"Unca Donald?"
Blankets rustled until Uncle Donald rolled over and poked his beak out of the sheets. "Hmm?"
Pulling his knight cap down on his head, little Huey padded across the hardwood floor in the dark. Each creak in the floorboards made his heart skyrocket. He broke into a run, dodging the darkness on either side of him as if the shadows would swallow him whole. When he reached the edge of the bed, he climbed onto the bedframe and peered into his Uncle's bleary eyes. "I don't feel so good."
Uncle Donald pinched the bridge of his beak and squeezed his eyes shut. "Your stomach again?"
Huey hugged his tummy and nodded, swallowing hard.
Uncle Donald heaved a small sigh before sitting up and scooting over. "Come here."
Huey climbed into the bed and instantly nestled into the crook of his uncle's arm. He pressed his ear against the warmth of his chest and closed his eyes, listening closely to the steady thrum of his heartbeat. The gurgling that swirled his stomach began to subside.
"Did you throw up?"
He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Unca Donald, it just feels icky."
Uncle Donald rubbed his back in a soothing circle motion. "It's okay. Take your deep breaths like we practiced." He chuckled slightly. "I'm just used to it being one of your brothers. Either Louie can't sleep or Dewey wet the bed. But your stomach has been hurting a lot lately. Ever since Halloween."
Halloween.He shivered at the very thought, the icy mewls of felines haunting his dreams.I hate cats.
"Deep breath."
Huey opened his eyes, watching his uncle's stomach rise and fall. Just like last night and the night before that, and however many nights it had been since he got the scare of his life that Halloween night, he matched his breathing to Uncle Donald's. The meowing in the back of his mind along with the creeping shadows that seemed to move throughout the room gradually disappeared. After a few minutes, his stomach calmed, his chest eased, and exhaustion once again tugged at his limbs.
As his eyelids drooped, Huey shifted closer to him and nuzzled his head directly over his heart. "Unca Donald?"
His uncle's arm draped over him, squeezing him tight. "Hmm?"
"Will you promise to stay here until I wake up?" He swallowed hard.
Following a light peck on the top of his head, he heard his uncle's coarse, yet soft voice. "I'll always be here. I promise."
Huey lifted his head from the pillow, his hair standing on end. He attempted to unstick his goopy eyelids from what he could only describe to be the best nap he'd had in weeks, maybe months.
Uncle Donald?He scratched his head and yawned, pulling back the blankets to a long set of legs.Oh good, I'm not a kid and I didn't shrink.He fell back onto the bed. "That was some nap."For a moment there I thought I really did travel back in time.
Huey wiped a few beads of sweat from his forehead.Right. I'm still getting over that toxic chili dog.After fully coming to terms with reality again, he forced himself out of bed.It's quiet. Too quiet.He stumbled into the main RV living space and, sure enough, Dewey was nowhere to be seen. "What'd they do, leave me?" he muttered, marching to the front. "I mean, I know I've been a bit of a bummer but that doesn't mean-" He froze and peeked under the curtain at what looked to be his brother's legs.
Mischief, a close friend of the triplet boys, stirred inside of him, filling him with the nostalgic need to pull a fast one. Dewey, the unlikely but, let's face it, likely target.
"Hey diddle diddle and up the middle!" Huey dove through the curtain, football style, snapping all of the hooks in the process and tackled his middle brother to the ground.
"Ouch, hey, what's the big idea?!"
That's… not Dewey.Ice dragged down his spine. Huey lifted the curtain off of a very red head of hair. "Gosalyn?!"
She propped herself on her elbows and curled an eyebrow. "I am the terror that flaps in the night, I am your date that you just body checked like a sack of potatoes TO THE GROUND! No duh, Red. I'm Gosalyn!"
Huey swallowed hard, staring down at her beak that lingered just an inch away from his own. "Heh." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I thought you were Dewey."
She gave him a dry raise of the eyebrow, her lips sliding into a wry smirk.
His palms started to sweat and slide on the floor. "What? Your legs kinda looked like-I mean, not that they look like a dude's or anything-because they don't-I mean-"
Gosalyn grabbed his beak. "Before you dig that grave of yours any deeper, let's put a pin in that shall we? We've got more important things to talk about."
"Louie?"
"That. Aaaaand possibly the world as we know it ending. They kiiiiinda go hand in hand."
"H'boy."Louie, what did you get us into this time?