When Celine woke up, she was surrounded by multicolored lights. They lit up the small room she was in. More tiny light danced around her face and body. She sat up and shooed them away, too tired to notice what they were. She stumbled around the room. She was still underground.
The room’s ceiling was low so she had to bend over. She swatted away the lights and searched for an exit. Her head ached and her arms were sore from hanging on to the ledge. She didn’t notice that her cuts and bloody arms had been wiped and bandaged. She found the exit and stumbled out hoping to find where Ian was. She didn’t think she was dead, but her brain was fogging from everything that happened and her head hurt from the fall. How far of a drop had it been?
The stone hall way opened up to a larger room. It had even more flying lights in it. There were so many that it looked like someone had strung Christmas lights in rows and row, except they were moving. Her head felt dizzy, she plopped down in the middle and curled into a ball. The lights kept swarming around her and poking her.
“Leave me alone,” she yelled into her arms. Finally she lifted her head and she noticed something slightly important The lights trying to get her attention were pixies, thousands of them, each individual in their own way. Some were smaller or fatter with skin tones ranging from lie green to deep navy blue. They looked so happy; their faces looked like they were having the best day of their life. Celine smiled. She laughed to herself. This had to be a dream. But then one of the smaller pixies pinched her arm.
“Ouch,” she said playfully down to the pixie. The pixie sprung up and nestled into her chest. Then she flew up till she was right in front of Celine’s face. She seemed to be the happiest of the pixies. It took Celine a split second before she recognized her. She squealed like a little girl at a candy shop.
“Lola!!!” Lola nestled into her chest again as Celine hugged her back. She wanted to cry again, this time out of joy, but she had spent all of her tears already. Then Lola flew up and turned around and left. Celine stood up in confusment. Where did she go? She scanned the crowd of little creatures, but she couldn’t pick out Lola from them. But she didn’t have too. Lola came back a few minutes later with about a five others. Together they lifted a gold ring. Celine’s face lit up. She held out her palms and the pixies placed the band in her hands. She looked at them, all five, straight in the face.
“I don’t know if you can understand me,” she began. “But you have no idea how much this means to me.” The pixies seemed to understand her gratitude.
Celine spent hours playing with the fairies and exploring their domain. She completely forgot about everything, and just enjoyed her freedom in the pixie cave. She laughed, danced, and sang. She started to wish she could never leave, and just forget about her brother and dad. But Lola grabbed the edge of her shirt suddenly remembering something, and led her down the hallway into another room.
This room had fewer pixies in it. Maybe they could sense the sullen mood carried by the limp body in the center. Seeing Ian’s grey lifeless face brought her out of her daydream. She felt unbearably guilty about ever thinking about abandoning her brother and father and forgetting about Ian.
“Please tell me he’s not dead,” she said walking over to him. Lola wove in and out between his strands of blond hair. All the gel was gone, and now it looked like straw, but it made her smile to see him with such a serious expression with a pixie playing in his hair. He would have never allowed it if he was awake. She started to check his pulse, but then stopped. She didn’t want to find him dead. So she was too scared to check.
