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“Oi Jenna! Stop sneaking the popcorn!”
“I am NOT sneaking the popcorn! This is a free country anyway Amber. I can do what I want.” defied the redhead, despite the telltale butter smudges on the corners of her mouth.
“Oh come on guys. There’s always more popcorn in the cupboard. I invited you guys to a sleepover and a movie, not a popcorn fight.”
“Aw Karen, you party pooper,” chorused the twins.
Three girls were snuggled on the maroon couch, huddled in front of an 18 inch television set with a currently bright blue screen. There were numerous pictures of the girls swimming, racing, or just having fun together.
They were all in almost identical pajamas consisting of their dads’ humungous T-shirts, and comfy yellow shorts. Karen had dirty blonde curls, with friendly hazel eyes sparkling with mischief and fun. She was the one who saved the twins, Jenna and Amber, from arguing with each other when they were all together, most of the time, so from that developed a kind and motherly attitude towards…most people. Her bad side towards people was, thankfully, not seen often by the world. Though Jenna and Amber were twins, they did not look alike at all, but they did not strongly resemble one parent either. Jenna, on one hand, possessed their mother’s alert chocolate brown eyes, and their father’s absurdly red hair, freckles, and curved nose. She had a rather short temper, and could throw tantrums about the most random things on a normal basis. Her tongue could become very sharp sometimes, and it got her into trouble a lot, mostly with alleyway bullies and her parents. Amber on the other hand, had taken their father’s vividly green eyes and their mother’s silky brown hair and button nose, as well as a light tan complexion. She was sweet…when she was in one of her good moods. If she got angry, which could be quite often, you might want to stay a safe radius away, which would be about ten feet, until she cooled off. Her dark moods, if extremely intense, did not usually last more that a few hours.
All of them took fencing, and had spent many hours trying to beat each other with one of them aside as a referee. It was something that they had spent many happy hours doing, with the mock duels sometimes ending up with swords being tossed aside, and then the matches would turn into a brief wrestling match, with the referee joining in, and ending in a bundle of tangled bodies and laughter on the floor. Today was just another one of the frequent sleepovers, although the weather was inconsiderate enough to be storming outside; a summer shower with thunder and lightning.
“So what are we watching anyway Karen? I forgot,” said a red-faced Amber. The other two groaned theatrically.
“You know Amber, for the twin of one as so refined as moi, you are a nincompoop. This must be the fifth time you’ve asked!” retorted Jenna.
“Shaddup Jenna,” said a scarlet Amber, throwing a cow face pillow at Jenna, who gave a fake scream of horror and did an exaggerated movement of diving under the blanket, shouting “Take COVER!!” The pillow bounced off the blanket.
Karen shook her head. “Always the drama queen, aren’t you Jenna?” Though seemingly put that way, it wasn’t a question.
Jenna made a face at Karen. The three girls had been best friends ever since third grade, to middle school. They had all applied for the same school on purpose.
“Anyway Amber,” said Karen. “I forgot the title of this movie, but it’s supposed to be about this girl whose sad life has made her go crazy, and she lives with this wolf demons and—”
“Grammar check! THESE wolf demons,” cut in Amber, annoyingly as Amber often was.
“Whatever. Anyway, there’s this handsome guy, some sort of prince from a land 100 leagues away I think, who comes and coaxes her back into sanity.”
“Okay…” said Jenna.
“And he has to get through all these dangers like other demons and magical barriers and stuff in order to get to her.”
“Sounds okay, I think,” said a doubtful Jenna.
“Well, let’s watch it and see!” cried the ever optimistic and overly hyperactive Amber.
~*~
In far off London, a different scene was taking place.
Wailing sirens on the suburban street, where a small two-story house was burning. It threw glowing flames brightly into the night sky, as the swelling crowd of onlookers and spectators screamed. The family of four stared at the house, waiting for the baby. The nursery was a completely different room, so the baby slept alone, when the gas leaking from the stove met an exposed wire that powered the small night light in the kitchen.
But the family didn’t know that.
They wanted the remaining member of their family safe with them.
A chunk of roof fell in with a loud crash and sparks flying, which was met dramatically by more screams from the still-swelling crowd.
There was the mom and the dad, both in pajamas, clutching each other. There was the 13-year-old sister, staring at the house, her face a beacon of fear. There was the two-year-old toddler, sobbing in his mother’s pajama pants. They all waited, listening to the crackling walkie-talkie as the firefighter in the house reported to the fire-chief who was standing directly behind them.
“The doorknob to the nursery has melted sir! *crackle crackle* …ax through, sir.”
“Don’t,” said the clear voice of the fire chief behind them. The parents turned around and stared at him. The sister remained staring at the house, the light of the fire shining brilliantly in her brown eyes, and the toddler continued to protest the night’s adventure at the top of his lungs.
“If you knock down that door, you’ve lost your last support for the roof. The house is as delicate as a newborn kitten. If you knock down that door, the whole building’s going to come down on top of both of you. I want you out of there NOW.”
“Right away sir.”
The lady started to scream and sob with rage, and seemingly was about to speak, (‘speak’ being as accurate as a ‘breeze’ describing a hurricane) when she was abruptly fell silent. The firefighter stumbled out of the building, coughing, and was instantly supported by two comrades.
She had halted because the girl, her daughter, was no longer staring at the house, but running full speed toward the house. After this numbing fact had registered in the poor woman’s mind, she began screaming at the top of her lungs, overriding the shouts of the crowd. The firefighters sprayed the girl with the hose, to try to knock her down, but she showed amazing endurance, and turned to face it, getting herself soaked (and reciving a lovely bruise on her stomach), before facing her back to them, to become as wet as possible, pushed through the last few restraining firefighters, then she ran inside the flaming house.
The lady screamed louder. The baby inside woke up, and started bawling.
The girl looked frantically for the stairs, and found they were blocked by a wall, of fire, searing hot, and for a moment, she thought she saw a mocking face in the flames, and the roar of the fire turned into maniacal laughter. She gave a cry of fury ran directly through the flames, heedless toward her smoking bunny slippers and singed coal-black hair. The baby’s cry led her to the nursery, with the outer wall beginning to collapse. She rammed through the wall, and it gave away like a thin icicle under a heavy boot. In other words, the wall shattered, and the house started coming down. The infant’s cry grew, and intensified into shrieks of terror and fright. Dodging the burning sections of falling ceiling and avoiding the holes and weak areas in the floor, she hurriedly made her way toward the crib, running for everything. She started coughing; the fire was eating all the oxygen in this room. Tears streamed out of her eyes, protesting the irritation from the smoke. She reached the baby, and placed the screaming infant under her sodden dressing robe. It was too late to run back to the front door; the floor would cave in; it was already caving in. Bigger pieces of ceiling came crashing down, destroying the floor between the girl and the door, and so left with no other choice, she smashed the burning shutters out of the way, and threw herself out of the second-story window. The girl held her consciousness in an iron-tight grip until she was sure that she would not fall on the baby when hitting the ground, before allowing herself to black out, her mother’s screams ringing and muffled yells of the firefighters in her ears. She couldn’t remember hitting the ground.
~*~
Back at the happy sleepover, the movie had started. The girls were transfixed as the ‘handsome guy’ faced a huge monster with four dripping fangs, six gleaming yellow eyes, a black body with crawling worms and glowing ooze dripping off it’s three legs, and a long tongue like a frog, but as sharp as a sword. The ‘handsome guy’ faced this monster with no armor, and only a sword given to him by the holy temple earlier in the movie.
The girls stared intently at the screen as first, threats were exchanged, and now, they were locked in a deadly combat.
The sword now proved to have some surprising magical qualities. It glowed white, becoming much to bright to look at, and then summoned a lightening bolt and struck the monster on its head, killing it instantly. The girls cheered as the celebration music blared, and then laughed at their silliness. They were cheering on a person who didn’t even exist in reality, and whom they knew they would probably forget about within the next week or two.
~*~
The girl felt wiggling on her chest, and opened her eyes to firefighters standing around her, looking worried, and conversation that went on in the background. Not that any of it made any sense though. She gently drew out the baby, and passed the wailing bundle of wet baby into her mother’s arms, before blacking out again.
She half woke up to open her eyes in the hospital, but she could not comprehend a single thing that she saw. White was all over the place, and she seemed to be in a small room with cloth for walls. She only could comprehend and understand pure, unchanging white, and then fell into a black hole. She didn’t know her family, standing near, watched with horror as the waves on the monitors all flatlined and the beeping became a steady hum. She didn’t hear the mother’s sobs, the toddler sniffling, or the father’s step as he walked out the door.
~*~
The movie had ended with the satisfying ending of the tearful farewell of the main characters, and the girl walking away into the sunset. The ending music tilted to a high note as the camera filled with the star-studded sky with a full, golden moon. Jenna sighed, “I hate it when movies can’t go on forever.”
“Yeah, but then we’d be sitting here forever, missing out on the chocolate-chip pancakes tomorrow, and the carnival next week, and the—“
“Alright Amber, we get your point,” yawned Karen. She heaved another huge yawn. “Oh man, I’m pooped. Light’s out anyone?”
“We do have to brush our teeth Karen, unless you’d rather sleep with popcorn husks in your mouth all night,” Jenna pointed out with a drop of sarcasm. Amber laughed and quickly plucked a popcorn husk out of her own teeth as evidence, shoving it in Karen’s face.
“Okay, fine Amber. You really didn’t need to do that you know,” grumbled Karen. “Last one to the bathroom is a rotten egg!” she cried with an exaggerated change of mood.
There was a sudden scramble for toothbrushes and toothpaste. The pounding of slipper-covered feet on carpet was heard quite clearly through the silent house (with the exception of Karen’s parents stifling muffled groans into their pillows). Even though Karen didn’t have to get anything because this was her house, weariness and fatigue made her the rotten egg.
Several minutes later the girls were hanging out in their sleeping bags with muffled laughs and fun in a silent pillow fight.
Amber was once again in possession of her prized cow face pillow.
Karen got up to stretch, and received two couch throw pillows in the face.
“Alright guys, I think that’s enough for tonight; it’s like 11: 59 PM. Light’s out?”
“Sure,” said Amber with a huge yawn, not bothering to cover her mouth. She would pay for that.
“Oh my gosh! Somebody call the ambulance! Amber’s got tooth decay!” yelled Jenna.
“Ha ha Jenna,” said Amber. “You’re just a riot, aren’t you?” Another huge yawn. “Wah, I’m so sleepy…”
“T-minus five…four…three…two…one…BLAST OFF!!” yelled Karen before deftly flicking the lights off, making the twins jump.
“Aw Karen,” they chorused, before grinning widely at each other, and breaking out into giggles that intensified into laughter so intense that Jenna stuffed her fist in her mouth, and Amber, unsuccessfully, tried to muffle herself with her cow face pillow.
“Whenever you do that, you remind me that you’re twins. It’s sort of hard to remember anytime else,” remarked Karen dryly.
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