The Parade

Perhaps it was the ethereal light that had woken the two children from their sleep, or maybe it had been the soft, otherworldly music. Even through the closed curtains the ethereal light had moved about the children's room like a living thing, dancing to a haunting glassy tinkling reminiscent of the breeze playing around windchimes. 

"It's the fairies" the little girl had squealed in delight as she sat up abruptly in her bed. Her brother, who was slightly older, shushed her gently and slipping stealthily out of bed tiptoed over to the bedroom window.

He gently pulled the bottom corner of the curtain away from the windowsill and cautiously peeked out. She saw him catch his breath in surprise. Then he grinned back at his little sister and beckoned her over as he pulled a small wooden toybox from under the bed for her to stand on. She clambered onto it and gasped in wonder at what she saw.

It was a fey parade of sorts. Spectral figures moved gracefully through the air in a haunting, slowly swirling dance. They were gently illuminated by what seemed to be pale blue moonlight, but which came from within the procession and moved sinuously and purposefully around and through the troupe. The children watched with delight, whispering excitedly to each other. The procession seemed to be without end and the boy was so enthralled with the apparitions passing before the bedroom window that he didn't notice the handle of their bedroom door slowly move. Neither did he notice the door slowly opening, nor the tall shadowy figure entering the room. It slowly moved across the darkness towards him and laid a hand on his shoulder. It spoke softly, gently, "What are you doing out of bed sweetie? It's way past your bedtime."

He whispered an excited reply, "Mummy, mummy! We're watching the parade!" 

She drew one curtain and looked out into the darkness, then crouched down and put her arm around him. "There's nothing out there darling" she said softly, "you must have been dreaming."

"Looly thought it was the fairies, but it wasn't..." 

She glanced at the two beds in the room - her daughter was sound asleep. "Don't be silly sweetie, Looly's fast asleep." 

Her son looked at his sister's bed with a childish expression of perplexity. "No mummy," he said, "we were watching them and Looly went with them."

He turned back and waved at something his mother couldn't see,

"She went with the dead people."

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Slightly more than 400 words (about 410?)

Inspiration:
- A shared inexplicable experience when I was a child
- Nattväsen by Carbon Based Lifeforms
- The foreword to a certain book that I read many years ago in which it was mentioned that a second child in the story added another turn of the screw