Jeff was lying in bed.
He scratched his face slightly, at an odd sensation on his cheek. He was dreaming again. He knew he was. He sighed a bit as he wondered around the void. What a boring dream. 'Well best wake up,' he thought. All he had to do was find a mirror. That's all he had to do to wake up. This trick worked every time.
So he wondered about the dream, looking for that mirror. There were strange lights floating around him. He recognised them as mini iridescent suns. Like rainbow-fireflies, moving in circles around him in confusing patterns.
"Where is that mirror," he said. "I need to get out of here before one of these suns change me." He was determined to leave now. He had to get out of here.
Now all these strange lights were acting like a hive. They moved following him, maintaining the same distance. It didn't matter if Jeff ran, or walked, they were always around him. Jeff decided it was time to attack. These things were dangerous. A threat. He had to fight. So he punched and kicked at the swarm, as each strange sun-mote split into two, becoming smaller and smaller with each attack.
Now it was just a dust, a strange rainbow dust, scattered around. He felt himself panic even more as he tried to find that mirror. With all this colourful fog, it was going to be harder to find now. The rainbow fog felt like it was going inside his lungs. He was breathing it in. He glanced down holding his hand, as the strange lights burrowed into his hands and flesh. It was not painful at all, just very strange as it tingled inside him.
The young teen looked at the rainbow fog, as it suddenly all just rushed into him, in a sudden blaze of light. He gasped feeling himself reeling. As soon as the rainbow lights cleared away, he saw his goal. The mirror, to get him out of this weird dream.
All he had to do was look at his reflection.
His reflection...
His....
Jeff woke up briefly, at the weird dream. He must have been still slightly dreaming though, as he swore he saw a little rainbow light in his vision. A brief moment and it was gone though. He settled back into bed.
Belle's family took their daughter's new state... reasonably well.
Reasonably well.
The little clockwork girl couldn't help but feel they were treating her like she was an egg shell. She couldn't help being so small. It was a bit strange, their family dog didn't really know what to make of her either.
She knew people saw her boyfriend as bad news. Even Ricky did. It was true, they did kind of have a weird relationship. Still, she believed he meant well. Even if people thought the worst of him.
Well... all over now. She hoped Jeff was okay. She heard he had left early. Maybe she should give him a call-
Oh great, and now she had wound down. She still did not have the feel for knowing how much time she had at each winding. At least she was on the living room table. She ticked away, recharging slowly. Strangely, she didn't feel any panic. She wondered if that was normal or not. The only person she could ask to compare experiences was Ricky. It was... weird to think that boy was now like a larger version of her own particular change. A girl now to boot. She hoped they could become friends.
Why did they both change like this?
Rover, their dog, was now in view of the tiny clockwork girl. 'uh oh,' she thought. The dog sniffed her, and she wasn't quite sure what to do. Nothing she could do. It wasn't acting in a threatening way, but it was very perplexed.
"Shoo Shoo!" shouted her mother suddenly.
The dog whined, and ran off.
Belle's mother looked to her daughter concerned. "Honey? Do you need winding?"
Belle tried to talk but she couldn't. She was quite happy to be recharging slowly though. She tried to move to show she was okay, but her sharp motions caused her mother to go into a small panic, as she picked her up and tried to wind her the 'wrong' way around. Realising her mistake she quickly did it the right way.
Each click on Belle's back felt so... so strange to her. She felt something so delicate inside her tighten with potential energy, allowing her to move and speak again as gears turned into motion. Finally, with the spring released, she could move. "Thanks mom. But I was like- okay really." she hated to see her worry. She always worried.
Her mother shook her head. "Sweetheart, you have to be careful. Are... you in any pain?"
Belle shook her head, with even more clicking at the motion. It was hard to describe but... she actually felt okay? She was in no pain, not in the way it could be felt by humans. Sometimes she would feel discomfort, but it would be easily corrected. Her hands her arms, her body was just a delicate, well tuned instrument. "I feel fine mom. I'm sorry I opened the window," she said softly.
Her mother sighed. "What's done is done. I'm... I'm sorry too. I should have looked after you better." She said hugging the little clockwork girl.
"Mom- I'm fine." she said protesting a little. Everyone always said that.
Her mother was unconvinced. "I think we may have to get rid of the dog too." she said a little saddened.
"Don't get rid of Rover!" She cried out suddenly. "He's just confused."
"A confused animal dear. I don't want him to pick you up and bury you in the garden like one of his bones." She said glancing to the dog with concern. "Let's see how things go for now... but we'll have to be careful."
Anneza wasn't sure what this new job would entail, other then that she was working for a media company again. She brought her camera. Maybe could be a camera man? Or... girl rather.
She had the advert in her hand, and went into the reception area. People.. .stared at her, when they realised her feet were not touching the ground. Being here, in an office environment again though... Why was she shivering? Yet also, this place was supposed to be comfortable. Damn it, why was the void of space more comfortable then her old office environment?
"Hello, how may we help you?" asked the receptionist to the strange girl.
Anneza blinked slightly, then showed the advert hoping it would explain.
The receptionist smiled. "Ah yes. Just join the others over there."
Anezza blinked again.
"There dear, over there." she said pointing. "Oh and fill out this form with your details."
Anneza took the form and was handed a pen. Uh... oh... she felt herself tense a bit. She was just trying to find out what the job was about, not 'apply' for it straight away. Maybe one of those in the other group could help her. If someone knew sign language maybe, she could get the information from them. She floated into the direction, as yet more people stared at her.
A group with about eight other girls were seated. All young, and different transformed people. Though all of them took a gasp when they saw Anneza, and each sat on a little table. It looked like a group exam? They had their forms on their desks, writing. A skill the space girl lacked at the moment.
Another person came into the room with a smile. She must be the tester? She had a number of boxes. She greeted them all, then placed a box on each table. Anneza recognised it was an address of some kind. The woman then gestured to a clock, and started a timer.
Each person got up and took their boxes in a hurry. Anneza realised it was some sort of test? The person seemed surprised that Anneza was still there. "You should hurry dear! Whoever gets there first gets the job."
Anneza tried to use sign language on her.
"Oh... you... you're deaf dear?" asked the other girl concerned. "I'm not sure the job is right fo-" then she realised anneza was floating. She gasped just a bit. "You... you can fly?" If she could fly... then... she should be given some kind of chance. She pointed at the box "Hold on, I'm going to print off a map for you."
The girl went to a computer, and printed off a map with a cross on it.
Annneza looked at the paper, then at her box. Oh! So she was supposed to deliver it? She pointed at the box, then at the map.
"Yes that's right dear. Just take the box to this house. Whoever gets there first gets to be our bosses sun-assistant. He's an unchanged you see. Just go! Go get there as fast as you can."
Anneza took the parcel, and flew off with the map.
This should be really easy, if she understood it correctly.
