𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐒 [R.Tozier]

XIV. Midnight Madness

Alisa's eyes open at the strike of midnight, her body shooting up extremely fast. It's been happening very often for the girl. She'd wake up due to a horrifying nightmare and not be able to get back to sleep. While shooting up, she noticed that this motion caused Richie's arm to fly off of her, falling down to her pillow.

She takes in deep, long, breaths, then gets off the bed, careful to step over Richie. She opens her window, climbing out and sitting on the roof ledge. The cold night air hits her skin, causing a slight pink to appear on her cheeks from the chill.

As the wind blows the girl's hair back, she hears rustling coming from behind her. Turning around, she is glad to see the familiar loud mouthed boy approach and sit beside her, wrapping his arm around her.

"What's up, Pippi?" He asks, looking to the girl's tired face. She had terrible black eye bags under her beautiful blue ones, taking away from her usual beauty. Although, Richie didn't see it this way.

"I'm gonna sound like a five year old, but I had a bad dream. It was terrible." She shudders in the cold, rubbing her arms, which Richie quickly takes notice of. "Do you- um- do you wanna talk about it?" He asks, earning a no from the girl. "You seem cold, wanna go inside?" He places his hands on her freezing arms, rubbing them slowly for warmth.

"It won't make a difference." She replies with another shiver. Richie purses his lips, watching as the girl of his dreams shows vulnerability, something he hadn't seen her ever do in front of anyone. She's always claimed to be strong, but the girl was broken and in need of desperate fixing.

Without saying a word, Richie gets back inside, leaving Alisa outside in the cold. She watches him get back inside and sighs, looking out to the sparkles scattered all over the night sky.

Just a few moments later, the boy returns with a large blanket and pillows, returning back to sit with a girl, tucking the two of them into the blanket. "The stars are beautiful." He says, leaning back onto his pillow, looking up at the glistening stars.

"Yeah, they are." Alisa leans back as well, and moves in closer to Richie as he wraps his arm around her. Suddenly, she doesn't feel so cold anymore. She feels happy, forgetting all of her problems as if they never existed.

"I really wanna meet your mom so I can thank her for bringing you into this world." Richie chuckles, rubbing the side of Alisa's arm. "That's really sweet, but she's probably dead." Alisa replies, leaning her head onto his shoulder. "Oh.." The mood suddenly shifts, but returns when Alisa turns over to her side, wrapping her arm around Richie in a hugging position.

"A few days ago, my genealogy would be you. Who knew it'd come true?" Richie says, earning a confused face from the girl. "Do you even know what that means?" She asks. "Yeah, It's when you rub a lamp and get three wishes." He replies as if it were obvious.

"Richie?" Alisa asks. "Yeah?" He replies. "I've met bread smarter than you." She snuggles up into his chest, feeling her eyes drift off into another world, a dream world.

Richie chuckles to himself, looking to the sleeping girl. He slowly gets up and picks her up, carrying her back inside and onto the bed.

"Goodnight, Pippi."