LIGHTS

She awoke to see people hovering over her. It was an incredibly soft surface she was splayed across on. A bright light severed open her eyes; she used her arm to shield herself from the burning luminosity ahead. Tingling electrocuted through her body until she felt a throbbing in her head. As she proceeded to rub it, someone grabbed her hand and put it back down.

“Now now, no touching!” a voice said. It was Mrs. Von Rheul Plachard.

“M-marie?” she stuttered.

“Juliana! Can you see me?” she asked, hovering closer to her.

“Yes, I can see” She muttered. “W-what happened?”

“You fainted, darling!”

“W-what, w-why?” she asked.

“I have no idea. You just fainted. But you’re okay now. You just have a little bump on your head” the voice said softly in that sweet tone of hers.

She sat up. She gulped very hard. Noah was in the room. And he was walking towards her. He leaned in towards her and whispered in his deep, mysterious voice.

“Maybe next time you should hold on to something when you fall” he whispered in her ear, breathing warm air on her neck, making her shiver with delight.

“I tried but no one was there” she whispered in his face, making sure to blow air into his eyes.
He stared at her with a malicious smile in his eyes then turned around and started walking away. He stopped, turned ninety degrees, as if he was going to look at her, but instead, kept walking. She felt her heart pull away while he walked, he dragged it away.

“Mrs. V—” she asked but was cut off.

“Marie, call me Marie, honey.”

“Yes, Marie, um, where is Atlantis?” she asked

“Ah, yes. She is upstairs. You’ll find her” the woman said, flashing her pearly-white smile and winking at her. She was one of the most pleasant people to be around.

“Thank you Marie.”

She rose from the couch and stepped out of the room. She found herself in the main hall. It was a grand hall, a magnificently carved and decorated hall. It had pillars of gold colored marble, and stairs the color of the clouds. There was a balance of gold trim, marble and modernist contemporary minimalism that had severed the fine line between Versailles-style palace and New York SoHo apartment. Classical, contemporary, fresh and detailed, the main hall was an artist’s delight. Well, a delight for any person, for that matter. She decided to escalate the stairs on either side of the room which arched up and met with a balcony. You could see the whole hall from the second floor balcony. She proceeded to walk through the hallway until she found her friend. She walked through the door and found Atlantis and Noah sitting on the floor around a photo album.

“Juli!” the girl shouted.

“Atlantis, hi!” she said.

She simply eyed Noah and courteously smiled at him. Atlantis stood up and hugged her.

“How are you? I heard you fainted!” the girl inquired.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Thank you though” she said.

She paced around the room and secretly documented everything in the room.

“You’ve changed the place” she said.

The girl put her hands in her black double button flat front sailor dress pants and said “Yep. Noah helped me pick out some new stuff. Actually,” the girl pointed towards the albums “that’s what we’re doing now. We’re trying to find new lighting.”

“Oh… cool” she said.

“Have a seat” the girl said, pointing towards a red upholstered armchair with golden colored trim, to match the Versailles-style home design though the room was more of a Moroccan bazaar. The girl’s room was opulently decorated, elaborate to the most minute detail, and completely extravagant. More like unnecessarily extravagant. She sat down and felt something under her. She slid her hand under her bum and felt a metal. She pulled it out and stuffed it into her pocket.

…