FLOATING LIGHTS

The night passed lightly in the open world, with its stars and dews and perfumes. The wine-blue sky was bubbling with stars and Melody's mind started to become filled with her past memories.... wondering how she arrived at Paris even though she was supposed to be at Istanbul. She was going down her memory lane of all of the hard times she always had to face from the moment she has set foot into this small world full of wonder and guilt. Why was she not loved or seen by anyone? Was she not worthy to be anything she wanted to be? Did she not deserved her parents love?

Her brain became crowded with thousand of unanswered questions and remembering one by one of them started to depress her that she had no other choice but to sob lightly with her face pressed hardly on her pillows.

"Melody is everything alright....? Asked Sophie her one and only companion.

"Yeah....yeah everything's great. Why would anything be wrong? You're great, I'm great, everything's just completely okay. And you should be asleep right now. Its really late...." Melody said all of those things in a haste.

It was 5 o'clock in the morning. The whole town was covered in a curtain of fog. The dews on the leaves reflected like a mirror...and minutes later the atmosphere started to take a sinister turn. Shadows started to dance in the open fields between the mist and welcoming the gloomy morning in a graceful way.

Melody slowly got up from bed while keeping herself wrapped in her blankets...and being completely clueless about when she felt asleep last night. Sophie was still in bed, showing her little smirk and also drooling.

"New day, new beginnings, new hopes..." Melody kept saying to herself.

"Good morning..." said Sophie after a while, yawning.

"You got up early today."

"Yeah.. Got some assignments to finish before I go to college."

Something was going on with Melody but she just couldn't fathom the courage to express those feelings to the person closest to her. Her angelic smile was missing and her jolly sensation was lost. Her face looked pale as white chalk and tears were still rolling down her pink cheeks. She was just somehow trying to hold them back on the edges of her moistening eyes. She suddenly preoccupied herself in her work and hiding her face from Sophie.

But Sophie on the other hand became quite worried about her. She hasn't seen her in this state for a long time. She felt herself strangled by some undefined agony that she couldn't do anything to cheer the person she loves the most in the whole entire world, and more importantly was curious to know what was going on.

"Okay.. maybe some of her favorite foods on breakfast might gladden her up a bit.." Said Sophie to herself being perplexed.

She lighted up the stove and started making some chicken and waffles one of Melody's favorite foods. The tantalizing aroma of that delicious food soon started to waft through the entire kitchen.

"Alright. I will be hitting the road now... hang on.... what's that amazing smell coming from the kitchen? Sophie are you making chicken and waffles?"

"Yep!! One of your absolute favorites."

"Always finding a way to keep my spirits up huh?"

Sophie giggled.

They enjoyed the breakfast together but Sophie was becoming quite disappointed when she turned around to look at Melody. She was still despondent as before. Something was definitely up.

Melody finished her breakfast and left the table without saying another word and immediately took off in the next minute. Sophie was quite rather surprised by her behavior and still remained in the table in despair. She looked at the calendar and was immediately taken aback when she noticed the date.

It was 31st of December the exact date Melody ran away from home about 10 years ago to live her own life. To start something new at Paris, to forget about her parents who always tortured her for her every single silly mistake she made; mistakes that were completely pointless.

"She must be feeling very dejected right now.." Sophie said to herself.

But that's not it, Melody thought that running away would be the best result for her but she didn't think that she would still have to face with bullies on her every single path. Always teasing her, throwing her books in the dustbin, spilling water on her head. It was just too much to bear. She just couldn't take it anymore. She wanted to run away, run away from every single thing and never see any other people's face ever again.

At lunch, while Melody was digging herself into a book there came the single-minded troublemaker and also a liar Serena Bagshove one of Melody's nemesis. She put her hands on the table with a loud thud, and her eyes were filled with rage. And Melody on the other hand was trying her very best not to be afraid of her. But all of a sudden Serena's lips curved into a wicked smirk and she started talking politely but also in a threatening way.

"Well well..... Isn't it the doofus lurking at my spot?"

"What do you want?" Melody said being panicked.

"Ha! You already know what do I want Rose!"

"Get off from my sit before I throw you off from the chair."

"But I got here first dumbass!!!!!!" Melody said in defense.

But a few seconds later she was just regretting herself. Why did she said it? Why did she just not got up from there? She knew that she was in huge trouble right now. Hey heart was pounding against her ribs. Beads of perspiration started to trickle down from the side of her face. And a shiver of apprehension ran down her spine.....

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALLED ME???!!"

"OHH! SO YOU WANT TO PLAY RIGHT NOW HUH?"

"ALRIGHT THAN! LET'S PLAY!"

Serena picked up Melody by her shirt's collar and in the next minute she just threw a large splash of water on her. The whole cafeteria broke into a loud gale of laughter.

"This is what happens when you mess up with me! Got it!" Serena hissed into Melody's ears.

Melody ran away from that hideous scene as fast as her legs could carry her and went straight home. She promptly went into her room, and locked herself in. And started crying at the top of her lungs, she was crying all evening. After a while Sophie knocked on Melody's door and she came out, drying her tears with her sleeves.

"You okay?" Sophie asked gently.

"No....." There was still a crack in Melody's voice as she talked.

"Serena did something terrible with me...again... and as usual I couldn't protect myself.."

"Oh...umm....that's really heartbreaking. Say...uhhh. Do you mind coming outside with me for a while. I want to show you something."

Both of them walked outside towards the crystal lake. The dim opalescence of the moon was shining on it. And from a far distant a sparkling light was rising up into the sky. Melody moved a bit further to scrutinize it, and saw that it was a lantern floating gracefully in the sky. Soon the whole sky became filled with thousands of them lifting the fog away and turning it into a mesmerizing and rememberable view.

" Its really beautiful isn't it?"

"Yes. Very beautiful.."

"Thought that this might cheer you up a bit and will show you that happiness can still be found.."

"Only if you remember to turn on the light." Melody finished Sophie's sentence.

"Happy new year Mel"

"Happy new year Soph."

"Let's just hope that this new year begins with a wonderful start."

Both of them smiled at each other and embraced into a hug with happy tears tricking down their faces.

Thanks a lot for your patient reading. If you like this story, please give me a tip and a heart for sure as a gesture of encouragement.