Deadly Secrets

18.

America's POV:

BOOM!

I awoke with a start to the sound of thunder in the night. After waiting a moment to listen for sounds of distress from any of the other inhabitants of the house, I look down to my still sleeping little brothers who appear not to have been bothered by the sudden noise. Sighing, I turn my gaze back to the ceiling. Sometimes I feel my insomnia may not be such an issue if only I wasn't such a light sleeper.

Craning my neck, I look to the clock on my nightstand: 2:41am. I groaned quietly, not wanting to disturb those who can manage to sleep. Four and a half hours of sleep isn't terrible by my standards, but I had hoped to get in a bit more than that since I will be driving for so long later.

I got up slowly, carefully removing myself from my brothers' sides. I have long since learned that laying in bed after I have already woken up is useless, rarely can I ever sneak in more sleep. Canada stirred slightly, but otherwise my brothers remained sound asleep, undisturbed by my absence. I swiftly grab my watch and sunglasses from my nightstand, putting my watch on my wrist and shoving my shades into my pants pocket as I walk out of my bedroom, mindful to avoid the squeaky boards.

Walking down the stairs, I listened to the sounds of the storm still raging outside. It has calmed down significantly since yesterday, making the sounds of the rain hitting the roof and ground more soothing and the thunder not nearly as frequent. As I reach the ground floor of the house, I can tell that I am the only one up, which is unsurprising given how early it is. New York is the only other insomniac in the house that I am aware of and he usually prefers to stay in his room until his siblings start to wake up as well.

I walk into the living room and pause, not bothering to turn on the lights. My night vision is uncannily sharp, I'm not sure why, though it's probably because I tend to be up and about at night as much as I am during the day.

I find myself just standing in the middle of the living room, not wanting to sit down but not really knowing what else to do either. After a few minutes of silent debating I start walking around the ground floor of the house. Pacing the living room before moving to the dining room and then the kitchen where I finally settled for walking in circles around the kitchen island.

I can't walk around upstairs because I could wake someone up, and I can't go downstairs to the gym for the same reason. Usually I go down to the gym to blow off whatever emotions are filling my head, typically some form of anxiety. That option is, of course, not available while NATO is sleeping down there. I don't know if he's awake or not but he is just as light of a sleeper as I am and everyone needs as much sleep as they can get tonight.

I don't know how much time passed before I noticed that the sounds of raindrops hitting the roof and ground outside were absent. Once I did notice, however, I went to the back door to check, opening it to step from the kitchen to out onto the drenched boards of the porch. I walked to the wooden railing, enjoying the feeling of rain-soaked boards and the occasional, shallow puddle under my bare feet. Looking out at the back yard I can see, despite the lack of moonlight, that the rain has stopped.

Glancing at my watch, I read that the time is now 3:56am. I guess a little midnight walk couldn't hurt. For a moment the concern of Phobos crosses my mind but I know I can handle myself, besides, even lunatics have to sleep and right now I'm the only one crazy enough to be out and about. I take a minute to roll up my pantlegs, not wanting the baggy ends to get soaked by the wet grass, before I step down and away from the house.

The grass feels good between my toes as I walk away from the porch and wander to the large garden located behind my house. The garden is quite a distance from my house, roughly five hundred feet if I had to guess. I walk towards it in a crooked path, spinning around randomly and humming a tune that I can't quite place.