Spectrum of Sleep

CHAPTER XV | My Old Man.

We followed the river path to the waterfalls. We climbed up a mountain side to reach the entrance. The noise of the waterfall served as a background noise for us to cover our noisy walking. We slowly got passes the waterfalls and entered the cave through its entrance. It wasn't really a deep cave, but not that hollow either. Maybe it was about 60 meters deep, with water dripping from the ceiling.

Mom was right, we could hear Dad's snore echo throughout that cave. There was no sign of Brandon yet. Thanks to the bright moonlight, the surroundings in the cave weren't that dark and were visible to the eye once adjusted. We sneaked towards the inner part of the cave. The floor was a bit slippery.

"Alright, we're going to get Brandon as quietly and quickly as we can, we don't want to wake up sleeping beauty over there, or there'll be a lot of trouble, understand?" Mom whispered to us.

We all nodded in agreement as we continued our sneaking to find Brandon. The snoring got even more loud as we got close. So did the smell. It reeked alcohol in here. Seems like Dad's still an alcoholic even as an ogre.

"Where is Brandon?" Grandma whispered.

"I don't know. Are we sure he wasn't devoured yet by Shrek over here?" I answered.

"Yes, I'm very, very, sure. Shut up before we wake him up!" She whispered back at us.

We continued to sneak deeper into the cave. We were already too deep, that we could see Dad's giant figure, leaning on the back of the wall, snoring.

We also saw the giant beer bottle by his side, half empty. There was still no sign of Brandon. We went even deeper and closer to Dad. Grandma suddenly pointed in front of us. We followed her point and there we saw him.

Brandon was sleeping on Dad's large hand. He seemed comfortable even.

Dad didn't even seem to have any grip on Brandon. His hands were completely open, as if he actually trusted Brandon not to escape from him.

"Okay, I'll go get him." I whispered while signaling Fiercey to come to me. She came to me quietly.

"Wait, Elliot." Mom said trying to stop me for a second.

"Don't worry, I got this." I assured her and she nodded at me. Fiercey and I slowly walked towards Brandon on Dad's hand.

As we got close enough, I reached out my hand and placed it both on his shoulders. I tried to pull him as careful as I can, and I was doing a good job. I already got him halfway out, when suddenly Dad moved. I stopped for a moment and waited, but he didn't wake up.

I continued to pull Brandon from Dad's hand. After a few minutes of the slow and steady technique, I successfully removed Brandon from Dad's hand. Jeez, even his hand smells, I thought when I inhaled.

I placed Brandon on the ground and tried to shake him to wake up. "Brandon! Brandon, wake up!" I whispered as I shook him. After a few more vigorous shaking, he finally woke up. "Oh, thank God, finally. I thought for a second you were dead."

"Wh-what? Elliot? What are you doing here?" He asked.

He gave a very confused look at me, which quickly annoyed me by the second it sprung up.

"What's it look like? Saving your ass. Come on! Get on Fiercey before Dad wakes up!" I whispered.

"No, no, wait Elliot. I know why we shouldn't leave yet, wait!" Said Brandon.

"What? What are you talking about, we can discuss that later!"

"No, we need to discuss it now!"

"Brandon, let's go!" I said trying to pull him.