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Maria looked around her room anxiously. She felt her wet lashes touch her lower eyelids. Her eyes darted around, heart hammered against her chest.
Another thunder struck. The dark blue sky flashed a bright white light, which reflected on Maria's eyes. A thundering crash reverbrated through the air, shaking the glass with a loud roar. Maria flinched, feeling her heart beating even faster than before.
It hurts, she mumbled to herself.
Maria never liked storms or the dark. The thunder scared her for its sudden bright light and loud sound. The heavy rain that patters on the window sounds like rocks being thrown at the window, or the sound of someone constantly knocking. And the dark... She's afraid of not being alone in the dark.
Maria tried to calm herself down, reminding herself that monsters aren't real.
The problem now isn't the monsters that she sometimes fear lurking around. Its the storm.
I hate storms.
Another loud thunder crashed down to the Earth, loud enough to make Maria hear her window shake from the sheer force of the thunder and the neighbor's cars' alarm to set off.
The patter of rain, flashing thunder and car alarms scared and overwhelmed her.
Maria sunk herself deeper into the pile of blanket she hid in. She hoped with all her heart, that her blanket and pillows would block out the noise, but it was useless. The car alarms still rung loudly, not to mention the sound of tree branches slapping her window which creeps her off.
Maria's head was full and noisy of thoughts, but all of them hushed down when she heard her door creak open. She froze in her place, not daring to move a single inch.
She peaked out slightly from her blanket and saw a tall black figure slip in her room. A shiver went up her spine. Her hands trembled with fear as she clutched her blanket tighter, delving herself into the thin protection of her blanket.
A huge hand placed itself on Maria's back, causing her to scream at the top of her lungs while a thunder followed her scream.
"Woah woah, Maririn. It's me!"
Tears threathened to burst out of Maria's eyes, but as soon as she hears her brothers voice, only a single tear rolled out on her cheeks.
"Sonny..." She lowered her guard, letting the blanket slip off of her head.
"Still awake, huh? A thunder woke me up, and I got worried since I know you don't like thunders and storms." Sonny scratched his cheek.
Since Maria was young, she realized that her brother is weird. And she's weird too.
Maria wasn't exactly human, the same as Sonny. Maria knew what she was though. She's a doll. Her brother picked her off an old shelf in a store, and she miraculously turned to a normal girl the next morning. Even after turning to a human, she has limitations of a doll too. She has to move and eat a generous amount of oily food, or else her joints will get stiff and she won't be able to move.
Unlike Maria, Sonny didn't know what he was. He acts human, looks human, has the same limitations as a human, yet he's not quite human.
"Did the thunder scare you?" Sonny asked in a soft voice. His voice sounded a bit raspy from being waken up in the middle of the night.
Maria nodded quietly in response.
Sonny crawled on top of Maria's bed, pulling his little sister in an embrace. He pressed Maria's head gently to his chest so she could hear his heartbeat. He softly pats Maria's head and back to calm her down. Sonny began gently tugging his earlobe.
And then...
Ping.
Sonny's messy blonde hair lit up in the dark, providing light and comfort to Maria. Maria sighed in relief, feeling more snug with a light source near her.
"Is this better?" Sonny peered down to Maria. Maria smiled, and nodded to her brother.
Sonny wasn't human, but he isn't a firefly either. He was gifted with this ability to light his hair up in the dark. No one knows how he had gotten the ability. Not even doctors. They've offered Sonny to be their experiment, but Sonny refused. Who knows what'll happen to him if he became a test subject.
He continued to stroke Maria's head, hushing her down in hopes of it being able to distract his sister from the storm outside. Sonny felt his sister's tense body relax a bit, but he could still sense her uneasiness from the way she shuffles around every now and then, and taking short glances to the window.
Sonny hummed out a soft tune, which made Maria giggle when she heard it.
"Hǎo yī duǒ měi lì, de mò lì huā... Hǎo yī duǒ měi lì, de mò lì huā..."
"Fèn fāng měi lì mǎn zhī yá," Sonny heard Maria's soft voice join him sing, "yòu xiāng yòu bái rén rén kuā."
"You still remember the lullaby I taught you?" Maria nudged her head upwards to face Sonny. "Of course I do. You taught me afterall."
Sonny repeated the Chinese lullaby over and over, sometimes switching the language to English. He continued his actions of embracing his sister in a warm hug, his hand carressing the top of her head and back. After half an hour of doing so, he felt Maria's breath became softer and slower. He looked down, and she was dead asleep, thin drops of drool seeping through the corner of her mouth. Sonny chuckled, using his thumb the wipe out the drools softly.
He lightly kissed the top of his sister's head.
"Good night."