Pull at my Heartstrings

Amber Falls Down a Flight of Stairs

As soon as I’m sure she’s asleep, I take out my phone. I dim the light and start scrolling through stuff.

I can’t sleep. I’ve never been able to sleep without having nightmares. They always get really messed up, mostly people I care about dying, but sometimes it’s the people I care about killing me.

About an hour after she went to bed, I can hear shifting coming from the bed. I press the power button on my phone quickly and look up at her.

Amber sits up in the bed and stares at something in front of her. Her eyes are wide, mouth shut.

After a couple of minutes, her head slowly turns to look at me, and she meets my gaze.

“Amber..?” I whisper.

She doesn’t reply, just gets out of bed, and walks over to the bedroom door.

I sit up, realizing she’s sleepwalking.

I get out of the bed and follow after her. I don’t bother with my shades; it’d be too dark to see anyway.

Downstairs, Daisy and Bro are in the living room having their own little mini party. Amber walks over to the stairs, and she almost begins to walk down them.

But she falls instead.

She hits the floor at the bottom of the stairs with a loud cry, probably awake now. Daisy and Bro turn their heads to look, and Daisy is up and across the room in half a second.

“Did you forget the baby gate?!” She helps Amber up, who looks really dizzy. She looks up at me, then worrily at Bro. “Does Dirk sleep walk, too?”

Bro shakes his head, knowing that I never sleep in the first place, “No.”

I clear my throat, “I’m awake.”

Daisy helps a sleepy Amber back up the stairs. Amber mutters, “I didn’t need it…”

“Amber, every night.” Daisy’s voice is hard and stern, which she hasn’t done once since we met.

“I’m sorry…” She says slowly. Daisy stops at the top of the stairs, grabs one of my arms and wraps it around Amber’s shoulders. She then goes back down to the living room.

She hadn’t said anything about my eyes. I help Amber back to her room, shutting the door behind me.

She looks at me, “Did I wake you..?”

I shake my head, “No, you didn’t.” I’m very thankful for the darkness in the room.

“You were already awake?” We sit on her bed.

“Um, yeah… I can’t sleep.”

“Why not?” She tilts her head. She still looks very tired, but more awake than she was a few moments ago.

I shrug, “Nightmares.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

After a long moment, she turns to the blankets and fidgets with the hem of one.

“Do you sleep walk often?”

“Every night…” She mutters. “My therapist says it’s because something troubles me in my sleep, but I’m pretty sure it’s just you’re every day sleep walking.”

I put on a smirk, “You mean, you’re every night sleep walking?”

She chuckles, “Yeah.” We sit in silence, before she pointedly watches something in the opposite direction of me, “Soo… your nightmares… have you ever found something to help with that?”

“Well, when I was younger I’d make Bro sleep with me, which seemed to help. But when I got older, it just got awkward and so I stopped trying to sleep at all.”

“So you never sleep?”

“I get maybe two hours of sleep a night. It’s nice.”

She looks at me, and then looks away.

“You want the bed?”

“No, it’s your bed—”

“I can sleep in it too.”

I realize what she’s saying, then look at the bed. It is a big bed; it could fit the both of us. I smile at her.

“Only if you want.”

She nods, getting under the covers on the side opposite of where we were just sitting. I wait a minute, half expecting her to change her mind. She doesn’t.

With a smile, I climb into bed next to her. My phone is still on the floor, but I don’t think I’ll need it.

It doesn’t take me very long to fall asleep.