Trolls: All This Time

Chapter 14

poppy groaned as she lifted her head from her pillow, feeling groggy and miserable. she hadn't slept well for the last couple of days, and the migraines she had experienced the last few days were unbearable.

the room was filled with darkness and every so often a bright light would shine in through her window.

slowly sitting up from her 2 hour nap, poppy rubbed her eyes, barely able to see a thing. yawning, she looked around her room before becoming alert to the situation.

dark clouds were formed in the sky. lightning struck left and right. thunder rumbled her pod so hard her entire room shook.

"branch!" she shrieked, scrambling to back herself up into her headboard. she covered herself in her yellow blanket and crawled into a ball in pure panic.

the door busted open and branch ran through it, breathing heavy. "what's wrong?" he exclaimed.

"the-the-the-" thunderstorms were poppy's worst fear. every time she even heard the sound of rain she panicked.

"the thunderstorm?"

"mhm." poppy nodded and dug her head into her hands, feeling her nerves overwhelm herself.

guilt washed over branch as his eyes followed the rain dripping on her window. he slowly made his way over to the window, being much braver than poppy could ever be. it was raining extremely hard and didn't show any signs of stopping.

"come here," branch demanded softly.

"what if i get struck by lightning? you're not supposed to go near windows during storms."

"you won't," he promised, offering her his hand which she gently took nervously. branch could see the worry filling her eyes but comforted her by holding her hand and squeezing it as they stood side by side, looking out of the window.

poppy pressed her free hand against the window softly, realizing the storm wasn't anything near as scary as she had thought it was. still, it was intense.

"we should get everyone to your bunker before this gets any worse," poppy suggested.

branch shook his head. "while i like where your head's at, there's no way we're going anywhere in this storm."

"how long will this last?"

"no one knows," branch shrugged. "the weather was supposed to be clear today. this storm kind of came out of nowhere."

"when this settles down..can we go dance in the rain?" she asked, beginning to warm up to something she used to fear.

"you're telling me the queen of the trolls has never dancing in rain before?"

"nope!"

branch chuckled, grinning at her. "sure we can."

the lamp next to them flickered and the microwave began beeping, revealing yet another one of poppy's worst fears.

darkness.

she began breathing heavily and took a seat back onto her bed, glancing at the darkness that now surrounded her.

"hey, hey, it's okay," branch squeezed her hand once more and looked around her room. "i'll go get us some flashlights."

nodding, poppy tapped her foot back and forth. the stomach felt like it had dropped to her feet and her mind felt like it was in a different dimension.

"when will this nightmare end?" she pleaded.