Night wonders

Laura laid in bed unable to sleep, she counted sheep, she looked outside and counted trees, but alas she still could not sleep.

She heard a knock at the bottom of her bed, she tilted her head and looked into the deep abyss. Her long brown fringe covering her eyes. Two golden eyes parted the dark. Her head quickly retreated out of fright.

Moments later her curiosity peaked, she slowly lowered her head for a second peek. She inched closer and closer to the ground, till her body rolled out of bed and with a small thud she hit the wooden floor, head first. “Ouch”

“Laura, are you all right dear?” It was her mother from the next room over.

“Yeah, just dropped something,” she reassured as she massaged her injury-stricken head.

“Ok, dear, make sure to get some sleep, you’ve got school tomorrow.”

If only her mother knew how much she had been trying. But now for the matter at hand. With her palms planted on the ground and her head lowered and extending, she crawled in under the bed. It felt weird, mysterious, could It just be a trick of the mind?

She was ready to dismiss it as an illusion, when furry paws ran up her fingers. She jumped again, hitting her head on the base of the bed. “Ouch, Ouch,” a scream so loud her mother surely heard her.

“Laura, what is going on there?”

“Nothing mum.”

“Are you sure? I’m coming in to check.”

“No, no, no, its fine I promise.”

“Ok, just go to bed right now young lady.”

“Yes mam.”

She was now free to investigate, in a series of high flicker, the golden lights returned, like shutters in a camera, the eyes photographed her. She extended her arms forward and felt long fury bunny like ears. Before she could get a hold of it, it slipped under her grasp and ran off down a tunnel in the dark. How is this possible, there was nothing but a wall in that direction? No time for logic, she chased after it, crawling into the cave, uncertain of where the light begins.

The tunnel was just big enough for her 8-year-old body, ahead of her the fast pitter patter of the creature’s feet. She quickened her pace, and there in the distance, a glimmer of light. The silhouette of whatever it was now visible. It looked like a black bunny, it’s coat shimmering like gems in the light, with even bigger ears that extended past its chunky body. The creature leaped off the edge.

When she got to the end, the mouth of the tunnel gave out under her weight. She fell for what seemed to be an endless drop, a bright orange yellow all around her. She screamed and flailed her hands, until she slid down a slide. She entered the slope and looped out the other side, then gravity brought her back down and she settled in the middle of the curve.

When she got over the excitement and looked below her to see where she sat, she could see she was sitting atop a face, a face attached to a crescent moon, it was a crescent moon with a face smiling at her.

The moon began to sway back and forth, she tried to hold on but eventually the momentum caused her to lose her balance. She again dropped for a bit, but this time she met a landing, a soft landing to her relief. She bounced of it. She was standing on a cloud. It was so soft and warm, and It was bouncy, really bouncy. She bounced on it for a while, going higher which each repetition. As she descended ready to be thrown in the air, instead of bouncing, she began to sink, like quick sand, the cloud swallowed her bit by bit.

When she was ejected into the other side, it was partially dark, once her eyes refocused, she could see the door of her bedroom, the words Laura in sparkly pink. She crawled out and ironed her bunny printed pyjamas, now all too tired from her night full of wonders.

She rested her head on the bed, and put her hands to her lips, like a log in the ocean, she swiftly drifted to sleep.