AN UNEXPECTED REALIZATION

"Ugh!"

Aristia Andrews felt a throbbing pain in her head when she woke up. Her eyes landed on the grandfather clock hanging on the wall before they widened in surprise.

"Five o'clock already?" Due to her foggy mind from just waking up, she didn't notice the difference between the clock hanging on the wall and the one she was used to.

"I guess time flies fast when you're asleep. It feels like morning came immediately after I closed my eyes to go to sleep." She muttered with a yawn while rubbing her eyes.

She was a little disoriented when she woke up, but when she looked around the room she was in, her head cleared up almost immediately and she was shocked.

"Wait! This isn't my room! Holy mother of Neptune, where am I? Was I kidnapped?!!" She asked herself after scanning the unfamiliar room she woke up in from her position on the bed.

The room she woke up in was large and its walls and floor were painted in cool grey, very different from her own room which was painted a light blue.

At the center of the room was a sturdy, regal queen sized four-poster canopy bed— adorned with flowing lavender curtains and drapery and adorned with intricate details and placed against the wall— which she was sitting on, by the way.

The light purple bedding was fluffy and comfortable. On top of it were plush pillows. The bed was stationed on top of a wide dark purple rug and there was a large chest placed against the foot of the bed.

A milky coloured wooden drawer was placed beside the bed on its left and on top of it was a candle lamp. There was a vanity table with a mirror, brushes and other beauty essentials on the right side of the bed, and a bookshelf filled with books was on the left side of the room adjacent the bed.

The door for entering and exiting the room was opposite the bed. It was a double door. There were two more doors in the large room which she assumed was probably the door to the in-built bathroom and closet.

The fireplace looked to have extinguished not a long time ago as there were a few burning coals left.

There was a floor-to-ceiling window leading to a balcony, adjacent to the bed on the right side of the wall. Positioned before it was a chaise lounge adorned with plush cushions and elegant upholstery, on a slightly elevated platform. Aristia got down from the bed and her feet slowly landed on the floor. The rug beneath her feet was soft and comfortable.

Quite a distance away from the window was a round table surrounded by chairs. There was also a chair and desk— with some writing material and paper placed on top of it— that looked like it was for studying.

When she looked out from the window, she saw lush green grass and a few flowers and trees that actually created a serene atmosphere in this early morning. She realized that she wasn't on the ground floor.

She noticed that the room looked warm. It was clear that whoever designed it put much thought and effort into it.

The ceiling was adorned with intricate designs reminiscent of royal elegance. Delicate patterns and motifs were painted or carved onto the ceiling, which added a touch of regal charm to the room. The ceiling had chandeliers that cast a warm and inviting glow, enhancing the overall ambiance of the room.

[My kidnappers must surely love fancy things.] Aristia rolled her eyes. The interesting and surprising fact was that she wasn't tied up.

She continued to look around the room at the walls which were decorated with paintings, tapestries, and framed portraits of the people she guessed were a family.

Was this the family that had kidnapped her? She couldn't see the pictures clearly because it wasn't very bright but she could tell it was a family of four, and they had two little children.

Coming back to her current situation, she noticed that her body felt different and unfamiliar— she felt short, which was unusual because she was quite tall.

She also didn't notice before that the room seemed to be bigger in her eyes and her voice sounded childish. Was there something wrong with her body? A little scared, she quickly searched around for a mirror.

She found one in a corner of the room. It was a full body length mirror. She quickly looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes widened in shock and she stumbled a little but managed to catch herself in time. She held back a scream.

The girl looking back at her appeared no older than five years old. She had waist-long fluffy grey hair that was straight but curled at the edges.

Aristia had three words after admiring the hair. [Soft, silky, smooth]. It was nothing like her headache inducing hair which took a lot of time and effort to untangle and manage, hence, the reason she cut it short. But she couldn't deny that short hair also looked good on her. She looked good in whatever hairstyle.

[Ugh. Narcissistic tendencies.] She rolled her eyes at herself and continued to admire the girl in the mirror.

The girl in the mirror had round doe-like violet eyes and pink lips. Her skin was fair and smooth and healthy. Her chubby, rosy cheeks made one want to pinch them. She was wearing a light pink night gown. Overall, she looked really cute and adorable.

Aristia twirled, smiled, frowned, and imitated different facial expressions and body movements only to see the image on the mirror moving along with her.

But...

[What's going on? This isn't my body either. Lucid dreaming? Okay, what type of dream am I in? I was hoping I'd dream of cute animals, money and lots of food. Bummer.] Aristia thought in annoyance. [Though I can't deny that this room is luxurious. What kind of dream is this?]

"Just to make sure..." Aristia stopped. "Ouch! [If this is a dream, then I shouldn't feel pain... then why am I feeling pain?] She asked no one in particular after pinching herself.

[Why am I here? Wasn't I in my room?] She thought incredulously.

She didn't know why but she felt like she had met the girl before her, like she was familiar, but she couldn't recall where she had seen her.

She was sure that she had never seen someone with the unique features of the girl in the mirror. [I mean grey hair? Not unless it was dyed or a result of old age.] She thought for a while.

"Ah!" Aristia gasped as she recalled why the girl seemed familiar.

The night before, she had just come home from her fashion company very tired. She had read a novel her mother had desperately insisted she read, out of boredom till three in the morning since she couldn't fall asleep, but she unexpectedly fell asleep just after she read the last chapter and complained about the novel's confusing and unrelated plotline. Weird.

That wasn't the weird thing though. It was the fact that she felt a strange sensation all over her body and thought she saw a flash of light before she fell asleep. She had brushed it off as her mind playing tricks on her which it never did according to her.

[Was that related to... Ugh! I can't remember what it is.]

She felt like she was forgetting something but she just shrugged it off since she couldn't remember what it was she was forgetting.

The girl's features were described clearly in the novel, so Aristia thought that when she saw the girl in the mirror who had the same features described, her brain connected it to the novel's description of the girl in the mirror, thus, the sense of familiarity.

[Well, that's the only logical explanation I can think of regarding this.] Aristia thought while thinking about the novel.