Lullaby

9• Stellar Genetics

"What the fuck?", Nathan says softly, looking lost and confused.
North steps towards me, eyes narrowed in concern. Softly he says to me," Baby?"
I look up at him with my wide curious eyes," Yeah?"
He swallows," Whats going on? What is this?"

I bite my lip, looking back into the neon pink eyes of the Lycorn. I'd never had to explain anything before. No one ever wanted my opinions or thoughts. Silence was revered in my household. Especially from me.

I was the girl whose voice they stole away.

Like an instinct I'd always had even though I'd never done this before, I step away from the Lycorn towards North. I stand on my tippy toes and reach one hand upwards towards his face while my other hand stayed firmly laced within the Lycorn's fur. North walks closer to me so my opening and closing hand can reach him and bends slightly at the waist so my hand can touch his cheek.

I stare directly into his eyes, feeling for the exact silvery string swirling with fuchsia and purple fog that connects me to him, just like Jack instructed. North gasps once I find it and pull him into my mind, his hand reaching up to gently hold mine in place.

Silas grunts as North pulls him into the connection. One by one the others, with the combined help of North and Silas, are drug into my mind.

A little girl sings quietly to herself and smiles as she paints on the concrete walls of her room. She paints a world no other has ever laid eyes on. It's a magical kingdom some might view as nightmarish, but to the little girl it was a wondrous land she felt right at home in.

An older girl sadly sits against the bone chilling walls, a hand softly caressing the picture she painted of Jack, her only friend. They were moving soon. She'd have to leave them. Years of work she spent trying to recreate the world in her mind she loved so much and it was all being snatched away from her unfairly. But what could she do?

She didn't exist to anyone outside of her concrete cage.

In a dream the girl plays with her creations. The lycorns protect her, her own personal guards Jack himself designated for her. The knomepyres wreak havoc on the much kinder citizens of Cosmia. Fox fairies prance around her feet as she laughs freely chasing batlights into the unknown. That's okay though. Batlights always lead you in the right direction. They take you to the path you didn't even know you needed.

Slowly we all float away from the lavender grassed ground littered with black skeleton trees that are lit up with multicolored paper lanterns that glow almost eerily. The view shifts as they all suddenly pause. Now they're looking up at the starry night sky. Three moons decorate it. The largest lavender moon with its silver rings rests on the ground, partially obscured from sight. The slightly smaller orange moon and the tiny pink moon are far higher.

Lullaby's voice echoes in their minds," The sun never rises here. Not since the King of Suns died. The Queen of Stars mourns him. She keeps the sun locked away in her dungeon where no one but her can bask in it."

They're suddenly back on the ground. A headless man holding a Jack-o-Lantern in the crook of his left arm stands before them in black attire and a black cape blowing behind him in a nonexistent wind.

"Jack tried to free the sun, but was caught by The Queen of Stars. She beheaded him and banished him from her kingdom. Now he lives here in Cosmia's wilderness. He's my best friend."