Astrid shot up in bed and screamed, scared awake from her sleep by a nightmare. She couldn't remember what it was about. Her hair was still damp from her shower and it stuck to the back of her neck making her slightly uncomfortable. Thunder boomed from outside while the rain slammed itself against the side of the house. She turned to her bedside table to check her alarm clock. It was 3:30 in the morning. She flopped onto her bed and stared at her ceiling. The plastic glow-in-the-dark stars and planets shone dimly. Mason had helped her put them up four and a half years ago. Mason had helped her move the furniture around and slowly add stuff that made it feel more like home throughout the years. Purple lightning illuminated her dark room. In that brief second she thought she saw Mason standing in her doorway. She launched herself towards her table and turned her lamp on. The light revealed a worried and sad looking Minxie. Astrid let out a sigh she didn't realize she was holding and looked up at her. 

"Hey, you okay?" Minxie asked.

"Yeah. Just had a nightmare is all" she said. She tried to remember what it was about. All she could think about was Mason. 

"Wanna talk about it?"

"No. I don't remember what it was, but thank you. Did I wake you up?"

"No. I couldn't sleep because of the storm. I heard you scream and came to check up on you. You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I just don't think I'll be able to go back to sleep"

"Come downstairs. I'll make you something warm to drink. You haven't been home in a few days." Minxie said as she turned around and started to walk down the hall towards the stairs.

Astrid swung her legs over the side of the bed. She briefly stopped to softly pet Artax. He sighed and leaned into her touch while he slept. She smiled softly to herself and stood up, grabbing a blanket from the large windowsill. She looked around her room and took it in. The walls were a navy blue. She had small fairy lights strung on the wall behind her bed. It had old pictures of her with her family or friends and some posters of her favorite bands from before the Raid. The light from her lamp was illuminating the pictures since she had the fairy lights turned off. A large window was on the wall next to her bed. It had a large windowsill like a large bench. When the sun was out she liked to sit on it and read a book. Sometimes when Mason had a hard time sleeping, he'd drag a couple of blankets and pillows into her room and sleep on it. Across from her bed sat a large dresser with a TV on top. Next to the dresser was a large black chest. That's where she stored her weapons. 

She started to carefully unfold the blanket as she made her way down the stairs. She shivered as her bare feet touched the cold hardwood floor of the living room and she wrapped the small blanket around her shoulders. She made her way to the kitchen where she saw Minxie and Sapphyre standing at the stove and talking quietly. The overhead lights were on, but slightly dimmed.

"I was going to make hot chocolate" She heard Minxie say.

"Yeah, but I want tea" Sapphyre said. 

"Then make it yourself"

"But you make it so much better" He whined.

"Fine but I'm making the hot chocolate first"

"Yay!" He quietly clapped his hands and looked up to see Astrid standing in the doorway.

He walked over to her and gave her a hug.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry if I woke you up"

"Nah you're fine. I woke up to the thunder. It's so loud" He giggled slightly and pulled away from the friendly and comforting embrace. She could see in his face that he was lying but she didn't say anything.

Astrid tried to give him a small smile but a loud crack of thunder stopped her. She pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders. She's always hated storms. She turned as she heard Artax's tags jangle down the stairs. He walked up to her and pressed himself against her leg. He knew how much she hated storms. She immediately relaxed and felt grateful for her dog. She bent down and pat his head, giving him a small kiss on his nose. He gave her a kiss back and she giggled.

She stood up and looked over to the stove to see Sapphyre try to eat some of the marshmallows while Minxie playfully swatted his hand away. The couple giggled and Astrid walked to the kitchen island and sat at one of the stools. Astrid started thinking about Mason. How she could've saved him. How she wished she hadn't yelled at him. How she wished she could hug him one last time and tell him how much she loved him. Her mind started to race with thoughts as she struggled to breathe. 

Minxie turned around with two mugs of hot chocolate loaded with marshmallows. She saw the state Astrid was in and quickly put the mugs down on the counter and rushed to her side. Sapphyre hadn't noticed yet. He was filling the tea kettle with water from the sink.

"Hey, Astrid, I need you to breathe with me. A deep breath in, and a deep breath out"

Astrid could see Minxie's mouth moving, but she couldn't hear very well. Everything sounded muffled as if she was underwater. Lightning flashed outside and her breaths became faster and more shallow than before. Her light blue eyes were wide with panic and fear. Her vision became blurry as she started to cry a bit. Minxie pulled her to her chest and started talking directly into her ear.

"Let's try a new method. Focus on five things you can see"

"A-Artax, you, S-Sapphyre, the clock, and t-the rain"

"Now four things you can feel"

"Y-You, Artax, my b-blanket, and the kitchen stool"

"Good. Now three things you can hear"

"The r-rain, the kitchen sink, and you" Astrids breathing was almost back to normal.

"Two things you can smell"

"You a-and the hot chocolate"

"Awesome job. Now one thing you can taste"

"The toothpaste from when I brushed my teeth before bed" Astrid was able to breathe normally now and was thankful she had her friend to help her.

Minxie handed her a mug of hot chocolate and smiled warmly at her. Astrid mustered up a small smile in return and took a small, slow sip of the warm drink. It burned her tongue a small bit but it warmed her body as she swallowed it. She looked up as she heard the tea kettle start to whistle. Minxie was sitting next to her just in case. Sapphyre saw what had happened and took to making the tea himself. He hummed a familiar tune while slightly swaying back and forth. Astrid and Minxie looked at each other and grinned. They both knew what he was singing. They started to hum along until Sapphyre started singing the words. 

"One night and one more time, thanks for the memories even though they weren't so great, he tastes like you on sweeter" he sang out. Minxie and Astrid quickly joined him, screaming along.

"ONE NIGHT, YEAH, AND ONE MORE TIME, THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES, THANKS FOR MEMORIES, SEE, HE TASTES LIKE YOU ONLY SWEETER" They all burst into laughter. Astrid went to take a sip of her hot chocolate as Sapphyre tripped over his foot and fell to the floor. She started laughing even more. She accidentally spit her hot chocolate all over the counter which made them all laugh even more. 

After they had calmed down, Astrid cleaned up the counter and finished her hot chocolate. She thanked Minxie and Sapphyre and said goodnight to the couple for the second time that night. Artax followed her upstairs to go back to bed. The storm had died down and had turned into a light rain. She turned her lamp off and fell asleep to the sound of the rain tapping on her window. 

A/N Hey everyone! I'm so sorry for the long wait. Writers block is a pain XD anyway, I hope you enjoyed this book! If you want to be included in the story you can! Just give me a name for your character, a fake name, and a color scheme. You need to pick between a gun or melee weapon (small description if needed), and whether you want a guard dog or not. If you decide you would like a dog I need a name, breed, and gender. There needs to be some sort of relation to another character in the book so I have a way to introduce you. You can make the character completely from scratch so if you would like so that means I need a description of what your character looks likes and what their personality is like. You can even include a background story if you want. Just comment down below or PM me.

Somethings that you might have questions about

Storms: The lightning in this story is purple. I am completely creating this world from scratch so I'm trying to make it interesting

If you have any other questions please let me know! I'd love to answer them! 

Here is a Spotify playlist I created for the book. It's filled with songs that either inspired the book or went with the theme of the book. I hope you enjoy! 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZVgQw6cIz4vgRJbCQLGj9?si=396487eeb2074480

Love you all! ~Kait