Lexy Andrews

The Raid

Lexy was tired.

There was the kind of tired you felt after watching ten straight, never-ending hours of trash reality tv and those last few brain cells were slowly but surely disintegrating.

There was the kind of tired you felt when your gym teacher makes you do five laps of the school, and then they smile and tell you to face the rest of the school day.

And then there was the kind of tired you felt when you were dying... over and over again. That's how Lexy was feeling.

She would put on her pyjamas, get into her big, comfy bed in her safe home, completely in control of everything. And then she closed her eyes. Sometimes she would be falling through thin ice while a group of gargoyles watched. Sometimes she was drinking fresh aid with cyanide in it. Sometimes she was walking into oncoming traffic, cars barely swerving to miss her. Sometimes she was watching the headlights of a train come closer and closer... and that's where she would always wake up.

That was the worst part. When she woke up. She couldn't tell herself that it was all a dream. Because a few weeks ago, she had done all of those things, and for the worst reasons. A few weeks ago, she was the type of person who would be able to put her life on the line without saying goodbye to anyone.

She sometimes imagined Archie's face when hearing the news that his sister was dead. Her dad would probably cry, which made it hurt that much more considering he rarely cried. Her mom would probably come home from Chicago for a few weeks, maybe even months.

Everyone would put their lives on hold for a girl who didn't care about throwing her own away.

"Bad dream?" Archie asked entering the kitchen in the middle of the night and going straight to the fridge. Lexy had probably woken him up while going downstairs. He was always a light sleeper.

"More like bad memory." Lexy shrugged.

He slid onto the counter next to her placing an arm around her shoulder. "You gonna go back to bed?"

She hesitated but nodded after a few seconds. "Yeah, I'll go up in a few minutes."

Archie patted her shoulder and hopped off the counter, making his way back to his bedroom. It ended up being more than just a few minutes. Half an hour later and she found herself watching a late-night David Attenborough rerun.

"As much as I love paradise birds," Archie startled her from behind the couch, "how about a movie instead?"

He opened the cabinet underneath the tv and searched through the DVDs. Going back to sleep would just mean going back to her nightmares. Lexy had been alone for a long time. Now it was time for Archie to be there for her again.

***

Dana had given Lexy a loan of her Gryphon's and Gargoyles game. It took a lot of convincing and begging. Dana was a tough nut to crack. She was pretty hell bent on not letting Lexy get involved with the game after the... "events" as she called them. Lexy had to triple swear that she was not planning on actually playing the game.

Sweetpea however, was very quick to jump to conclusions when he entered the boy's changing rooms to see Lexy sitting on one of the benches with a G&G box in front of her. As soon as she saw it was him who had entered the room, she dropped the large bunch of quest cards in her hands.

Sweetpea looked ready to commit sin.

"This isn't what it looks like." Lexy spoke calmly.

He didn't give her a chance to explain. He picked up some of the cards she had dropped on the ground and turned on his heels, walking out the door of the changing rooms.