Slumber

I

Lyric's mom, Viola, kissed her head, for she was going over to another room to hang out with her friends. It had been five years since IT happened. When Vanessa left. When her new life started. Lyric was now 11 years old, still wearing the same outfit since the incident; a plain white tee and a black skirt. She had to get rid of her shoes, though, since they were much too small for her. Since she didn't have a nightgown to wear, her mom had gave her a sweatshirt of hers, which was much too big for her, so the tied two little bows around her shoulders so it could stay on. It was a loose, pink sweatshirt that was laced at the bottom. It didn't fit her well, but it was comfy. The "nightgown" now fitted her relatively nicely, since she was taller than her mom already. Her mom was pretty small, only five foot one, and Lyric was only eleven and was already five foot five. But, to be fair, her dad, Kristian, and her sister, Dove, were both very tall, too. So when her mom had to kiss her head, Lyric had to bend down a slight bit.
Lyric had also changed her hair. First, since it happened, she hadn't cut her hair, so it was now almost waist length. She kept it in a bow at the end in honor of Vanessa, who wore a bow when she had met her. She had also bleached it blonde with her friends as a dare a few months ago, so she had blonde hair. She also noticed many boys giving her interesting looks. She even knew a couple of them who had crushes on her. But there was one that overthrew them all for Lyric, who also had a slight crush on her. Benjamin Newman. He was twelve, but she didn't care. He was very tall for twelve, five foot eleven. He had jet black hair and bright blue eyes, blue like the sea, blue like the sky, two things she loved and missed very much. He didn't live that far away, only a couple rooms down. She visited him a lot. They and their friends hung around on the hallway, running and slamming sticks on doors. Sometimes they would go to railroad tracks and hang on them like monkey bars. One time they even went to the subway opening, which scarred Lyric for life. She saw a black green sky, chips of London hanging around in the sky. The UFO was closer now, and it was HUGE. It was almost completely black, except for green lights in the creases. She took a gasp and ran away from it. But she immediately felt better when Ben ran up to her and hugged her to comfort her.
Her two friends besides Ben were Pacheco and Bleu. Pacheco, which everyone just called Peach, originally had orange hair, but now had light blonde hair, because of the bleach dare, that was always in his face. He had bright green eyes, but they were always covered with huge sunglasses. He usually wore his leather jacket and some skinny jeans. He wore huge clumpy combat boots and always had a gun in his belt. Bleu also had bleached her hair blond, with large, blue green eyes. That was the most impressive thing about her; her eyes. They were bright and huge, blue green like a lake or an ocean. She had rosy red cheeks upon her pale white skin. She wore a slick, black dress and black heels. She was from France, so she spoke very little English, but she was able to say simple things, like "yes" and "thank you".
Back to the present, her mom kissed her goodbye and walked off, closing the door behind her. Lyric gazed over at Dove, who was to busy on the TV to care. She rolled her eyes and walked over to her small bed in the corner. It was neatly wrapped in plaid sheets and a fluffy white pillow. She yawned and laid her head onto the pillow and cuddled up under the bedsheets, falling asleep quickly.

«««»»»

A bright spotlight shot onto Lyric. She held two hands up to block the gleaming light. She took a glance around and saw the rest of the room slowly coming into view, and it was not the room back in London. It was a huge, white room, with large, oval windows looking out into a dark world with bright lights, from vehicles and buildings. She was standing on a long, blood red carpet, leading up a pair of staircases and ending at a large, gold throne, with velvet seating. There sat a man with shaggy black hair and a lopsided silver crown. He wore silver and gold robes, sitting there with his legs neatly crossed. His face was hidden his hand, which was sitting on the arm of the throne, like he was looking at something else.
"Ben?" she asked, thinking of his black hair. A grin quickly spread on his face. He lifted his face from his hand, reveal not blue eyes, but golden yellow ones. His grin was sharp and uncomfortable.
"No, Tyson." He arched an eyebrow. "But close. So what are you here for? And who are you?"
Lyric thought about that for a second. "Well, I'm not exactly sure about either, but just call me Lyric."
Tyson tilted his head in confusion, but shrugged it off. "Well, we can work with that." he grinned slyly.
Suddenly, something caught Lyric's eye. A girl wearing a blue dress a white apron and slipper-like shoes in the corner of the room was cleaning the floor seemed familiar. She had crystal blue eyes and long blonde hair held with a bow... It hit her. "Vanessa?" Lyric asked the girl. She shot a glance at Lyric. Since Lyric wasn't her normal self, with her bright blue eyes, magenta polo shirt, black tights, and vibrant purple hair, Vanessa looked back to her work.
Lyric ran over to her. "Vanessa?!" she asked again. She barely even looked up at her. Finally Lyric was standing right in front of her.
"What does you want?" she questioned with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"Oh, you probably don't recognize me. Don't worry, this isn't what I really look like." Lyric explained.
"So, who are you, then?" She arched an eyebrow.
"It's me! Lyric!" Vanessa stared at her in shock.
"Lyric, as in Lyric Berry. As in Lyric from London?" Lyric nodded. Vanessa stood up and hugged her tightly. She held her waist and Lyric grasped her shoulders. They gazed at each other, Lyric's celestial blue eyes locking with Vanessa's baby blue ones. Their noses touched, their lips just inches away from each other. Lyric felt uncomfortable, so she pushed her head to Vanessa's shoulder.
"Excuse me, kid, Lyric, she's got to get back to work," Tyson exclaimed. Lyric looked up at Vanessa. Suddenly, everything around her flashed black and back to normal again. She blinked and took an unsteady step back.
"You okay, Lyric?" Vanessa asked worried. Lyric shook her head. "What's wrong?" The world flashed again.
"The world. It's...it's flashing on and off. To me, this is all a dream, and I think I'm waking up." Lyric breathed harder, trying to keep on standing.
"Will we see you again?" Vanessa pleaded.
"Tomorrow, hopefully, when I go back to sleep." Lyric gave her a shaky smile, hugged Vanessa tightly with tears in her eyes, and the world flickered on and off. On and off. And the world was gone.