The Tale of Two Sisters

CHAPTER ONE

"Wa...ke u...p Pen...lo..."

The voice kept echoed in that room.

"Ermm, whose voice is this..."

"Penelope! Wake up!"

"Woah!"

Penelope, who was still in her bed, eventually fall from it, as she was shocked with the face of her sister, filled with anger while trying to wake her up.

"OMG! Wake up, you sleepyhead! You're going to be late! And why should I be in charge of your alarm clock now?!"

Lisa nagged while she tidies up Penelope's bed. Penelope still rubbed her eyes, trying to understand why her sister is mad on that morning.

"Why are you still on the floor? Go and take a bath! You're going to be late! How many times should I tell you?!"

Still sleepy, Penelope looked around to search for her wall clock, and afterwards, she shrieked, with her eyes wide open.

"Lisa! Why arent you wake me earlier? Im going to be late!"

Penelope quickly grabbed her towel and rushed to the bathroom to take a quick shower. She was late for her school, on her first day! Lisa sighed heavily, as now, she cleaned up the mess on Penelope's desk.

"I called you, like ten times in a row, and you're not answered for it. Now, hurry up! I have to come early to work today, as my boss gave me an extra shift."

Penelope was half-listened to her sister, as the shower was running rapidly in the bathroom. All she can hear was her sister's blabbering, but she cannot make the words she said. She quickly applied the shampoo and others refresher and immediately rinsed it. 

After she finished, she dried herself swiftly and ready to wear her outfits. Lisa already prepared for her and put it on her bed.

"Thank you, Lisa! Love you!"

Penelope yelled from her room, as she thought Lisa could hear it in the kitchen. She quickly put on her clothes and looked herself onto the mirror, to watch herself. The yellow striped dress, paired up with long black socks are currently matched her style, though people always said, it was not. She put on her favourite hairpin, as she combed her hair and let loose her hair, as it touches her shoulder. 

And again, she looked on herself in the mirror.

"Perfect."

She grabbed her school's bag and ran to the kitchen, to have breakfast with her sister. Lisa was already put on her speciality on the table.

Her unmatch fluffy waffles, paired up with honey and whipped cream. 

Penelope sat on the nearest chair, which closed to her sister and started to dig into her breakfast. Lisa sighed, but she smiled later after watching how Penelope ate with appetite. 

"Slow down! You're gonna get choked if you're eating like that!"

Lisa warned Penelope, but of course, she would not listen to her sister, if she was already eating too many. Few seconds after Lisa warned her, Penelope coughed as she was out of the air and the foods were stuck on her throat. 

Lisa handed her a glass of plain water, and Penelope took it without hesitation.

"Cough!"

Lisa sighed as she watched how helpless Penelope was.

"Told you."

Penelope gave her a sheepish smile and continued to eat her breakfast. 

After finishing the breakfast, Penelope helped her sister washed the dishes. And soon after, they both were ready to leave their apartment that morning and started their dull, usual daily routine.

"Hurry up, Penelope!"

Lisa was at the front door while Penelope was still put on her shoes.

"Coming!"

After that, they locked the door and hurried to Lisa's old car.

"Any plan after school?"

Lisa asked as she drove the car, on their way to Penelope's school, and then her work. Penelope looked outside of the window, losing her focus while watching everything outside of the car. Lisa, who was focused on the road, still waiting for Penelope to answer her question. But, she finally realized that her sister was lost in her thought after she stopped on the red light. 

"Hello? Earth to Penelope?"

She snapped her fingers in front of Penelope's face, which made her startled and afterwards, Lisa continued to hold the wheel and continued to drive.

"Wh-what?"

Penelope came back on her senses.

"What's wrong, Penelope? You're spacing out quite often these days."

Lisa asked with a worried tone in her voice. She only has Penelope around since their parent died, on their way to return home. To this day, Lisa still did not know why the plane that her parent took exploded as the media did not covered it enough and society just let it be. 

Pretending that the news was not bothering them enough.

Penelope sensed that her sister looked worried, try to cheer things up again.

"Oh, no. Maybe you know, Im going on that phase, like yours. Where you suddenly cried, but the next thing you do was laughing while eating ice cream and forced me to watch that lame romance movie with you all night. And we replayed it thrice!"

Lisa laughed, and Penelope joined her.

"Hey! It only happened once in a month! Besides, you loved that movie too, don't you? You even cried too, okay!"

After that, they continued to talk about random stuff that happened in their life, forgetting about each other’s problem for a minute.

The truth is...

Penelope did not want her sister to know that she was bored in her daily life, and she yearned for adventure.

While Lisa, she did not want Penelope to know about what happened in her life, where people keep belittling her and her sister.

They both kept quiet about their thoughts to each other and pretended it was not crucial enough to discuss together.

"Annnd, here we are! Finally arrived at your school."

Lisa stopped her car to the spot where it was nearer to the entrance of Penelope's school. Penelope untied her seatbelt and was about to leave, but she stopped for a while. Lisa watched her, feeling confused.

"What's wrong? Are you forgetting something?"

Penelope turned around to face her sister. She had that puzzled look, all written on her face.

"When you tried to wake me up, do you, like asking me to choose something?"

Lisa looked perplexed.

"Um, no. I focused only to wake you up, solely. I don't have time to chat with you in your sleep. Why?"

Lisa once again looked worried with her sister's question, but Penelope quickly changed the subject. She did not want her sister to feel anxious or anything. 

"Nothing! Maybe I dreamed about food in my sleep. See ya!"

Before Lisa could ask her more, Penelope was already left the car. Feeling defeated, Lisa drove her car to her workplace. Penelope watched her sister's car until it disappeared from her sight. She then turned around to walk to the entrance of her school. But before she could move around, a moderately strong wind, approached her, along with the dried leaves, making Penelope could not see what in front of her.

"Ugh! Nobody said it was windy today!"

Penelope shielded her face, waiting for the wind to stop. Somehow, she heard a faint voice, like it was talking to her.

Choose...

Penelope listened to that voice, and she tried to peek if she could see someone else in this current situation.

Unfortunately, the wind was quite strong, it forced her to stand still on her place.

Choose...

"Whos there?! Are you stuck in this too?"

Penelope casually asked the voice, not knowing who or what it is. Sadly, no one replied to her question. 

You must choose.

Impatient, Penelope yelled to whoever out there, or inside her head, asking to wherever they are.

"Choose what?!"

Suddenly, she felt that the wind was not there anymore. She slowly put down her hands and looked around, just to catch a glimpse of something else.

It was not her school any more that she was standing right now.

She was standing on grass, while her surroundings were filled with trees and a lake in front of her. She stood on somehow a hill, and it felt like she had entered into another world, as she saw flying creatures, but it was not birds. 

"What the-"

Yes, the thing she saw was not birds, but nonetheless, it was dragons, soaring on the skies. And she swore she saw something, no, someone in the lake.

"Arent th-that..."

Yes, it was elves, and dwarves, and maybe some orcs and newts, playing in the lake. Somehow, Penelope saw them as a human figure, rather than an actual imagination than she used to think of. 

Penelope slowly moved backwards, as she did not believe in what she just saw.

But unfortunately for her, she was on the hill before, and moving backwards meant she was closer to fall. She did not realize where she put her foot on, and sooner after she fell from the hill.

Only just to realize that she fell onto the school's ground, with other students watched her around, eyeing her in disbelief.

"Is she for real?"

"How can someone just fall like that?"

"Is she half-asleep?"

Penelope quickly stood up and brushed the dust around her clothes. She then quickly ran inside the school's building and hurried to her class. 

Of course, people would not believe what just happened to her. People would make fun of her and the next thing she knew, she will be the laughing stock for the school until the end of the year.

Suddenly, Penelope stopped and urged to change direction into the nearest restroom in her school. She somehow felt like she needed some time to digest what happened to her in a silent, isolated space. As she ran into one of the restrooms, she went into the vacant lot and shut the door. 

She walked to the sink and washed her face.

"What just happened?"

After that, she looked into the mirror...

Just to find out that it reflected images of what she saw earlier.

Penelope startled as she saw in the mirror was herself, not in the restroom, but rather, in the place where the bizarre things appeared a moment before.

After that, she can hear it again.

The same faint voice,

asking her,

again.

Now, choose.