4Chapter 2: Under Discovery
When it came to sleeping, Malina could be considered the ultimate pro. Annette realized this as she floated up with Selena in her dream state to the seventeenth floor of Malina's apartment. Annette smiled in excitement as a cool breeze rushed past her face. It felt so awesome to explore a sleeping city at night time.
Selena was the first of the two to reach the seventeenth storey of the building. She and Malina had been friends far longer than Annette had, and could practically travel to her pal's house with her eyes closed. As soon as Annette caught up with her, Selena gestured towards the window she was floating next to. "This one," she whispered. A light breeze blew in her face, ruffling her dark blond hair.
Annette took caution before proceeding inside. "Are you sure this is the right house?" she questioned.
Selena shrugged. "Even if it isn't, what difference does it make?" And without another word, she magically slipped through the closed window, with a reluctant Annette following behind.
It turned out that Selena had selected the right room. As the two girls made their way down to the carpet, Annette could barely make out the sleeping figure resembling Malina. There she lay, curled up in a tight ball, eyes hidden by her short black hair and a small stuffed animal cuddled up in her arms.
"Aww…" Annette cooed, admiring Malina sleeping. "I almost feel bad that we have to wake her up."
"But we won't actually wake her up," Selena pointed out. "We're just making her dream…awake!"
As if on cue, dream figure Malina rose out from under the covers. "I thought I heard you guys in here!" she exclaimed in a voice brighter than the street lamps.
"Well, you heard right," Selena replied, returning the radiant grin.
"It's as though you knew we were coming," Annette agreed.
Malina simply crossed her arms and smiled. "I didn't need to know you were coming," she responded. "I could hear you guys come into my room." She jumped in between her buddies and the smile grew even wider. "So, why'd you come here?" she asked curiously.
"Selena wants us to go to Dream Land!" Annette cried, jumping up into the air. The more she waited, the more excited she was becoming!
"Yes, well, I do want to go to Dream Land," Selena admitted profoundly. "After all, I do have an important reason to go there."
"Because of Black?" Malina guessed.
Selena gave Malina a pleasant smile; at least she was able to pronounce Black's name correctly. "Exactly," she replied in satisfaction. Then, gesturing towards the window, she said, "Now let's go to Ginny's house and fetch her before the night is over!"
"And then we'll get Black back!" Malina happily finished for her. As the three friends turned around to float through yet another closed window, Annette felt the need to comment at this time.
"You know," Annette said, gazing at the tiny blinking cars far down below her. "Getting 'Brown' back would have sounded a lot better than getting 'Black' back."
Selena's dark blond hair danced lightly with the gentle breeze as she floated beside the seventeenth floor of the apartment, stationary. Behind her, a silent Annette and Malina followed. At this point, Annette half-expected Selena to respond to her bothersome comment. It was typical for Selena to do that. A while back, she even told Annette that she liked to argue. For a second, Annette considered asking Selena if she heard her, but decided instead to keep quiet and follow her friend to Ginny's house.
The mood of the night seemed to darken with every centimeter Selena traveled. Even though the street lamps and light sprinkles of cars prevented dark from taking over, Selena still shuddered at her own shadow as she made her way across an empty, silent street. Pausing at the three storey building in front of her, Selena turned around to watch her friends catch up to her. Malina had been following close behind and caught up to Selena within seconds. Annette, however, had lingered behind. Even in dream state, she was trailing at the back of the pack.
Disappointed, Selena crossed her arms. "You're a little slow, Annette," she said in a modest tone.
Malina stared at Selena as though her friend had gone completely insane. "A little slow?!" she exclaimed. "More like extremely slow to me."
Annette inhaled deeply before pushing her thick black hair aside to reveal a flustered face. "Sorry," she mumbled, ashamed to ruin things for a second time. "I'm not so used to this dream thing."
"Well, you better get used to it," Selena told Annette.
"Yeah," agreed Malina, jumping into the conversation. "I don't think we can slow down for any longer."
Rolling her eyes, Annette sighed exasperatedly as though travelling faster was a heavy burden. "Whatever," she replied unpleasantly, floating right past Malina and Selena to survey where they had stopped. Shrugging at each other, Malina and Selena quietly followed behind.
"So, this is where Ginny lives?" Annette asked bluntly. To her friends, she seemed upset about coming along on Selena's mission, and the fun had barely begun. Nonchalantly, Annette stared down the apartment with narrowed eyes, like a radar scanner trying to depict mayhem in the building. Many of the windows were covered by curtains, and the building was slightly tinted orange thanks to the light of the street lamps.
Selena shrugged. "I guess so," she responded to Annette's question. "I mean, I've only been to Ginny's house once."
"And that's more times than I've been to her house," grumbled Annette. "So, are we going in or not?"
As if in deep thought, Selena rubbed her chin. Her pale skin soon also became slightly orange as she sauntered over to Annette and faced her.
"Annette," Selena said gently, completely changing her tone of voice. "Maybe I ought to tell you something else about this whole 'dream thing' right now."
It took a long short moment before Annette finally looked back up at Selena. Her pointy eyebrows could have been an indication that she was listening, but then again, they always seemed to do that. Her narrowed brown eyes could be a sign of caution, Selena thought, but she decided to ignore this and take her chances.
"You know how other people sleep?"
Unsatisfied, Annette rolled her eyes. "I never would have guessed," she said sarcastically.
Selena quickly shook it off. "And probably, a good number of people have dreams, right?"
Annette's grim face was set in stone, but she answered, anyway. "Sure…" Her voice trailed off, awaiting continuation. Malina, on the other hand, seemed to catch on easily. Floating over to Selena, she eagerly supplied the rest of the words.
"There's a probability that someone will be wandering out here tonight!" Malina exclaimed.
"But they wouldn't see us…?" prompted Annette.
"Of course no one would be able to see us in dream form when they're awake!" Malina exclaimed. "But when some are asleep, their dreams could sometimes take them, well…here."
"Most people dream up of imaginary places or go off to Hawaii or whatever," Selena explained informatively. "This is why barely anyone is out here like us, wandering the streets."
"So, there could be potential danger…" Annette began.
"Well, people who are awake in their dreams may wonder why we're here," Selena replied.
"Will we have to hide ourselves?" Annette asked in a worried voice.
"Probably not," Selena answered. "Unless…" As her voice trailed off, her eyes widened, revealing large hazel circles surrounded by a milky white. Curious, Malina and Annette faced the direction she was staring in.
Just meters away, a tall man with a fairly large muscle buildup was wandering along the sidewalk. He paused for a moment as the three floating girls caught his eyes, their eyes widening at the sight of him.
"Hey!" the man yelled angrily. As he started toward Malina, Selena and Annette, his presence soon became familiar to Selena. When the angry man lunged forward with beefy biceps, the girls quickly dodged. All could now tell he was in the same state as they were: dream state.
"Malina! Annette!" Selena whispered loudly as the man turned around and began to charge in their direction. "Get Ginny and RUN!"