"What's it like in a lightbulb?"

The fourteen year old girl asked her father. Her mother was gone to work, her father having just come home. He smiled and ruffled her hair.

"I'm not sure Iris, but your mother would know." He smiled at his daughter who was quite tall. She was almost his height and taller then her mother.

"Can I hear the story of how you both met again? Pleasssssseeeeeeeee!!" She pleaded, finishing cleaning the dishes with a flourish. Her father chuckled, his daughter reminded him of his wife quite a lot. Both impatient, extremely childlike people.

He nodded as hey sat down. Her father fiddled with a lightbulb, which was empty.

"Well, my grandfather always worked with these magical lightbulbs. Usually, they were just the ordinary lightbulbs you could get at the super market. But there always was a very special lightbulb. This lightbulb contained a person- a very magical person- inside it."

"Like a genie in a lamp?" Iris curiously questioned. Her father nodded.

"Like a genie," he agreed as he continued. "But they didn't grant wishes. They were put in a lightbulb because they couldn't breath in sunlight. They weren't human.

"My grandfather used to not be very close to my mother, but he was very close with me. He showed me the little lightbulb when I was eighteen. And the girl in it.."

"Well she was my age at the time to. And she was the most beautiful girl I had ever met. With ginger locks of hair and brown eyes. But her personality was even more beautiful. She was funny and childish, and very impatient" at this point, her mother had come in. She stood at the doorway, watching the father talk to his daughter, poking her on the nose."

"She was, well, perfectly imperfect. My grandfather left us, needed to attend to his shop. We talked all day, until of course being human I feel asleep. She didn't need to sleep, but she could see my dreams. So she tried to dream to. Little did I know that was turning her little by little into a human."

Iris looked at her father, her eyes widening. No matter how many times she heard this story, she loved it so much. It was amazing.

"When my grandfather came down he laughed so loud we woke up. It was funny seeing her scold him for that, she was so itty bitty and my grandfather was like a giant to her!" He stomped around the room and Iris laughed. Her father sat down again.

"But one day, maybe five years later? Her lightbulb broke. I still don't know how it happened, she refuses to tell me. But somehow she was fine! My grandfather told me it was because of me, she had created a bind with me and turned herself human, allowing her to grow to my height- a bit smaller"

"But Not so itty bitty anymore" her mother pointed out, pointing at them. Iris jumped up and hugged her mum, who laughed.

This became a tradition. On that day each year, they'd retell the story. However when Iris turned eighteen, she started feeling weaker and weaker.

Her great grandfather was surprisingly still alive- and knowing his daughter had her mothers blood in her, her father knew a doctor wouldn't figure it out. So he went straight to his Grandfather.

His grandfather sighed, knowing what was happening, and what needed to be done. But also knowing how much the girls mother wouldn't want it to happen.

"Please, tell us. We'll have an open mind, promise" her father looked at his grandfather, but he was looking at her mother.

"We have to put her in a lightbulb" he said. He spoke so quietly it was no more then a whisper. And yet it was strong enough to stop their hearts and there worlds from moving.

Her father didn't know why this was so bad, but her mother did. Being in those lightbulbs may save their life, but it was also like a prison. They had no thoughts, they couldn't dream and knew nothing about the real world beyond the glass cage. She didn't want her daughter to go through that. But her daughter dying? She couldn't do that, she couldn't let that happen.

"She's going to forget us. She's going to forget everything. Slowly she'll have her personality back- she'll be raised again. But.. she'll never dream, she'll never grow up.. she'll never love.." her mother wiped away a tear.

Her father consoled her but nodded. They had to do it. And so Iris shrunk smaller and was placed within the lightbulb.

It shone so bright that the sun would be jealous, even brighter then natural light, before dimming down. Iris woke up, but she kept her eyes closed.

Her mother and father visited every day. When her grandfather passed, her father looked after her. He became old quicker then she could tell, same with her mother. For every year that passed them, a mere minute passed for her. One day, they brought a girl in there.

She smiled, saying that the girl in the lightbulb would be her first friend- her new friend. She asked why Iris kept her eyes closed though.

Finally, someone asked.

Iris spoke- something that the father and mother hadn't heard in years- as she slowly opened her eyes.

"I keep my eyes closed because I don't want mum or dad to see me cry..."

Both the father and the mother looked at each other. Shocked, happy maybe? Their daughter remembered them, but they were old, they wouldn't be here for much longer.

The little girl smiled however.
"You have very pretty eyes" she complemented. Iris chuckled at the girl, who she realised was actually her age. Within the lightbulb everyone looked smaller.

"So do you. I'm Iris, and you are?" Iris asked politely.

"I'm Cora" the girl smiled.

And just like that, her parents stories repeated once again. Who knows what will happen in the future for the girl, but what we do know is that one thing is for certain.

Their will always be a broken lightbulb.