Enter the Shadows: Book One of the RTS Series (First Full Draft)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Leala

That night, Leala also found herself unable to sleep, understanding how Robin had been feeling for so long.

Every time she did try to fall asleep, she'd feel a sudden jolt of pain from the injury on her arm. It had been disinfected and bandaged, but it still stung whenever she accidentally bumped her arm into something like the wall or even the pillows on her bed.

And even if she wasn't hurt, the fear of Demarcus, or that other Nadir, or Little Lady Midnight coming into her home was reason enough to stay awake. Enough that, occasionally during the night, Leala would check on her sleeping parents and brother.

They didn't move the whole night, though the dog did wake up briefly while he lay on her brother's bed only to fall back asleep.

That cycle repeated over and over, with Leala checking on her family and looking through the window in the living room that looked out into the street. And, occasionally, Leala would sit in her closed room and try again and again to get her bow to materialize. But this time, it was harder to get it to form. She could get a few sparks to appear in her palm, but they'd quickly fade into dust. As if something was refusing to let her use the weapon.

By the time morning came along, Leala was exhausted, slightly irritable, and no less paranoid. She sat at her kitchen table, dunking a tea bag into a mug of hot water and watching the color shift in the water and would also watch the sky begin to grow brighter as the sun began to rise.

"Dang, you're up early."

Leala turned and saw her brother walking out of his room and into the kitchen.

"I should be saying that to you."

He shrugged. "I woke up from another weird dream." Her brother walked over to the fridge and took out a jug of peach juice, the alternative they had for orange juice. While he got himself a glass, he looked at Leala with an unreadable expression.

"What?" Leala asked.

"I dunno, the dream I had was..." He shook his head. "It was the same as the nightmares I've been having all summer, but this time... I saw you."

Leala felt a jolt of fear in her gut. "What do you mean?" She decided to play dumb for now.

"I saw the weird Silent Hill monster thing, but instead of it killing me, I saw you. You had this... this staff thing that was glowing silver. And you beat the ever loving crap out of it, and it was probably the coolest thing ever! Well, it would be if it was real."

Leala had to resist the urge to tell him that it was real.

"It felt real almost." Zeke added. "You shot down that thing like it was nothing..."

"Well, it must've been one hell of a dream."

"It's the best take of that dream I've had since they started happening." He gave Leala a strange look. "And... actually it felt a lot more real than the last few times. I don't really know why..."

Leala felt herself become tense. "Well, dreams are weird like that." The last thing Leala wanted now was for her brother to remember what happened that day, especially with how close to home the threats from Demarcus were becoming. She touched her bandaged arm, and felt sick thinking back to the fight.

Things can't continue like this... I need to do something about this. I'll talk to Robin about it today.

"Hey, you look tense. Did something happen?"

Leala shook her head. "Nah, I was just thinking of something." She stood up from her seat. "I'll be out of the house today. What about you?"

"I'll probably be stuck here...?" He looked a bit puzzled by her tone.