Nightlight

You shivered slightly in the cold darkness of the room. (E/c) eyes scanned the area, searching for monsters.

Even though you was horribly afraid of the dark, you had decided that as a young, 18-year-old lady, you no longer needed your night lamp. Turning the light on wasn't an option now. The matches were all the way on the other side of the room, on top of your dresser. It was too cold and dark to climb out of bed.

Your parents had always thought your fear and paranoia of the dark was ridiculous and a waste of oil. You tried to explain that there were things that would try to get you.

"(Name) there's nothing there." Your mother would insist.

"But mom, there is! I've seen them with my own eyes!" You would reply. You showed her a scratch on your right arm. "See, the Ira did this."

"The Ira? You're being absolutely ridiculous! You're paranoid and just scared about the impossible. You probably fell of your bed during one of your silly little nightmares."

That was normally the end of it. Your mother wouldn't hear it. Your father warned that if you didn't stop blathering on and on about these imaginary creatures you would be sent to the asylum. This was the reason you hadn't talked about the Ira in front of your parents for a year. This pleased your parents. Your hair had even stopped turning white from fright. Now it was a pale blonde.

Shaking like a mad woman, you slowly climbed out of bed. Your feet made a soft 'thump' noise as they hit the freezing hard wood floor. Grabbing the blanket you walked cautiously over to your dresser. You opened the top drawer and grasped the match box. To your complete and utter horror, the matches were gone. Did your parents do this? No, they wouldn't. At least you hoped they wouldn't. They weren't that cruel, were they? The only other person who would've done it would be Iris, the Queen of the Ira.

You often compared your situation to a crazy Wonderland. Alice was not very much liked by the Queen of Hearts, although it wasn't her fault. One of the many differences between yours and Alice's situations was the fact that you did anger the Queen. And Iris was not very forgiving.

Placing the match box back into the drawer, you closed it. You gasped in fear as you turned around. Queen Iris was there! She smiled sickly and said in her sarcastic tone. "Hello dearie."

"G-Good Evening." You stammered back.

"Missing something?" Queen Iris asked,holding up your precious matches. You reached for them. Queen Iris laughed and pulled them away. "If you want them, you'll need to catch me."

The Iraii Queen ran out the door, matches in hand. You dropped your blanket and ran after her, completely forgetting about the guest your parents had over. It was some wealthy Russian prince named Ivan or something like that. You suspected this was just another one of your parents' attempts to marry you off. After all, you were their only child and they were the richest people in the country. Suitors would constantly show up, only to leave in disgust when they learned of your 'mental condition'. You didn't care for them. You didn't care for marriage or even making your parents happy. At least that's what you had told yourself. You actually did care about marriage and making your parents happy. After all, you did stop talking about Winternight, your little 'Wonderland'. You had just thought of Winter and night. One thing you loved, and another you hated.

Your heart pounded against your chest as you chased Queen Iris. You hoped to God your parents didn't wake up. More so, you hoped Ivan wouldn't. That would be a major embarrassment to explain. Besides, you sorta liked Ivan. He was nice to you. He was also tall. This would be good for reaching things like lights and books. Especially lights. Lights were good, very good.

Queen Iris made a sharp turn and ran up the attic stairs.

You finally caught up with Queen Iris, but just as you were about grab the matches from Queen Iris's claw-like hands, the tricky royal ran into a room. You reached for the door, completely forgetting this room was filled with many old paintings and porcelain tea sets and other things that would be very easy to break.

It was even colder in this room! The fireplace wasn't lit; it had gone out. You felt a draft come in from the window. Queen Iris held the matches over the ground. "Want them (Name)?" You nodded, shivering. "Get them."

With that, Queen Iris threw them out the window.

You leaped out the window. The matches were safe in your hands. You hugged them close, smiling. Then you remembered: you just jumped out of the attic window, the fifth story window, just to get matches. You screamed as you fell. Hitting the ground, the silence of the night filled the air.

~***_The Next Morning_***~

"Get in your room! Honestly now! You're very lucky that Prince Ivan is not supposed to leave until the end of the week. I'm very sure after that little charade he wants to leave now" Your mother growled as she tossed you into your room.

"If this doesn't end well and we get a bad reputation from this, you will go straight to the Asylum!" Your father hissed.

You swallowed and nodded. What else could you do? "I understand." You waited until your parents left the room to bury your face into your pillow and cry. It wasn't your fault! It was all Queen Iris's!

After you hit the cold snowy ground, you had laid there for three hours. Two hours filled with horrible pain. The snow had eventually numbed the pain. Luckily for you, you had only broke your leg and had a few bruises here and there. It could have been much, much worse.

When one of the servants had gone out for a smoke, he had seen you lying helplessly on the ground. Running back inside frantically calling for help, he had saved you.

Unfortunately, because you just can't seem to have good luck of any kind, when you were being carried back into the mansion, Prince Ivan was awake and he saw you. This was very embarrassing for you and your parents.

The Lord and Lady of this household were furious. Furious because 1) you were running around the house in the dead of the night; 2) you jumped out the fifth story window and broke your leg; and 3) Prince Ivan saw it.

You were about to drift into a deep sleep when there was a knock on the door. Although you would've much rather tell whoever it was to buzz off, you were a lady and should remember your manners. "Who is it?" you called out.

"It's Lidiya, milady."

You smiled. Lidiya was your favourite maid. She was always very nice and never called you crazy behind your back or even right in front of you! "Come in!"

Lidiya walked in, her blonde hair kept in it's usual low ponytail. She curtseyed. "Prince Ivan would like to see you in the library."

You blushed. Ivan wanted to see you? You? What was he going to say? What if he wanted to laugh at you? What if he called you crazy? What if he-?

Your thoughts were interrupted by Lidiya. "Um, (Name)? Will you be seeing him?"

"O-Oh, yes." You replied. "Could you help me get dressed?"

"Lidiyaaaaaa! Where are yoooooooooooooouuuuuu? Prince Ivan needs his answerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" Another maid, Lindsey, called out.

"I'm going to help (Name) get dressed! Can you tell Ivan she's comin'?" Lidiya asked.

Lindsey appeared in the doorway. "Ugh, you're kidding me. I just got here!" Lidiya gave her a 'I don't freaking care' look. "Fiiiiiiiine." Lindsey huffed. She left.

Lidiya made a face. You giggled. "You don't like her much, do you?"

The Polish girl turned around and looked at you. "No."

~***_In the Library_***~

You stood outside the large mahogany doors to the library. You heartbeat raced., as you were unbelievably nervous about talking to the Russian prince. What if he said something bad about you?

You sighed. Well, even if he was going to be all mean to you, at least you'd look nice. Lidiya really did a nice job. You were wearing a lovely white dress with red roses decorating it. Your hair was done up all nicely as well.

You opened the doors to the library. Your heart skipped a beat. Sitting in a chair by the fireplace, was Prince Ivan. His light purple eyes were fixed on a vase filled with sunflowers. Ivan's platinum blonde hair was perfect as always.

Said Russian turned his head and looked at you. He was smiling. "привет, (Name). It is nice to see you today!"

You curtseyed. "Hello Prince Ivan." You kept your head low, not wanting to make eye contact with the prince. He sounded very nice and sincere, but you were still worried he'd say something not very nice.

Ivan frowned. "You don't need to be so formal, любимый." He stood up and walked over to you. "Come sit down with me." He helped you over to a chair next to his. You took your seat. Ivan sat down in his chair.

"If this is about why I broke my leg, I can explain!" You blurted out.

Ivan looked a little shocked. "I wanted to spend some time with you, любимый. However, if you are willing to say, I would like to know about it."

You took a deep breath. "This is a long story. Just, just please believe me. There's a world, separate from ours, called Winternight. It's not made up, although I did name it.

In Winternight, there's two kingdoms: The Kingdom of the Lylyae, and the Kingdom of the Ira. They both exist peacefully together. However, the Iraii queen, Iris, can be rather mean.

10 years ago, I did something stupid. I was having tea with Iris and Lily, the Lylyae queen. Lily and Iris had started to argue, and I could see that Iris was getting very, very mad. I had seen her lose her temper before. People got hurt. I didn't want to see Lily get hurt, and at the same time, I wanted Iris to calm down.

I had interrupted their fight, and was able to calm Iris down. But then I accidentally poured tea on Iris. She's not a very forgiving person, and so she got very, very mad.

In the end, Iris took over Lily's people, and Lily died fighting to protect them.

Having control over both kingdoms made travel to our world easier because to do so, you need two crystals. One of the crystals was owned by the Lylyae. The other was owned by the Ira. Iris began to send her weeds, small monstrous demons, to our world to hunt me down and scare me. Often times, they hurt me.

Weeds are sensitive to light, so I was safe during the day. For this reason, I had begun to sleep with candles and lamps lit all around my room. My parents, who never believed me about Winternight, thought this was just a complete waste out oil and matches. The weeds hadn't been showing up lately, although I still had terrible nightmares. But anyways, since the weeds hadn't been showing up, I decided to sleep without the lights on.

This was a mistake, because I was as frightened as ever. I went to get my matches to light the candles and lamps, but they were missing. Turns out Iris had traveled here from Winternight and stole them. I had to chase her around to try and get them.

She ran into one of the attic rooms and held the matches over the ground outside. Iris dropped them. I ran to grab them before they fell too far from the window, but I fell." You finished, your head down, tears falling from your eyes. You were waiting for Ivan to call you insane. To leave and never want anything to do with you ever again. Then your parents would probably throw you in the Asylum.

But, instead, you felt arms around you, pulling you into a tight hug. Your eyes widened, confused. Why was Ivan hugging you?

Ivan still hugging you, you wiped your eyes.

After just standing like that for what seemed like forever, you said, "What are you doing?"

Ivan tilted his head and looked at you. "Hugging you."

You pushed the Russian away. "Well, yes, but why? Aren't you going to call me crazy? Aren't you going to tell me how insane I am and how I should be-"

You were cut off by Ivan kissing you. Your eyes widened in shock but then slowly closed as you kissed him back.

You and Ivan broke apart when you needed air. You were blushing profusely, with a small smile on your face.

Ivan looked into your eyes. "I do not find you crazy in the slightest. My younger sister Natalia used to talk to ice faeries, as crazy as that sounds."

"R-Really?"

The Russian Prince nodded. "(Name), I am not sure if you are aware of it or not, but the reason I am here is because I am looking for a bride." Ivan took your hands into his. "And I think you would be perfect for me. Будете ли вы быть моей женой? Will you be my wife?"

Your heart skipped a beat and leaped for joy! You hugged Ivan and whispered yes again and again until it got louder and louder.

~***_Epilogue_***~

In the end, you and Ivan were married, and you went to live with him in Russia. Your parents gave no objection to your love.

You hadn't seen any sign of Queen Iris or the Weeds anymore. Not since that night when you broke your leg.

You no longer needed a nightlight, not as long as you had Ivan.

"(Name)! Where are you, любить?"

You slowly walked into the living room, where Ivan, your husband was waiting. He took your hand and kissed it. "Come; we will be late for the play."

You giggled. "Okay! It was just hard to get dressed. Little Boris is growing!"

Boris was the name you and Ivan had for the child you were pregnant with. He would be due in about a month.

Together, you and Ivan went to the play. On your way inside, you saw something move in the corner of your eye. Your head turned towards the dark alley where it went.

Your eyes widened in shock. Queen Lily! She was there, standing in the darkness, a soft white glow all around her. She waved and mouthed, "Good luck with your child!"

Ivan turned his head in the direction you were looking at in surprise. You looked at him and smiled. "It's Lily." You whispered in excitement. Then you pulled Ivan towards the door to the Theater. "Come on, we'll be late." You said with a big grin on your face.

'I guess Happily Ever After does exist,' You thought to yourself. You looked at Ivan again as you two walked inside. The darkness in the corners of the room scared you a little, but you had Ivan. 'Much better than any old nightlight.'

~***_В конце-The End_***~