19: No One Can Sleep
Title: No One Can Sleep
Author: Leah
Rating: PG-13 because it's a little bit of a horror movie. Actually, who am I kidding, it's probably G.
Summary: A night where no-one can sleep turns in to an epic battle against the forces of darkness. Sorry.
Notes: No matter how much I hate The Seeker, it's just the slightest bit canon right now. Although this is mostly Susan Cooper inspired.
For the first time in many an evening, the townhouse was silent at night.
Unfortunately, no-one could sleep, either, so the silence was completely wasted.
Noel tried watching Patrick Fish, which was usually quite lulling and peaceful. Then he tried loud techno, which, for some reason, he thought might work. All that that resulted in was Paisley coming down and yelling at him before going back upstairs. It didn’t make him sleepy. Loud Rolling Stones met with the same reaction. For the first time in his entire life, Noel wondered if his neon green and blue bedspread was perhaps not the most conducive colour to sleep.
Paisley was pissed off. Not only had Noel pulled her entirely out of her almost-sleep that she had nearly managed with his stupid techno, he hadn’t even invited her in for a sexy dance party. Also, the man-on-the-moon wouldn’t stop staring at her through the window. His very gaze was making the room overbright and shiny for some reason, which she found unbelievably tedious. Too bad her curtains had imploded the previous night, otherwise she’d be putting a stop to his spying.
“Can’t sleep,” thought Leah. “Can’t sleep can’t sleep can’t sleep can’t sleep can’t sleep can’t sleep can’t sleep can’t sleep can’t sleep can’t sleep can’t sleep can’t sleep can’t sleep can-”
Sharmy’s bed was slowly sinking into the floor and she clutched her covers to herself in fear. She really didn’t want to test the floor itself and climb off her bed, as she was worried that her feet would get trapped. The floor didn’t seem to remember that it was supposed to be a solid. It was like quicksand which is kind of like both a solid and a liquid but it’s mostly just sand-mud. So it’s sort of a mixture, really. It’s up to your own opinion.
“Help!” yelled someone, banging on their door.
“Thank god!” said Leah, leaping from her bed and running downstairs, desperate for something to do. She yanked open the door and Simon, who had been leaning on it, fell into the house.
“He-” he started saying and then scrambled past Leah and to his feet. “Close the door!” he yelped. Leah complied and turned to look at him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Secure your windows!” he babbled. “Do you have any other doors? Make sure they’re closed. Lock this one!”
Noel bolted out from his room, dressed in weird red silk pyjamas. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“I have no idea but apparently we’re under siege or something,” said Leah, locking the door and rushing around to start locking all the windows.
“Simon?” said Noel, looking at him. “Is something wrong?”
“No, of course not!” snapped Simon. “I’m just here for my habitual nighttime visit.”
“Oh, all right then,” said Noel, turning to leave. Paisley came to the top of the stairs.
“The man in the moon won’t stop watching me,” she complained. “And now Simon’s here being noisy.”
“My life is being threatened!” Simon squeaked.
“Again?” asked Paisley. “Is it Wednesday?”
“I’m not that predictable,” said Simon.
“It is, though, isn’t it,” said Paisley.
“Well, yes,” admitted Simon. “Could we get back to the important matter at hand?”
“Which is?” said Noel. “This is just a visit, yeah?”
“R-” said Simon, starting to be sarcastic and then correcting himself. “No! I was being sarcastic.” Leah ran back from closing all the blinds, pushing past Paisley to run downstairs.
“Okay, this house’s secure as it’s going to get,” she said, “mainly because I can’t get into Sharmy’s room because it’s dissolving or something.”
“Oh Lord, then it’s here too,” said Simon, his eyes widening. “We’re not safe. Is there anywhere else we can get to quickly?”
“Julian’s house is downtown,” said Noel, “so unless there’s nowhere else, that’s-actually, whatever this is, I should call and warn him. What’s going on?”
“Places are just sort of…dissolving,” said Simon anxiously.
“Aren’t you going to help me?!” yelled Sharmy from upstairs. “Leah? You just looked in and then ran off again!”
“Oh yeah,” said Leah. “We need to save Sharmy.”
“I’ll go get my metal pole,” said Noel and ran off into his room, pulling a cell phone from the pocket of his pyjamas as he did so.
“What about Russell’s dorm?” asked Paisley. “Johnston or something?”
“Yes,” said Simon, “but do you actually want to go there?”
“Good point,” said Leah. Noel exited from his room with his metal pole under his arm, still on his cell phone. “No, honestly,” he said. “You have to be careful, Ju. Guelph isn’t safe. Okay? Watch out for yourself. Bye.” He flipped his phone closed and put it back into his pocket. “Okay,” he said, and pulled the pole apart into two separate poles, one which had been inside the other. “Someone come and help me hold this steady.”
“I’ll do it,” said Paisley, as Noel scaled the stairs. “I’m already up here.” Noel brought the poles to the door of Sharmy’s room. Her bed had nearly sunk entirely into the floor. Noel fed the poles slowly across to rest on Sharmy’s bed and on the floor outside her bedroom, two feet apart.
“Climb across,” he urged Sharmy. “Your bed’s dissolving.” Paisley and Noel secured the poles as Sharmy, fearful for her life, climbed across on the poles on her hands and knees, careful not to touch the floor. Once she reached the hall, Noel pulled back his poles and went downstairs to put them away. Paisley and Sharmy filed down after him and stopped in the main entrance.
“It’s sort of important that we come up with our escape plan,” said Simon. “We need something to test the ground with, too.”
“Walking stick,” said Noel, exiting his room holding an enormous walking stick.
“Good, yes,” said Simon. “We’re not safe here, remember. Where are we going? Or have we decided that we’d rather die?”
“We could try Artz Haus,” suggested Sharmy shyly. She was shy. “Richard lives there.”
“Is he there now?” asked Leah. “Or is he battling demons?”
“He’s probably there?” said Sharmy.
“All right, let’s go there!” Simon said urgently.
“Sorry, I have one question,” said Leah. “How is hiding in a building going to save us from the world dissolving?”
“There must be somewhere safe!” said Simon. “Look, outside, under the light of the moon, you can see the dissolving as a sort of darkness. So there must be a way to block the darkness out.”
“Hang on, the man on the moon is being useful?” asked Paisley. “That’s unlikely.”
“He’s not malicious, just lonely,” said Leah.
“He was just staring at me through my window,” said Paisley.
“Maybe he was trying to warn you?” suggested Leah weakly. Paisley remembered vaguely now that he had been trying to mouth something at her through the window but she had assumed it was something perverse.
“I don’t think so,” she said quickly.
“Let’s go!” said Simon. He unlocked the door and everyone piled out into the moonlit night. Simon looked about anxiously and saw a patch of darkness illuminated by the light of the moon to their left.
“Run!” yelled the man on the moon frantically. “Evil has rent its fetters and comes for you! You haven’t much time! I can but show you where the evil lies.”
“See?” said Leah. “He is trying to help.”
“Let’s follow his instructions, please?” Simon said. They all ran, trying to avoid any shadows, but once the buildings increased in size, the man on the moon was no longer able to light their way. Noel ran to the front of the line and tapped in front of them with his walking stick, switching their direction whenever it dissolved slightly. Eventually, they ran up to the front door of Artz Haus and all tried to push into the entrance, not quite making it. Sharmy pushed past them and called Richard’s room.
“Hello?” said Richard over the intercom.
“Hi,” said Sharmy breathlessly, “the forces of evil are sort of after us. Can you let us in?”
“Right away,” said Richard and hung up. About ten seconds later, he came and pushed the door open, forcing some people to back up before they could all run in. Simon nervously shut both doors firmly behind him as he came. “What sort of evil forces?” Richard asked, leading them just around the corner to his room, which was right beside the entry.
“A sort of black dissolvy thing,” said Sharmy as they entered the room. One side was rather clean except for the unmade bed, and the other side was slightly messier and the bed had been raised up to an incredible height slightly lower than a loft bed.
“Excuse the mess,” said Richard apologetically. “I haven’t had time nor inclination to make my bed and Chris isn’t here right now so he hasn’t been able to clean.”
“That’s not important at all!” said Simon rudely.
“Genius!” said Noel excitedly, looking at the lofted bed. “I wish we could do that with OUR beds.”
“I don’t know,” said Richard. “I think it’s rather dangerous.”
“There are evil forces outside?” Paisley reminded him, as Simon seemed to be going into some sort of wide-eyed hysterical fit.
“Right, yes,” said Richard. “Well, we should be reasonably safe here as I’ve drawn up some preliminary wards but of course, there is the rest of the world to think about.” He walked over to the drawers under his bed and rummaged through them for a while, then ducked under Chris’ bed and pulled open his drawers, digging through about a thousand chocolate bar wrappers and finally coming out with a long, black rod with silver caps on each end and a slight red glow. “I’ll have to borrow this plus seven darkness sword of light,” he said, sounding like he was justifying himself. “I may be a while.”
“Oh no!” said Sharmy, sensing what was happening. She went to hug Richard and he hugged her back with one arm while carefully holding the rod away from her with the other. “Be careful,” she said.
“Yes,” said Richard. “Thank you. Um, I may not be back, though. You should be safe as long as you stay in here. Probably. I mean, my wards are probably complete rubbish but they’re the best I can do.”
“You’re always such a comfort, Richard,” said Simon.
“Um,” said Richard.
“How do we know if we’re safe?” asked Paisley.
“You can watch me out the window,” said Richard. “I won’t be able to go much farther. The Darkness is surrounding the house. Anyway, I’d better go.” He hesitated for a moment, and then left the room, shutting the door after him. Sharmy sighed.
“Noel!” admonished Leah as most of everyone crowded around the window. “Don’t touch that! You might kill yourself or something!”
“He’s just got a drawer of weird gadgets,” announced Noel. “Your boyfriend is weird, Sharmy.” She, however, wasn’t listening. Instead, she, as well as Paisley and Simon were peering out the window, watching Richard raise up the rod and gesture with it. The red glow travelled up his arm and surrounded his body. Then, he brought the rod down like a club and hit the ground with it. Lightning-like red energy ran along the ground, sucking the blackness into it as it went. Then the light retreated and brought the blackness back with it into the rod. Suddenly, at the other end of the field and only just visible against the dark blue sky, a rider on a black horse appeared. He began to ride across the field towards Richard, his black cloak billowing as he pulled out a gleaming sword from under it. In response, Richard swept the rod through the air in a crescent shape, which caused the red glow to expand outwards into a sword shape in front of him, laced with the darkness it had absorbed. His hair whipping around his face, the Rider rode madly at Richard, swinging his sword. Richard ducked under it and brought his light-sword up to slice across the Rider’s arm. The Rider yelled, a loud bellowing that could be heard through the window and reined his horse in, circling it about. As he did so, Richard grabbed the Rider’s arm and vaulted up onto the horse with him, knocking the rider slightly sideways.
“The internet wants me to enter a password,” complained Noel. “I don’t know Richard’s passwords.”
“Just enter your own,” said Paisley.
“Oh yeah,” said Noel.
Meanwhile, Richard and the Rider grappled for control of the horse until finally, Richard knocked him to the ground and jumped off the horse after him. The horse snorted flame from its nostrils and dispersed into darkness that Richard sliced his sword through and absorbed. The Rider leapt to his feet from the ground and brought his sword around at Richard’s back.
“Richard!” Sharmy yelled, and Richard turned about and blocked the Rider’s sword with his own, struggling obviously against the strength of the Rider. The Rider bared his teeth in a triumphant smile, but his smile faltered as Richard, baring his own teeth, brought the sword back toward him and eventually managed to thrust the very tip of the sword into the Rider’s chest. The Rider’s eyes widened and he withered away until he was sucked into the darkness wrapped about the sword. The red glow about Richard abated slightly, and he staggered, then stabbed the sword down into the ground. The glow increased back to its original strength, then amplified until it was too bright to see Richard any more. When it faded, Richard and the sword were gone, and the night seemed much brighter and less foreboding than it had when they were running through it before.
“I really hope he’s okay,” said Sharmy quietly.
“Why do I still go to this school?” wondered Simon. “It’s not as if I particularly like it and there’s some sort of apocalypse every few days.”
“Maybe you have a subconscious death wish,” suggested Leah.
“Maybe I should go home,” said Simon.
“Maybe we should go back to the townhouse and eat that carrot cake I made yesterday,” Leah said. Everyone liked this idea a lot more. They brought Simon back with them and he announced that carrot cake was definitely much better than dying.
This was a truth of life.
THE END