Fern gaped, her mouth opening and closing like a fish as she stared at the other girl. Meanwhile, Claralell hardly spared the dropped book a glance before she plodded on, oblivious to Fern’s shock.

“Well, I suppose it makes sense for you to be confused. After all, you’ve never seen me before.” She tapped her chin before smiling at Fern brightly, “So, what do you think?” She twirled on her heel and did a little curtsy, giggling, “I’m prettier than you imagined, right?”

Fern managed to get a grasp on her voice, sputtering out a weak sounding, “Y-you’re REAL?!”

The blonde girl gasped in mild shock, putting her hands on her hips with an irate expression, “What? Of course I’m real! Who did you think was leaving you letters? The tooth fairy?”

Fern slumped against the door, mumbling absent mindedly, “The tooth fairy’s not real.” Her head was reeling. Clearly this girl had escaped from an institution somewhere and was hiding out somewhere nearby. But she couldn’t be from around here. Not only because there aren’t any mental asylums around, but because Fern could clearly tell that this girl was European. British, from the sounds of it. Why was there a British girl in her room?!

Before Fern could follow that train of thought any further, Claralell stepped forward and clasped Fern’s hands, making her gasp.

“But I’m so glad you’re awake Fern! I was getting a little bored of the whole pen pals thing anyway. Since you’re awake we can actually play!”

Fern grasped for something to slow the other girl down as she started trying to drag Fern out of her door, “Wait!”

Claralell turned around eyebrows raised, “What?”

“U-umm…I-I-I’d like to know more about you f-first! I don’t know that much about you…so….”

Claralell broke out into a smile and bounced on the spot a bit, “Oh, really? Is that all? Well, if you insist, I suppose you don’t know that much about me.” She pulled Fern over to the bed and sat down on the edge, dragging Fern to sit next to her. But she didn’t let go of Fern’s hand.

Claralell drummed her free hand’s fingers lightly against her cheek, looking up at the ceiling, “Hmm, where to start? There’s just so much about me, I don’t know where to begin.”

Fern cleared her throat, trying and failing to subtly pull her hand out of Claralell’s grasp, “Well…I…already know your name, so how about where you’re from?”

“Oh, okay! Well, I was born in a small village in England, but I haven’t been there since it burned down. But that was quite a long time ago. I live on the moon right now!”

Claralell paused when she noticed the look Fern was giving her, “What?”

“I umm….” Fern started scrambled to figure out an answer, “I-If you came from the moon, then how did you get here?”

“Oh, through the Gate silly! Can’t you see it? In the window?”

“What?” Fern leaned back to look past Claralell, towards the window.

Claralell pulled her to her feet again and pulled her over to stand in front of the window, “See, see? The Gate makes this black portal, and that’s how I get around.”

What Fern was looking at wasn’t a trick of the light, or an illusion. What should’ve been her backyard had been replaced by an inky black void, as deep and dark as the ocean itself.

Fern gulped. She reached out her hand and slowly reached out towards the void. When Claralell didn’t make any attempt to stop her, she quickly stuck her hand out of the window. Instead of ripping down a black canvas or even waving around in open air, her hand was swallowed, as though the void really was a large pool of ink.

She shrieked and yanked her hand back, clutching it against her chest. Miraculously, she was still in one piece, unharmed. In that moment, Fern realized she must’ve been dreaming. There was no possible way that there was this…void outside of her window. This strange British girl, the ‘Gate’ as Claralell called it, it was all part of an unusually vivid dream. She must’ve fallen asleep while she was trying to count sheep.

When this realization occurred to her, her fear melted away and she turned to Claralell, now just a figment of her imagination instead of a potentially dangerous intruder.

“You’ve been coming all the way from the moon just to write letters to me? That seems like a lot of work.” The idea doesn’t seem so ludicrous when you’re dreaming.

Claralell waved her hand, “Nonsense. It’s nothing for me. Besides,” she slung her slim arm over Fern’s shoulder, “nothing is too difficult if it means I can come and visit my new friend Fern!”

Claralell’s eyes suddenly widened, “Oh! I almost forgot!” She stepped back from Fern and started patting around her sash before pulling another blue letter out of it. This one was much thicker looking than the other ones, clearly stuffed with more pages than the other letters had been.

“Well, I was going to leave this here for you tonight, but…it seems silly to just leave this and go while you’re awake, right? Why write back and forth from now on when we can just talk?”

Fern nodded robotically. Claralell hummed and slowly paced in a small circle in the room, “Well…I could…we could…but…why not? Okay!”

“What?”

Claralell set her hands on Fern’s shoulders, her light eyes twinkling, “Fern, do you want to come see where I live?”

“You’re home? The one on the moon?”

“Yes the one on the moon! I don’t have any other homes.”

“Okay, sure.” Fern would’ve added more to that, but why bother? It was just a dream.

Claralell squealed and clapped her hands lightly, “Yay! Alright, come one! All you have to do is step through the gate.”

Fern turned towards the inky blackness of the window, “Step though?”

“Yes! Just step through and we’ll be at the Gate’s terminal. It’s so fast, you’ll be there in the blink of an eye! It’s much faster than any rocket.”

“…Okay.” Fern shrugged and, without a second thought, swung her leg over the windowsill and plunged into the darkness. Although the Gate looked like a pool of ink, it didn’t feel like a liquid. Instead, it felt more like a warm blast of air all around her. When her vision returned to her, she was no longer in her bedroom. She wasn’t standing shin deep in the overgrown grass of her backyard either.

Stretched out in front of her was two rows of marble columns, the ground below white and dusty. The sky was not pitch dark, but alight with millions of twinkling stars. When Fern looked around, the snowy dirt stretched out for miles, and behind her was that same inky black void, encased in a marble arc.

As she was examining the detailing engraved into the archway, the black portal trembled and Claralell stepped out, smiling when she saw Fern. She sauntered up and put her arm over her shoulder again, turning her around and spreading her arm out, gesturing to the area around her, “Welcome to the moon Fern!”

Definitely a dream.