Lisa abruptly awoke with a loud gasp, sweating profusely. She grasped at her chest and panted heavily in an attempt to calm her thundering heart. A less than scientific approach but one that found itself effective after about fifteen seconds. Now somewhat calm, she surveyed her surroundings, making sure that the "reality" she just escaped from was no longer still in effect. To her instant relief, she spotted her baby sister, Lily, sleeping soundly in her crib not too far away. She turned towards the tiny bedroom dresser next to her bed and squinted at her alarm clock to decipher the time, a not so easy task without the aid of her glasses.
'38 minutes past 12 in the morning, Eastern Standard Time. An adequate time to be awake on a Friday morning, I'm sure', she sarcastically and bitterly thought.
Sleep was out of the question. That much was for certain. Sure, she knew that it was highly unlikely for her to experience the same frightening visuals if she were to simply go back to sleep now but she simply couldn't will herself to overcome her fear, a fact that shamed her deeply. She was above such…such childish trepidation! Wasn't she?
Throwing off her blanket in frustration, Lisa made her way out of her bedroom, making sure not to wake up Lily as she opened and shut the door behind her as quietly as she could. She didn't even bother to grab her glasses, finding them unnecessary for what she wanted to do. Upon entering the hallway, she found solace in the fact that, by the immediate looks and sounds of it, everyone in the Loud house was currently occupied in their rooms, asleep or otherwise, meaning that there'd be no one to interfere in her small trek to the bathroom.
Well, almost no one. She barely noticed Cliff, the family cat, curled up contently in the middle of the hallway, fast asleep. Before she could do something careless, like stepping on him, she walked around him and continued to make her way to her destination.
Once there, she turned on the sink and splashed herself in the face with cold water in an attempt to perk herself up. She gripped the sink hard and steeled her still shaky nerves as she looked at her reflection in the mirror, disgusted by the disheveled and unkempt image of herself that she saw. This didn't resemble someone who could scoff in the face of such erratic sensations and simply move past them, knowing that they didn't pose an objective threat. Instead, what she saw looked like a scared little girl who couldn't master her own fear despite knowing better. Well, no longer!
"Lisa Marie Loud, get a grip! You're better than this! Nightmares are nothing more than the sensations that result from REM sleep, combined with a decrease in neurotransmitter release and lack of prefrontal cortex activity. Now, resume said REM sleep so that upon awakening in a few hours, the entire world can continue to benefit from your brilliance!"
Her pep talk seemed to do the trick as she closed the bathroom door behind her and made her way back to her room, her confidence seemingly restored. However, without her glasses on, the dark hallway made it harder to see what was right in front of her. It wasn't a problem for her when she left to go to the bathroom since her room wasn't far away from it and she relied on her impeccable memory to guide her. It also helped that she wasn't reckless in her approach. This time, however, with her single-minded objective to get back to her room as quickly as possible, she found herself stepping on Cliff's tail, resulting in the feline yowling in pain and scampering away, tripping up Lisa as he sped past. Without even thinking, Lisa made a run for it, suppressing the urge to scream at the top of her lungs. She didn't want to be there any longer, opting to run as far as she could down the hallway, right past her bedroom, and all the way at the end. She dropped to the floor and huddled close to the wall, whimpering and sniveling, fighting back tears from falling from her eyes but finding such a task a moot and futile effort as sobbed as quietly as she could. All she had to do was let this infantile reaction run its course so she could go back to sleep, all while making sure not to alert anyone to he-
"Lisa?"
She was suddenly enveloped in a bright light. She flinched immediately but relaxed again as she figured out what was happening. She had wound up next to the hallway's former linen closet, now occupied by her elder and only brother, Lincoln, who had opened the door to his bedroom. She assumed that he must have heard her pathetic weeping and came to check out what was going on outside of his room.
"Lisa, what're you doing here? And more importantly, why are you up this late?"
'I could ask you the same question', she wanted to retort back but found it insincere and crude, especially when he was just trying to look out for her. Still, she hated being put on the spot and just wanted for tonight's fiasco to be over with and behind her. Plus, she hated having to lie, having decided a while ago that taking up space in her brain to formulate fibs was a waste. But just as she was about to find some way to deflect the conversation in her favor, she was stopped dead in her tracks by her brother's keen observation.
"And more importantly than THAT, have you been crying? What's going on?"
Lisa was quick to rub her face of the incriminating evidence but it was soon replaced by her face flushing after being caught so easily and in such a state of weakness, too. She just wanted the ground to swallow her up. It'd be a better fate than letting anyone see her like this, even if it was her own family. She took pride in the fact that she was above being fascinated or shocked by trivial matters that her family would be taken by surprise from. She didn't look down on them for it but she appreciated how her perspective on everyday occurrences made it so that she could anticipate the consequences and deal with them rationally. But running about scared out of her wits? Huddling against the wall and crying? All because of a bad dream? It was the antithesis of who she felt she was. To her surprise, while she was self-loathing in her head, Lincoln had been able to figure out the bane of her dilemma.
"Lemme guess, you had a nightmare and you can't get to sleep 'cause you're scared, right?"
Lisa looked up at her smiling brother, flabbergasted at how easily he was able to pick up on things without her having to say a word. Admitting defeat, she looked down at the floor and meekly nodded her head, waiting for light admonishment and perhaps even condescension to come forth. Instead, she found Lincoln kneeling on the floor in front of her, wrapping her up in a hug. She was somewhat taken aback from the gentle embrace and although she didn't return it, she silently thanked him for his kindness.
"It's okay. I've been there before. Heck, I still have bad dreams that keep me awake from time to time. It's nothing to be ashamed of, Lisa. You're human just like everyone else."
It was then that Lisa found irony in her attempt to retain her rationality; she found it beneath her to feel fear from haunting visuals that nightmares can produce yet denying the objective effects of fear was irrational in of itself. For the first time since she woke up, she smiled and hugged Lincoln back.
"I really needed that, Lincoln. You were of the utmost help."
"No problem. Say, you wanna sleep with me for tonight? I don't mind. I've got plenty of space in my bed."
Lisa accepted the invite without hesitation as she allowed Lincoln to lead her into his room. Lincoln turned the lights off and Lisa found herself in bed once again, covered by darkness. This time, however, her big brother was right there to make her feel safe and secure. To her amusement, she found Lincoln's toy rabbit, Bun Bun, snuggled up in between them, no doubt more precaution on part of her thoughtful brother. It didn't take long, however, for Lisa to think about all the teasing and bantering she'd get from her other older siblings if they found out about this. She knew they'd mean well and would try not to be malicious but she knew they'd never let her live this down for at least a month. She cringed at all the material that this would give Luan in particular.
"Uhh…Lincoln?"
"Yeah? What's up?"
"Would you...mind not telling the others about this?"
Lincoln responded by bringing Lisa even closer to him until her tiny body was cocooned.
"Sure. I understand. By the way, while we're on the subject of promises, mind if I make one of my own?"
"What would that be?"
"That I'll always be here for you no matter what. You may have a Ph.D. but you're still my little sister and looking out for their younger siblings is what big brothers do."
More tears threatened to spill from Lisa's eyes but this time, out of joy. She may not have expressed herself with emotions as often as a four-year-old girl normally would but the sentimentality of her brother's words was enough to for her to abandon her stoic nature for once and snuggle herself even closer in Lincoln's caress.
"Thank you. Goodnight, Lincoln."
Lincoln leaned over to peck Lisa on the forehead and laid back down.
"Goodnight, Lisa."
A/N: There we have it. Is it sad that this is the best thing that I've ever produced in 2 and a half hours?.This was originally going to be a drabble but the opportunity for some of the dialogue here was too much to pass up on. Anyways, enough of all that. Regardless about how you felt about this, I'd like to see some feedback and constructive criticism on how my first attempt at fanfiction was. Thanks for reading! (^_^)