Her Heroes

Chapter Thirteen

The room had been completely transformed. Someone had strung lights up and created a humongous blanket fort. Pillows and cushions dotted the room and a pile of fuzzy throws and blankets sat in the middle of the room. I was in awe. The room was beautiful. It felt like my own personal movie paradise, and it was, my brothers had done this for me.

"So do you like it?" I looked at my brothers and nodded my head slowly. Even if I wasn't a mute, I wouldn't have been able to form the words for how extremely elated I was that they had done this for me. They all smiled before moving to sit on the ground. I hadn't even noticed that someone had pushed the couches back, making more room for the mess of comfort that took up half the room.

"Are you sitting down or not? Because I will gladly take your pillows if you aren't sitting down soon." Shaking my head, I walked over to the empty spot, in the corner as I preferred, and sat down. "I was hoping you wouldn't; I wanted those blankets." I giggled at his comment. Everyone rolled their eyes and Armel bopped his twin in the head. My eyes zeroed in at the contact before realizing that both boys were now laughing. I was ok. I was safe. No one would hurt me here. 

I took a calming breath and settled in to watch the movie.

A couple of moments later, I heard footsteps enter and saw Annette and her husband walk into the room holding a camera. The boys didn't seem to notice at first and continued to watch the film. When the camera clicked they all looked to Annette and she smiled sheepishly. Quickly the boys surrounded me, each one proudly showing their pajamas. We all grinned at her and she took another picture before leaving the room with her husband in tow.

***

There was only an hour left in the movie but it was late. Later than I had meant to stay up; that being said, we had all gorged on heaps of food. I didn't eat as much, but I sure did act like I did, just for my brothers' sake. The last thing they needed to worry about now was if I was or wasn't eating enough. I didn't want them to truly realize how little I ate. A small heap of food was next to me, and I kept sneaking it to Alexandre. That boy was truly a human garbage can; he ate everything I gave him, no questions asked. 

The sounds from the tv began to lull me into a gentle sleep but I fought to stay awake. It was a battle I was quickly losing but I was having so much fun with my brothers that I just wasn't ready to sleep yet. I wasn't ready for this moment to be over yet.

"Sleep mon bijou." A gentle but steady hand stroked through my hair carefully and the feeling pushed me closer to the edge of the abyss I called sleep. I briefly thought about how close Hercule was but it was gone just as quickly as it had come.

The slight tugging on my hair continued to push me closer to the edge.

I was about to fall off when five words rang out. "Caïd, nous avons un problème." But I was too close to the edge to stop now and I plummeted into the darkness, drifting off to sleep.
(Capo, we have a problem)

***

Sunlight greeted my face as I slowly woke up. I couldn't believe how well I slept. It was normally an issue for me to even stay asleep. 

I slid down from the bed, happy to see I was still in Léon's sweatshirt. My worst fear was that someone would change me and see what was hidden beneath. My feet patted out the door and down the hall as I yawned. There was something about waking up to the sun shining in. I couldn't tell anyone what it was, there was just something about it.

"Good morning bébé, did you sleep well?" I nodded my head and rubbed my eyes, still trying to get the sleep out of my system. "Go have a seat in the dining room, breakfast will be up momentarily." My feet moved into the dining room and I looked around confused. Normally by the time breakfast was being served, or about to be served, everyone was up and seated at the table. Today however only Valentin and Armel had graced the room with their presence.