The Empire of Night and Nightmares

- t h e h a p p y e n d i n g -

A bright light appeared behind her eyelids. She squeezed them closed, in hopes the light would go away, but stubbornly, it continued to warm her eyelids.

She had been dreaming.

The noises and images that played in her head faded away. Her body became extremely aware of the way she moved her arm to cover her eyes. There was no going back to sleep.

"Mmh..." She groaned in displeasure. The light started to warm her arm instead.

She moved her arm, opened her eyes, and was met with her bedroom ceiling, only this time she could see every chip and crack in the wood. In fact, the more her eyes wandered, everything seemed brighter than usual.

She pushed the blanket off her body and sat up to look around her room. Her books still lay on the table in a corner. Her clothes were neatly folded in her closet. Used candlesticks were scattered around her room, and yet none of them had been lit up. One lantern seemed to be left on, but she doubted it was the one giving off so much light. A single lantern wasn't enough to help her read in the dark, let alone see the sheet of dust that covered her books. Before she could try and investigate the source of such light, her bedroom door opened.

"Mireya!"

The scent of cinnamon and peonies covered her like a blanket. A pair of arms came and wrapped around her in a tight embrace.

"Thank you, thank you so much. Oh thank you, God for bringing my daughter back to me." The voice said as they planted kisses on her head.

Mom?

Her mom leaned back with tears in her eyes and placed her hands on her daughter's face tenderly. She smiled through the tears.

"Honey, please say something." Her mother's voice came out quiet and frail. "Tell me you're okay."

"I..." Her voice comes out dry and hoarse.

Her mother rushed to her feet. "Stay there. I'll get you some water."

She left the room in a haste, leaving Mireya to look around even more. Her eyes followed the bright rays of light and found where they had been coming from.

Has someone put a dozen lanterns and lights behind my window?

Her feet touched the cold wood floors of her bedroom. She hoisted herself up and almost fell to her knees at the sudden shift in weight to her legs. She staggered towards the window and held onto the boards that covered it.

One by one, she removed the boards. With each one, more and more light flooded into her room. The blinding light left a warm touch on her clothes, skin and face. She blinked to adjust her eyes to the sudden change in brightness.

When her eyes opened to open the window, her eyes zeroed in on the sky. It was blue, a very bright and vibrant blue. Clouds scattered across the blue canvas like fluffy white pillows. The more she stared, the more she wanted to fly into the sky just to see and feel it for herself. Her eyes jumped from cloud to cloud until the light that surrounded her grew dim for a moment.

She feared the darkness had made its return, but the sky regained its brightness from earlier. Birds flew across the sky and Mireya followed them with her eyes until they landed on something else.

It was small and round. Staring at it left her eyes very confused. At first it looked white. Then it was an odd blue or green shade, then an orange and yellow shade lined the edges. It hurt her eyes to stare at it for too long, but when she looked away, the shape of it remained in her line of sight, no matter where she looked or how she moved her eyes. She closed them, in hopes that it would disappear, but even behind her closed eyelids she was met with a fading blue or green ball that went wherever her eyes looked towards.