Chapter 13
I was one of the first to stir. Stretching my arms and legs I opened my eyes to see the light from the spheres still glowed and that my little lamp was back on. Rolling onto my stomach I stretched again and looked at everyone. Ashley and Courtney were both waking up as well, but the kids were still fast asleep.
I propped my head on my hand and glanced to my left. Michael was lying on his back, hands behind his head, and staring at the ceiling. Feeling my gaze he glanced at me, his eyes full of his thoughts.
He asked, “Sleep good?”
I nodded, “Yeah, guess so. You?”
He shrugged, “Pretty good. Nothing else bothered us all night.”
Courtney yawned, “Thank goodness it didn’t. The first one scared me half to death.”
I heard Ashley give a small laugh, “Hah. Baby.”
Courtney smacked her with her pillow, “You were screaming and scared just as much as I was.”
Ashley propped herself up on her elbows, “No I wasn’t.”
Smugness crossed Courtney’s face, “Then why were you screaming like a little kid afraid of clowns at a circus?”
She snorted, “Fine. I was scared, but only a little bit.”
Courtney rolled her eyes, “Then why didn’t you make the thing have seizures or cause it pain or whatever you do? You could have made it go away!”
Ashley held up her hands, “I wasn’t exactly thinking of that at the moment! I was too busy watching the thing trying to take one of the children.”
Courtney shrugged, “You still could have tried.”
Ashley was about to answer when a small ray of sunlight started coming through the window. Her eyes became a little wide with surprise as she got a bit excited, “There’s sunlight outside!”
Curious myself I said, “Retract” and the whole shield around us shrank back into a little ball.
Before I could get to it Ashley sped to the window and pulled opened the blinds. I came up behind here and peered over her head. Outside it was still very cloudy, but it was actually not raining for the first time in days. Some sunlight was shining through the broken parts of clouds, leaving the day to look a bit sunny with dark overcast.
I heard Michael ask, “Is it raining?”
Ashley and I both turned around with smiles on our faces and at the same time we answered, “Nope.”
Courtney got up herself and looked out the window, “Holly crap, it’s not raining!”
I looked at her, “Is that not what we just said? It isn’t raining!”
Michael came up and looked himself, “How could it not be raining?”
I shrugged, “Maybe after what we did to that thing last night it needed a break.”
Our voices and movements must have disturbed the three sleeping ones, for they all got up in a rush and ran over to the window, pushing and shoving each other to get there first.
