Eternal Flame

Chapter 10

Aria's POV

A knock on the door wakes me up and it takes me a few seconds to realize where I am, but when I do, I put my robe on and quickly get up.

"Is everything ok?" I ask, worried when I open the door and see Sam, one of the older boys, on the other side.

"Mason woke up screaming and crying and he won't calm down." He frantically says.

"Thanks for waking me up, Sam. Let's see what's going on." I tell him and start walking towards the boys' room. Seconds later, I open the door and walk in after him and immediately spot Mason, sitting on his bed, surrounded by a few other boys who are trying to calm him down, "Hey guys," I say as I approach them and I'm about to tell them to give me some space when Mason gets up and runs to me. "Thank you so much for helping Mason but I'll take it from here, ok?" I ask after picking up the 4-year-old, "It's really late and even though you don't have school tomorrow is Saturday, you need to go back to sleep." I say and they start getting up to go back to their beds.

"Goodnight, guys." I say when everyone is in their beds, "See you tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Aria." They reply and I close the door after turning the light off, and take Mason with me to another room to try to calm him down.

"Come on, sweetie, take a deep breath." I tell him while I wipe the tears that keep running down his cheeks, "It's ok. I'm here." I say and hold him close, trying to comfort him.

He stops crying after a while, and a couple minutes later, he starts closing his eyes. Not wanting to disturb him, I stay still until I'm sure he's sleeping and then get up to put him in bed but when I'm about to lay him down, he grabs my shirt and whispers "I don't want to be alone."

"You won't." I tell him as I take one of his tiny hands in mine and gently kiss it, "I'm right here."

*

Once Marge and I are sure that everyone has had breakfast and is ready for the day, I leave the kitchen and, after checking on Mason, who's still sleeping, I go to the bedroom to get my bag.

5 minutes later, everything's packed and I'm on my way to the playroom to say goodbye to everyone when Sarah calls me. "Hey," I say and turn around to face her.

"Good morning," She replies, "I've been looking for you."

"I was in the bedroom packing my bag. Is everything ok?"

"Yes. I just wanted to thank you for spending the night here. I have no idea what I would have done if you'd said no."

"I'm glad I could help." I reply, "Have you talked to Annie today?"

"Yes. She said her mom is home now and feeling a lot better."

"That's good."

"I told her she could and should stay with her for a couple days but she said she'd come back today and you know her... I couldn't change her mind." She says and I smile.

"She loves this place and these children."

"She does. I'm really glad we have her with us." She replies, "By the way, I saw Sam leaving the meal room and he told me about last night."

"Oh yeah. He probably had a nightmare. I'd never seen Mason so agitated." I say, "It took him a while to stop crying but once he calmed down, it didn't take him more than a couple minutes to fall asleep."

"Where is he?"

"He's still sleeping." I reply, "He looked so peaceful when I woke up that I didn't find it in me to wake him up."