So Long, and Goodnight

13. Insomnia

Chapter 13
Insomnia

POV - John

The day had been fun. A two-hour quiz, musical interludes by Virgil, and Jane joining the Terrible Two in telling jokes.

One of them had been the staff telling the two resident geniuses that we weren't allowed on the same team. Jane had then grabbed hold of a laughing Alan and Gordon and yelled, "No. You can't split us up." I'd found it funny.

Teams had been matched accordingly. Jane had been with Alan and Scott, I'd been with Gordon and Val – one of the ward boys - and Virgil was with David and Mark – the two other remaining ward boys, as two had gone home earlier in the day.

Jane's team had won, by a minuscule two points. Never again would I dismiss petroleum jelly and fire making, or Christina Granville and Vesper. But nobody needed that fire-making trick anymore, not when we had warming cubes.

But by the time visiting hours were over, I didn't think that I'd smiled so much. The 'Quiz Master', as we had to call him, was Nurse Jack, and he started cracking jokes in-between questions.

It had been easy to fall asleep. The hard thing was staying that way. I kept having nightmares about my family abandoning me, and leaving me to rot here – laughing at me for being weak.

So when the nightmares woke me up this time, I was expecting to be the only person awake. What I wasn't expecting was someone else to be up in the middle of the night.

Sitting in a chair staring out window, was Jane; knees to her chest, arms wrapped around her legs, and her chin resting on the tops of her knees.

As quietly as I could, I slipped out of bed and went to join her; taking one of the visitor chairs with me.

"Hey." I said, sitting down, "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

She looked up at me, tears welling in her blue eyes.

"Shouldn't you?" She asked, going back to looking out of the window, "Besides, it's awfully hard to see the stars during the day."

"I'll give you that one. It is very difficult to see them in the daylight." I told her, before becoming more serious, "But what's the matter?"

The tears started rolling down her face.

To me, it was wrong to see her crying. The girl, who hours ago, was smiling and joking with my younger brothers. Who was singing about how she was a friend and to not be scared.

"I've just been thinking." She replied, wiping the tears from her cheeks, "The mind can be a cruel place."

"True."

"So what has you up at this time of day?" She asked, wiping her eyes again and stretching out her legs.

"Nightmares. I've been getting them almost every night for the past six months, but the only difference is whether I wake up screaming or not." I answered, "Apart from wanting to see the stars, what has you awake?"

She stared at her hands for a few seconds, and started muttering under her breath about fingers.

"I just haven't been sleeping very well." She muttered, "And my anxiety is getting worse because of it. Plus the nightmares don't really help with getting to sleep."

"So I'm not the only one to get nightmares then. That's nice to know."

"Most people who pass through here get them." She told me, "There's only a few people who come though here that don't get them. I call those people 'the lucky ones'."