Owl City: a Collection

Vanilla Twilight

It was the middle of the night. The room was quiet, other than the steady ticking of the clock on the wall. The darkness was fought back by a miniscule LED light on a radio in the corner of the room. Outside, there was the distant sound of an owl hooting into the night, and even more distant, a dog barking. "I'll find you."

Suddenly, there was a frantic rustle from the previously still bed. Adam woke up in a cold sweat. His clothes clung to him, his eyes wide as they searched the dark cube that formed his bedroom.

"Thesp." The name leaped out of his mouth. The dream had been painfully clear. He could still feel the cool, outside air,  hear the soft wind rustling, feel the grass tickling his ankles, and feel the girl he loved in his arms. But it all faded so quickly, and with it, the clarity of his dream. Her magical atmosphere, (which seemed to follow Thesp everywhere she went), vanished, and left him feeling cold and alone. It wasn't the first time he'd dreamt about his friend in the past months, but this one had been different. It was so vivid... So real... It was like Thesper was actually there. Like maybe she was missing him too.

The lingering feeling of her soft lips touching his was haunting.

Adam sighed. "I'll never get back to sleep now." He pushed the covers off of him, and they slid halfway to the floor.

For a little while, he just paced the room. His footsteps made no noise on the thick carpet. He ran his hands through his hair, mumbling to himself. He hadn't slept in two days... It was becoming increasingly hard to live without Thesp nearby. Before, their time together had been limited due to being in two different schools. Since then, she had moved two states away. Now their only means of communication was through email, and the occasional phone call. Adam feared that they were drifting apart... This was the true source of his worry. He feared that while she was away, she would dismiss their adventures as imagination, and she would dismiss him as nothing more than a childhood friend.

For Adam, the longer they were apart, the more he wanted to see her.

Thesper and her family had been doing a lot of travelling lately. She had sent him five post cards in the past three weeks alone... His bedside table was covered in them. He had made a habit of reading them over and over again, as if he could find some hidden meanings in the words. He never did, though.

Finally, Adam had spent enough time pacing that he left his room, trailing down the hallway, through the kitchen, and out the back door. He sat down on the porch steps, tilting his head up so that his vision was filled with stars. "I miss you." He whispered, his heart aching as he stared up at the sky. His face fell, and he stared at his hands. They looked so... empty. He couldn't reason out the signifigance of it, but something felt wrong. Maybe he was just tired. He laid down on the wooden porch, simply gazing at the sky for a while. 

His eyes closed, and he breathed in the night air, wishing that he could share this moment with Thesp.  But it wasnt so. He leaned his head against the porch railing and sighed. Slowly, he began to drift off and let sleep take over once more. 

Please take me back to the dream. Just for a moment. I miss her...

                                                                                       ~*~

Thesp sat, gazing intently at a small jar by her bedside table. Within it, light flickered as a frantic firefly tried to escape. She couldn't help but think that that poor insect represented herself, desperate to get out and find what she was missing.

Or perhaps, who she was missing. It was all so real... It seemed like he was right there with her. Oh the adventures she had shared with him. Impossible adventures... Memories that she desperately clung to, hoping that they had been real.

It was Adam. It was always Adam. Her heart longed for him, yet they hardly kept contact. It seemed like they barely knew each other at times. It was undeniable, though. She wanted to see him again. But what if he didn't even want to visit her? The ache in her heart grew.

Her eyes flicked across the room to a small computer desk. It was covered in brightly covered post-it notes, reminding her to do the things she would forget anyway. A dancing screensaver flashed across the bowl-like screen. An idea popped to mind, and she hesitated. It couldn't hurt, could it? Her stomach lurched with nervousness. "Come on Thespy, you can do this." Standing, she swept some of her tangled hair from her eyes, and sat down at the desk. With a gentle tap on the mouse, she woke the computer and opened a tab to her email.

It was a short message, sweet and to the point. She addressed it to Adam, and sent it off on it's way through the internet, where it would come to rest in his digital inbox. Thesp bit her lip, hoping that she was doing the right thing.

At last, with a sigh she returned to her bed and fell asleep.

                                                                                        ~*~

It seemed like seconds later that his eyes blinked open again. Now, the sky was a beautiful light blue, and the sun was still hiding behind the distant mountains. There was a beautiful glow above him. A few stars were still visible, twinkling at him as if saying it would be alright. He smiled. The blue glow in the sky was framed by soft hues of pink and orange... For a moment his heart lifted, filled with warmth. "Oh Darling I wish you were here." The bits of happiness that had filled him vanished, and again his face sunk into his hands.

It was then that he realized why looking at his hands made him feel so sad. The spaces between his fingers were where Thesp's fit perfectly, and he wasn't whole when she was gone.

Adam was shocked to find a tear rolling down his cheek. He cleared his throat and forced himself to stand up. Though the details of his dream had faded, he could still remember what he promised her. As he'd been waking, disturbed from his wonderful fantasy, he'd promised to find Thesp. But would she want to see him? Her life was a big, wonderful adventure. Sure much greater than any adventure they had ever shared.

That was when he heard a beep from inside the house, the unmistakable sound of his phone alerting him of a new message arriving. He pursed his lips and stepped inside, pulling the heavy glass door closed behind him. The house was still and quiet, other than the nagging sound of his phone urging him to read the message.

He felt a fuzzy, wet nose nuzzle his leg. "Ayyee!" He jumped almost four feet in the air, causing his cat to jump away with a loud 'raauuww!'. "Oh... Sorry." He chuckled, hoping that he hadn't woken his parents upstairs. Now that would be embarrasing. He continued down the hallway, tiptoeing, and opened his door.

Once inside, he picked up his phone, and opened it.

Lightning shot up his arms. The message was from Thesp. He frantically opened the message, nearly dropping his phone in this process. He nearly had a heart attack. The email was only six words long.

"When can I see you again?"