"Lyra" Someone said, while Lyra felt a hand on her shoulder shaking her gently. Which made Lyra wake up slowly. When she opened her eyes she saw that her brother was the one that called her name.
"Hm? What's - she yawned - up?" Lyra asked as she looked over at Mark. She took out her earbuds and pulled her phone out of her pocket to turn off the music.
"We've arrived Bree. You should be lucky that you fell asleep, it wasn't so easy for dad to find a place to park the car." Mark said smirking at Lyra as he pushed the door open and got out of the car.
Lyra unlocked her belt and the door on her side and got out of the car. Her parents were already getting their jackets and bags out of the trunk. She looked around her to see that the car park they were in was packed with cars.
"Had a nice nap sweetheart?" She heard her father ask. Lyra walked over to her parents and she took her jacket and bag her father handed to her. "Yes, I did actually. Mark told me it took some time to find a place to park?" Her father closed the trunk.
"Yeah it's quite busy, also took us longer to get here. It's nice weather out and everyone gets the idea to go to London as well." Her father said while shaking his head, as they started walking to the exit of the car park.
"Due to the bustle, we are further away from the hotel than planned. So it will take around 15 to 20 minutes until we get there." Her mother said looking at her phone to see which way to go, while she pointed in the direction they had to go to.
"Doesn't the hotel have its own car park?" Lyra asked a bit annoyed. Usually, it's normal to be able to park next to the hotel and she didn't want to waste her time dragging her bags to the hotel, while she could be exploring the city.
Her mother looked up from her phone towards Lyra with an apologetic look on her face."Sorry honey, but it's so busy at the hotel that there is not enough space for everyone to park. They did tell us that they will compensate for it."
"Okay then." Lyra said as they walked out of the car park. At least the weather is nice, she thought to herself. This was the first time for Lyra in London and she already knew this won't be her last time. She loved the looks of the buildings around her and she didn't mind that it was really busy. Even though it was becoming quite difficult to keep sight of her family. She started walking a bit faster to keep up with her family.
Mark turned towards her as he saw her coming towards them. "Getting distracted as usual Bree?" Mark asked with his usual smirk as he put his arm around her shoulders.
As long as she has known, he has been calling her Bree. When they were young she always tried to correct him, but after some time she knew it was a lost cause.
"You know me, always the curious one" Lyra shrugged as she decided to keep the sightseeing for later as she kept walking alongside her brother.
---
After some time they arrived at the hotel. Her parents walked up to the desk to check-in while Lyra and Mark went to look around the lobby. The hotel has an older style to it, with a big rug, some paintings, and a big fireplace, that wasn't lit right now. Lyra saw her parents walk away from the desk towards them, from the corner of her eye. "Our rooms are 17 and 18." Said her mother. "And it's on the third floor. You and mark will be sleeping in room 17 and me and your father will in room 18. Yours will have two single beds." Both Lyra and Mark nodded to her. "Okay, shall we head up then?" Her mother handed her the key card and they started walking toward the elevators
"Shall we head out in about 15 minutes? That should be enough time to put away your bags and freshen up." Her father said as he unlocked the door to their room. "Yeah, sounds like a good idea. See you both in a bit." Lyra used the key card and unlocked the door. She saw the two beds on either side of the room and immediately walked over to the bed close to the window, while she heard Mark closing the door behind her.
Lyra dropped her bag on the bed and sat down, throwing herself backward."I claim this bed." She closed her eyes while she enjoyed the soft bed. There was some rustling sound around her, which she expected was her bother unpacking his bag. Suddenly she got hit in the face with something soft, so she shot up into a sitting position. Mark stood next to the other bed, which was now missing a pillow, laughing loudly. "Oh man, you should've seen your face! Priceless." He said as he fake wiped a tear away. "Very funny." Lyra grabbed the pillow that Mark threw to her and put it under the blanket. "Now you've lost your pillow privileges." This made Mark quickly stop laughing and looked at her with a shocked look on his face. "However, if you will pay for my drink later. I will consider giving it back." Lyra crossed her arms and looked at her brother with a smug expression. They both know that she isn't kidding about not giving the pillow back.
Mark let out a long sign. "Sure, I will pay for your drink. Now can I have my pillow back?" Lyra pulled the pillow from under the blanket and threw it back to her brother. "Deal."
---
Lyra was in the bathroom freshening up when she heard a knock on the room door. "Coming!" She heard Mark yell and a few seconds later she heard the door being unlocked. "Are you both ready to go?" She heard her mother ask. "Bree is still in the bathroom." Her brother answered. "I'm almost done!" Lyra yelled as she finished brushing her hair. She put away the brush in the bag, checked her reflection one last time, and opened the bathroom door.
As Lyra walked out of the bathroom she saw that her father was in the room as well. "Mark I thought you were finally a grown-up." Her mother said to Mark, who was sitting on the bed. He shrugged. "Sorry mom, but I already told you that I will always be a child." He saw that Lyra had come out of the bathroom, so he winked at Lyra. "Sorry Bree, I was just trying to have some fun. Where you able to fix your hair?" Lyra nodded at him and smiled. "Yup, it's all good."
"Shall we go?" Lyra grabbed her now almost empty bag. "Shall we go somewhere to eat first? I don't know about you guys, but I really am in the mood to eat something." Mark stood up from the bed and he grabbed his bag as well. "Honey, that sounds like a great idea. The receptionist told us about a great place we could get something to eat and drink." Her mother said as clasped her hands together out of excitement.
After about 20 minutes they reached the place the receptionist told them about. The restaurant was on a square, which was quite packed with people. They were lucky that some people just left.
They quickly went to sit down. "Finally, it's insane how busy it is here," Mark said as he looked around him. "I totally agree. Is there something special today as to why there are so many people here?" Her mother wondered. "Well, I did see some people cosplaying for probably a convention. They were wearing these weird-looking robes. Seems way too hot for this weather." Lyra said, looking back as she again saw some people wearing the type of clothes her mother described. "Well, hopefully, the thing they're going to begins soon, that way it might get less busy."
Lyra grabbed one of the menus that were lying on the table and looked at what she wanted to get. After a couple of minutes, the waitress came to take their order. Lyra went for an ice tea and some fish and chips. While her family ordered fish and chips as well, only with different drinks. They all loved to eat it, so why not order it when you can?
---
When their food arrived, Lyra immediately started stuffing her face. "Bree you look so sexy like this. I really don't get it, how you're still single." Mark joked at her. Lyra put up her middle finger at him and continued eating. "Honey, please slow down will you? You might choke on your food if you keep eating like that." Her mom asked her. Lyra swallowed her food and took a sip from her ice tea. "Sorry, mom." She knew that her mom did not like it when she eat like that. This is because she believes that eating together should be shared. This means that you should take your time to save every bite. Lyra didn't care much, she was just hungry.
After Lyra had finished her now clean-looking plate, she started seeing more people in robes had arrived on the square. Perhaps the convention just ended? She wondered to herself.
Suddenly, the robed people started running in different directions. Mostly to where people were sitting, of which two were coming our way. "People you have to leave. There is going to be an attack on London. You're all in grave danger!" The woman out of the two said. Lyra didn't believe her, but the panicked look they had on their faces made her wonder if it was actually true. The people sitting near them just ignored what they had said and continued eating. High chance that people didn't believe them, because of the way they dressed. Assuming that what they were doing is a prank.
Lyra looked over at her family. "Do you think that there really might be something going on?" She asked and her parents looked quite doubtful. "I'm sorry that they're just trying to mess with people. Nothing to worry about." Her mother said, but the look on her face didn't make Lyra believe her.
All of a sudden the people started screaming across the square from them, which made Lyra and her family quickly stand up and look in that direction. People came running from a road, across the square."We have to leave now!" The woman yelled again and she two people by the arm and dragged them towards the opposite direction of the running people. Everyone else stood up and started following the robed woman. Lyra and her family followed suit. There was a lot happening around them, and people were panicking, which caused them to scream and run in all directions. Someone knocked into Lyra, which made her almost fall over, but she managed to catch herself in time. However, this caused Lyra to see what made people so afraid. There was something she never expected to see in the middle of London.
Across the square, was something huge, which seemed to be 30 meters high.
It was a black wave, and it was coming their way.