Introducing a new WIP!! Ft. a snippet, and not much else because I is Secretive about my projects

(image taken from Pinterest -- does not belong to me)

Even after almost half an hour of world after breath-taking, beautiful, vibrant world materialising around us out of nowhere, this last creation elicits gasps and murmurs and more than one cry of sheer amazement as it takes its final shape. For we are no longer on earth: we are now in space, unconstrained by the laws of gravity, floating weightlessly among millions and millions of stars, planets, nebulae, galaxies of all shapes and sizes and colours, all of them spinning and revolving around us in a massive celestial dance – a dance that we are a part of.

Of all the worlds I create on the first night of the Sojourn, this is my very favourite.

The universe whirls around us in all its bright, shimmering, multicoloured glory, and I allow myself to lose myself to it, letting myself float onto my back and drinking in the sight, following the progress of a red- and orange-tinged spiral galaxy as it flies past above me and the progress of a green-tinged nebula and a cluster of bright gold stars and all the single, solitary objects that continue their lonely yet perfectly harmonised journeys through the universe, letting my vision blur as I unfocus my eyes and everything turns into a blurry cloud of moving light and colour.

I created this place. I know every single detail of it. I have seen it and been here many, many times before.

But it still manages to take my breath away every single time.

I sometimes wish that I could stay here forever.

But soon it is time to go. It is a shame, but we cannot stay here for very long – the magic is becoming too weak. If we stay here much longer, the magic will eventually give out, and this whole sight will simply wink unceremoniously out of existence.

I would have preferred to have this world as one of the first on this magical journey, so we could stay here for longer than in the others, but I acknowledge that it works better when it is the last – otherwise, the destinations that would appear after it would seem dull by comparison. It is always better to save the best for last; that is something Lionel taught me.

So I pull myself upright again, stretch my arms out to release the magic, and will this world out of existence once more.

Before I do, though, I see the girl in the pink dress floating not far from me. She is gazing around with her lips slightly parted, her eyes wide open in fascination and joy. That is not unusual, considering every single other guest wears almost the exact same expression. But one thing about her catches my attention.

As she drinks in the sight, entirely oblivious to everyone around her, I see a tear slide down her cheek. It floats away from her face almost as soon as it is shed, a tiny pinprick of reflected light drifting away into outer space, and vanishing into the fabric of the universe to join the stars and planets in their synchronised routine.

That is the last thing I see before the space-world un-creates itself and we find ourselves back in the white nothingness of the beginning of this show.

I hold this empty world for a little while, and then it starts to darken. Before long, we are back in the tiny, dark, candle-lit room that we started in.

We are back in the real world – that is, if you can call anything on the Isle of Marvels properly real.

Absolute silence descends as everyone gets their bearings and their eyes adjust to the sudden dimness. And then clamour erupts from the crowd as everyone starts to clap and cheer, loudly enthusing to each other about the experience they have just lived through, crying out their feelings of joy and amazement and exhilaration to anyone who will listen, desperate to convey the strength of their emotions and how much they loved what they have just seen.

All except the girl with the pink dress, who stands quietly apart from everyone else, and soundlessly wipes another tear off her cheek.

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So yeah, I've started working on a new novella. It's about magic and miracles and romance and learning to love yourself for who you are, and I love it so much right now. I don't really want to say more about it, but I hope you enjoyed this snippet! Since it's just a novella and not going to be very long (tho the last time I said that, my WIP ended up being 100,000+ words and I didn't even finish it smh), hopefully I'll have it finished within a couple of months, and maybe then I'll let people read it?? Maybe?? IDK. 🤷‍♀️🤗

> > Andrea