Felicia

A black void forms over a vibrant azure sky. It swells in size and consumes everything in its path before imprisoning the girl in total darkness.

Felicia’s hand trembles as she reaches for the switch on her lamp. 

She wipes sweat from her forehead and grabs several sheets of paper.

She frantically scribbles notes across the page. 

She becomes much calmer after writing the last few notes.

As she admires her finished work, tears fall from her eyes and stain the sheet music. 

She drags herself over to the wooden dresser with a mirror.

Her ruby eyes reflect a somber expression. 

She winces as a shard of the dream resurfaces in her mind.

“Not again. It’s no wonder I can’t focus.”

Felicia gently touches her puffy eyelids. She secures the white ribbon in her long red hair and turns away from her reflection.

She groans at the sight of her messy bedroom. Crumpled paper is scattered everywhere, and her white starry comforter is wrapped in a messy ball. Even her treasured red electric guitar leans awkwardly against her bed.

She flies around, reorganizing her shabby-chic bedroom and readjusting a poster depicting her favorite pop star. The star has platinum-blonde hair and arctic-blue eyes. She strums her yellow guitar with neon strings. Felicia smiles and runs her hand over the poster.

The window screeches when Felicia forces it open to let some air in.

Flames ignite from her hands. She burns away the crumpled paper and scatters the ashes to the four winds. She suppresses any thoughts about her nightmares, which are curiously vivid despite being foreign to her memories. At first, she assumes she has watched too many violent things in her free time. Still, the films she watches with her family pale in comparison to her vivid nightmares.

Writing music has been one of her best outlets, but, as expected, it is not the solution.

Felicia keeps feeling incomplete somehow, ever since her fifteenth birthday.

She knows in her heart that she needs to find the answers before her mind completely snaps.

But who can she talk to? Her parents aren’t very helpful, unfortunately.

They don’t like talking about anything.

The sun rises higher through her window. She smiles and finds solace in its warm rays.

“Right! I need some fresh air. Then I’ll feel like myself again.”

The rest of the household is fast asleep as she tiptoes along the creaking floorboards of the long hallway. One of the stairs lets out a squeak even beneath her light step, so she decides to fly over the remaining steps instead. Felicia is the early bird in the family and enjoys the peace that comes with it.

She leaves the farmhouse and munches on a few fresh strawberries.

Every farmer in Sunnyvale follows the same routine almost every morning.

Felicia takes stock of the crops growing beneath the massive greenhouse domes, checking each section to make sure everything is thriving. Afterward, she feeds the Elysium beasts—the fire horse, floral horse, water horse, and storm horse—then tends to their pink-spotted cows, navy-blue bulls, golden geese, and winged pigs.

Felicia tends to the regular farm animals and releases them to roam the farm. She flies back to the stables, where her red stallion, Jubilee, waits for her in the last stall.

She offers him fresh strawberries and a handful of pure obsidian coal, but he eats all the berries instead.

“Jubilee! Sheesh, so greedy.”

Jubilee then munches on the coal.

“Anyway, I have that dream again. I know I shouldn’t be complaining to you, but you and Elizabeth are the only ones who seem to care. Maybe I should find someone who can help me, like Thomue keeps suggesting.”

Jubilee nuzzles her hair, lifting Felicia’s spirits a little.

“What do you say we get out of here for a while? I could use a major break right now.”

Felicia prepares to race Jubilee as the windmills begin to turn.

“I’ll give you a head start, Lee. Ready, set, go!”

Jubilee’s body, mane, and tail catch fire as he storms off. Felicia secures the white ribbon in her hair again and runs until her feet lift off the ground. Soon, she’s soaring through the cloudy, lilac sky with her arms wide open. She dives back down, runs her hands through the soft golden wheat, and catches up to her horse.

She flies past him with a foolish grin on her face.

“You’re slower, Lee. Don’t tell me you’ve gained weight again!” Felicia laughs softly.

Jubilee snorts as he tries to keep up with her.

Felicia looks ahead at the small surveillance drone.

“Okay, buddy. You know the drill. Get ready!”

He gallops faster as Felicia does a quick backflip midair. She grabs the reins and lands on top of the saddle. The surveillance drone turns its eye in her direction. It misses her and Jubilee by a beat. She turns and sticks her tongue out, mocking it in the process. Felicia leaves the farm behind and enters Riverside Forest.

She dismounts to catch her breath and sits under an oak tree while Jubilee drinks from the river. A golden butterfly flutters toward the darkest part of the forest, leaving a ripple behind.

Felicia strums the mbira—a hardwood soundboard lined with staggered metal tines that sing beneath her thumbs. Its sound carries through and is enriched by its hollow-shell resonator.

Suddenly, her surroundings go dark. Felicia groans as her vision blurs. When her eyes refocus, she sees a ghostly boy with a cyan aura running across the river. An enormous dark cloud pursues him, and just as he is about to escape, it swallows him whole.

The darkness then comes for her! She aims and fires randomly at the dark cloud. This only agitates it, and it towers over her. She screams but soon realizes that the threat has already vanished.

“Is our forest haunted or something?!” Felicia’s voice trembles.

The sound of the town bell in the distance causes her to jump.

Felicia whistles to Jubilee and hides the instrument in an opening in the tree trunk.

She quickly mounts her horse, then rides out of the forest. Her mind races as she tries to decipher what she has just witnessed, but she can’t make sense of it.

Finally, she makes it home, where her mother, Mrs. King, waits impatiently at the entrance.

“Afternoon, Mama. You won’t believe what I see in the forest! Things are so weird. Anyway, this—this boy...” Felicia stops mid-sentence after noticing her mother’s vexed expression.

“Felicia Stacey King. You miss the morning meal again. Helena eats your strawberry muffin.”

“And you let her?!”

Felicia’s voice cracks.

“She does it behind my back, but that’s what happens when you don’t show up. Besides, she doesn’t give me half as much trouble as her four older siblings. Now, explain yourself.”

Felicia clenches her jaw.

“I have another bad dream, so I go out for some fresh air and lose track of time. Besides, we don’t have a professional to help me, so how else am I supposed to deal with it?”

Mrs. King’s face is unreadable as she turns away from her daughter.

“Take your horse back to the stables and come inside.”

With that, her mother slams the door with a powerful thud.

Felicia’s eyes sting as tears threaten to fall, but she does not permit them. She takes Jubilee back to the stable before heading inside.