Midnight Serenade

Intermezzo

It was a rather calm, serene night. One of many spring nights like that. No-one could predict that anything unusual would happen; actually, there was no sign of anything strange. After a long day full of work everyone went to sleep – and their dreams were just as pleasant as they would be any other night.

Someone was not asleep, though; that night was busy for him, but it was that good kind of business, which filled him with excitement and satisfaction rather than tiredness. Smiling to himself he reached for his quill and returned to writing.

***

The woman frowned as she read the letter over and over again, as if she was looking for something new in the words she had almost learnt by heart by now. Although she knew there was nothing more nor anything less in them, she seemed to pray what she had read was not true. That it would not come true.

Sighing, she put the paper aside and stood up, wrapping the dressing gown around herself as she began walking around her room, thinking. There had to be a way out of this curse – because it had to be curse, otherwise it would not happen again.

Right now, she was not quite sure what to do. Whom should she protect this time? She was not getting any younger – it was slowly getting more and more tiring to be everyone's guardian angel. She had just one daughter, and istead, she felt as if she had many more children. Everyone trusted her, and it was a compliment to her, nevertheless, she felt it was the right time for her to start thinking more about herself than the others.

***

The man had not expected to get any message that morning – who could that be from...? His hands trembled slightly as he opened the letter, slightly anxious as he saw the seal... he had heard the stories, but never until now could he have believed them. Did it mean, though, that what had happened before would happen just once more?

Irritated, he got up to throw the letter right into the fire, without even reading it. Nevertheless, he was too curious to let that happen. Maybe he would not follow the commands, but at least he had to know what it was that the sender of this letter wanted him to know. It was probably either very important, or at least very interesting.

Having taken a deep breath, he sat down at a desk and put his eyeglasses on. Placing the paper right before himself, he began reading.

Everything, as he believed, had gone just right. For now, all he could do was wait. The show would start the very next day – and he would be happy to watch it. Everything had been prepared until now...

The curtain was just about to go up.