Heaven Gilded Zarcroft Hybrid

Seven

The living room swam in summer heat. At least the food stayed warm. Dorothy laid back in a sofa recliner, with me sitting on the arm. Jamie finished his food first, and pretended to use the old chunky remote on the bulky old TV. Theo laid his jacket on the couch and bathed in the moonlight from the window (along with his phone's flash and Jamie's flashlight.)

I finished my last bite of the meal. Pretty good, and I didn't mind not having any electricity for it. It was about time I did, anyway.

"This TV..." Jamie yawned. "This TV is from 1998. How is it even still working?"

"Really?" I perked up. "That's so cool! It's older than I am! Get it?"

Jamie smirked at me and looked back to the TV.

Theo sprung up. "1998? That's ancient!"

"I mean, I was born in 2003," Dorothy spoke for the first time in ages. "I'm not ancient. It's pretty recent."

Theo counted something on his fingers, raising an eyebrow. He shook his head and started over. "Nevermind. Wrong calendar."

Dori and I just stared at each other.

Lightning flashed in the window again. An electric blue. Something about this this time just looked... different. Richer. Bluer.

"That was weird," I said. "Hey, Theo, you're a genius. Why did it look like that?"

Theo giggled. "I dunno. Wanna find out?"

The words "Yeah, obviously!" danced on my tongue.

"No, it's okay," I sighed. "It's nothing. The sky's not going anywhere."

"Aww. Don't let Korey bring you down."

"Huh?" Dorothy looked up at me and rubbed my leg. "What happened with Korey?"

"It's nothing," I said and I felt her hand.

Jamie jumped to his feet and tossed the remote on the couch. "If it means getting out of this swamp, then I'm going."

He threw his sweatshirt back on.

"I wanna go too!" Dorothy clapped her hands, and set her bowl on the coffee table beside her.

"It's agreed upon," Theo announced, raising his hand in the air. "We'll leave our shelter for the natural world. As for you, Jack, hope you're not afraid of the dark."

"That's not unanimous," I retorted. "I didn't approve."

Creakkk!

I darted my eyes around the room. Just Jamie opening the living room door.

"Fine, I'll go." I jumped off the sofa arm. "But let's not stay out there for too long."

The backyard couldn't have looked more haunted. Besides the light of Theo's phone, trees and flowers twisted and morphed in the shadows. Half of the grass drowned in water, and wet leaves drifted from above.

Right away, I spotted a marine glow in a bed of sunflowers. They say under the biggest tree in the yard, next to the table of crows. I bowed down to study it. The dust colored the raindrops, especially in the small light of the moon.

Interesting. I held out my hand to catch some water in it. Blue. Just plain, electric blue.

Theo reached down to pick one of the flowers.

"It's everywhere," I mentioned. "The dust is in the rain."

"It's funny, kinda," Theo said. "Flowers usually die in heavy storms. Trees don't. They're invincible unless you cut them down. I'm surprised the grass is even alive."