Lights Out

            “I don’t like it here, Mum,” Sally said to her mother as she clenched her mother’s cold hand in her own tiny ones. “It’s cold and no one is moving.” Her mother, Anya, looked out into the forest with glossy eyes. Fall had come, and with it, The Dying. Her daughter didn’t understand what this meant, she was too young to know. It would be years before she understood this tradition, of staring at The Dying as they pass. Years before she understood why they were breathing in their essences and life forces. Why they were singling out the ones who were close to being fully dead, as they were, and watching over them until they joined their ranks.

            Anya held a thin branch like finger to her lips, hushing her child. There were a few other children there, clinging to their parents robes. Some elder siblings made fun of the younger siblings, making the wind howl. Soon, The Dying would come and pass through this place, as they did every year for their rituals. Every creature had a ritual to perform, whether they realized it or not.

            Hanging lights, making a feast one day of the year, exchanging gifts like flowers or sweets to loved ones, shedding the blood of virgins, having mass orgies, fattening oneself to sleep through troubling times, these are all rituals that creatures have. Some of these are no longer kept, some have been replaced, but each creature has a ritual, something they do every year on the same day. And this is our ritual.

            “Mum, it’s cold,” Sally rasped out through her fingers.

            “I know, dove. It will get colder soon enough. Just wait, it won’t be long now.”

            A few minutes later, lights were swaying in front of them. Up and down, side to side, they were some new fangled invention that The Dying had come up with to keep the darkness at bay. Sally tightened her grip on her mother’s hand, held her breath, and closed her eyes. And as The Dying passed, Sally felt warmth. Anya felt it too, but she did not close her eyes or hold her breath. Anya breathed in and watched The Dying pass. She could see them glow, fainter than their lights because they were not healthy newborns. Only The Dying newborns are as bright as the sun on a summer’s day.

            But not these ones. These ones were close to their ends. These ones could drop under the right conditions. But it’s not the job of Anya and her kin. As The Dying pass, Anya and her kin look for the ones who are as dim as the stars in the polluted night sky. They are hard to find because The Dying travel in packs. Some come two at a time, but most are in groups of five or more. Sally’s hand tightens on Anya’s, and the little girl shakes her mother’s hand in the direction of two dim lights in the distance.

            “Cold?” Nathan asked Linda as he lifted her over a tree stump.

            “I’m fine, daddy.” Linda said as she took her father’s gloved hand in her small mitten clad ones. Linda had just gotten out of the hospital after getting hit by a drunk driver three months ago. Her mother didn’t make it and her father looked like a shadow of who he once was. He used to be a burly carpenter, now he looked like the limbs on the trees around them. She was young, about ten, turning eleven in May, and she knew her dad was pushing himself.

            It was a tradition, every year to go through Willow Woods on Halloween. It’s where her dad had scared her mom so much that she hit him with a tree branch. That’s how they first met. It’s where her dad proposed to her mom. But before she said yes, instead of kissing him, she punched him and broke his nose. Linda’s mom was the strong one, Nathan knew that, he knew he had to try and be strong for his daughter now. He knew he had to try. But he felt like such a failure.

            Linda wasn’t supposed to leave the hospital. The doctors told Nathan that there was no chance for her to survive without a liver transplant. Nathan didn’t know anyone who could donate, he kept waiting for a day when someone would walk through the doors and say that one had arrived, but it never came. Nathan knew he was compatible, for fun, him and Nora got tested to see who could have what donated to who. They even made plans for occasions like this, and they laughed about it, not thinking it would ever really happen.

            And here they were. Nathan hadn’t told Linda yet, didn’t want to worry her. He didn’t even tell her that her liver was shutting down. The docs said she had about five or six months, unless her condition worsened. He asked how much of his liver they would need, they said just a bit. But then he added up the costs, him and Linda just couldn’t afford it. He had some money saved, Nora’s parents took care of Nora’s funeral, he knew they would take care of Linda too. He just wanted his baby to live. That was all.

            After The Dying left, Anya and her kin set out to find those whom they had set their sights on. They would follow them all year, help them come to terms with what has happened to them, help them find a place of their own in this world of ghosts. Sally was sad when she watched The Dying die. She finally understood her purpose when she spoke to the little one, Linda. That girl was very brave, she was glad that no one was suffering because of her anymore. Nathan, on the other hand, was in a lot of pain until Nora spoke to him.

            Nora had become part of the Earth Tribe. She was indeed strong, held the Tree Tribes in place, helped the Water Tribes find their ways around the world, and she did what she could against the Wind Tribes that tore at the ground in rage. The Dying were now dead, ready to take their places among the spirits. Their lights were out, and with the lights gone, the spirits left to wander the world again.