Penny Rose woke up one blustery morning and timidly pulled the blankets above her head. The day was dark already, and it was only 8 O'clock. She was afraid of the day yet getting worse, and admonishing herself for it, she unwillingly climbed out of bed, and made it behind her.
Penny Rose's days often started thusly, and often ended with a trembling entrance into her bed once more in the dark of a night peopled with all sorts of awful things. Her aunt built monsters in her head, you see, and those monsters were terrible and hateful things, entering unannounced and powerful beyond any reasonable strength. Penny Rose was not one to question her aunt's greater knowledge of things. She was, after all, only eight. This was a fault she found it hard to forgive in herself, and others tended to overlook in favor of expecting much more of her than she could strive to fulfill. Yet often, oddly, she did manage to carry out these requests, rendering them yet more common in her life.
Penny Rose carried her little lunch pail, old and tin, in her hand and crept out of the house with trepidation. The wind was a powerful thing there near the great dark green plains, hills and valleys of grass that stretched far to the North and East. The wind that came down them seemed of a much more brutal variety than normally. Penny Rose watched it hurtle into the trees, sweep the grasses as if it were full of snakes, and push dark clouds more closely overhead. She began to run, a little running hop, to school.
School was darker on this dark of days. And inside, as she opened the door, she found noone about. She shuddered slightly. Had they perhaps adjourned and not let her know? She hadn't been present yesterday, kept at home by her aunt's bad cold, and her uncle's need for a hot meal. She walked inside slowly, telling herself not to be silly, she was much to ordinary for anything bad to happen to. She kept herself straight and walked towards the teacher's desk. Was there no one about?
The door slammed open behind her, and she whirled around with a little shriek. There stood a tall figure, dark, hunched, cloaked, and with a battered tricorn in his hand. The room seemed colder with his presence. He didn't say anything, but swept past her, walked to the desk as if in a trance, and did something most odd. He upturned it. He upturned it, and with great assurity, pulled up the stone that lay underneath it. From there he pulled out something dark, put it into his coat pocket under his cloak, and rose. Penny Rose, frozen and unsure of what to do, shrank back into the wall near her, and as his eyes swept over the place, they blankly missed her. She didn't breathe. She should tell someone that this strange man had been here. If only he didn't spot her first!
He didn't seem to see her. He didn't seem to, and yet something about him changed under her gaze. He seemed to awaken slightly. As he rose to his feet, he shook his head a little, and seemed to glance around him. A little rivet of concern etched between his brows. She looked down, in the poor hope that if she didn't see him, he couldn't see her. He stiffened, and when she glanced back under her eyelashes, his gaze was as blank as before, and his face as cold and set. He began to stride toward the door. She frowned and stared at him again. His face softened. She took a breath and glared as hard as she could. He straightened and put his hand to his face. She quickly looked away, afraid at her own temerity. Just as suddenly, the imperceptible warmth that had crept into the room fell away into a deep cold once more. The man, his white hair writhing and crazy on his head, started to joltingly stride to the door, just as he had come in.
As if drawn by a magnet, sweet, meek Penny Rose reached out her hand and touched his cloak. She couldn't believe her own temerity. Her touch was like an electric current, running up the garment and prompting the man to turn. He looked at her for the first time that time, with all the depth of a thousand stars running through time to hit her eyes. "Oh my dear," he said, gently. And he reached his hand out to her. She took it, ever most polite. It was cold and white, but the contact ran a glowing golden hue up his fingers. "Oh my dear child," he said again, and in great fear, glanced around. "You are so very young," and with a flash of awareness of something Penny Rose could not understand, he glanced far out in front of him. He came back to her in a moment, and smiled a wonderful, gentle smile. "Yes, there are monsters," he told her, touching her cheek, "but they are not in your house."
He seemed loathe to turn away from her touch, and with a quiet sigh of urgency, he made to take his hand away. "The way is hidden in the heart," he said simply before removed his hand. And something tumbled out of his cloak. His eyes darkened, and as they faded, his smile became pained and sad, blending to stiffness. His final words were "Thank you," a deep and heartfelt sigh that touched Penny Rose deep. He rushed from the room.
Penny Rose picked up the thing that had tumbled from his cloak. It was a little box, wrought all over with a winding script she did not understand. It was not cold as she expected, but warm. Hidden in the heart? She did not know, but the shadows had grown yet darker. She rushed out of the room, and then stood outside the door, breathing very hard. Had this happened? Had it indeed occurred? She began to walk quickly away, back toward home. And then, suddenly, realized she had forgotten her lunch pail. Oh heavens. She turned around slowly, little forboding shivers running up her spine. She did not want to return there. The schoolhouse stood behind her, forlorn and looking slightly threatening and haunted in its little clearing. She ran back to it, and opening the door, found to her great startlement, that the desk and floor were exactly as they had been. Her heart was in her mouth, but she scampered on tiptoe to her pail, lying forgotten by the wall, picked it up, and fled.
She returned home to find her aunt in the kitchen. "Penny Rose, where have you been?" She stood looking up at her aunt, who stared at her, eyes hard with fear. "I was sure the dark ones had taken you!!" Penny Rose looked at her aunt for a moment, and then walking forward took her hand. "There are monsters, aunt, but not in this house."
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