Daydreams And Nightshade (DaN #1)

Chapter 5: Hunger

Luna still had a stubborn pout on her face as she rolled over on her lumpy mattress. She was willing to be fine with the stale bread offered to her by the tavern folk earlier, even though she didn't end up eating it, and she was willing to sleep on mattress-disguised cobblestones, but she was not fine with the treatment she'd received. She was just trying to find out more information about the town yet somehow she seemed to offend them with every breath. Stale bread wasn't exactly what she counted as 'wasting their food' and while being called annoying was not new to her, they didn't know her enough to have the right to be correct.

"I'll be closing the curtains, then." Vincent made sure they were both in bed before heading for the window.

"Uh..." Noah began, and Luna didn't need to hear the rest.

"Keep them open."

Vincent raised an eyebrow.

"We always close them."

"Yes, but sometimes it's nicer to sleep with some light in the room." Luna's eyes darted in Noah's direction. "Besides, there are no supernatural people outside now. Town's barren as it is."

"Which is exactly when they can thrive, as long as there are a few humans around."

"Just keep them open," Luna insisted. "End of discussion."

Noah did not seem as relaxed as her sacrifice should have made him though, and he couldn't help but flinch now and then with a hasty look towards the window.

"Just go to sleep already," Luna groaned as another flinch next to her startled her awake. "Can't you pretend whatever you're hearing or seeing isn't there?"

A pause.

"No."

"You'll be sleepwalking tomorrow if you keep this up."

Noah opened his mouth, closing it immediately after, only to open it again.

"Could you sing?"

Luna made a face. She hadn't sung that song in a long time, and she certainly didn't want to sing it in front of Vincent.

"You really think that will help after all these years?" Luna tried to laugh it off. So this was her punishment for being supportive as a child. Now she had to sing lullabies two six year-olds had come up with to drown out ghost voices.

A nod from Noah caused another groan to slip out of her mouth.

"I can hum it."

It was acceptable to Noah, so she slowly hummed the tune, lying down next to him with a sigh. On the bright side, the calm breaths she drew in between the melody calmed her down as well, and before she knew it she was struggling to keep going.

"Night night, little blight," she still mumbled in tune with the song before drifting off to sleep, drowsiness causing her to forget the humming part.

"Luna?"

"Of for the love of—" Luna hissed as she startled awake again, but she found no Noah next to her. She found no bed underneath her either. In fact, had it even been Noah's voice she'd heard?

Squinting, she could discern shapes in the dark room, but the room was not how she remembered it. It was narrow and donned with multiple windows along one of the walls. Now, Luna was not known to have impeccable memory, but she liked to think she would know if they had gone to bed in a corridor with no beds.

"Noah?" she whispered in case he was still in there and she'd missed him but no reply came.

It had to be a dream. Lucid enough to let her move around, and she stood up to investigate her surroundings.