Better on our own - English

Penny in Danger?

"Niall, wake up!" Cody's voice came into my ear and I grumbled to myself in my half-asleep state as I turned onto my side and snuggled up to Sarah a little more, but the boy didn't stop shaking me "Niall! Come on!"

"What's wrong, Cody?" I groaned tiredly. I only wanted 5 more minutes! I blinked and saw that my alarm clock said it was just after 8. Groaning in frustration, I pulled the blanket over my head, which made Sarah grumble not very amused. Why did children always have to get up so early? It was Sunday and still in the middle of the night!

"You have to help Mum!" he pleaded with me and now I was wide awake. Help? Had something happened?

"What? Why?" I asked him in shock as I sat up and Sarah also looked up at us sleepily.

"There's someone with her, holding her down," he said quietly and I saw the fear in his eyes. I just didn't understand why we couldn't hear anything else. No sounds of fighting from above, no cries for help. But that didn't stop me from immediately throwing the covers away and reaching for a shirt, since I always only slept in shorts. "Come on! You have to get her out of there before he does something bad to her!" asked he and literally tugged on my arm, dragging me along the hallway and up the stairs.

I followed the boy and stormed into the bedroom. If he really was right, every minute counted anyway. Who knew why it was so quiet up here? Maybe Penny was already gagged and bound or even unconscious or worse!

Sarah slammed into me as I stood there in complete shock at the sight. Penny lay in bed and slept peacefully, tightly wrapped in two arms that didn't seem to want to let her go, while the owner couldn't be seen because his face was hidden under her pillow and the rest of his head was under a corner of her blanket. Nevertheless, a little reddish-brown hair peeked out from under the blanket and I knew immediately who was lying there and that Penny was anything but in danger.

"Did these two...?!" I deliberately left the sentence open because Cody was there, but I couldn't help but grin, which caused Sarah to grimace in disgust and hit me in the chest with the palm of her hand.

"Urgh, Niall, that's disgusting!" she replied quietly and was about to turn around to go downstairs when her eyes fell on Cody, who was looking at us perplexed.

"What's disgusting?!" he asked us confused at that moment.

"Um, I...they're just cuddling, Cody," I said to him quietly so as not to wake the other two. "That's your uncle, isn't he?" I whispered quietly to Sarah and she just shrugged her shoulders, but then nodded - a clear sign of how unsure she was.

"I didn't check if he was still on the couch."

"Who's on the couch?" Cody interjected again, now a little more confused.

"Your Dad?!" I simply answered him. At some point he would find out that Sam had spent the night here and apparently not on the couch all night.

"Really?!" he asked with shining eyes and then he was gone, but came back less than a minute later. "Why did you fool me?" he then turned back to us and he seemed pretty angry.

"Um, is he no longer there?" I asked him nervously as my suspicions were confirmed.

"No?!"

"Then he's over there!" I pointed to the bed and Cody followed my finger with his eyes. He just seemed more confused.

"Dad?" he called cautiously into the silence.

"Mhhhm," came the mumbled answer from under the pillow and now Penny woke up too, blinking twice in our direction before opening her eyes in shock and pulling the blanket up to her chin as she saw me and Sarah grinning sheepishly and standing at the door. Then she froze and looked down, saw the arm that was on top of her. She looked to the side to see Sam next to her and sat up abruptly.