I woke up one night to a slight shake in my shoulder.I glanced at the clock on my wall, 1:28. I rolled over, making sure not to roll off the top bunk. There, right before me, stood Kitty, alert and shaking. she had a very afraid look on her face. i sat up as fast as i could in my sleepy state. thank god it was Saturday. "what's wrong?" i asked, rubbing my eyes.
she blinked, still shaking like a leaf.
I was silent for a while. then i lent over and touched her forehead. "ok, what's going on?"
she looked to my bedroom door, half open, then back at me. "couldn't sleep."
I dropped my legs over the edge of the bed, then jumped down to the floor. she was already standing on the carpet when i righted myself. i walked over to her, then sat her down on the bottom bunk and settled in next to her. "you wanna talk about it?"
she looked at me. if she decided to tell me, that would probably be the most i had ever heard out of her mouth.
she shivered and took a deep breath."it was dark," she began, "i was in this field. in front of me stood a child. he was sick and hungry; beaten and covered in blood. i felt really bad, so i reached out to grab him up. as soon as i touched him, he went limp and fell to the ground. i stepped back and turned around to run, but more children were standing there. behind them, men in black suits with... with crazy tools, started coming up to them. then they started to beat and torture the children. i could feel their pain. it hurt really bad... i wanted to help, but i was in too much pain. i knew that when the kids were gone, it would be my time. accept, i knew my torture would be a lot worse..."
wow. talk about nightmares.
i wrapped an arm around her. she wasn't shaking as much as before, but i could still feel a shiver every now and again. "it's ok. it was only a dream. people like you too much to torture you, alright?"
she buried her face in my side.
we sat like that for a while, and i rocked her back and forth. this brother thing was turning out to be pretty easy. being an only child had really sucked, but now i had someone to take care of.
after a while, she left the room, ready to go back to bed.
i woke up at 6 that morning. i had planned to sleep till noon, but i guessed 6 hours wasn't much. i hopped off the top bunk and stretched. i turned around and reached to the foot of the bottom bunk and grabbed my red 'tight' shirt. i stood up and began to turn.
that's when the blankets on the bottom bunk moved.
i looked over at Kitty. she had a blanket between her knees and under her nose. her big blue eyes had turned gray. she was watching me, inspecting every move.
"'ello." i said. "what are you doing here?"
she looked me over, then glanced into my eyes.
i got down on my knees and began my push-ups. she watched me and i did them, silently counting each as i came up again.
after a long silence, she said, "you missed one."
i blinked at her. "what?"
"you counted one for two of them." she looked at the ground below me. "you said 23 when you should have said 24."
i thought about it for a while, then shrugged and said "oh."
another long silence.
"thank you."
i stopped doing push-ups and sat on my knees, giving her a questioning look.
"for last night. thanks for helping me."
i grinned. that's what brothers are for, right?"
for the first time, i saw her eyes turn a brilliant blue and glitter like stars. "yep." |
Kitty has nightmares
