Tricked (t.m.r.)

1.6 - In Which Alby Gets to Sleep

The boy in the hammock snapped his eyes open and sat up in fear when he saw a dark figure was standing at the corner of his room. He had not meant to wake up and only caught sight of the uncommon shadow that appeared in his room when he shifted in his hammock to search for a more comfortable sleeping position. The makeshift bed swung along with his movements, but he seemed to have not noticed.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" He narrows his eyes at the shadow. His eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness, and he could tell that it was a person in his room with him but they were still groggy with sleep to tell who it was.

The shadow in the room remains unmoving, still, as if hoping it would magically disappear from the boy's sight if it stood still for an amount of time. Newt swung out from his bed and reached for the machete he had left in his pack, using it to point at the intruder as he slowly approached the figure.

"Why are you doing in my room?" He asked, not losing his defensive stance. "Speak or I'll attack."

Newt almost jumped back in surprise when the figure mumbled something under its breath. He couldn't quite make it out what it was saying and had to strain his ears. The figure was mumbling quickly under its breath now, and seemed to be repeating the same phrase over and over again.

"WICKED is good."

"Rosie?" Newt lowers his weapon in astonishment. He had not expected the greenie to still be up at this hour. "This isn't your room."

Primrose seemed to have not heard his words and continues to mumble the same sentence over and over again. Newt returned his machete back into its pouch and went closer to the girl this time, grabbing hold of her shoulders to get a better look at her. He deemed her to be sleepwalking after he tried to shake her awake, calling her didn't work either. He sprang away from her when her head suddenly lifted itself upright and fell backward, half expecting to see her head falling off her neck and roll on the floor.

"WICKED is good." Her words were clear as day now, and Newt would have thought she was awake if her eyes weren't still shut. Chills went down his spine when she let out a series of crackle laughs.

"Alby," Newt decides to look for their leader, casting a quick glance at Primrose before leaving his room and running towards Alby's. Alby immediately sat up in his hammock when he heard his door was being open, Newt hadn't bothered knocking before heading in, and unlike Newt, his eyes seem fine adjusting to the dark. Perhaps he hasn't fallen asleep yet, but Newt hadn't the time to ponder for the reason.

"What happened?" The leader asked gruffly, already swinging out of his hammock and putting on his shoes, as if he had been waiting for any uncommon action to happen the entire time he had been awake.

"It's the girl. I think she's sleepwalking." Newt reported.

Alby cast a look at Newt, seemingly as surprised as he is. "Where is she now?"

"In my room." Newt answered as both of them left Alby's room. "I didn't even hear her come in. Almost got a bugging heart attack when I saw her hiding in the corner, and she kept repeating 'WICKED is good', wonder what the bloody means."

The boys' solemn faces turned into a mixture of shock and alarm when they could no longer see any figure in Newt's room. Newt immediately rushes to the room opposite his to check if Primrose had returned to her hammock, but it was empty as well.

"Newt." Alby called for his second-in-command quietly and gestured for the boy to return to his room. "There she is." He points at a lonely figure who was walking by herself on the open field.

"How did she get there so fast?" Newt wondered, "We didn't even see or hear her pass your room."

"Must have gone out through the window." Alby thought as he rubs his chin with his fingers. "There's no way out of this place anyway, if she does sleepwalk, let her be."