The Pond Of Flowers

Four, And Back Again

And then Elliana woke up.

She groaned to herself. This was the dream she had been having over and over again. It started last week. The dream had ended, she had gone to bed. When she woke up, she was sure it had happened anyway. Then the next night, she had the same dream but with a few tweaks.

The dream had come on repeat, with small changes each time. The transportation changed, from teleportation to suction cups to of course, the grappling hooks. The grappling hooks were the most common, but after some research, Elliana realized that was in fact not how grappling hooks worked, she had just seen too many cartoon spy movies as a child. Rebecca's name changed, but only once, and it changed to Taylor, which made sense considering Elliana had fallen asleep humming a Taylor Swift song. And Stacy and Emily being a part of the dream was new.

Nowadays, Elliana could never tell when she was awake or asleep. She did a pinch check, then checked the date in her head. It was still her birthday.

Suddenly, she sat straight up. It was Wednesday. The ordeal happened on Wednesday. If the whole thing wasn't a dream, then Jason would be coming back. Tonight. She shook Emily awake.

"What?" Emily groaned.

"I have something to tell you." Elliana said.

"Can't it wait another seven hours for us to wake up?" Emily asked.

Elliana considered this, until she heard talking. Stacy was still asleep, and she and Emily weren't talking. Elliana went pale white. They were here.

"Do you hear that?" Emily asked.

"It's them." Elliana said.

"Who? Ellie, are you-" Emily started.

She was interrupted by the entrance of Jason and Alex, and who Elliana decided were Ian and Rebecca. Emily screamed.

"What's going on?" Stacy asked, her eyes still closed as she sat up.

Emily shoved Stacy and Elliana behind her. "I've watched a lot of professional boxing with my brother! When I attack you you're going to wish you never woke up in the morning! I suggest you run!" Emily yelled.

"Emily, stop." Elliana said.

"What?" Emily asked.

"What's going on?" Stacy repeated.

"Jason! You said she wouldn't tell anyone!" Rebecca said.

"I thought she wouldn't! Plus, it's probably fine." Jason said.

"Who's the she you're talking about?" Emily asked.

"Me." Elliana said.

"What?" Stacy and Emily yelled.

"Should we give you a minute or something?" Jason asked.

"It's fine." Elliana said, turning to face Stacy and Emily. "So, a week ago, they came to me looking for help. They live in a pond and people want to build there. They need help, and so I volunteered."

"They live at a pond?" Stacy asked, at the same time as Emily asked, "You helped random strangers?"

"It took some convincing, yes, but they're genuine. And yes Stacy, they do live in a pond." Elliana said.

"Because they're sea creatures." Emily said. She pointed at all of them. "Alligator, crab, electric eel, frog. They went through some kind of genetic manipulation or something."

Everyone looked at her, stunned.

"How did you know?" Jason asked.

"You guys know how some nights I have trouble sleeping and I stay awake for a few hours?" Emily said.