Ray of hope || by Elin Moon

Chapter 0: It was good

When I wake up, the sun is high up in the sky. My eyes are puffy, and my head aches. I look over to Dipsy, and he's still asleep, tightly clutching my hand. I remove my hand from his, and hop out of bed. I look over the other two beds, and find them empty. It seems Tink and Po have not only woken up, but left the house. How long have I slept?

I walk to the door, my feet making loud steps against the cold, metal floor. The door automatically opens, letting sunlight and the warm breeze hit my shivering body. I walk into the sunlight, taking in the lovely blooms and the fluffy rabbits hopping about the grass freely. I look up into the sky, there are few clouds littered about, and the ones that are there are white and fluffy. I let the warmth envelope my body as I enjoy the view. I love the nice weather, it's a great time to play with my ball. I look around and quickly spot it, a bright orange ball right between vibrant green bushes and the dome. I want to go retrieve it, but something's on my mind. The dream.

The dream. It still haunts me. Even on such a lovely day. The dark, cold nothingness, the silence, my voice echoing, that moving shadow approaching me, my friends lying lifeless on the floor. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and a chill go down my spine. Why can't I just forget it? Why can't it go away? My head hurts.

I lean against a tree trunk, underneath the soft shade of the tree branches. I close my eyes, block out the world until I forget. It's dark, but unlike in the dream it calms me. If only I wasn't so alone.

"Laa Laa!" I hear from behind my closed eyelids. I hear the sound of footsteps against dirt and rocks and the shuffling through grass and flowers. I open my eyes and see Tink standing in front of me, a sparkling smile on his face, blue eyes bright. I myself smile a little, but I can't seem to be my cheery self today no matter how hard I try.

"Hey, Tink." I say, as I notice he grabbed my toy ball and is now bouncing it up and down.

"Morning, Laa! Or should I say, afternoon." he says, nudging me with his elbow. "You and Dip slept in. Speaking of which, is Dipsy awake?" he says, throwing my ball to me. I catch it before I answer.

"No, I let him sleep." I state simply. Tink groans.

"He ALWAYS sleeps in! Might as well become nocturnal and sleep during the day!" Tink yelled, rubbing his face with his palms, a sign he's annoyed. I look at the ground, at the pretty, white daisies dancing in the light breeze.

Tink must notice my mood, because I can feel his gaze on me.

"Hey, are you alright?" and he touches my shoulder. I drop my ball and look back up, my smile long gone from my face. No, I'm not alright. But there's too much to explain to him. The dream, that shadow, the killer headache I'm having today, and over all, I feel miserable. I don't want to tell him that, though. I've already burdened Dipsy with my dream last night. But I also don't want to lie to his face and say I'm perfectly fine. I look back at the ground. "You know you can tell me anything, right?" he says. I sigh.

"I had a bad dream last night." I say, looking at the sky now. Anything to not look him in the eyes. I don't want to tell him what happened in the dream, I might start crying again. "I'd rather not talk about it, though. Not now." I say, rubbing my arm.

"If you say so." Tink says, patting my shoulder. "If you need me, I'll be looking for Po, right after I wake up Dip. It's dinner time in an hour." I nod. He walks away, I hear the door to the dome slide open, then close a few seconds later. I heave out a sigh.

I stop leaning against the tree trunk, and walk into the sunlight. I bounce my ball around a few times, but then just leave it to roll away. I try to cheer up, but I can't even bring myself to smile. Along with the dream, a terrible feeling starts to consume me. A horrible feeling of dread, thick like sludge and mud. I don't know where it came from, but it's there. And I don't like it.