He found her curled up in a corner. Her eyes were shut tight and she was pressing her palms to her ears. This had happened a couple of times in the past, but it seemed to be getting worse. She would sometimes wake up screaming in the middle of the night. The only thing he could do was hold her close to him and try to calm her down. She kept murmuring about spirits of the dead and similar things. Slick had nicknamed her "devil kid". But she couldn't actually see ghosts, could she? She had always been cheerful as a little kid, but now at the age of four sweeps she had grown quiet and still. Her scared eyes kept darting around the place. She would often press her hands against her ears, like now. Droog couldn't stand to see her like this. He knelt in front of her.
"Hey, kid." He put a hand on her knee.
She just shook her head and shut her eyes even tighter.
"Kid, Aradia."
She was shaking now. He gently put his arms around her and placed her in his lap. She buried her face in his neck and cried. He stroked her back. That's how it went. He was thinking about getting her help, but how? He had already spoken with the crew. None of them knew what to do. All the other grubs, no - trolls. They weren't grubs anymore. The other three trolls were fine. Deuce had said that his kid's psionics were developing and he sometimes got horrible headaches. Maybe this was the case. Droog doubted it. Sure, Aradia's psionics were coming in, too. He had seen it on numerous occasions in the form of random flying objects in the house. But this was different. She said she heard voices. They were all talking at once. She was scared. She was just a kid. She didn't deserve this. She tried to shut the voices out, but she couldn't. And Droog was angry, not with her, not with the voices, but with himself. Because he could do nothing but hold her and tell everything would be alright. He wasn't sure about that, but he had promised her he would always be by her side when she needed him. He would never break that promise.
Her breathing slowed down. She had cried herself to sleep again. He picked her up and began to make his way towards her room. He heard a knock at the door. Boxcars poked his big head inside. He stopped by sometimes to offer some help to Droog or Aradia if they needed it. Droog was grateful for that, but he had it under control this time. Boxcars seemed to understand. He gave him a nod and slowly closed the door. Droog felt Aradia snuggle closer to his chest in her sleep. Everything would be alright.
"Atta girl."