The Kingdom Sleeps

Luke opened his eyes, which did no good, for it seemed to be darker when he had them open. He took a step forward into the darkness. This did nothing but make him wonder what he was standing on. It sounded like glass, but it felt like nothing. How could it be nothing, though?

He reaches down to touch the ground beneath his feet, but his hand passes right through it.

“Woah,” Luke exclaimed.

He stood up and tried to regain his balance. He stood completely still and held his breath to try to listen for anyone's footsteps.

“Hello?” Luke called. Only his echo answered him.

All of a sudden, the nothingness that was beneath his feet diminished, and he fell. His screams echoed around him, making them seem even louder. A voice whispers through the darkness, getting louder by the second.

Before long, his curiosity takes over, and he fights his fear of falling to stop screaming. The voice was still to quiet to completely understand, but Luke began to pick out words until he realized that whatever was being said was being repeated.

The sweet female voice finally grew to a volume loud enough to fully understand. It said:

“The Kingdom will sleep, If nothing is done

I must do my part and choose the one

I choose you

You're the one, you must fight this war

And if you are to fail this task

Our Kingdom will be no more

Don't let them in, don't let them win

For if you do, the sleep will begin”

The voice faded, and Luke's surroundings seemed to grow even darker as he began to fall faster. Another voice spliced through the darkness, and the air rushing past Luke's falling body seemed to grow chillingly cold.

The new voice was very dark, and it evilly laughed. The laughter started off slow and deep. The more Luke fell, the louder and more shrill the laughter became.

A chill races down Luke's spine and he opens his mouth to scream.

* ~ * ~ *

Luke sat up in bed, his hair wet with sweat. He felt his chest; his heart was racing. He grabbed a pen from the floor beside his bed and added a tally to a post-it note attached to his headboard. He counted the tallies.

“That makes seventeen nights of no good sleep because of that,” Luke said something he probably shouldn't have said with his little sister across the hall. “Nightmare!”

Just then, Luke realized that his room seemed oddly bright for it to be six o'clock in the morning. He looked at his alarm clock and said something he shouldn't have said – again.

He ran into the bathroom and jumped into the shower, not even bothering to get undressed. He turned the knob, cutting the shower on. The cold water that fell took his breath away, but he didn't have time to let it warm up.

It was his second year in high school, and he had already been tardy enough for his homeroom class that semester. He couldn't afford to be late anymore.

Luke wriggled out of his cold, wet pajamas and washed his body with one hand while washing his hair with the other. By the time he was done showering, the water was just starting to warm up.

Luke brushed his teeth as a puddle formed beneath his feet; he hadn't had time to dry off. He spat into the sink and quickly ran a towel over his body. With the towel wrapped around his waist, he ran across the hallway to his room.

Luke threw on some clothes and swept all of the papers on his desk into his bookbag. He zipped the papers inside and slung the bag onto his back. He ran down the hall, down the stairs, and into the kitchen. He bumped into his mother while running to the fridge.

“Luke, slow down! Why are you running around like a chicken with its head chopped off?” She asked.

“I'm trying to find something that I can eat on the way to school. Can you drive me so I can eat this,” Luke pulls out a yogurt cup and shuts the fridge door. “Sarah is already on the bus so we don't have to worry about her being home alone. Oh, Mr. Stewart will be so disappointed if I am too late, and I actually like her, so I don't want to get her upset...”

“Luke, calm down. You don't even have school today,” Luke's Mom said.

Luke had already opened the door. He closed it and said, “Wait, why not?”

“One, it's Saturday. Two, we are leaving today.”

“Where are we going?”

His Mom sat her coffee mug down. She looked disappointed. “Really, Luke? We are leaving for Disney World today. You were supposed to finally pack last night, and I take it that, since you didn't even remember the trip, you haven't pack yet.”

Luke looked over into the living room. In his rush to leave, he had totally looked past the suitcases grouped together beside the TV. Just then, Sarah, Luke's younger sister, ran down the stairs in her pink princess pajamas. Her blonde hair bounced around in a messy I-just-got-out-of-bed kind of way. A huge smile filled her face when she saw the suitcases that sat ready to be loaded into the car.

“Yay! Today's the day that all of my dreams come true!” She screamed, making Luke wince.

Sarah ran down and found her small pink suitcase before dropping to the ground to hug it. “When are we leaving?” She asked, her voice muffled because of her face being smushed up against her suitcase.

“Well, you have to get dressed, and Luke has to pack before we can go anywhere,” Their Mom said.

Sarah quickly turned from the suitcase to look at Luke with wide eyes. She jumped up, rushed into the kitchen, grabbed Luke's hand, and begin pulling him towards the stairs. When they reached the top of the stairs, Sarah pushed Luke into his room. “You better pack fast, mister!”

She slammed hid door in his face. He took a deep breath before turning to see the black suitcase on the floor by the foot of his bed. It had been there for a week. Luke began to throw clothes into it, not even bothering to try and keep the clothes folded.

He finished packing and lugged his suitcase down the stairs and put it with the others. Sarah was standing in the kitchen beside their Mom. It was obvious that she had gotten ready quickly, for her purple shirt was on backwards, her hair wasn't brushed, and she still had toothpaste on the corners of her mouth.

Luke collapsed onto the couch in agitation. Why did he have to go to a little kid's them park anyways? They hadn't even left yet, and he could already tell that it was going to be a long week. He didn't know the half of it.