Borealis Fourteen - Nonsense, I'm Losing My Mind.

     Waves crashed onto the crushed diamond sand of the snow bleached beach, and snow flakes disintegrated with an ambiguous indifference that almost passed for normal weather. Erstwhile, the grass near the edge of the shore shown brightly with an effervescence of pearl and pleated globules, now gone dull, roundly unpleated, and purpley creme. Common perception defied itself, and Aurora sighed at the deep blue dome of weirdly blue sky above, glittered, though it was, with rubied bricks so far off as far could probably see.
     Oh, each step brought with it a silent cacophony ridiculous to the ears of those of whom no one used to hear. Aurora certainly didn't. She could not refrain, as though she was wont to do so oftenly so, from forcing her eyes to perceive the sky, how it encased her and bribed her soul into ignorant, puffy, and sandy solace. What was freedom but caged death in an open field, or, in this case, a closed beach?
     "What do you want from me?" Aurora asked, crying and laughing. "My body hurts. It bleeds internal, and I can't talk properly. Please, go say something! No one can hear me!"
     Five waves arched up and swirled at the beach. The water formed a tent tightly coned around Aurora's brain, and fire seeped out of its peaked mouth, the cone, not the brain. Although, Aurora's brain did burn as it ticked, clocking and quieting away at the bruises that surreality left at it. The girl felt drunk like a fog filled with shadows and pops, echoes and wants.
     Today was the day that the Lord had made. Quintessential, though it was, to imperfection that the day may exist. Aurora wanted gone. Pummels had pummeled her beach into submission, and water felt like falling in a desert, the winding so windy in the cold arches of city.
     "Girl hopes!" Aurora whisperdly yelled. "Girled hopes! Away, hold me! Blonde of hair hurt me! Protecting me? Hurt me!"
     The beach felt as though to be flying through the air, though nothing was different once the cone had come and gone. Waves crashed as they did before, and each color enhanced the calming ruby blue sky above. The grasses returned to its glows of jagged or flat globules. The world was calming down, and the beach was beginning to show the sky, the normal one. Sand became concrete, and bricks became buildings that stretched down from the heavens.
     A blonde girl bent over Aurora, face over face. "Good morning, my doll," she said. "At least, that's what my mother used to say."

Borealis Eleven - Look at Me

     Fatigue soon overcame Ember, leaving her helpless to the tugs of sleep.
     Yellow closed her eyes, and yellow opened her dreams. Swirls flew everywhere. Swirls flew everywhere, and she fell, curving and banking against artificial lines of purple and beige. Tunnels ripped open from the nothing-- and she slid away from the somethings she feared. Light blinded and darkness caressed. Colors shouted their anger while Ember lit out her fire. All was burned, yet all did not. And pillars were not friends to no one but themselves. Even so, tears ran down the cheek of the girl who emitted fantasy. No safes could fail, and no danger could when...
     Ember suddenly woke up with a headache. The yellow smog that had surrounded her before appeared to have gone away, replaced by black. She could tell it was still there, however, as it was still hard to breath, and her eyes were stinging more than they had been before she had fallen asleep. From what she could tell, the city's lights had switched off, which probably meant that sunrise was not far off, she figured. Feeling around the darkness, Ember found Aurora, fast asleep as ever.
     "That doesn't do me any good," Ember said to herself. She massaged her forehead some, hoping it would help her headache. "At least I could see a little when the lights were on."
     Ember was starting to regret ever leaving the safety of her secret room. All of this could have been avoided if she had just stayed put. She was a foreigner in this world, and she had no idea how she was ever going to escape it at this rate. And, really, her plan had been simple: Go outside. Find the girl. Find out where the girl had found the champagne. Take the girl inside and see what she could do there. It was simple. How had it gotten so complex, she wondered.
     Ember rested her head in her hands. "I should have thought this through more," she said. "I can't even see my arms."
     Nothing responded to the girl's complaints except silence. There was something wrong with that, Ember realized. As far as she could remember, the city had been filled with constant noise ever since she had first set foot outside. Now, it was so quiet that she felt like she was back inside the city's walls.
     Silence. Then a click.
     Ember looked up. In the distance, she could see two green lights. There was another click, and the lights disappeared. Before she could stand up, the green lights came back on, this time without a click. They were closer. They looked like eyes. Then, off they went again. Aurora stirred in her sleep. Ember jumped and turned toward the unexpected sound beside her.
     Silence.
     A footstep.
     Ember snapped her head in the direction of the newest sound. Again, she saw green eyes, perfect circles. This time only a few feet away from her.