A/N: Thank you so much for the lovely reviews on my first chapter. I am still not sure about if this will be a couple or friendship fic but I am enjoying writing it regardless. I hope you all enjoy this chapter too!
Chapter Two
Nightmare Night….For Two
Ethel did not return to the bedroom until it was time for bed. At least that was one thing the girls couldn't argue about. There was a lights out time of 9pm and Miss Hardbroom personally checked to make sure everyone was there. The two girls got into their respective beds, not talking to each other. Both their cats jumped on top of the beds and Ethel turned away from Mildred, not wanting to talk to her.
Ethel was one of those people who took a few seconds to fall asleep. Mildred was one of those people who took a while to fall asleep. That meant Ethel was asleep long before Mildred and like she had the last time Mildred had being forced to share a room with her the girl snored.
"Oh please no" Mildred said having just being about to close her eyes. Mildred looked over and wondered how the girl was making so much noise, a chainsaw cutting down a tree wouldn't be as loud, the brunette covered her ears, hating the noise.
"Remind me to get mum to send me some earplugs" Mildred said before that gave her an idea. She stood up and sneaked to her chest of drawers, pulling out some earphones and a phone she had sneaked in. She put the headphones in, turning the phone on to listen to one of her favourite songs and closed her eyes, finally relaxed.
"Don't you.." the song said before it suddenly stopped. Mildred opened her eyes and looked at the phone confused, before she realised, the battery was dead.
Mildred lay there, hoping she wound grow so tired Ethel's chainsaw snoring would be droned out, but it wasn't just the snoring. Ethel shifted back and forth constantly, and then started having a sneezing and coughing fit, which was not as bad as the snoring which temporarily stopped, but then Ethel stopped sneezing after a few minutes and the snoring started again. Mildred wanted to cry with frustration.
Finally Mildred felt her eyes growing heavy and was about to drift of to sleep when Ethel started to moan in distress.
"NO...NO ESMIE NO PLEASE, NOOO!" The girl shouted in the grasp of a horrible nightmare.
Mildred woke quickly and looked over seeing Ethel turning around more aggressively as she shouted.
"ESMIE WAIT, NO ...NOOOOO" the girl shouted.
Mildred wanted to feel sorry for the girl, but if she hadn't of tricked Esmerelda she would not be haunted by these nightmares. Mildred stood up and walked to Ethel's bed, to try wake her from the nightmare before she woke the whole castle.
"Ethel...Ethel wake up!" Mildred said. Ethel clearly heard her because Mildred yelped out as she was pulled into Ethel's arms, the girl still asleep.
"ESMIE!" Ethel shouted holding Mildred tighter. Mildred was embarrassed, and in pain as she squeezed her hard. Mildred shook Ethel, needing to wake her now.
"Ethel wake up, ETHEL!" Mildred shouted, suddenly the girl woke with a start, saw Mildred and quickly backed away from her.
"What are you doing?" Ethel asked blaming Mildred for the fact she had hugged her.
"You grabbed me, you were having a nightmare about Esmerelda" Mildred told her, quite annoyed from her lack of sleep.
"ESMERELDA, I NEED TO CHECK SHE IS OKAY" Ethel shouted zooming out of bed. Mildred opened her mouth to tell her not to because she would get caught by HB but she was already gone. Not knowing exactly which room was Esmerelda's and not wanting to look for it in the dark, Mildred went back to bed, taking the opportunity to try to sleep.
Ethel burst into her sister's room and woke her, nudging her gently but desperately.
"Esmie...Esmie" Ethel said the older girl woke and looked at Ethel tired.
"Ethel...what time is it?" Esmerelda asked in the darkness
"I don't know but I had a nightmare you were gone" Ethel said. Esmerelda sighed, this was not the first one and probably not the last. Esmerelda grabbed her sister and pulled her close, cuddling her.
"It was just a bad dream Ethel, I am here see?" Esmerelda told her. Ethel though was not convinced.
"What if you are gone in the morning?" Ethel asked with tear filled eyes.
"I would never leave without telling you, and it is okay now, Agatha is gone and I have my magic back" Esmerelda told Ethel. The younger blonde only stayed hugging her sister, to scared to leave.
"Come on, let's go back to bed, you need sleep, I will use the spell on you for tonight" Esmerelda told her. Ethel was reluctant to leave but did with her sister, they were glad HB was no-where around.
Mildred was starting to fall asleep when she heard the sisters enter quietly. She could hear shuffling as Ethel got back into bed and whispers.
"Remember it is only a dream" Esmerelda told her sister adjusting her covers. Ethel was tired and fell asleep quickly. Mildred could heard more shuffling and then the sound of a spell being performed, she didn't know what it was but she assumed Esmie was doing one to stop more nightmares. Mildred was so tempted to ask if she could do one to stop her sister snoring like a trumpet being blown at three in the morning, but she thought it was not the best thing to ask, she had seen Esmie angry last year and she was scary. She then heard the girl leave to return to bed.
Mildred though still suffered, as Ethel snored louder than ever. She covered her eats, trying to block it out.
"Just kill me now" Mildred said into the darkness, wondering if she should record Ethel to prove she snored, but the only thing it would do was prove a point. Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom would still make them share and Ethel would deny it was her.
"Goooraaa, goooorahh" Ethel snored. Mildred looked over and saw Nightstar was asleep, as was Tabby, as cats could sleep through a tornado.
Mildred still couldn't sleep hours later. Ethel had another sneezing fit and this one didn't seem to be stopping as quickly.
"ACHOO, ACHOO" Ethel sneezed, waking poor Tabby now. The cat ran under the bed as Mildred shouted into the darkness.
"WHO SNEEZES IN THEIR SLEEP?" Mildred shouted, but Ethel didn't wake, just sneezed a few more times.
When Mildred finally fell asleep it was late, very late and she woke up much earlier than she wanted to by her alarm. She forced her eyes open and looked at the time, wishing she knew the spell to put time back.
Next to her, Ethel woke up and stretched her arms before she spoke to Nightstar.
"That was a good sleep, apart from the nightmare" Ethel said to her cat stroking her on the head, the cat purred and rubbed into her.
"Speak for yourself" Mildred whispered her eyes heavy with tiredness. She didn't think she had ever got so little sleep, and she knew she would find sleeping hard as she shared with Ethel.
Ethel left to go get dressed but Mildred stayed in bed, just wanting five minutes more until the door opened and she heard shouting.
"Ethel are you up?" Esmerelda shouted into the room, right in Mildred's ear before seeing her bed was empty and closing the door again. Mildred had no idea how long she could live with these girls, she had never liked quiet so much, but she knew her bad sleeping would only carry on, unless someone managed to stop Ethel from being a snorer!.
