance of them tracking us.” Evelynn tossed her and Elliot’s phone out the window and stared at Chapman until he rightfully disposed of his as well. The three all looked ahead of them at the glass wall that separated the town of Abornia from the rest of the forbidden part of the country. They all knew that they had to break through the wall in order to begin the next part of their journey but none of them knew what would actually happen if they did. Elliot put his foot hard on the gas knowing breaking through the glass was not going to be some easy feat and gunned it as fast as the little old pickup would go while Chapman raised his arms across his head bracing for the crash.

Now this is the part of the story that no reader really wants an interruption on but I am not here to give you what you want. I am here to give you the awful truth about what happens when you try to drive through a glass wall but wouldn’t this be an awful place for all the main characters to end up shredded to smithereens by tiny glass shards. Thankfully that was not the case with these three lucky travelers because there was no glass to crash through. Instead, it was more along the lines as if you were shrunk down and made to walk through a jelly cake. At least the jelly cake would have been edible.

The truck seemed to slide past a gel wall that only resembled glass and ended up in the middle of Central Park. They all snapped their heads to look behind them to see if anyone was still chasing them but all they saw behind them was some statue of a dog. It was thought Abornia was nowhere in existence, like they had been dreaming up this place outside of reality their entire lives. Evelynn froze staring back and forth between her brother and Elliot trying to figure out if they were seeing the same thing that she was. Then they heard a knock at the driver’s side window. A man in a uniform was standing outside holding a flashlight against the dimming sunlight. Elliot gave everyone an understood look that said, stay calm and don’t say anything crazy and he rolled down the window.

“I do not know what you all are doing out here but there is no driving of vehicles inside the park. I am going to have to ask you all to get home.” The officer stared back into the truck waiting for some kind of understanding when Chapman piped up from the back of the pickup.

“Well, we aren’t exactly from here sir, if you wouldn’t mind giving us some kind of direction.” Chapman smirked at his own self pride of what he deemed to be charm.

“Where are you all from where it is appropriate to drive through city parks?” The officer stared right at Evelynn like she was supposed to have all the answers. She tried to think of something clever but Chapman answered from the back before she had any chance to intervene.

“We are from Abornia.” Evelynn shot an angry glare at her older brother and he just shrugged his shoulders. “What? It was going to come up at some point, might as well come up now.” The officer looked dumbfounded. They might as well have told him they were from Mars judging by the expression on his face. Did he know about Abornia? Did everyone know? Evelynn had no idea what to do next so she just grabbed Elliot’s hand and braced herself for the worst.

“How in the world did you all get out, and moreover how did you get your hands on a vehicle?” The officer obviously knew more than they had originally planned but for now Evelynn figured the best way to handle it was just to play dumb.

“We drove out, the car belongs to Elliot.” Evelynn responded, assured that as soon as Elliot showed the officer his license and paperwork that they would be able to move on. “Go on Elliot; show him your driver’s license.” Elliot stared blankly at Evelynn knowing that this was going to go nearly as smooth as she thought.

“Um, I apologize officer, we must have left in such a rush that I forgot to grab my wallet.” Elliot shrugged and squeezed Evelynn’s hand in sincere apology. He never wanted to let her down and right now that is all he felt he was doing.

“Well, come with me kids and I will give you a lift back to Abornia. Abornia has always been good to this city and it seems like the least I can do is give you kids a lift back.” The officer headed towards the squad car with the kids trailing behind.

Can you really blame them though? It was one thing to run away from their parents but even they weren’t dumb enough to try to lose a cop’s tail.

“What about Elliot’s truck and my bike? We can’t just leave them here for anyone to take!”

“I’ll send an officer out to retrieve them after I drop you off and work out the proper steps with Abornia.”

“Thank you officer, we appreciate all your help.” Evelynn decided at least one of them needed to sound civilized. They followed the officer to his squad car and squeezed the three of them into the backseat all fearful of the repercussions from the town council and even more concerned about what their own parents were going to do to them. The officer drove exactly three streets over before stopping in front of an old brick building guarded by an iron gate. Chapman tapped his sister on the shoulder pointing up at the top inscribing on the old gate that read in rusted letters, “Abornia Asylum.” Evelynn shot a look at the brother on her left and then Elliot on her right nudged him to open his door so they could try for an escape. Elliot pulled the handle with no avail. The officer in the front seat just laughed and pushed a button to open the gate.

“Backseats are equipped with child lock for when the Abornia clients are found out on the loose.” The officer started to drive through the gate and Evelynn froze pointing out the plaque on the door to Chapman and Elliot. The three of them stared at the gold cursive letters upon the bronze plaque that none of them could have ever expected to see, “Miss. Avalia’s home for the lost children of the night.”

They watched the officer walk up the steps to the old wooden door and a shadow of a woman appeared in the doorway. They could barely make out the conversation between the two of them.

“Officer Woodrow, I appreciate your diligence but I have checked the beds myself twice and we are not missing anyone let alone three people from Abornia. It must just be three scared kids who did not want to be taken home by the police.”

“I am sorry for any inconvenience Miss. Avalia.” The officer headed back to the car when Chapman started banging on his window screaming like some kind of demon had come over him, shouting a rhyme Evelynn could almost remember from what seemed like a life long ago.

“Hide and seek will meet your maker far from the oak tree!” Chapman shouted on the top of his lungs and Avalia froze and turned back towards the steps.

“My maker I shall never meet if you always promise to find me.” Avalia ran down the stone steps and pressed her hand to the window, tears welling up in her eyes. “Officer let them out!”

“Do you know these kids Miss. Avalia?” The officer looked puzzled and possibly a bit suspicious. “Didn’t you just tell me that you weren’t missing anyone in your beds?”

“Officer Woodrow, these are not clients of Abornia. They are my family.” Avalia stepped back into the light and Evelynn noticed something rather odd about the girl she was told was her twin. Avalia was not a girl at all, rather a woman who looked closer to her mother’s age than her own. Nonetheless, the three shuffled themselves out of the officer’s car and thanked him for the ride. Officer Woodrow assured Chapman and Elliot that he would have the truck and the bike towed over before morning and apologized for any inconvenience. He tipped his hat to Miss. Avalia and drove the squad car away into the New York City streets.