Is It Me, Or Am I It?

2-Midnight

Chapter 2, Midnight

I flew around for a little while, trying to clear my mind. 'Did I actually just do that?!' I thought to myself. At least I would be able to go back and live my full life. Nobody would even have to know about the deal, because I would be dead then, so it wouldn't matter. My wings ached a little bit, realizing that I was holding up all of my weight; I had come off the air currents. Quickly, I found another, flying smoothly again. Eventually, It was starting to get dark, so I headed for home, watching the sunset. When I got home, Opal was running around me with questions about my day, and constantly trying to show me things, and quite frankly, I was tired. Sometimes I forget how hard it is to have three 5-year-olds. I went over and laid on Ranboo's chest, who was lying on the couch. "Momma, look!" Opal tried to get my attention. "Opal, not right now, Momma's tired." Ranboo told her, trying to help a little. Opal huffed and went off to bug one of her brothers. I let my wings go limp, hanging off the side of the couch. I began to feel drowsy, my eyelids drooping until I went into a solemn sleep. But it wasn't so sweet. I happened to have the luck of having a nightmare about that man, that thing, I don't know what it was. It was intimidating, it was apparent it wasn't supposed to bring comfort during someone's final minutes. In the nightmare, I was being chased yet again by him, running as fast as I could, but it seemed the faster I went the closer he came. And then I was at the end of the corridor, cornered. He smiled with such cruelty and amusement that I thought the smile itself would end me. He chuckled, "You can't always run away from an end." I stood trembling, trying to speak but no sound followed. This time I didn't make the deal, and he gave a swift swing of his scythe. I jumped up in a cold sweat on the couch, darkness all around, the quiet humming of an A/C unit breaking the nighttime silence. I sat, my chest heaving from the adrenaline. I leaned back against the couch cushions and closed my eyes, trying to calm myself. I gave a deep breath and looked around, Ranboo was nowhere to be seen. I guessed he had gone to our bed after settling the children to sleep. Sighing, I laid back on the couch, staring at the ceiling. I tried to think of anything other than the deal to try and distract myself from it, but I couldn't think of anything. Nothing at all. I decided to just check the time, 5:57 am. I shrugged and decided I would stay up and start some coffee. Just as I expected, Ranboo woke up moments later. The smell of coffee was like a wake-up call for him. "You ok? You never wake up this early." He asked, hugging me from behind. "Yeah, I'm good." I lied. He took that and made himself a cup of coffee, putting some creamer, milk, and a pinch of sugar. I did the same, grabbing a coffee mug out of the cupboard and sitting on the couch, sipping my coffee. We turned on the TV and the volume was low, so I chose to pick a comedy to lift my spirits. It was pretty funny, but I tried to keep it down a little because the kids were still sleeping. We just watched movies for a few hours and I decided to go for a jog once the sun was starting to rise. I ran a couple of miles, cardio always helped me to clear my mind. It was rather pleasant outside, a slight breeze blowing and there was a slight chill in the air. After maybe a couple of hours, I found a park and decided to stroll in it. There was a large pond full of ducks and geese with children of all ages playing on the playground. I tried to not get too close to the pond, not wanting the water to burn me. I sat on one of the swings, swaying on it a little. It was nice and honestly helped me clear my mind a bit. I mean like, there isn't a rule saying that adults can't get on the swings. I saw someone who looked to be blazian, and they seemed quite nice. I decided to approach them because I could use another buddy. We chatted for a while and got to know each other, xyr name was Fensty. I reckoned xe was a Henya, but I tried not to assume. We turned out to have a lot in common. We even made a plan to go to a French cafè on Thursday. At noon I said goodbye and decided to head home. When I got home, to my surprise, Opal wasn't all over me. Connor was finger painting, making a beach. "Hey, what are you making there?" I asked, peeking over his shoulder. He beamed, "I'm making the best beach ever; it has blue sand and purple water!" "Oh, that looks really cool!" I gave him a small hug, smiling. How did he get to be such an artist? I walked over to see Ranboo playing with Kai. "Hi, Boo." I said, ruffling Ranboo's hair. I smiled warmly. Kai looked up at me with curious eyes, tilting his head slightly. I settled down next to Ranboo and Kai waddled over to me, falling on my lap.