Poison Apple

All nighter

 "Are you sleeping?" Kate asked into the dark guest room where Bridget was sleeping. It just happened to be Brian's old room which was attached to Kate's through an en suite bathroom. He didn't seem to want it anymore, he had his own cottage amongst the commoners. He chose his fate. She wasn't about to waste an empty space just in case her brother decided to return.

"No." Bridget sounded like she was doing something wrong by staying up ten minutes after they had gone to bed. It was way after the proper time for them to be sleeping but they had been so busy going over everything about the park and what their jobs entailed that the time had just slipped away from them.

"Good. I can't sleep, either." Kate replied and turned the guest room lights on. Bridget hadn't been ready for the sudden brightness and threw her hands over her eyes until they adjusted enough for her not to be blinded anymore. Kate found it amusing, she had to stifle a laugh from slipping out. "We should pull an all nighter. There are only 4 hours left, anyway...not even."

It was 4:40 am and they had just turned the lights out several minutes before but Kate was too anxious to sleep for the second night in a row. The thought of a do-over for their first day left butterflies in her tummy and her brain running a mile a minute. If there was a spy in her midst she'd have to be more careful in how she conducted her business. Bridget could come in handy more than Kate had originally thought. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it before.

Bridget slowly removed her hands from her eyes and squinted into the brightness of the room at Kate as though she were contemplating the proposal of not going to bed at all before work that morning. Kate hated how much of a goodie two shoes her new minion was turning out to be. She would have to change that about Bridget. She'd have to find a way to crush her spirit to give her a back bone and stand on her own two feet. It wasn't going to be easy.

"I could grab us some energy drinks, you'll forget sleep ever existed." Kate bounced on her brother's old bed. Flashbacks to their childhood came rushing back to her. Sometimes she missed how close they used to be. She shook the thought out of her head. She didn't need Brian anymore. She had Bridget to take his place. Just like how he had replaced her with Alexi behind her back. That wound was going to hurt quite some time. "Come on, stay up with me."

"Okay...That sounds fun." Bridget replied decidedly as though she were happy to please Kate. She was already better than Alexi by a long shot. Alexi did what she wanted and always found ways to defy Kate. What was the point of being a leader if no one followed?

"We just have to go grab them from the kitchen downstairs." Kate was actually having fun with Bridget. With a little bit of tweaking here and there, she could probably take Alexi's spot as Kate's second in command. Alexi hadn't been doing a very good job of it anyway.

"Won't your Father be upset if he catches us up at this hour?" Bridget looked worried. She acted like a lame teenager who was scared of being caught sneaking out of the house on a school night. Okay, maybe there would be a lot of tweaking.

"We aren't five, Bridget! Besides, he's not even home. He hasn't been all night." Kate pulled Bridget out of bed. "Even if he was home, he pulls just as many all nighters as I do. It's probably hereditary or something. We're just really important people who have way too many important things to do with our time than to waste it on sleep."

Kate decided she was going to let Bridget's tardiness for their first dinner together slide. She had definitely judged the young girl way too quickly. She had some flaws but nothing that couldn't be fixed with some glitter glue and etiquette lessons.

The hallways were dark since the help had gone to bed. The big old manor seemed haunted in the stillness. Kate used to scare her friends with stories she made up about past relatives who still inhabited the house. When she and Brian were getting along, he would join in and agree about the ghostly sightings she claimed she'd had. Those had been the days.