Chapter 1
‘’ Okay, now students open your books to page 394 ‘’ the teacher said to the class.
All the students flipped open the books, except for one - Luz Noceda, who had her head down on the desk, vaguely trying to not fall asleep in class. No one noticed however. No one ever noticed. She sighed and lazily opened the book to what she assumed was the correct page. She didn’t really care. Ever since she had gotten back from summer camp, things just hadn’t felt the same. She could hardly remember any of her summer, but she guessed the camp had work. She still loved fantasy and anime and magic, but she just didn’t have the energy for it. She just felt tired all the time, she had no energy to be the Luz she used to be - jumpy and happy all the time. Even with how much she slept, which was a lot, she never seemed to get any more energy. But sleep seemed to be her only solace anymore. In her sleep, she entered a completely different world. Every night she slept she had vivid almost real dreams of a place she had never been, but they were fleeting when she woke up. She remembered doing some form of magic, she remembered being with this girl with turquoise hair, and she remembered holding a small dark adorable creature, while talking with a woman with long gray hair. But they were only vague recollections. She had tried to draw the people and things when she woke up, but she could hardly remember them. Everytime her pencil would just stop randomly on the paper, unable to go any further.
She sighed as the bell rang for her next and final class. She got up and trudged down the hallway to the next class, pulling her purple hoodie closer around her. She was so cold, she was never sure why. She had on two shirts under her hoodie, but she still shook with chills. Everything felt so cold now. She walked into class and laid her head down on her desk in the back again. Only one more class and she could go home and sleep. Sleep forever, her brain thought briefly. She had sort of suicidal thoughts sometimes, but she never thought about it seriously. She didn’t know how she would even do it. But she knew if she thought about it too much, her mind would come up with something she couldn’t control. There was almost nothing to them. Nothing true to back them. It wasn’t like she had been through something traumatic. She was just depressed. She just sometimes didn’t wanna be here. She didn’t see a point to much of anything anymore. She didn’t really want to go to college or get a job or anything like that. That all seemed to far in the future. Everything seemed so far away, yet so close. She couldn’t be faced with any real decision making. She didn’t think much about it.
She stared at the wall with her head down for most of the class, only half listening to the teacher. Her mind drifted to wherever it wanted to go, the bell practically startling her awake. She forced her body to get up and walk towards the door. She began her journey home which despite her practically sleeping through her last two classes was hard. She only lived about a mile or so from the school, so it wasn’t too bad of a walk. She was just tired. She walked the mile walk home, receiving a text from her mother telling her that she would be working late. Luz didn’t mind. Her mom worked late a lot. All she did when she was at home was watch TV, sleep, and eat. She hardly even did the last one anymore. It was just hard to remember when all she wanted to do was lay in her bed or sleep. She sighed and continued walking, pulling her hood over her head. She arrived at the house, unlocked her door, and just stood in the kitchen for a bit. Food or no food? She wasn’t really hungry, but maybe she should have something. She sighed, got a glass of milk, and went up to her room. She sipped on her milk, trying to think if there was anything she had to do. Homework. But she could just do it in the morning. She laid on her bed and finished off her milk before laying down. She sighed, turning off the lights, and pulling the blankets over her.
Back to the dream world. The only place she truly belonged.