AWAKEN ; benny weir [2]

nine

"Who's ready for movie night, people?" Benny greeted as he and Ellie entered Ethan's house, carrying dozens of movie DVD's. "Oh my god, how many did you guys bring?"

"Too many," Ellie admitted while sitting the DVD's onto the living room table.

"Woah," Sarah chuckled as she entered the living room, gawking at the amount of movies they brought. "If Grease is in there, then I am so in. What about you, Jane?"

"Definitely," Jane answered, coming into the room from behind Sarah.

"I'd count on it," Ethan told her. "Okay, everyone. Man your stations! Movie night ritual has begun! 3, 2, 1, go!"

As soon as he counted down from three, everyone in the room went scrambling towards something. Ellie and Sarah ran to get snacks out of the kitchen, Benny sped to the closet to get blankets, and Ethan and Jane were busy separating the DVD's. You could say that they had a system every Friday.

They each got everything they needed for a successful movie night and practically jumped onto the couch at once. All of them were bunched together like sardines as they were getting ready to watch one of their movies, which they have probably already watched a million times already.

------------

During the movie, they had all kinda moved around to get more comfortable in their spots. Benny and Ellie ended up moving to the floor with Jane, while Ethan and Sarah stayed on the sofa.

Ellie could see Jane slowly bobbing her head up and down, looking like she was about to fall asleep. She smiled and just moved Jane to where she could lay her head on Ellie's lap, allowing her to pass out. Jane always did this, especially during movie nights. She was only 11 years old, and staying up wasn't always an option for her.

Jane could feel herself drift off to sleep until it was interrupted by the sight of a weird mist. She didn't feel necessarily awake, but she knew she wasn't fully asleep. All she could see was mist. Nothing more, nothing less. Jane was just stood in the centre of all of this fog. As most people think, Jane didn't know if she was in a nightmare or not. The weird dream continued with a strange shadow of a man lurking behind the thick fog. "Two psychics...?" she seemed to hear from far away. His voice boomed all around Jane, which was followed by her terrified scream.

After being completely traumatised, Jane jolted up from Ellie's lap. She was breathing heavily as she looked to Ellie for help. "Hey, hey, hey, what's wrong?" Ellie asked her.

"It was... T-There was this weird mist a-and-" Jane tried to explain but she couldn't finish from the hiccups that her tears caused.

There was a pause from everyone in the room. Did she just say mist?

Ellie took the liberty of comforting her by wrapping her in a hug and leading her into the kitchen. "You're okay, you're okay. It was... just a nightmare," Ellie lied to her. She didn't really know what it was, but for the sake of an 11 year old, she just kept it as a nightmare.

"I'll be right back, alright?" Ellie made sure that Jane was okay with her leaving in the kitchen for a second before she returned to her friends. "Uh... that's concerning."

"Did she just say mist? Please don't tell me she said mist," Ethan asked Ellie. "Eth, I don't know. I honestly have no idea."

"But if she said it was mist, she would have seen what we saw when we went inside your head, El," Benny said, trying to put every piece together. "Did she look inside your head on accident? She was laying on you-"

"Benny, don't jump to conclusions so fast," Sarah told him. "She's eleven. This could have easily been a nightmare for her."

"I'm gonna agree with that," Ellie said. "I'll go put her to bed. After this, she really needs to go to sleep."

Ellie made her way up the stairs with Jane, while Ethan, Benny, and Sarah were just left to think. "What if she just said 'list'?" Benny mentioned. "Or gist? Wrist? Fist?"

"I don't know, but it's not good," Ethan admitted, sitting back onto the couch.

------------

Ellie was busy tucking Jane into bed when she thought that she could try to see if she saw anything else. "Jane, did you... see anything else other than mist?"

Jane simply nodded her head as she pulled the covers closer to her face. "Is it okay if you could tell me what it was? I'm just curious."

Jane paused as she tried to remember what she had saw in the first place. "I saw a big, black shadow in a bunch of fog. It had a big cape and was wearing big glasses," she explained. Guess that Jane didn't see Ellie's eyes widen as she continued to explain what she saw.

"Right before I woke up, the shadow said, 'Two cyclops?', and then I woke up on your lap," she finalised.

Ellie was practically speechless. Did Jane just see Stern in a dream? Wait, was it even a dream? "Wow, Jane. That's a... weird dream. Go to sleep, okay?" Ellie turned off the lights in her room and right when she shut the door, she ran as fast as she could to the stairs.

Ellie almost fell down the stairs from running so fast as she jumped onto Benny. "Woah, woah, slow down."

"Okay, this is a lot worse than we thought."

------------

"What does that even mean? What did you even say?" Ethan was just practically confused at this point. He couldn't even process what Ellie was saying about his little sister.

"JANE SAW STERN! How many times do I have to tell you until it gets through your head?" Ellie almost shouted. "She saw a giant shadow and she heard it say 'two cyclops' but I'm pretty sure he actually said 'two psychics' and it's just weird."

"You're implying at Jane's psychic?" Sarah confirmed. "Yes, that has been my point for the past ten minutes!"

"I mean, it makes sense," Benny guessed, scratching his head in thought. "Ethan's psychic, so why wouldn't Jane be?"

"She just- it doesn't... I don't know," Ethan groaned before flopping onto his couch. "She could be, but I really don't want her to be. I'd like her to have a normal life."

"Well, she already knows about our powers and that vampires exist. Jane's life isn't exactly normal for a girl in middle school," Ellie told him.

"You know what? I'm gonna make the decision," Ethan told them, now standing up from his 'I-gave-up' position. "If Jane's really psychic, then we don't tell her about it."

"What? Why?" Benny asked in disbelief. "She's just like you, but younger."

"Exactly! If it starts to get out of hand and she gets visions often, then I guess we'll see from there. It was only one vision in a dream. I highly doubt she'll get any more."