Ninjago: A Malicious Lullaby

1 • So Close...

    BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The blasted thing drone on as Medine's exhausted eyes winced, then slowly fluttered open. Forcing herself into a sitting position, Medine mentally cursed at how it was already 6:00 in the morning.

    Well, here goes my first day on the job, Medine exhales, rubbing her eyes and slowly touching the ground with her bare feet. Her hand flies and slaps the alarm clock, finally making it shut up. She knew Harper was up; he was known to be silent when he wakes, simply trying to go back to sleep.

Medine wanders into the bathroom and stares at her cheap funhouse-like reflection in the mirror, and a thin strand of rust outlined the misshapen thing. Realizing this, the woman sighs deeply but thinks nothing of it, almost in acceptance. She brushes her hair and teeth slowly and dresses (it was a simple hoodie and jeans; Skylar said she'd leave behind her work polo before she left in the morning, and she promised it'd be clean, too. Medine planned to wear whatever and switch shirts when she arrived).

Before she knew it, Medine was... ready. It kinda slapped her in the face. Even though it was 6:30 making it still dark outside, Medine felt excitement through her drowsiness. This is all happening so fast. She knew her mother would be proud of her, and... her father would have been, too, she was sure.

"Look at you, my little star," her father smiled, holding his daughter's itty bitty hands in his own large ones. He held the fragile limbs gently, rocking the little girl around with her feet on his as she giggled. The little girl wore oversized glasses with frames shaped like stars. A matching purple boa was loosely hung around her neck as well.

        The little girl let go of her father's grasp to reach a plastic microphone set on a table near them. However, when she got there, she wasn't tall enough to reach it.

The girl's father smiles fondly and grabs it, then kneels and hands it to her. "I want you to sing me a song, Meddie!" the man says. The girl squeals in laughter and dances around her father's legs, jumping to grab his hand. "Come on! You will get a front-row seat!" she drags him away.

Medine could see her father now standing behind her, putting his hands softly on her shoulders, with his good-old crooked smile on his face. 'Make a name for us, popstar' his expression seemed to say. 

Watching her reflection, Medine's hand slowly reaches for her opposite shoulder to touch what wasn't there, feeling nothing but empty space.

After he passed away, Medine always hummed the songs she used to sing to her father for herself for comfort. Medine took out her microphone from her jean pocket and stared at it longingly.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"MEDIIIIIINE!!"

Medine was startled back into reality. She swings open the bathroom door and rushes across the dark room to turn the alarm clock off again. "I could have sworn I turned it off," she hisses at the clock.

Clearing his throat, Harper turns over so that his back was facing her, an arm bend over his head to block the bright light now leaking into the room. "No, you pressed snooze. I've been waiting in fear for ten minutes."

"Oh."

"The off button is on the back close to the power wire," Harper continues, waving a hand up and over his head aimlessly. Reaching around and feeling the back of the clock, Medine asks, "How do you even know that?" she finally finds the button and presses it as her brother responded, "I figured it out when you told me to set your alarm last night," he says, laughing a little. "I had to. It's the survival instinct in me."