Disturbed sleep

As if noticing that something bad was about to happen, I instantly woke up and my eyes shut open. It takes me half a second to notice a dark silhouette standing above me. His face is hidden by some black cloth. I can only see his eyes. And a long thin needle that he is holding above me. My reflexes work instantly while the masked intruder is temporarily paralyzed by my having woken up. My hand was already under my pillow so all I had to do was grasp the dagger by its hilt and pull it out. I managed to do that in a split second. The intruder is still frozen in place. The whole chain of events from me opening my eyes to this moment happened in no more than 3 seconds. I pull my hand with the dagger in it from under my pillow with lightning speed and ram it into the intruder's temple before they could understand what had just happened. The only noise the intruder managed to let out before collapsing like a marionette with its strings cut was a surprised yelp.

I swiftly get out of bed to check on Arti. He is well and still asleep. There is no one besides us and the intruder’s dead body in the room. I ran up to him and shook him awake. “Arti, wake up.”

Arti wakes up with a sudden jolt and sits up in his bed. “Watsgoinon.”

“There are intruders in the castle. I need you to go call the guards. I will check on Mom and Tia in the meantime,” I tell him. When he nods, indicating that he understood, I turn around, pick up my short sword hanging on the wall, and run out of the room.

I start running down the corridor towards Tia and Mom’s rooms. I pass by two guards lying in the pools of their blood with their throats slit open. I reach my mom’s and sister’s rooms. I try my mom’s room first. The door is open and I take a peek inside. The room looks empty. Mom is sleeping alone on her bed. I make my way to the next room and notice it is slightly ajar. I raise my sword and quietly push the door open. The second intruder is standing with his back turned to me, rummaging through his satchel. I try to silently sneak up on him, hoping to disarm and apprehend him in order to later find out who sent him here. Before I could reach him, I stepped on something and alerted the intruder, who instantly dropped his satchel and turned around lifting his hand to throw a dagger at him. Before I could decide what to do next, he threw the dagger straight at my chest. Tia wakes up from the commotion and, seeing what is going on, starts screaming. My instincts kicked in and I used telekinesis to slightly move dagger aside. It flies right past my shoulder nearly grazing me. This surprised the intruder enough for me to take a few steps towards him in quick succession. He snaps out of his stupor and reaches for his dagger. As he was about to wind it up for an attack, I ram my sword through his chest. He drops his dagger, coughs up blood, and collapses to the floor dead with my sword sticking out of his chest.

In that same instance, our mom runs into the room with her dagger in hand. She sees me standing over the dead body of the intruder and lowers her dagger.

“I have killed two intruders so far. There could be more. The guards in the corridor are dead. Arti went to call for help,” I quickly gave her my report, the adrenaline in my blood still pumping fast.

Mom looks around the room, making sure it is clear of any danger, runs up to me, and pulls me into a tight hug. “Everything is going to be okay, thanks to you. You did great, Zen.” She rubs my back while holding me close to you and I hug her back. I feel extremely tired all of a sudden. The adrenaline I have been feeling slowly dissipating, making way for everything that I have been ignoring so far. How my body felt heavy from the exhaustion and how my head was pounding with pain.

“Are you injured?” she asks. I shake my head. My knees buckle a little and Mom takes it as a sign to release me and help me to the bed where Tia is still sitting, looking terrified. Mom helps me to the bed and sits me down. As soon as I sit down Tia crawls to my side and softly hugs my arm.

At that moment, we hear footsteps approaching from the corridor. Mom stands up and raises her dagger. Instead of another intruder, a group of guards with our father at the head enters the room. I see Arti behind them.

Father looks around the room and when he is satisfied that there are no more dangers, speaks up. “Is anyone injured?”

“No, we are fine,” mom answers and lowers her dagger. “Zenovia killed the intruder before they could hurt Tia.”

Father turns to me. “What happened?”

I try to speak but my mouth is completely dry. Mom notices it and reaches for a jug of water standing on Tia’s nightstand and pours me a cup. I down it in one go and finally speak up. “I woke up and a masked intruder with a needle in his hand was standing above me. I had a dagger under my pillow, so I quickly took it out and killed the intruder while they were frozen. I woke up Artias and told him to go and call for help before running here. I passed two dead guards on the way. Their throats were slit open. I checked Mother’s room first and, when I saw that the room was clear, went to Tiana’s room. Her door was slightly opened and I knew there would be another intruder here since her door was supposed to be closed. I entered the room and the intruder in here attacked when he saw me. I managed to kill him. That’s when Mother came in and then you arrived,” I repeat the whole series of events.

Father follows my story closely and nods. “You did great, Zenovia. Guards are searching the palace as we speak but I think these two intruders were the only ones here.”

My head feels heavy. I feel like I will collapse any second now. “Can I go to sleep now? I can barely stay awake.”

“Yes, of course,” Father replies. “Lylya, bring the kids to the empty bedrooms. Artias and Zenovia’s room still had a dead body in it,” he looks at the body in the center of the room. “As does that one.”

“Right,” Mom says. “Artias, Tiana, Zenovia, follow me.”

She stands up and ushers us out of the room. We follow her until she stops in front of the door and opens it. Inside are two big beds on opposite sides of the room. “Someone will have to share,” Mom says.

Tia’s arm instantly shoots up. “I will sleep with big brother.”

“I am your big brother too, you know?” Arti mumbles.

“I know, but I am used to calling Zen ‘big brother’. I will need to come up with a different name for you.” Tia says.

I can barely think straight, so I just silently make my way to the left side of the bed and collapse on it face down. I wiggle a little to get under covers.

“Good night, kids. I will come check on you in the morning.” After saying that, she leaves and closes the door behind her.

Tia climbs into the bed and snuggles up to me. Arti has yet to move from where he stands. “Uhm, can I sleep in your bed too? I don’t want to sleep alone,” he asks.

“Sure, come over,” was the only thing I managed to get out.

Arti climbs into bed and snuggles to my other side. I feel the clutches of slumber carry me away and I fall asleep a moment later surrounded by my siblings.

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