Welcoming Night

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.

The prompts: This story must contain the words: bridge, dark and hotel

Welcoming Night

During the day he stayed in the shadows, for the darkness gave him a small bit of substance.

Substance was important. It meant he was alive. Without it, he was less than a forgotten thought.

To be so insignificant was something he couldn’t bear. The loneliness of never being noticed, of never being acknowledged was his biggest fear.

So he stayed in the dark.

Centuries later, it still didn’t feel right. A mistake must have been made.

Maybe God had simply gotten distracted. Mistakes happen. If nothing is impossible for God, then a mistake must not be impossible. Right?

Now he waited in the shadow of a little bridge over a small creek as darkness settled like a warm, welcoming blanket. When the time was near, he pushed his hand out into the fading light and watched as darkness gave it form. When it was safe, he moved towards the back alley behind the hotel.

There was a dim light there; just what he needed. Without the dark, he lost form just long enough to slip under the door. He scurried from shadow to shadow until he sensed an occupied room. Stepping quickly into the hall, he faded and flowed under the door and into the dark room.

He could hear them breathing. He reached out and knocked on the wall.

“What was that?” a voice asked.

“It was nothing. Go back to sleep.” said another.

They had heard! Oh how he savored the feeling. To be acknowledged was all that he and those like him sought.

Now he waited. To knock again too soon would bring the light and that wouldn’t do. He relished the feeling of being something, of being real, even if it was to only be known as that thing that “Goes bump in the night.”

Word count 300