The next chapter is here, my friends! If you didn't read in last week's update or have forgotten, this is the sequel to last week's chapter. Also, thank you to all who have read or given any kind of feedback, you make my day. Speaking of feedback, we've reached 20 reviews guys! I'm very excited about this and honestly didn't expect this by chapter 8 or 9 (which ever this is) which sounds kind of sad I guess, but I just thought I would get maybe like 1 review per chapter (/maybe/) and a favorite/follow maybe once a month, so I'm just happy there are this many of you reading, so thank you, my lovely readers, and here is another chapter for you to read. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, and sadly, it never will be.
Sleepovers Are Fun, Except For the Sleeping Part (Oneshot) (Sequel to "Home Alone"):
Gray – 7 (2nd Grade)
Lyon – 10 (5th Grade)
There were sirens blaring somewhere off in the distance, and Gray felt his heart leap as hope began to chip away at the seemingly endless feeling of fear. Then the man flipped around, and the hope was cruelly snatched away from him as terror once again took its place. He could see that the man was shouting, but he couldn't discern exactly what was being said, because his heartbeat was pounding so loudly in his ears that he really couldn't hear much of anything.
And then the man had taken his brother, ripped him harshly out of Gray's grasp as though it were nothing despite his holding on as tightly as was physically possible. The man had his hands around Lyon's neck, and Lyon's face was beginning to turn unnatural shades of red and purple, and though he still couldn't hear a thing, he knew that his mouth was moving to form some sort of plea, to beg for him to let his brother go, because he was hurting him.
The man did not answer, and then Lyon stopped struggling, no longer clawing at the hands around his neck, and the man held him there for just a moment longer before fleeing from their home. The door burst open then, and Gray turned to see policemen running to them. They lifted Lyon from the floor and guided Gray from the house, and the woman who was escorting him out assured him that everything was going to be okay. But he already knew that it wouldn't be. He'd already seen it, the look in his brother's eyes. And the problem was that there wasn't one, they looked empty. Dead.
Gray hadn't realized that his hearing had returned until he heard a broken, animalistic scream. It took him a few moments to realize that he was the one screaming.
...
Gray jolted awake, his sleeping having been disturbed by the scream trying to work its way from his throat, though it was less screaming and more choking. He sat straight up, and his back ached slightly. His eyes darted back and forth, and he found himself in an unfamiliar setting. He was about to begin panicking, though that was hardly the smartest thing to do when finding yourself in a situation such as this, but said panic began to die down as he remembered where he was. He was in a sleeping bag on the floor of Natsu's bedroom.
The pink-haired boy had asked Gray if he'd wanted to sleep over, a request in which Gray accepted only after thorough parental convincing. It'd been two months since the incident, and while he and Lyon had both had their fair share of nightmares, his had stopped almost two weeks ago (though he couldn't say the same for Lyon, after all, Gray was the one who went to Lyon's room to seek comfort after a particularly harsh nightmare, not the other way around, so he wouldn't know such things), and that confirmation was enough to convince his parents that he would be okay without them for one night, that and his promise to call them if anything happened. And happened something had.
Gray swiped furiously at his eyes, wiping away the tears that he knew would be there after having had the same nightmare so many times (curse him for being such a baby), and though he had had it many, many times, it never got any less scary. Any less real. Because if a man could break into his house and nearly kill him and his brother, then another one could do the exact same and there would be no "nearly" about it. And Gray hated it.
He hated that this man had decided to choose their house out of all the other houses in the world, in their town, even. He hated that, because of it, his parents were always paranoid, rarely ever leaving Gray and Lyon home without one of them there, and if neither of them could be there, a babysitter it was. He hated that he still jumped when he heard a loud noise and that Lyon still flinched whenever someone touched his neck, despite the bruises having faded weeks ago (though Gray swore he could still see them if he looked closely enough).
He hated that all he could think about was "What if Lyon hadn't taken the phone off the wall before coming to get him?", "What if they hadn't fit in the cabinet?", "What if that man had held on just a minute, just a second longer?". He hated that he couldn't even be grateful that his brother was still alive, because every time he closed his eyes, all he could picture was him dead. He wiped again at his eyes, because the tears just continued to come, and he hated that all he could do now was cry.
"Gray?"
And when Gray turned to look at his friend, he hated the worried look on his face, because all anyone around him ever did anymore was look worried, as though their worry would somehow fix what'd happened.
"Are you okay?"
And suddenly he couldn't hate the look on Natsu's face, because he knew it was only there because his friend cared and wanted to know why Gray was crying in the middle of the night if the nightmares had stopped. But that didn't mean he still couldn't hate everything else.
"I-I'm fine," he supplied, his voice still shaky from crying.
"Are you sure? My mom can take you home if you don't wanna stay. I won't hold it against you or nothin'."
Gray just shook his head, he didn't want to leave, there was just something he needed to do first, "No, I wanna stay. Just- can I use your phone to call my parents?"
Natsu's expression changed from worry to bemusement to understanding before he nodded and quietly crept from his room to get the house phone from his kitchen.
Gray thought calling his parents would calm his nerves slightly, and he would be able to go back to sleep, preferably without anymore nightmares, and he'd also promised them that he would call should anything happen. And Gray was no promise-breaker.
When Natsu returned with the technological device, he handed it to Gray before walking back out of the room and shutting the door to give the other boy some privacy. He heard Natsu sit down outside of the door, and though he knew his friend wouldn't eavesdrop on something so personal, he couldn't help but wish that he'd stayed, because the dark room was rather ominous when Gray sat in it alone.
He quickly dialed the number that he'd forced himself to memorize by heart and placed it over his ear as he waited for someone to pick up. Gray knew that it was late, but he also knew that his parents would be anxiously awaiting his call in case something should go wrong and were probably sleeping with one eye open, if at all. When the ringing did cease, however, it was not either of his parents who he found himself speaking to.
"Hello?"
It was Lyon, and Gray realized that he felt infinitely more better having it be Lyon that he was talking to, because there was still that troublesome thought at the back of his mind that still had him believing that something awful had happened to his brother.
"Lyon? What are you doing up?" Gray asked, though he already knew the answer. He also knew that it wouldn't be the answer Lyon gave him.
"Just… getting a glass of water. I woke up a little bit ago and was kinda thirsty, so…" and even if he hadn't known that was going to be a lie, Gray would have figured it out anyway, because Lyon sincerely sucked at lying.
He knew that the real reason Lyon was wondering about the house this late at night was because, while Gray's nightmares were about the what if's concerning what could have happened after the man had already broken in, Gray was sure that Lyon's were about the what if's that came before "What if he'd never spotted the man in the first place?", "What if the man had gotten to him before he could get to Gray?", "What if he'd forgotten Gray in all the chaos?".
Although Lyon had never told him as much, Gray could guess because of how Lyon always liked to check on him during the night, though he'd never ask to sleep in his bed, like Gray did, or how he always needed to check that every window and door was locked and that there was nothing and no one out of the ordinary outside, which Gray was sure was Lyon's reasoning for being up tonight. He was doing his usual checking of the house before going back to sleep. Both of them knew this, yet neither commented on Lyon's lie.
"I-I had the nightmare again," Gray murmured. He wasn't one to hide the fact that he had nightmares, because he knew his brother really did worry about him. It seemed to be all he could do since the incident.
"Oh?" Lyon responded, followed by, "Do you want to come home?"
Just a simple question. It wasn't an "Oh, do you want to come home? Because I really wish you would if you're having the nightmares again." Or an "Oh, do you want to come home? Because I really wish you wouldn't, you're doing so well." There was no hidden meaning, it was just a simple question that Gray could answer however he pleased without feeling like he had to answer one way or another. But it really wasn't, because Gray really did want to come home, to curl up next to Lyon because his parents couldn't chase the nightmares away like his brother could, because they weren't the ones that died in them.
But he couldn't go home, because, gosh darn it, he was seven years old and that was too old to be running home because of some dumb nightmares, especially when Gray knew his friend still wanted him to stay, though he would never say it, because he wanted Gray to get better after the whole ordeal that had happened two months ago. But he didn't know if he would ever get better or if the nightmares would ever go away, so it was no use doing things as if they would.
"No, I'm okay. I just wanna talk for a little bit," he finally said, and he found that his voice no longer shook.
"Okay," Lyon spoke through the receiver, "Then what do you want to talk about?"
Gray paused a moment before saying, in such a small voice that even he could hardly recognize it, "I just want to know if they're ever gonna stop. I'm so sick of these nightmares, Lee. I just- I don't want you to die anymore, p-please."
There was a long silence before Lyon began to speak again, "Gray, listen to me. I can't promise you that everything's just going to magically go away by tomorrow morning, but it'll get better. It won't last forever, I swear."
Although Lyon had admitted to being unsure of when everything would stop, Gray still felt better just knowing that the nightmares would go away eventually (and he did know, because Lyon sounded so sure of it, and Gray knew his brother would never lie to him about something like this), because them lasting forever made everything seem hopeless.
"Okay," Gray said in that same small voice he'd used before when begging for his brother to tell him that the nightmares would stop.
After Gray had hung up and Natsu had come back in, and after they'd both gone back to sleep, Gray survived the rest of the night without another nightmare. And even though he knew he'd inevitably have another one, in which he would awaken with a scream – emitting it or choking on it – and tears streaming down his face, it was okay, because he knew that he'd always be able to run to his brother, who would chase them away, and for whom he hoped he'd be able to do the same.
I wasn't entirely sure about Lyon's response to what Gray said, but other than that, I'm pretty happy with this, so hopefully you liked it. Alright, well, that's it for this week. See you guys next Saturday!
