It was the second night that Carter and Melissa were without a bedroom. The night before, Melissa slept in Taylor's room with him and Carter slept in Zac's room. But tonight they decided to just camp out in Zac's room together since it was the biggest. Melissa and Taylor were already fast asleep on the floor and Zac was asleep in his bed next to Carter. Carter was wide awake, her mind wandering too much to sleep.
Most of the time, her mind just wandered. They weren't even complete thoughts. Every once in a while she'd hear a voice in her head saying one word. She hated when that happened. She was convinced she was becoming an insomniac and she really didn't want to blame it on voices in her head.
She closed her eyes, sighed, and began focusing on all the sounds in the room. Zac was snoring lightly, kicking his left foot. She had a feeling he was having that dream where he was on Fear Factor and his task was to swim underneathe a forty foot long boat and come up on the other side. In the dream, all of his competitors were mute girls under three feet tall.
Melissa was mumbling something in her sleep. She was the sleeptalker in the family. And Taylor was barely making any noise. She had to strain to hear him breathing.
She could hear ringing in her ears. She could hear a song that was stuck in her head. She could hear something squeaking and scurrying somewhere in the room. She could still hear Zac snoring.
Carter rolled over to face Zac when she heard the squeaking noise again. "Hey." She whispered into Zac's ear. He didn't move, so she poked him hard on his side. "Zac..."
Zac mumbled something and rolled over.
"ZAC!" She grabbed his pillow out from under his head and smacked it into his face. Zac sat straight up and looked around the room, not sure what had just happened. Carter laughed. "Zac, there's a mouse in your room."
Zac mumbled and laid back down on his back. "Who cares. You like mice."
Carter rolled her eyes and threw her pillow at Taylor. "Tay, get up."
Taylor sat up and rubbed his eyes. "What's up?"
"Carter heard a mouse." Zac muttered from under his pillow.
Taylor jumped up out of his sleeping bag and landed on the bed. "WHERE?!"
Carter pointed at him and laughed. "That's right. I forgot you were afraid of mice." She laughed again. "That's too funny."
"IT'S NOT FUNNY!" Taylor almost whimpered. "Now where is it?"
Carter shrugged. "Be quiet for a minute."
The three of them sat as quietly as they could. Zac tried to go back to sleep. Then, Carter heard the scurry again. "There! Did you hear that?"
Taylor nodded. "Yeah, but I don't know where it came from."
"Me neither." Carter leaned forward on her knees and tried listening to the entire room. But she didn't expect to hear what she was listening for, come directly from behind her head. "HOLY SHIT!" She screamed and ducked forward, doing a somersault and landed on her hands and knees on the floor. She crawled forward as fast as she could, kicking Melissa in the face and dragging her blanket behind her. When she got to the door she slapped her hand on the light switch, turning it on, and blinding everybody.
Taylor was still in shock from Carter fleeing the bed, Zac was grumpy from being awakened, and Melissa was rubbing her forhead. "Why... did you just kick me?" Melissa asked, staring at Carter. "And why are you standing like the Karate Kid?"
"YOU HEARD IT, TAYLOR! TELL ME YOU HEARD IT!"
"I didn't hear it that time." He looked terrified.
"It came from the top of Zac's window." Carter pointed to the window that was behind Taylor and Zac. Taylor immediately jumped off the bed and ran to Carter.
"You guys are wusses." Zac mumbled and covered his head with the pillow.
"It's your fault!" Carter pointed to Zac. "You had to go and move your bed next to the wall. Now there's a ... " She paused. "Magical mouse ... sitting up by the corner of the window..."
Taylor caught on to her thought. "Ok how can a mouse be chillin up there in the corner?"
Melissa's eyes widened and immediately she was standing in the doorway with Taylor and Carter. "IT'S A MOUSE WITH WINGS! IT'S A BAT!"
Carter glared at the window. "That's it. I'm sick of being afraid of winged creatures. The bat is going down." She got back into her karate stance.
Zac's eyes widened and he sat up. "Car... what are you doing?"
"I'm gonna kick it's ass!" Carter took a deep breath before running as fast as she could towards Zac. He jumped off of the bed and landed on the floor. Then, she dove onto the bed, and while standing on her feet, she yanked the curtains away from the window. "DEATH!" She screamed, and waved her arms at the bat. Then, she realized there was no bat. "Uhm..."
"Nice." Taylor laughed and Melissa clapped from the doorway.
"Yeah, Car." Melissa grinned. "Very smooth. You've defeated the invisible bat."
Carter rolled her eyes. "Wait a minute." She turned back to the window. "I heard it again. It's outside." She peered out of the window. "What the hell is that?" Then, she saw it. She saw the wings, and the beak... pecking against the window. She opened her mouth and let out a blood curdling scream before smacking her hand on the window. The bird flew away and Carter jumped off of the bed. Still screaming, she ran back to the doorway and covered her head with her hands.
When she finally calmed down, Taylor tapped her shoulder. "So, now that you've awakened the entire neighborhood, dead and alive, can we go back to bed?"
Zac nodded. "Yes. Please?"
Carter let all of the air out of her lungs in one breath. "Ok. But I'm NOT sleeping near that window." She glared at the window and pointed again before stealing Melissa's sleeping bag.
"Ok. So where am I supposed to sleep?" Melissa frowned at her sister who smiled up at her from the sleeping bag. "Ok, fine. Zac, I'm going to sleep with you." She crawled into his bed and then looked down at Carter. "Wow, there's something I never thought I'd say."
Carter laughed and then grew slightly nervous when Taylor crawled back into his sleeping bag. She forgot that she'd be sleeping on the floor with him. She stayed completely silent while Zac and Melissa fell asleep within minutes.
"Isn't it nice to know that they can sleep when you were just viciously attacked by... was it a sparrow? Or a hummingbird." Taylor laughed lightly while staring at the ceiling.
"Shut up."
"So much for not being afraid of winged creatures anymore."
"Bite me." She laughed and playfully slapped him on his stomach.
After a few minutes of making fun of eachother, Taylor and Carter fell asleep. Taylor thought he had just closed his eyes for a minute but when he woke up and rolled over to tell Carter something, he was surprised to see that she was gone. He figured she had gotten up to go to the bathroom, but when he woke up again an hour later, she was still gone.
"She fell in..." He shrugged and sat up. After crawling over to Zac's bed, he smacked him with his pillow. Zac sat up suddenly and screamed. "WHAT THE HELL IS IT WITH YOU PEOPLE AND ABUSING ME WITH PILLOWS!"
"SHH!" Taylor smacked him again. "Don't wake up Meli."
"What the hell is up."
Taylor tried not to laugh at the fact that Zac's hair was sticking straight up on one side. "Carter's gone."
"She pees a lot at night."
"She's been gone for like an hour. Think she's sleepwalking?"
Zac looked down at his watch. "It's the right time of night for it. But it's weird that she hasn't come back." Zac slid off of the bed.
"Come with me to find her. She could be outside wandering around."
Zac yawned and nodded. They went into Taylor's bedroom and were about to go onto the balcony when Taylor grabbed Zac's shirt and pulled him back. He pointed to his bed. "Look."
Zac laughed. Carter was fast asleep in Taylor's bed with her arm around his pillow. It wasn't the first time she'd been sleepwalking and ended up in Taylor's bed. He never understood why she always did that, but it never bothered him.
"So we just let her sleep, right?" Taylor asked. Zac was usually the one who dealt with her sleepwalking.
"Yeah." Zac nodded. "But... maybe you should stay with her."
"Huh?"
"Well, she gets disoriented when she wakes up in a weird place. I don't want her to get freaked out." Zac gave Taylor a smile and a pat on the shoulder before leaving his room and going back to his own.
Taylor thanked him silently and climbed into his bed next to Carter. He kept his distance and laid down without a pillow, since Carter was hugging it. He was about to fall asleep when he heard Carter stir.
She opened her eyes slowly and looked around, slightly confused. "Hey..." She whispered when she realized that Taylor was watching her. "Did I do it again?"
"Yeah. But it's ok."
"Sorry I stole your bed." She smiled and rubbed her eyes.
"It's ok." He nodded and smiled. "I'll leave if you want, now that you know where you are and you're ok and everything."
Carter closed her eyes for a minute and Taylor took that as his cue to leave. As he was sitting up, Carter grabbed his hand and pulled him back down. "No... stay."
"What?"
"Stay here. Zac's floor is hard and it sucks and you can stay here with me."
"Are you sure?" Taylor asked, his cheeks flushed.
"Uh huh." Carter nodded and gave him the pillow she had been holding. Then, she replaced the pillow with Taylor as she put her arm around his stomach, closed her eyes, and went back to sleep.