The Dream

Amora had finally found her true parents. It was nice, to know.

Last night, Leon and Reyon talked to her for hours and eventually let her go to her room. They checked every 10 minutes. Even sometimes just peeking in just to see her.

Andrew came downstairs in shorts and a T-shirt and knocked on Amora and Aya's room door.

"Come in," Amora said, expecting it to be Leon or Reyon once again, but instead it was Andrew.

He entered and sat on Amora's bed with her.

"Hey." He said, smiling.

"Hello," Aya said quietly.

"Oh wait, do you still have Instabook, Amora?" He asked, smiling cheerfully.

"Oh yeah! I do! Do you have an account?" Amora asked.

"Yeah, I think I sent you a follow request about two years ago." Andrew said, scrolling his way through his "for you" page.

"You did?" Amora asked, scrolling through the page that showed when people liked your posts or when people followed you, and sure enough, there was Andrew's account. A message saying: "A_Cortela has followed you, follow back to see his profile's contents."

Next to the message had the label of "2 Years Ago."

"Oh god, I'm sorry! How did I not see that?" Amora said, following him back right away.

He beamed and said, "No no! It's fine, I am just happy you found it at all."

She saw he had followed Shirley, and she had followed him back, he had a couple of followers, but 21 followers total.

Amora was impressed, she had only 32, but that didn't stop her from following people when she could, being impressed easily by art or news on Instabook.

***

They sat together, all playing a multiplayer game on their phones. Until Amora was eliminated from the match and rolled over on her bed.

"Ugh! Blooooood~ you two will just have to win this without me!" Amora said, rolling around acting as if she were dying.

"blugh" she said, laying still.

"No! They killed Amora! Those bastards! Let's get 'em!" Andrew yelled, with Aya beginning a chant.

They all continued with jokes like that, laughing and enjoying their time together.

***

Aya picked up a pillow and pointed at Andrew, who had given all of his attention to his phone.

Aya pointed to Andrew and Amora nodded her head, picking up a pillow as well.

Amora curved her aim and hit Andrew in the head, knocking him over. Aya and Amora begin beating on him with the pillow, eventually he stopped moving, and they stopped hitting, getting closer to make sure he is okay.

He sits up quickly and wacks them both over the head with two pillows.

***

Eventually they went to bed, with Andrew leaving to go to his room upstairs.

Amora slept calmly, slowly a dream formed.

***

Cole is in front of her. She is running away with him, away from something they cannot comprehend.

The thing following them is not coming out of the shadows, chasing them with growling noises. Amora and Cole get split up.

Amora crashed into a tree and the creature loomed over here, laughing until it drags its claws across her face, and she wakes up.

***

She looks around and is sweating, she wipes the beads of sweat off of her forehead and goes to the living room, sitting on the cold couch.

She sat there for minutes, just looking outside into the dark.

Minutes turned to about an hour and the sun was rising. Andrew and Aya had woken up as well, and asked Amora if she wanted to go walk outside.

She had to think, but eventually she agreed.

***

Walking through the forest, they could see something reflected the faint sunlight.

"Water? There's a pond!" Aya yelled, running up to the water and jumping in.

"Hey! Wait for us!" Andrew yelled, taking off his precious shoes.

Amora took her time to walk over and gently put her feet in the water, wiggling them back and forth, trying to remember her dream from last night.

"Amora?" Andrew asked, yet Amora didn't see to hear him. He grabbed her legs and pulled her into the water.

She screamed and went under the water. She came back up and jumped on top of Andrew, pushing him under and escaping from the pond.

They continued playing around but eventually all just lay in the grass, drying in the now fully emerged sun.

"You think things will always be this fun?" Aya asked, filled with hope.

"Ye-" Amora began, but was interrupted by Andrew. "No."

Before Aya could ask why not, Andrew continued. "We may have fun now, but eventually, maybe even soon, something will happen. I just know it."

Him saying such things brought everyone's mood down and Aya began splashing him with water.

"You jerk! Shut up! We are trying to think happily!"

Andrew began screaming and rolling away. "Hey hey! I was almost dry!"

They continued with this for some time. Amora stood up and began walking through the forest. She was now dry and exploring the forest on her own.

At some point during her exploration, she ended up back at home. She entered and Reyon and Leon ran up and began squeezing her tight. "Amora!"

"Hey Re- er... Mom and Dad." Amora said, obviously not used to being their child yet. After all, it was just yesterday that she found out. She knew the whole situation hadn't hit her yet, but her hopes of it ever hitting her were low.

***

Reyon began cooking something that smelled delicious, the windows were open and the smell wafted outside.

"Yum! That smells good!" Aya said, walking inside with Andrew.

"Thank you!" Reyon said, smiling.

"Reyon actually took cooking classes throughout high school. Her dream job was a chef." Leon said, seemingly boasting of something someone else did.

"Really?!" Aya asked, even more excited over something so minor.

"Yeah, it was fun! I love cooking, it's just so fun." Reyon said, turning her attention back to the pan on the stove top.

"Let's leave her alone, so she can cook." Andrew said, walking to the couch and sitting down.

Amora and Aya joined him, the two began talking while Amora checked her phone to see that Shirley seemed to have messaged her last night, but as she clicked on the message her phone died.

"Shoot!" Amora whispered, walking to her room and plugging in the new charger. She hadn't needed to use it until now.

She returned to Aya and Andrew, with them holding up something.

Amora got a closer look and could tell it was some sort of locket.

"What's that?" Amora asked.

"Well, we found it on our way back, and thought maybe you'd want it." Andrew said, handing it over by its chain.

Amora inspected it carefully.

Upon opening it, she wiped the dirt off of the photo. The photo showed a girl with curly blonde hair and light blue eyes. Her face was small and round.

Amora continued looking it over and upon taking the picture out, she could see a date listed on it.

"September 17th 2035, only a little over a year ago it was taken." Amora read aloud, looking underneath the date.

"Susie Patterson-Smith Kokai" Amora read aloud once more, getting Andrew and Aya's attention.

"The rest of the name sounds common, but Kokai? Who did she marry?" Andrew asked, obviously puzzled.

"Who knows, it's not like it's important or something." Aya said, turning her attention back to her phone.

Amora pocketed the locket and photo, planning to put it in her nightstand's drawer or re-use the locket.