Wayward

I

"Honey, don't you think that you should be going to bed?" 

"Don't worry I don't start work until eleven!"

Sighing your mother glanced at the work at your desk. You had told her that you got the idea from one of your video games, like most parents she wasn't quite sure or understood the idea of fictional things. Even if there was 'Disney' characters in it. "You had worked at twelve today and didn't get up until an hour beforehand."

Glancing up at your mother you could see the worry swimming in her eyes. This was the summer before college and here you were, go to work just to come home to play video games and work on your little side project.

Wayfinders.

The same kind that Aqua made for Ven and Terra and the one Kairi made for Sora in Kingdom Hearts.

"It's a little extra money ma." You went back to the project in front of you. You had been making these things for the past couple of weeks filling orders for all types of people. Alas, you decided to make one for yourself.

At this point, you were just adding the final touches with silver paint and the only thing you had left for the 'glass' part... which was clear nail polish. It wasn't exactly the colour that you had in mind after all [colour] was definitely more your favorite. You could see the clay and it was a little unsettling.

You could always add in your favorite [colour] another day once you got your paycheck. "It's so I don't dip in so much into my college fund..."

"Darling..." Your mother began opening her mouth until her head turned to see your father standing there with that twinkle in his eyes. "Relax love, let [Name] have some fun." Your mother closed her mouth before heaving a sigh and walking out of your bedroom.

On the other hand, your father stayed there with his arms crossed and leaning on the doorway. His smile was the same, one that he wasn't ready to let you go. "Still don't know what to do with yourself?"

Pausing in your work, you stared down at the Wayfinder. It was cruddy and it made you feel terrible, especially since this was meant to be your wayfinder. "I do, Dad... but," You looked up at him with those [colour] eyes that reminded him so much of your mother. "'Art' isn't a viable source of income."

Turning your attention back to your mini project you didn't see the hurt look on his face. You were passionate about art, you wanted to go to an art focus school. But.. in their opinion, it wasn't good enough. No way an artist could make a living that way.

You didn't want to do what they wanted to do, doing what they did for a living. Frowning you just decided to ignore the world around as working on the Wayfinder. This was to be yours and no way were you going to have ass it!

Glancing back and forth between the screen of your laptop, you made sure that every single thing was to be perfectly identical. Eventually, you began to blink away the blurriness in your eyes as they begun to sting. You could only imagine them being red at this point between the desk lamp and the brightness of your screen.

Rolling away from the desk with your chair you closed your eyes a couple of times then to rub them each with both hands. 

Smiling a tight looking smile, you glanced up to see the work sitting there on the desk. It was close. way nearly there in your opinion. Deciding to hesitantly glance backward at your alarm clock, you groaned. It was fifteen minutes to two in the morning.

If anything, staying up past two meant it was harder for you to get up for work.

Standing up you put your laptop into sleep mode and turned off the desk lamp. Using your bare foot to push away the clutter on the floor to make a path to your bed, it was a cool welcoming into the bed.

Sighing happily you turned on your side to stare out the window where the curtain was pulled back just a little bit. There were perks to living across the street from a bay-beach. It was a full moon and it was glaringly clear to see outside without the aid of the typically broken lamp post.

Hugging the pillow closer to your head, you never wanted this summer to end. You didn't want to go to college just yet, especially to one that you had no choice but to pick.

Sleep was calling out to you, the coolness of your bed became slightly warmer just enough not to make you uncomfortable. Slowly your [colour] eyes began to droop behind stray strands of [colour] hair. For a moment, you thought that you saw a shooting star.

I wish something exciting would happen this summer...

The alarm clock struck five minutes after three in the morning, sheets were askew with your arm in an awkward position. Every time someone told you that you snored, you'd deny it. No way you snored - yet there you were snoring louder than your father could.. which was a feat all by itself.

One pillow was forgotten somehow on the floor at the end of your bed. Drool making a dark wet spot on the bed sheet while your other free arm became sticky from the saliva. You were all unaware of this, dreaming that typical stupid dream of you running around your job like it was the end of the world.

The laptop began to boot itself up, instead of the typical lock screen that consisted of you and your two best friends a string of code appeared instead. Bleary green numbers and letters zipped across the screen before going completely black again.

The nearly finished Wayfinder shimmered faintly as a keyhole took shape in the darkness of the laptop's screen.

You began to twitch in your sleep, the dream suddenly became a nightmare (if not an even worse nightmare than before). All around you were darkness, nothing else, no one else around.

Calling out to your mother, father was unanswered. Crying out your best friends names and even going as far as to call out for your neighbors and teachers from High School.

Standing there stumbling in the darkness barefoot with only an old pair of basketball shorts, black tank top undershirt with a sports bra underneath.

Your eyes grew wide after you took one more hesitant step, light busted from underneath your feet as a fury of feathers swirled around you. They weren't white, they were colourful. All types of colours that you could imagine using in your artwork, some of which you could point out from the wayfinders you had created before.

Blinking away the brightness, this dream was suddenly no longer a dream. You felt the coolness of glass against your skin, the stagnant air around you felt unbearable. You took a few steps backward looking down.

Beautiful dark and pastel colours were set in glass, stain glass, underneath your bare feet. You were in awe, crafted out of stain glass was a figure of you cradled in the curve of a circle appearing to be sleeping. Clothes that you never imagined yourself wearing, one limp hand was the keyblade Starlight from the Kingdom Hearts mobile game.

Following the curve, your other hand was your Wayfinder, beautifully completed with [colour] sitting in the correct places.

That was the thing though - only Starlight and your Wayfinder were in colour, everything else was void of colour and blank.

"What... ?" You whispered, eyes going wide, looking up was a beautifully decorated door in what you imagined to be red with gold accents. Yet again, that's what you were thinking it to be... alas it too was void of colour.

Do you accept your fate?

A voice called out from the darkness, you knew what this was. You had done it multiple times for different characters, choosing different choices. Hell, you even had almost identical dreams to this! But this.. something was telling you that this was all real.

With hesitant steps, you reached out to the handle hovering just an inch above. "I - I.." You stuttered, blinking rapidly. Closing your eyes tightly you could hear yourself echoing that wish on that imaginary star.

"I do."

The world then busted into colour.