Somnia Moon

Chapter 1: New Reality

The first thing Alex heard as she phased back into consciousness was the cheerful chirping of birds outside her bedroom window. She snuggled deeper under her duvet, her own little cocoon of warmth, and found herself wondering in that nonsensical way that one does after waking whether the birds were actually singing to one another or merely talking. She liked birds. She loved how graceful they were as they glided through the air, how carefree they seemed as they soared through the clouds. Their singing was relaxing. Therapeutic, almost. It differed greatly from the constant roaring of traffic she had grown accustomed to in the few months she had spent at her new apartment.

She frowned, eyes still closed. Traffic. Why couldn't she hear the traffic? Her apartment was located on the bottom floor adjacent to a busy London street. She was always greeted by the growling of engines and honking of horns in the morning, never birdsong. In fact, she was pretty sure she had never even seen a bird in the surrounding area, let alone heard one. So why could she hear them now?

Something just...didn't seem right. She felt as though there was something important she was forgetting, something so, so important, but she just couldn't remember what. Alex lay there for a while longer, snuggled under the duvet that she was beginning to suspect was not her own, unease creeping slowly up her body until she couldn't handle it anymore and was forced to open her eyes. Just as she suspected, the ceiling she was gazing up at was not one she had any previous recollection of – and then it hit her. Gunfire. Screaming. People, her friends, falling down around her. The feeling of a bullet penetrating her skin...

Alex sat bolt upright, her light brown eyes wide and panicked. The bed she had been sleeping in was situated in the corner of a large room that was made entirely out of wood, next to a window overlooking a dense forest. She had absolutely no idea how she had got here, especially after...

"Ah! You're awake!" a voice said from the corner of the room. Alex glanced in the direction of the voice and noticed for the first time the strange figure perched on a chair reading a leather-bound book. It was like nothing she had ever seen before – and that was saying something, as Alex had seen all manner of strange things in the past few months. It had a perfectly round head, and was gazing at her with wide, spherical, and completely black eyes. The suit it wore was old-fashioned, and reminded her of something a pirate might have worn. It was incredibly slim, so much so that it looked almost like a skeleton, and it wore a top hat on its bald head.

Alex glared at the creature, her brain struggling to comprehend what was happening. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess; she had so many questions competing against one another to be the first asked that she was finding it difficult to form a coherent thought. She opened her mouth, about to ask where she was, but before she could say anything she decided it might be better to ask who the creature was first. She closed her mouth again, unsure what to say.

"Hi." she said, after an uncomfortably long pause.

"Hello! Now, I understand that you may be quite shocked at seeing a creature as strange as I, but I must assure you that -"

"I've seen stranger things." Alex interrupted. The creature looked slightly taken aback.

"Oh...well, that does make my job slightly easier!" it smiled, a smile that displayed only one, sharp tooth jutting out on the right, like a vampire fang.

"Um... what – um, where am I?" Alex asked, finally deciding on a question.

"Welcome, my friend, to Illuminae, a quite town on the eastern side of Somnia Moon, a few miles south from The Freedom Complex. You are welcome to stay as long as needed. I do hope you like it here!"