After The Storm

Thunder in the Night

By Ricco Ragazza

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars! Wow, yeah, you know you thought I did! I wish I did, 'cause then I'd own Hayden Christensen for a couple of years, and I'd also have the hundreds of millions of dollars that I made off of little action figures! Oh, that reminds me, when Episode Two comes out, I will SO be getting that Anakin action figure! Ooooh, I can stare at it all day and nigh—uh, sorry, I went off into dream world again. Oh, and I don't own Star Wars BTW if you didn't hear me the first time!

AN~ Ok, this is yet another story from Amidala's point of view. I guess I'm best at these, because I use some of my own thoughts, and hunny, I don't think like a sex-crazed, one-thing-on-his mind man! So, you know, it'd be a lot harder to right from Anakin's point of view, since really I have no idea what he or any other man for that matter think of except, yeah. So, guys, help me out here! LOL The ladies know what I am talking about! :-) Anyways, remember to review!!!! And may the force be with you! The force of reading and reviewing that is!

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Thunder in the Night

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~By Ricco Ragazza~

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A crack of thunder interrupts my dreams of fantasy as I lay sleeping in a bead that is much too big for only one person. I sit up suddenly and hold my breath; turning my head half way around to look out my window. My bed is against the wall, right in front of the window, so I shift around a little to see better. Rain pelts the glass of the window viscously, and I see that I accidentally left the window a crack open. It must not have been raining long before I awoke, because the window sill isn't that wet, yet.

As I turn all the way around and sit on my knees so that I can shut the window, another roll of thunder cracks and makes me jump. I clench my teeth, angry that I let thunder scare me so. I quickly shut the window, latch the top and fight to get back under my blanket. Now I can't sleep, all I can do is stare blankly at my white ceiling.

I lay flat, my arms at my sides, just staring at the ceiling. Waiting; waiting for more lightening that would flash across my ceiling. Lightening brings thunder, and I want to be prepared for the next crack of thunder; I want to be ready, and not scared. Thunder never used to get to me, it does now for some reason and I really don't know why. The sound of rain smashing against the roof sounds more like hail than water, I don't know how I will ever be able to drift back off to the wonderful land of sleep I have just came from.

Lying still, almost too still, I stare at the dark ceiling with dread. Lightening flashes across my ceiling suddenly and I cringe; waiting for the evil sound of what will follow. I wait, and I wait; nothing, not a sound. Then, right when I relax my muscles and think there will be no sound and let down my guard, CRRRSHHH! I scream, a short scream; I cover my mouth before I can drown out all thought. It scared me, or more along the lines of it scared me near to death.

I sit up and take a look around my dark and shadowy room. Some objects cast menacing shadows on the floor, others no shadow at all. Everything is here and in the place it always is; to the right my closet, to the left my door, and everything in between. Yet, it feels so barren, cold, empty; I don't understand these feelings, for about a second. This room is too big, I want a smaller room, this one makes me feel so small, and lonely.

I look over at my dresser which is in front of my bed, and I see lightening in its mirror. I clench my teeth and tighten my shoulders, thinking that it would be just a normal crack of lightening; I was wrong. It cracked so loud my ears rang for seconds later, and I could feel my bed shake, after I was sitting on it again that is. I jumped, and gave myself a headache from cringing and clenching my teeth so hard.

I want to scream, but that won't make this lightening go away any faster. I can't take it anymore in this room; there are far too many memories here. I slide out of bed to the hard marble floor, which strangely enough isn't very cold, just mildly cool.  My white silk nightgown falls from where it was tangled at my knees to the floor. I'm not tall enough, and it drags on the floor as I walk.

Right as I am about to open my door I have some instinct to turn around; right as I do so I see three stems of lightening. I just stand there, too surprised to do anything; until I hear that unsatisfying CRRRCK! I yank my head down a little and am taken aback by the loud noise. I turn around and face the dark wood door, and stare at it for a moment. I crumple my face up, and slap the door with my hand as hard as I can. I guess it's the only way I can get my anger out, there really isn't thing else to do about being scared to death by stupid thunder.

Now my hand stings; great. Self inflicted pain feels satisfying in a sick way, I don't really know why. I take a deep breath and straighten my shoulders. I turn the door knob quickly; I have got to get out of this room before I go totally crazy. I walk out the door hurriedly and into the big open hall of a palace. Turning and slamming the door, I then press my back against it and slide all the way down until I am sitting on the hard floor.

This hall is also too big, why must everything here belittle me? The high dark ceiling, the other dark wooded doors; how can anyone else sleep during such a storm? They must be even crazier than I, which is very hard for me to believe. My gaze falls to the white marble floor; this palace is too majestic, I wish I lived back in a farm house with my parents…

All I can do is sit here, I know this door isn't very thick, and I will be able to hear and feel the thunder. I don't know why my legs won't move, I am just stuck, sitting on the floor with my knees pressed to my chest. I don't know why I am so terrified to move; not moving won't stop the thunder. Get up! Move your legs! I scream at myself inside my head, but my body won't listen to my brain and here I sit.

Right as start to sigh, I am cut off by a roll of thunder that seems almost right on top of me. A scream escapes my lips and I press my eyelids together tighter than I ever would have thought possible; this time I can't stop it; can't cover my mouth; I can't move. I just scream for what seems forever, until out of nowhere, for no reason; I stop.

When I stop screaming, I jump up to my feet. I start running; where to I don't know, I am just going to run until I'm not scared anymore. After about a few feet of running my nightgown gets tangled with my feet and I am now thrown to the floor. My knees catch my fall; then my body slaps the floor. I don't move; I just lay here not fighting the pain that is screaming all over my hurt body.

I am tired of being afraid of thunder; I know now why I'm so scared, I'm scared of what thunder is; electricity screaming. The thought of anything electric makes me think of a man; of a man that is now a machine, who is inside screaming. A man that I used to love; come to think of it I used to like to watch thunder storms, too.

I sit up onto my aching knees and quickly get to my feet. I stand staring off to the end of the long hall. At the end of the hall there is a door; a door. I will face my fear; I will go out into the night by myself and face these fears that chase me, I will run no longer.

I frown deeply as I walk as quick as you can without running; forgetting that my knees have been scraped and my body bruised. As I reach the door I straighten my body, and without thinking I push the door open and come out into the rain and lightening; and the thunder.

Rain hits me hard, I was right it is rain mixed with hail; but that matters nothing to me now.

"Do you like scaring me? Haunting my dreams?! I'm tired of you! Go and torture someone else!" I scream into the night as loud as I can, and right as finish talking the biggest lightening strike of all smashes a nearby tree, but this time I just stare back defiantly.

EN~ Sorry if you didn't get it, Amidala was afraid of the sound of thunder because it reminded her of Anakin. Her bed was too big for two people ::hint hint:: Anakin left her. Sorry, it was kinda shrouded in mystery! Please review, though. I will review your fics, beta read, whatever you need me to do! Just please review!