Valkyrie sat thinking for an hour. At 3 A.M., she had to go pee. When she looked in the mirror to wash her hands, she noticed a blueish tint on her fingers and as she was inspecting them, a sickly feeling rose up her stomach. She ran over to the toilet and vomited. It left a terrible aftertaste in her mouth, and she tried to wash it down her throat. The water didn't help much, so she resigned herself to the bitter taste, and pulled her headphones on. She moved on to the kitchen to bake, so she could almost forget about his stress and insomnia. It was peaceful. Dexter, who must have been woken up by her, came out. "Hey," he said. His quiet voice had a morning raspiness.

"Hey," she responded in a very similar tone to Dexter's, "I didn't mean to wake you."

Dexter shrugged, "I'm a light sleeper." He added, "You're up early too."

Valkyrie nodded, "Couldn't sleep."

"It seems like you've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately."

Valkyrie leaned down and rested her chin on her palms. She frowned, "It's not serious or anything. I guess I've been a bit restless."

Dexter raised his eyebrows, "A bit?"

"Just a bit," she clarified, "Want a cookie?

"Are you trying to change the topic?"

"I'm not changing the topic."

"It feels a bit like you're changing the topic."

"Well, I'm not,"

"Right."

The second concerning thing was Valkyrie's nightmares . Dexter and Tanith had learned about them a few days after they found the sleeping pills. Valkyrie had been having the same recurring nightmares. Every night she awoke from the haunting dreams of being helplessly tortured by merciless shadows, of being strapped down against her will and experimented on.

Dexter woke up to screaming. Alarmed, he hopped out of bed and ran to the source- Valkyrie's room. "Valkyrie?!" he called. He rushed through the door.

The lights were off; the room was dark. He could make out Valkyrie's wriggly and frantic silhouette. She was crying for help in her nightmares. Dexter ran over and pulled her into his arms. As his eyes adjusted, he could see her tear-streaked cheeks and shaky hands. "Valkyrie, wake up!" He shook her a little. Valkyrie jerked awake; her breaths were labored and erratic. She grasped Dexter tightly until she could control her breathing. For a while, they didn't say a word. They laid together silently. Dexter spoke first.

"How long have you been having nightmares?" he questioned.

"Not often," Valkyrie lied, "but I think it comes with the life we live." She looked up at

him, "Don't you agree?"

Dexter shrugged, "I guess. We've all had nightmares, and we've all had days we

couldn't sleep." He added, "But not all of us develop serious disorders."

"You, Dexter, have centuries on you. You're probably more messed up than I am," Valkyrie said half-jokingly.

"You shouldn't compare yourself to what I've been through."

"Why not? All of you- Tanith, Saracen, Skulduggery, you- are handling it better than me."

"We've all been through things that no normal person could handle well. Not even us. We've just had more time to deal with it."

Valkyrie readjusted herself until she was face-to-face with Dexter, "I am dealing with it." Dexter met her eyes with his wn and said, "You don't have to deal with it alone."

Valkyrie smiled sadly, "Yes, I do."

After two weeks of barely any sleep, the shadows from Valkyrie's nightmares were coming to life. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw shadows creeping around. She started to avoid areas with shadows, keeping the lights on. To counter these hallucinations, Valkyrie doubled her intake of sleeping pills. Tanith noticed this.

When Tanith questioned her, Valkyrie simply stated, "I need them to sleep." The pills didn't do much to stop to help her stay awake. She felt more exhausted throughout the day, and she fell asleep faster than usual, but the nightmares would not stop.

Valkyrie was developing a fever. Her body felt hot and sweaty, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. She blamed these symptoms on her insomnia and stress, but somewhere deep in her mind, she knew it was the pills. She doesn't know why she continued to swallow them. Maybe it was to punish herself.

She swallowed more pills than she should have one night. A pain rose in her chest. She felt around for her heartbeat; it was slow. She couldn't barely breathe. She tried to stand up and find someone- anyone, but she lost consciousness immediately and dropped to the floor. She hit her head against the bedroom floor. She hit it hard, but not hard enough to bleed. Again, Valkyrie struggled to stand but was with the same result. She fell on the floor again.

Dexter, who had heard the ruckus, rushed in. Valkyrie was unconscious now. Dexter pulled her up, shoving his finger to the back of her throat, trying to get her to vomit the pills. There was a bottle of water on one of the cabinets. Dexter grabbed it and poured it over her head, "Wake up," he urged, "Please wake up."

Valkyrie hunched over and gagged, vomit dripping from her mouth. She ripped Dexter's hand away, but he shoved his fingers back up her mouth, "Valkyrie, stop struggling. I'm trying to get these pills out of you." She responded with a groan. There's not much she could have said with Dexter's hand shoved up her mouth. She started coughing, and Dexter let go. She puked out the pills, then continued to cough.

"Jesus Christ, Valkyrie," Dexter leaned back. His face was filled with relief.

In between coughs, Valkyrie managed, "Sorry about that."

Dexter hugged her, "Did you do that on purpose?"

She looked at him incredulously, "No! I didn't try to kill myself!"

"Are you sure?"

"I think."