Aubrey lay in bed that night staring at the dark ceiling unable to sleep. She didn’t know what to make of anything Tom and Steve explained to her that night at dinner. To be honest, she didn’t want to believe any of it. Since they moved so often, she assumed they were just trying to come up with any old excuse to make the move seem more legitimate since the last.
Well, she wasn’t buying any of it.
A mage? A knight? A ranger and a thief? Yet, right. None of those things existed. Sure, anyone could be a thief and people could learn archery, but no one in this universe was a knight or a mage. There was no such thing as magic.
Aubrey rolled over onto her right side and curled her body up into a ball. She placed her hands under her cheek and closed her eyes to try to sleep. But sleep wouldn’t come to her. She knew that when she woke up the following morning, instead of getting ready for school, she’d have to pack up all her things.
Again.
After another half hour or so of tossing and turning in her bed, she finally gave up. She sat up in her bed swinging her legs over the side. She slid her feet into her slippers standing firmly on the ground. Aubrey left her bedroom with the idea that she would get a glass of milk. That was supposed to help you sleep, wasn’t it?
However, Aubrey stopped mid-flight on the staircase. She could hear Tom and Steve talking to each other in hushed tones. She sat down on the middle step and peered around the wall checking to see where Tom and Steve were.
Sure enough, they were both sitting on the couch talking. They weren’t just talking through a commercial on a TV show they were watching, because the TV wasn’t even turned on. They were just having a conversation. Steve sipped another cup of black coffee while Tom held a cup of tea in his own hands.
Aubrey suppressed a sigh willing herself to stand back up. Why was she being so secretive? All she was doing was going down there for a glass of milk because she couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night thanks to things they told her at dinner.
“It’s bad enough that we told Aubrey the truth about some things, but now we’re going to have to explain everything to her at some point.” Steve grunted.
Aubrey sat back down on the stairs again. She knew it. They were talking about her.
“At some point,” Tom repeated.
“I mean tomorrow. You know she’s going to ask more questions.” Steve countered.
“She will, but we’ll just have to tell her to wait. We have too much else going on already.” Tom said.
“You explain that to her then.”
“I will.”
“Good luck with that.” Steve snorted into his coffee mug.
Aubrey buried her face into her hands frustrated. They still spoke so obscurely about the whole thing and she was eavesdropping on them. How was she supposed to get a decent answer out of them?
She stood up again wondering if she should just go into the living room to cut through for that glass of milk. She wondered how they would react to her sudden presence.
“What do you think her parents would have said about all of this?” Tom asked.
Aubrey sat back down again. Never mind.
Steve heaved a loud sigh. “Well, I think we’re done a pretty good job so far. I just don’t know about right now.”
“She deserves to know.”
“Not everything.”
“What if something happens to us? We can’t wait any longer for her to know the truth.” Tom remarked.
“Nothing is going to happen to us.” Steve shook his head in denial.
“You don’t know that.” Tom said quietly.
There was a heavy silence lingering the air. Aubrey put a hand over her mouth trying not to gasp or breathe too loudly. Whatever they were talking about was making her nervous.
“I think it’s high time we went to bed. We have a busy day ahead of us.” Steve finally broke the silence and stood up from the couch.
Aubrey immediately stood and ran back up the stairs as lightly as her feet could take her. She didn’t want them to hear the creaking of the wooden steps and she certainly didn’t want them to see her sitting on the stairs as they decided to go up to bed.
Aubrey made it back to her bedroom closing the door behind her quietly. She jumped back into bed pulling her blankets up and over her. She curled back into a ball, so many thoughts running through her head.
The matter of the fact was that she was so exhausted from all the confusion and worry that she didn’t need the milk. She was fast asleep before she knew it.
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