For me, life at night is not a time to escape my troubles but to destroy them. I’m not who I used to be. I used to be this puny girl who had two left feet and a black hole for a stomach. Not so much anymore. I’m not any mythical creature. I’m no vampire or werewolf, no fairy or troll. I have a real family and real friends but what’s different is me.

Night does not only bring darkness but life. If you knew what went on right outside your bedroom window at night then you would be just like me. I used to be like you, knowing nothing of this night life but then I met Cassie. Cassie is the one who taught me what I now know.

“Each and every person has two mentors,” she once told me. “Day and night, night and day.” Her gray eyes and black hair almost shimmered in the moonlight but once the sun rose she would vanish. She, obviously, was my night mentor for I have not yet met my day one.

Cassie teaches me the ways of the night, the swift movement of the air and beautiful sounds of the crickets. The stars seem to twinkle like someone tapping their foot to the beat of a silent song. The wolves howl in their hunt and their feet pad against the soft ground. Their unknowing prey will sleep silently and breathe to the same beat as the stars.

Is this what you think of when you think of the darkness outside your home? Do you think of the mighty hunters and their prey? Or are you the one who falls asleep knowing nothing of the world outside? The one who is spoken to but the words do not reach their ears? Try to listen because Cassie will be speaking.