@artofkylin, I've missed your stories! This is a marvelous piece of fiction. I absolutely love your imagination.

I had a few things I wanted to share with you. First, I think this is one of the coolest lines of dialogue I've ever read in The Ink Well:

“You’ve never been haunted by shadow beings from the realm of night while walking there under the light of an absent moon.” There are many great lines in this story. You have such a lovely storytelling style!

I have a few suggested touch-ups for you that I think would make your story even better. In case it's helpful:

• I couldn't quite make sense of this sentence, so it might need an edit: One of those kids one that’s non toxic because the staff thought I would eat it.
• Once you spelled Maurie's name as Marie.
• I think the last word in this sentence should be "too": "They liked the dark but they liked stars to." (You need the "as well" meaning of too, which has two "o's".)
• Same with this line, in which "to" should be "too": "You could come to. The shadows whisper. Become like us." (To "come to" means to awaken, i.e. after fainting.)
• And then I just have one thought for you on a possible enhancement. (Really, just a thought — do with it what you will! You're the author.) The end is great, but it feels a touch rushed to me. I would love to see a resolution that involves Maurie, Terra and Jordan showing some understanding or chagrin for not believing her. You did such a nice job of building tension around the friends and their differing levels of belief in her. Then that piece is left open in the end.

We used to provide feedback like this quite a bit, but we found it to be unsustainable, unfortunately. Yet now and then I provide some thoughts when I think a really good story is encumbered by some things that could give it that last little "spit shine" that would make it even better. 😍

So glad you're back! I was worried.