Fireboy And Watergirl

Chapter 1

Fiona

Insomnia's a gruelling burden, I thought as my head glanced at the clock. It was 2.37am in the morning and my brain had officially stopped functioning. I was lying in bed aimlessly, excruciatingly waiting for the time to pass by and for myself to fall asleep. I knew I should be at least trying to fall asleep, but it never came naturally to me, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how tired I was that day. My sleep was always limited to a few hours per day, and I would be using the to function for approximately 20 hours of the day. It was an endless cycle.

I never knew what it was when I was younger, so I always assumed it was normal to not fall asleep after lying in bed for so long. My mind would always wander during these times, so because of this, I eventually came to have a more wider imagination than other kids my age at that point of time. My mind adapted to always keep wandering, so the most random of things would take me to my own universe, where anything was possible.

Vivid imagination leads to vivid dreams too, I've noticed in myself over the years. My dreams were never realistic. Some of them would be based off experiences or other things that I've seen in real life, but they were never incidents that were humanely possible in reality. It's said that dreams are a result of our suppressed thoughts, although I don't know how true that is. It is cool to speculate your dreams for the sake of it though. What you completely don't know about could be the most interesting thing you've ever stumbled upon.

The people around me would always scold me for having my head in the clouds. My best friends, my parents, they all knew how often I really paid attention to all the details around me. Which was honestly quite rare. They always told me how it would cost me a lot someday. As much as I know it will, I can't help but shirk off their warnings. I've been this way for as long as I remember, there's no way I can change it after so many years.

After all, why would you stay in reality when there's a world out there that's so much better?

Even though the world's just in your head.

~~~

Somewhere in the night, I found myself underwater. As I pried open my eyes, everything was fuzzy, and all I could hear was the splashing of water. I looked down at myself in the water, but I didn't see myself at all. Everything was blue. My legs, my dress, my hands, even my hair. It was like I was one with the water.

The splashing behind me started becoming more louder and furious. When I turned around, all I could see was red. It was literally a person made up of flames. His eyes were a bright burning red, but they looked dimmer than usual. That was when I realised what was wrong.

If he was fire, then he shouldn't be under the water, I thought as I furiously swam towards him. but before I could reach him, I saw his eyes slowly start to droop. His entire body started losing its colour. As I finally reached him, I tried to bring him above the water, but before I could, his eyes had completely closed and he had stopped moving. His fire was completely gone, and there was only grey left.

My mouth opened and I could feel myself screaming, but I was underwater. Nobody could hear a thing.

~~~

And that was the moment when I woke up. I was sweating all over from the dream. It was like I was actually drenched in real life too. I let my head fall back on my pillow after noticing that the time was 4.36am.

It was time for another restless night.

~~~

After what seemed like an eternity, dawn finally struck. I showered and went downstairs to eat breakfast where I saw my housekeeper, Emmaline Andrews, and my mom.

"Hey Emma, hi mom", I said as I sat down on the table and started eating breakfast. They both mumbled a "hey" back and continued on with what they were doing. I didn't miss their worried looks though. My sleeping pattern somehow became a taboo topic ever since I was officially diagnosed with Insomnia.

They could see that I looked tired, but they never mentioned a word. Neither did my dad. It often bothers me. It wasn't really worth all that trouble. If they were not going to talk about it and clear the issue, it would just worry them even more.

After eating, I went out into the backyard and laid down, staring at the sky. The garden had somehow become my safe haven over this summer break. I love nature, and being surrounded at it made me feel at ease. I should try sleeping here sometime, I thought. I'd probably have a good sleep here.

"Crap, summer break ends in a week.", I mumbled out loud to myself. I would only have this for a but more time. After that, it was time to go back to school for senior year. I was doomed for finals. My grades were okay, but all that studying would just kill me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a white piece of paper hanging from a branch on the single tree in the garden. It wasn't too high up, but it was high enough that I could not reach without climbing the tree.

Bracing myself, I had started to climb the tree to get the piece of paper. It had been quite a few years since I had climbed a tree. But I was glad I had learned to do so at some point.

Lucky enough, I climbed the tree without falling, and successfully grabbed the note before getting down and reading the note. It said:

Rip me apart
Into two halves
And I'll tear through your universe
Leaving on your life an unerasable scar
Your wildest dreams will come true
And you'll live a life anew

It was pretty simple actually. I thought these kind of poems would have some complex riddle system which was impossible to solve, but this one went straight to the point. Under the poem was a foreign-looking symbol that I had not seen before. I assume this was what I was supposed to cut in half.

What actually worried me was the second part of the poem. It looks like I was about to do some life changing action. "Your wildest dreams will come true". I wonder what that meant. Will everything that I ever dreamt of come true? We all have dreams, so many goals, will I achieve all of those?

My heart started beating furiously. I wanted to cut this symbol as soon as I can. I wanted to see what would happen next. I slipped the paper into my pocket and ran up the stairs into my room. I grabbed the scissors on my table and sat on the bed, proceeding to cut the symbol carefully into half.

Once I was done, there was a brilliant white light. I closed my eyes to avoid being temporarily blinded. My hair stood on its end, nervous to see what would happen next.

What would be there in front of me when I finally opened my eyes.