Sleepless: Chapter Nine

Something in the Woods [Is Very Strange]

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With the broadcast still ringing into the morning air all around her, Margo turned in a slow circle, letting the sun warm her back. It felt like she could stay there forever if she wanted to.

She only opened her eyes when someone bumped her shoulder as they rushed past her, the sounds of her surroundings fading back into her perception. Some kids were rushing back down the hill to the water, while some were looking for a place to dive from the cliff.

Felix and Jaime still had their eyes closed, taking in the sunlight together. They had each other in a one-armed hug, her head tucked against him. It was kinda cute. But also kinda ew. She wasn’t sure how to feel about Jaime just yet, and didn’t feel like lingering on the subject mentally for too long.

Everything around her looked different in the light. It reflected off water particles in the grass and in the trees, as though the entire world was a glittering display. She reached down, trying to cup some of the dew in her hands so she might hold a piece of sunlight herself, but it just made her hands wet and kinda cold.

Giving her back to the sun had left her staring at the treeline not too far away, where shafts of sunlight scattered through the trunks of the trees in a golden haze.

And fluttering gently in that golden mist, there was… a butterfly?