The Longest Night of the Year

"Hello?" Gertrude whispered as she came out of here room wrapped in her blanket like a big poncho. "Anyone awake?" She wanted to find other people, but she didn't want to yell and wake everyone up. Especially not Yazeba! Things were scary enough as it is. When there was no answer she decided to head to the kitchen. Perhaps one of Percy's cookies or a cup of milk would soothe her.

She saw movement out of the corner of her eyes and shined a light on it. "Sal?" She asked quietly, but there was nobody there. Must have been her imagination.

Gertrude decided to stick to her plan. The kitchen was where she wanted to go. She needed those cookies badly. Even if the long dark hallway in front of her looked like the gaping maw of a giant wolf. She'll just close her eyes and walk to the stairway, leaving the laundry room behind her. As she walked forward down the hall, she closed her eyes and thought Cookies, cookies, cookies, cookies, ... like she was trying to manifest them.

Gertrude, eyes still closed, hears the creaking of the house. Not just the boards under her feet. The whole house is suddenly sounding like a wooden ship in rough seas. She swallows but is determined to keep going. Until...

"AAHH!" She lets out a short shriek, but stifles it by putting both hands on her mask. She bumped into something that should not be where it is! With fear running through her entire body, she slowly opens one eye.

"Mister Wakeman???" She breathes a sigh of relief. "What are you doing up at this hour?" She asks while at the same time thinking Actually with a name like Wake-Man, it's not so surprising that they would be awake. "Boy am I glad to see you! This house is creeping me out. Anyway, I'm going down to the kitchen for some cookies. You can come if you're not gonna be a nark about it to Yazeba."

"I knew I could count on you, Mr. Wakeman!" She strides on towards the kitchen. Now that she's not alone anymore, things don't seem as scary. Though there are A LOT of shadows about. Must be light reflecting off of the windows or something.

For a split second she stiffens, thinking that red eyes are watching her. But when she takes another look, she notices it's just a blinking red light in the upper corner of the hallway. Probably one of Amelie's contraptions. She shrugs and carries on.

When she gets to the stairs leading down, she looks around. No Yazeba in sight. Great! She's always wanted to do this! "Hey Mr. Wakeman. Have you ever done this before?" She asks and hops her bum up onto the stair's railing to slide down it. She had seen Hey Kid do it plenty of times and get yelled at plenty of times because of it too. Now it was her time. With way more confidence that she should have right now, she glides her way down.

Gertrude is crying while she lays on the ground clutching her leg. "It hurts." She tells Edmund, and keeps crying.

The night danse spirits move in to surround her, making her world dark and lonely.

"This is the worst night ever!" She says between teardrops. "I just wanted to sleep, but this house doesn't want to let me. And then I just wanted some cookies but I can't even get to the kitchen." She sounds as if she's lost all hope. "Why do I even stay here? Nobody wants me here. There's no room for me. Everyone hates meeeeeee!" Her words turn to sobs.

Gerttrude is already in a bad state at this point. She can hear Amelie's words, but they don't hit home. In fact they cause the opposite effect. That's teenagers for you... She gets up, still crying from the painful leg, lack of sleep and horrible ghosts. "You don't understand!" She shouts at Amelie and Edmund. "Just leave me alone! I don't need your help."

With a bit of a limp she runs off down the hallway and disappears in the darkness.

Gertrude gasps as the window near her creaks. But she's still filled with anger and isn't going to take any sass from anybody. Not even a window! "Shut it!" She simply shouts at the window and the night danse. Right now she is the scary thing roaming the halls. Without a second thought, she continues along and finally reaches the kitchen.

To escape everything and everyone, she opens up a cupboard, throws out all the pots and pans that were stored inside and gets in it herself. She quickly grabs the cookie jar before sitting down and closing the door. Right now she want's nothing to do with the B&B. She just wants cookies!

Gertrude is surprised and at first even more annoyed. "I told you I just..." Then she realizes who it is. ".. Oh Hey Kid." She said, wiping some tears from beneath her mask. "I.. Uh... Just wanted to eat cookies in a quiet place." The comment of not being a smelly grown-up kinda lifts her spirits again.

"I guess you can join me." She says, offering Hey Kid one of the cookies. "These aren't so great anyway." She shrugs."Why are you awake?" She asks them.

Meanwhile, Amelie is rummaging around with pots and pans. Gertrude decides to ignore it. She's still mad. Why was she mad again? Doesn't matter, she concludes. It's Amelie's fault for sure! Right?

"I'm not smelly!" Gertrude replies sharply. Then she realizes she's yelling at a kid and continues in a softer tone. "... But yeah. I don't think I'm ready for growing up yet. What if I want to just eat a jar of cookies? I'd have to.... act rationally ... or something." She says those 2 words in a silly voice that resembles Yazeba's.

After a short moment she talks again. "Hey Kid? I think I was very mean to Amelie." She sighs. "She's always going to remember that, isn't she?" Her voice sounds like she's on the edge of starting to cry again.

"I don't like tonight either."

At that point, the sound of paws hitting the floor boards loudly can be heard. Attracted by the smell and thus promise of cookies, Dog, Dog 'n Dog stomp into the kitchen. As they run past Amelie to get to Hey Kid, Gertrude and of course the cookie jar, their tail whips around excitedly and knocks over the amazing tower of pots & pans.

Having 3 heads, they use 2 of them to cuddle the sad ones and one to gulp up cookie crumbs. All 3 heads produce the regular amount of drool.

Gertrude feels anger rise up inside her again as Amelie and Edmund try their best to help her feel better. They don't get it! Nobody gets it! AAAAARRRGGGH She gets a pounding headache from all the feelings inside her right now.

With a quick arm movement, she slaps the pan of fresh cookies out of Amelie's hand, sending them all scattering across the floor. Dog, Dog 'n Dog have never been so excited in their lives and start gobbling up whatever they can. "Just STOP IT!" She yells.

At the same time, the room seems to get darker. The night danse is feeding on these dark emotions like a flame reaching dry grass. Shadows swirl and dance across the walls, some of them latching onto Gertrude in a similar way as the ones Edmund is known to carry around.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" She asks, now crying again. "I don't want your stupid fresh cookies and I don't want to write anything, OK?!?! I just want..." What did she want? At this point she wasn't so sure herself. She knew it a minute ago, but the thought had left her. All she knew now was anger. "And stop drooling on me, you dumb dog." She lashes out at an innocent bystander as the shadows amplified the darkness.

To be honest, she couldn't even tell them what she wanted before she lost what it was either. They wouldn't understand.

"Oh yeah? I'm not myself huh? Do you even know who I am? Cause I sure don't!" Gertrude rudely responds to Amelie. "Well I guess you would be the one to know of all people." She continues sarcastically. "You don't have a heart either!" She meant this as a hurtful insult not realizing the implications of what she just blurted out.

The shadows around Gertrude move and seem to come together behind her back. They are loving the vibe here. It's exactly what they were looking for tonight. Outside the wind picks up, making the kitchen window rattle and in the distance a flash of lightning breaks through, though it takes a while for the thunder to arrive at Yazeba's.

Gertrude now realizes that she's told her secret. But what does it even matter anymore? This has been the worst night ever! Compared to this, even her birthday seems like a dream come true. "Who cares?" She says to Amelie. "I don't have to tell you anything!"

From the hallway nearby, creaking and banging noises enter the kitchen as if a ghostly band is using the house like an instrument. The shadows move to the beat.

"Besides, they're not here anyway..." She continues. "Oh great another book idea. Well la-di-da. Let's all just grab a pen and be happy forever." An eye-roll follows this sentence, then she sighs heavily out of annoyance. "At least they went away without me having to say anything." Another sneer in the direction of Amelie, who is getting the full brunt of it. Unfortunately, even Dog, Dog 'n Dog can't break Gertrude's bad mood right now.

She notices the look on Hey Kid's face, combined with the fact that they recoiled from her. Though she pretends not to care, it feels like a dagger to the hole where her heart used to be. She turns away into the cupboard so nobody can see her face.

With everyone gone, the spirits now have full reign over Gertrude. They close in on her as she cowers in the cupboard. She reflects on giving Monday her heart. How it's given her what she wanted, but at the same time taken away what she had. And now it's even taking away her friends. She hadn't meant to snarl at Amelie and Mr Wakeman, nor had she wanted to scare Hey Kid like that.

As much as she'd been blaming everyone around her, something deep down told her it was her fault. The shadows are loving this reflection, feeding off of the emotions. That's when something clicks inside of Gertrude's head. She was being way more of a monster than these shadows surrounding her. She had no reason to be scared of them, they should be scared of her!

She gets out of the cupboard and stands up. The shadowy creature with claws raises an arm in an attempt to scratch her. Gertrude stares right at it with a look that says "Oh, you don't want want to mess with me right now, buddy. Try it... I dare you!" The claw retreats back into the shadow it came from and so do the other shadows. They don't want to take their chances. Besides, they have had a lovely feeding already. Better to save some for another night.

Unburdened by the night danse, Gertrude walks back to her room. Maybe someday she'll figure out who she is or wants to be. But that day was not today. Without fear, she crawls in bed, pulls the blanket over her and goes to sleep.

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Epilogue:

As Gertrude lays in bed, a shadowy hand slides across her blanket in the moon light. Starting at her feet and going up. When it's about half way up, the same sharp-clawed shadow appears next to it. But instead of joining the first hand, it claws at it. The first hand wavers. With whiffs of 'smoke' coming from the part where it's been attacked, it disappears. Then the claw pulls the blanket a bit more snug around Gertrude.

Nothing is going to give Gertrude any trouble tonight.