Emily lay on her bed thinking all night, she found it hard to fall asleep with the best friend-stealing cube in her room.
She grunted and turned again on her side, but that didn’t make anything better.
She huffed and finally took a position on her back with her hands on either sides of her body.
She snapped when her hand hit something cold and hard on the side of her bed.
She picked it up and saw it was the cube.
She groaned and rolled her eyes, wanting to drop it back but hesitated for a moment.
She brought the cube closer to her so she could see it better and rolled one of its sides, and she muttered “Jordie would be so mad I’m shuffling you…” She stared at the cube in silence as she cautiously switched the side back and forth, making sure Jordan’s work was not ruined, “What does Jordie see in a toy like you anyway?” She asked quizzically.
She rotated the cube in her hands to examine it more closely “You don’t have eyes or arms or legs like a real toy…” “And your puzzle pieces are funny” she snorted, twisting a side.
“Why would grandma give you to me?
I never said I like…
toys like you” Emily was quiet, then fury rushed through her veins once again and she slammed the cube on her bed, “Especially best friend stealing toys like you!” She huffed.
Emily crossed her legs on her bed, and sat there in anger for what felt like thirty whole minutes.
“If I talked to Jordie…
could I make him stop playing with you so much?” She looked down at her fingers and nervously played with them “I miss telling Jordie all the stories grandma told me.
I had someone to share my stories with…
you…” It was foolish and dumb of her to talk to a box-shaped object that could not hear her or even speak, and even more foolish to bond with her enemy, but she felt lonely, and desperate, and it wasn’t the first time she’s talked to something with no life.
When she was younger, she could talk to her grandma all she wanted and her grandmother loved to hear her, every word.
Now, she was dead, and Emily, who had no friends, found her toys to be more alive than she had thought them to be, and she let her imagination take over her.
“You like stories?” She asked quietly, as though hoping to hear a response.
“So DO you wanna hear a story?” She asked after a while of silence.
Suddenly, as though unlocked with a key, the cube glowed and all the other colors apart from the color white, which was already solved on one side, disappeared, no where to be seen.
Emily’s eyes widened and she panicked, “Oh no!
What have I done!
I didn’t mean to break you!
Jordie will be so mad!
Mom will be so mad at me!!!
No.
No!” Emily suddenly scooped the cube up in her hands and she was immediately swooped in, like a portal.
Emily felt like she was being pulled and stretched beyond her limit by an invisible thread, feeling squashed and stretched under the rugs of the strings on her limbs.
It almost felt painful to her, but all she could feel was fear.
She let out a high pitched scream until she was finally relieved of the awful feeling.
She slowly opened her eyes, taking a large deep breath and they lit up the instant they saw what was before her.
On the bare, dry ground she stood on, which was elevated high enough to her advantage, was a large and beautiful kingdom, with houses made from the sand, bricks and hay.
The nighttime cause everyone who was supposed to be buzzing around busily, to be inside each one of their small cozy houses, putting on their lights which gave Emily a beautiful scenery to look at.
A castle, was based at the farthest part of the kingdom, she could tell from where she stood, it looked much sturdier than all the other houses, but it looked to be falling apart none-the-less.
It stood tall and proud as though whoever stood at the top were watching over the people down below.
Emily boldly took a step and she ran down the hill to the gates of the kingdom, clutching firmly to the cube, which was still glowing.
As she got nearer to the gates, she saw that it was locked, supposedly supposed to be protected by guards, who were surprisingly absent.
Emily huffed, she could hear slight noises and some music coming from inside of the city.
She wanted to call for help, for anyone to come open up the gates, but decided against it last minute.
Instead, she climbed the walls of the sandy gates, step by step with her bare feet.
She fell many times, but after her enduring efforts, she got to the top of the wall.
“Woah!
So cool…” Indeed, the sight right before her very eyes was even more spectacular.
Aside from the cozy buildings illuminated by the stars, fireflies and their own lights, there were people here after all, in the middle of the large kingdom, or city if we be more accurate, were strange people dancing amongst themselves, and laughing.
There seemed to be a festival going on there, and Emily, being Emily, wanted to join the fun.
The jumped down and fell to the floor with a loud thud, and a groan.
She heard a voice yelp from the house nearby.
“Who could that be at such a time…” a voice grumbled, and suddenly, the light inside their house moved, like they were carrying a flashlight along.
Emily’s heart jumped and her first instinct was to run and hide.
She heard a loud weird noise, followed by sniffing and grunting, “Let’s go back, Gavin.
Might just be another kid that kicked their balls too hard” The sniffing was getting closer and closer to the barrel Emily hid behind.
She quietly turned to peek, but that was a big mistake.
“Growf!
Grrroouwf!” The creature made a sound somewhat similar to the barking of a normal dog, yet so disgruntled and overpowered by its snarling noises.
“What?
Did you find something?” The man walked over to where Emily was hiding and shone his source of light over where she was hiding.
“Now, would you look at that…”