Sleep

Part 33

Crawling out from under the couch, I faced the two seekers, Vanoss and Basically, who looked giant to my small book size.

There was an awkward pause of silence that I didn't have any intentions of breaking as I sat on death row.

But clearly Wildcat was getting impatient.

"So why're you here? There goes that footage." He groaned out, sounding serious but not judgemental. A small bit of guilt pinged my heart but I knew he wasn't angry at me for it. Or assumed from the tone, at least.

'(All) :I fell asleep, I'm sorry..'

A sigh came through voice, at the same time as Evan said; "It's alright."

Not wanting to stick around in the awkward conversation, or even wanting to speak, I quickly cut to the chase.

'(All) : anyone got a noob tube left? Bullets take longer :/'

I knew it sounded casual, but I was no less terrified now for the pain than I was the first time. You'd think the anxieties would wear off because I knew what to expect, but still my invisible hands shook violently as they moved across the keys.

"I-uh-" Marcel started, voice unsure-"I have mine."

Delirious, who'd been fairly silent, spoke up.

"Why're you here Luna?" It was a question that I'd been asked, but it meant a lot more this time. I was supposed to be at work, busy on my shift. Not asleep at home. "If you weren't working you could have told me."

Gnawing on my lip, I brought up my fingers to again type, but paused at Wildcats voice.

"What's work got to do with this?"

I waited for Delirious to reply, not typing anything yet.

"She... It's only my games. That she pops up in, I mean. So I was recording during the day while she worke-"

"Is that why you couldn't record?" Basically cut in, and I frowned at the confirmation of what I'd suspected to be true.

"Yeah. Anyway, you got night shifts. I thought I was safe to record? If you were off you could have just said!" His voice was starting to raise and I was grateful they couldn't see me slightly cowering down under the firm voice. "Cartoonz new this was gonna happen. He messaged me that it might. How'd he know? How did he know?!" I was now sitting on the ground, arms wrapped around my knees, head resting on top. Of course Luke had said something, they were best friends after all. At least he didn't tell him.

"Delirious." Vanoss cut in, voice soft, as if to calm him. All he got was a huff in reply, but that was enough for him. "Did you... You didn't have night shifts, did you?"

"She did! How else could-" Delirious started again, before he was again cut short with a firm "Delirious.", this time the tone more warning than calming.

I started typing, before I paused and backspaced it all.

"Uh, no. The cafe closes at 8."

"How long were you doing this for? When did you sleep?" Marcel sounded concerned, and I couldn't help the small smile at his nice nature.

"Just a few weeks, I thought I could handle less sleep. My shift starts at 1pm, till closing, so I was sleeping from like 6 till 12." As I said it, I felt pathetic. Six hours sleep is plenty, I'm sure they survived on less all the time. But I couldn't even handle it.

"I could have-" Delirious started, tone a lot softer now, sad almost- "I can record during the day fine. I'm sure we can set up some sessions on the nights before your days off, or something. Solo stuff is fine."

"I can work with it." Tyler said over Evans noise of agreement, and I smiled to know they were willing to try for me. But it still didn't stop the tears of guilt.

"It's uh, it's been almost two minutes. We have like 30 seconds left." Marcel cut in as a reminder, and I nodded, forgetting they couldn't see it.

"Go for it, shoot."

The gun swapped to the launcher, and I closed my eyes.

"Wait, what happens if-"

Evan was cut off by an explosion, and sudden searing heat.

_____

When my eyes opened again, there were white spots all over my vision, and a ringing in my ears. My entire body felt overly sensitive, and burnt to a crisp. There was a slight ache in a few joints, but nothing compared to the pain on outer layer of my body.

Although I knew my skin would be flawless, I was almost hesitant to look down, it felt as though it see blistering and red flesh everywhere.

Swallowing thickly, I looked down to my phone as it buzzed beside me.

A message from... Vanoss?

That wasn't expected. The small amount I could see in the notification sparked my curiosity, and I gently moved my arm to grab my phone, growling as the sides of my fingers touched each other. Thankfully, I must have clenched my hand into a fist or something, because the inside of my fingers and palm were almost perfectly fine.

Entering Twitter, I ignored the pang I felt at no message from Delirious, and instead opened Evans.

"VanossGaming: I was thinking, what happens if you win a game? Have you tried?"

Furrowing my eyebrows, I typed back.

"LunaLirious: none of the games I've played could I win in I don't think..."

It wasn't until after sending that I thought of gang beasts, but I brushed it aside because I wasn't exactly in the best state at that time. Ir pic coming from the current crispy me.

"VanossGaming: well, we could try. Worst comes to worst it doesn't work."

I decided not to mention the fact that there were much worse things that could happen, and that at the very least I'd have to die again.

"LunaLirious: tell the guys. I'll try fall back to sleep.."

He replied with simple confirmation, and I sighed. By this point I was happy to try anything.

Delirious had mentioned that Vanoss and a few others had taken to googling it and trying to think of ways that could help, though it'd been unsuccessful. I mean, how many people could help in this situation?

Still, I appreciated it. And I think that in the very least, he deserves my trust and cooperation for trying to help out.

Despite the pain, my exhaustion won over again, and I was back to 'dreamland'.

(1086 words)