Daydream (ONC 2024)

Chapter 5: Fanciful Flying Fabrications

Lavender embers tinted the branches above with a pink hue. They lit our way through the night forest like glow sticks at a rave, and pastel luminescence settled in the cradle of leaves to form hundreds of eyes that narrowed and widened with each gust of wind. The laughter of children echoed as we walked, one chuckle so close to my ear that I punted the will-o'-the wisp with a firm strike of my crowbar. It only worsened the scream of laughter as the sentient flame collided with a dozen others and they scattered in gleeful giggles.

"Heidi," Faella chastised as she walked by my side, her frilly, gothic dress bouncing with her hopping steps and the brim of her hat waggling with her. "They're just happy to have a new friend, see." Faella held a ball of purple flame closer, and its black button eyes blinked. "Right, Flit?"

Flit, Flutter, Fluffles, Flan, Falafel, Ferrous, Fable, Fetch.

They all had names, every single freaky flame friend Faella had summoned with her magic so we could see. I wasn't soulless enough to hate them from the start. For a few moments they'd been adorable little balls of flame. They huddled near anything with a pulse and exuded the barest of warmth on contact, but they giggled with melodic chimes whenever they bumped something.

Cute in theory, distressing in practice.

Laughter was only nice in small doses, a chuckle here, a titter there. Only hyenas had the unfortunate experience of suffering through prolonged bouts of cackling, and they did not rate highly on the safe and sane companionship chart. Hours on end of giggling and cooing that grew closer and drifted away with no predictability had me several fries short of a happy meal and gifted me with a newfound love of baseball. They weren't the only thing I'd been knocking out of the park either.

Shapes danced in the corners of my vision as I remained hypervigilant, crowbar in hand as owls hooted like fans in the stands of a stadium. My ears pricked for any rustle of leaves or scratch of bark until darkness stole my vision on the left. I knew the shadow was a feint and swung my crowbar around to find satisfying purchase in Lexington's knee cap. He dropped like a bat tied to a bowling ball, bumping flames as he fell and ping-ponging giggles around the path.

"Just a taste," he hissed with a sinister cackle that bounced his shoulders like jumping beans. Excitement roiled his crimson eyes like a pot of tomato soup left to boil too long.

"I am not an hors d'oeuvre." I tapped the crowbar on my thigh as Lexington wriggled closer like a lame snake. Full moons made vampires crazier than me at a craft store closing sale. "Go nibble your witch." I pointed to Faella with my crowbar, and she jumped with her cup of tea on her lips, sipping it and eyeing us like we were rowdy children.

"Faella is like sugared tea, delicious but stunningly sweet." Lexington pouted with his arms crossed. Even with his lips puffed out, he looked like he was modeling for lip gloss. "I want something with zest."

I'd show him zest all right, the moment I found a lemon to shove between those pearly whites.

To avoid more batting practice, I stopped and made camp under an earthen overhang. It would shelter me from wind or any potential rain during the night, but it was also a mudslide waiting to happen. With the ominous clouds obscuring the stars, I put nothing past the weather in this place. Anything was possible in a land where dreams took physical form, and with my luck, I'd wake with a layer of spiders dancing on my lips as they fell like powder snow around me.

Sleep was such a bad idea.

Wisps gathered over Faella's head as she stopped near the trees opposite the overhang, and Lexington had a blanket laid below her before her skirts even tickled the grasses. With his focus on his promised, the only danger left to me was the growling beast in my stomach.