The secrets held between the night.

 Something I have learned over the years is that secrets aren’t secrets if they aren’t held under lock and key. If you want something to stay a secret, you have to hold it with care. You have to protect it. And no matter what happens, a secret may never be left out to see the light. Secrets must always be hidden in the dark.

The rules of secrets have been passed down my family line for generations and generations. Every Wilson who has lived in the past five hundred years has had them memorized and drilled into their brains throughout childhood until they are forced out into the horror-filled world.

This was why I was so surprised when I was told that Martha Wilson had a secret. I knew she would have a secret, but in no world would I ever imagine hearing in public that my horrid mother had a secret. Especially in the main city where I live, secrets are like cookies. When you give a mouse a cookie, they will always want more. In this case, the mouse was the people of Westhaven, the smallest city on the west coast of our land. 

It was so unlike my mother to let a secret slip, even if it was just the idea of a secret existing. My mom was the type of person who acted as if, when they got a raise at work, they had been blessed by all of our many gods themself. It was one of the main reasons I left home to fend for myself earlier than anyone in my long family line has ever. Most of my family was spread along the west coast, but no matter what, all of the children had to spend their first sixteen years of life at the Wilson family mansion. Then you could leave and go out into the world and forget the first sixteen years of your life or you can stay for two more years working for the family business.

Speaking of the family business thats the main reason why I am worried about the supposed secret. Mainly because my family was built on them; well, more like my family's only source of income was built on them. They would use all the information they could get and sell it for high prices to the competitors of whoever they got the information on.

Even if I didn’t like how my family got things done, I still had to find out whatever this thing about a secret was, and I needed to do it fast so I could get rid of it before it became an even bigger inconvenience. I had to make sure whatever the secret was stayed in the darkness of the night and not the brightness of a sunny day.

I moved quickly through the street where I first heard of the secret when a young woman who I knew from church named Finley Veckter told her apparent best friend, Athena, about the secret. I walked slowly down the wide street, looking around for anyone who might know where my beloved cousin Lando was. He knew about every single living being in this city from how many times he had run into every one of them. Lando was the troublemaker of the family; he always found a way to sneak around and do some stupid thing, with the intention of whatever boy he was crushing on that week. I currently believe it's Oscar, but I’m not sure cause I surprisingly haven’t run into him in at least five days, which was why I was beginning to worry that my favorite cousin got kidnapped or ran over by a horse or something stupid.

I keep on walking until I see his ex-boyfriend, Carlos, standing next to this one girl named Audrie. They look like they're flirting, huh? I thought he was gay. Whatever, I walk over, and ameditly Carloses eyes shoot up to me with a shocked look. Why is he so shocked? I just wanted to see if he knew who my favorite cousin was.

“Carlos, have you seen Landon?” I asked him, finally breaking the awkward silence that was beginning to settle over the three of us. I am not a person who enjoyed being in awkward situations. I knew some people who did, and they freak me out. And my cousin on my dad's side, Victoria, was like a wet-your-pants kind of scary. Whenever I used to hang out with her, it either ended up with us being grounded for all of time or with us about to be sent to prison, and I personally didn’t want either of those.

“Landon? No, I haven’t seen him in at least six-ish days. Is anything wrong?” Carlos asked in a worried tone. As I heard, he was a worrier and kinda like a mama chicken taking care of all her chicks, but in this case a group of random strangers was his chicks, and he still cared like a mom.

“Well, no, but I haven’t heard from him in five days, which in my experience is a long time of not hearing from your favorite cousin who happens to be the most liked and most hated person in town,” I reply to him, hoping it calls him down. I’m not much of an emotional person, and because of that I didn’t very much enjoy being around people who showed too much emotion.

“Wait, Landon is the one with curly brown hair and is always talking everyone's ears off, right? Cause I saw him about ten minutes ago walking into the library down on Fifth Avenue.” Audrie says, finally gracing us with her lovely presence in this conversation.

“Yes thats the one. Thank you. I owe you; I better get going,” I tell the two of them ready to finally find the person I came back here for.

I rush up to Fifth Avenue and rush into the old library that has been here forever and look around, trying to find the person I came for in the first place. My eyes scan the shelves as I walk from section to section, finally landing on Landon, who is in the back of the kids' book section. 

“Landon, I have been looking everywhere for you. What are you doing here? You never read and I’m not even sure you know how to.” I say quietly as I walk his way down the aisle between the two bookshelves. Finally, I walk until I am right across from him and can stare into the very familiar eyes that we share.

“I can read. I even learned how to read before you did. Also, why are you gracing me with your presence on this windy Tuesday?” He asks as he puts the children's book he had been flipping through back on the shelf and lifts his head back up to me like he was going to be serious for once in his life.

“First of all, it is not even windy outside,” I tell him as I look around to make sure there isn’t anyone within hearing range. “And the reason I’m here right now is that I heard there was a secret out, and I need to make sure it goes away. So, for the person who claims he knows everything, do you know what this so-called secret is?”

“Yes, but you can not tell a single soul.”

“A secret isn’t a secret if it's known by everyone”

“Nala, I’m being serious.”

“Fine. My lips are sealed.”

“You promise?”

“I swear on all the shadow dust I own that I will not tell a single soul.”

“Fine, it's.” He starts hesitating, and I begin to think he's not going to tell me when he says, “Your mom's being taken by the gods.”