The night started off a bit chilly, a cold breeze blew through the summer air and cooled off the house. It was dark aside from dull lights left on from device screens such as the light of an iPhone or the sleeping screen from their dad's work laptop.
The house almost felt empty, a majority of their furniture already gone, either sold or stored or being stored in their garage. plenty of boxes were stacked around the house ready to be brought into the Uhull trailer sitting in their driveway.
The family was ready to move out of the province and into their new house across the country on the cost. They planned on being on the road tomorrow afternoon. The second eldest sibling seemed to be the only one awake in the house, which wasn't much of a surprise to anyone really. Danny didn't sleep much for several reasons.
They chuckled at the video playing on their Phone's screen as they grabbed themselves a midnight snack and a glass of milk. A goofy smile cracked their pale features as they listened to the gamer they watched scream about the RPG game he played in their headphones.
Soon, Danny walked themselves back up the stairs towards their bedroom when they noticed it started raining. They scratched their head of shoulder length black hair With a small yawn before muttering a "sweet" as a comment on the current weather. Once they reached the room they shared with their little sister for the last night in the house, they plopped themselves on their mattress that laid on the floor next to their sister's.
Amy was fast asleep, a mask over her eyes like always. She was snuggled up under her blanket, head atop a small hill on pillows and tan limps spread across the thin bed. They used to share a bunkbed from Ikea, but know that's been taken apart and sat in the garage along with another set and some other storage boxes all ready to be moved to the new house.
There was a few bright flashes from outside the window, lighting up the sky and catching Danny's attention. They sat down their phone on their pillow, dropped their headphones to rest on their shoulders and stood back up.
Danny walked two steps up to the window and opened it, getting hit with the smell of fresh nature and rumbling of a storm almost immediately. They loved it, breathed it in and enjoyed it.
Danny loves thunderstorms with a passion. Amy on the other hand, she'd been afraid since they were about ten years younger than now. To them it was calming, to Amy it was frightening. They always had contradictory opinions that typically lead to an argument of sorts. Standing at the window the thunder and pitter patter of heavy rain, one big boom was all it took to wake up Amy.
Amy shot up from their bed into a sitting position, the rustling of sheets now catching Danny's attention. She was sitting up, wide eyes staring at Danny in the darkness. The lightning lit up both their framed momentarily but enough to see each other. Danny shut the window and sat back down on the bed "sorry" they said quietly.
"Are you okay?" Danny asked. Amy shook her head in response
"I had a nightmare" she whispered. "I died in-" she gestured towards the window but it was to dark for the other to see.
"What?" Danny asked her to repeat what she was trying to tell them.
"I dreamt I died in a thunderstorm." Any responded.
Danny opened their arms and let their younger sister lean into them before wrapping their arms around her in a comforting hug. "it's okay Amy" they said just as another bright flash quickly lit up the room, followed by the roar of thunder almost one second later.
"How far was that?" Amy mumbled.
"Less than a mile away" they told her, softly rubbing her arm. "It's going to get further."
The two stayed sitting there for a moment, listening to the rain hit the roof above them, the thunder rumble and watching the sky above the woods in their backyard light up as lightning struck within the clouds.
Amy sat up again and Danny let go of her. She grabbed the phone that was sitting next to her bed, their dad's new phone. "Since I'm not going back to sleep" she sighed, turning it on and scrolling through an app she was addicted to. Tiktok. Danny wasn't a fan but, oh well.
Danny glanced around their sister's radio that displayed the time. Four forty eight am. "Yeah neither am I" Danny shrugged and grabbed their own phone. They Laid down on their front while scrolling through youtube, quickly finding a new video to watch.
YouTube had been recommending Jacksfilms old videos lately, so they decided to watch his last "roses are red; YIAY" video from over a year ago. The two laid in silence on the devices, Danny breaking it with a few chuckles here and there, despite the rather big storm going on outside.
Now distracted from the storm they hadn't noticed it gradually getting softer as it passed over. Though Amy had shown Danny the weather predictions for the rest of the week and it said there were more storms to come-Danny got excited about that. Before they knew it, the preteen and the teenager grew tired enough to fall asleep, setting their devices aside again. Not a moment after their heads hit the pillows, both siblings had quickly drifted off to dreamland.
That night was one of the very rare occasions they didn't fight or argue, let alone hug each other. Deep down they really did love each other, even though they acted like they hated each other's guts on the outside. This kind of thing usually occurred when the two were in a good mood or Danny went protective mode after seeing Amy scared or in potential danger.
On this occasion, Danny was in a good mood as well as in protective big sibling mode after seeing Amy scared of the nightmare and thunderstorm. This surely was a specially rare occasion.
