Who: Aurora and Ruby Lucas What: Aurora's Dreams are Causing her to Sleepwalk Again When: Backdated: Friday, March 14th. Late Evening Where: Aurora and Ruby's Apartment Building Rating: Family Friendly Status: Complete
It had been years since Aurora had had a problem with sleepwalking and she had never thought she’d have that problem again, but then the dreams had started. At first they were just like any other dreams except for how real they felt. She was comforted by the fact that Ruby and Mulan had dreams that took place within the same universe so she wasn’t the only one dreaming about being a fairy tale character. It was because of this fact that she didn’t feel like she was going crazy. It wasn’t until the first dream in the red room when she woke up to find herself standing in the middle of the living room did she start to worry, but she didn’t say anything. She probably should have told somebody, but she kept it to herself.
Now, however, she’d once again dreamt about returning to the red room and instead of the man being there, it was a little boy. A little boy who used some sort of necklace to put out the fires that were ravaging the room so that they could talk without having to yell at one another. He’d told her his name was Henry, but before he could say much else she’d woken up at camp. Almost at the same time, she opened her eyes and found herself standing in the middle of the hallway, her voice hoarse, which could only mean that she hadn’t just been yelling in the dream and her suspicions were confirmed when one of the doors opened to reveal a rather disgruntled looking neighbor who had obviously been asleep. Normally Aurora would have apologized, but she was still a little disoriented from sleep and she wasn’t entirely sure which end of the hall she’d wound up on.
It was one of those nights when Ruby wasn’t falling into a deep sleep very easily. She had stayed up late reading her script and trying to get things committed to memory. Finally she managed to drift off into sleep and was just about to slip over into a deep REM sleep when she heard yelling coming from the hallway. It wasn’t often that people were loud in the apartment building, so something really had to be happening to bring this about. So with a groan she got out of bed and threw on a robe as she walked towards her door to see what was going on. When she opened the door she noticed it was Aurora in the hallway and a confused look passed over her face, “Aurora, what are you doing out here? Was that you yelling?”
At the sound of Ruby’s voice, Aurora realized exactly what end of the hall she was on and she let out a sigh of relief as she turned towards her friend so that she wouldn’t have to look at the angry neighbor any longer, “I don’t….I think I’m sleepwalking again.” Aurora had told Ruby about her sleepwalking a long time ago, because it hadn’t happened it a very long time, so it had just been one of those things she used to do. “I think I was dreaming too.” Aurora didn’t actually know what time it was and she was standing in the hall in her pajamas, the door behind her finally closing as the man went back inside to go back to sleep since it appeared that there would be no more yelling tonight.
“Sleepwalking?” It took a groggy moment for it to fully register in her brain what she was talking about and a concerned look passed over her face, “I thought you weren’t sleepwalking anymore. And dreaming? Do you mean regular dreams or those kind of dreams?” Ruby took a moment to rub her eyes before stepping out and reaching out for Aurora’s arm, “Let’s get you back into your apartment so we can properly talk and not get yelled at.” The last thing they needed was for more people to come out of their room and yell at them for being loud and interrupting their sleep. And if they were in Aurora’s apartment she would feel like they were both safer.
Aurora nodded, “Yeah. Okay.” The hall was definitely not the place that Aurora wanted to talk about this. Now that she knew which end of the hall she had woken up at, she started back towards her own apartment, glancing over at Ruby every so often to make sure that her friend was actually there and that she hadn’t somehow dreamt it or something. Once back in her apartment, she closed and locked the door, but didn’t move from there, unsure of what exactly to do next. Did she make a cup of tea? Make coffee so that she didn’t go back to sleep? Finally, she stepped away and turned to Ruby, “I didn’t wake you up, did I?”
“A little bit, yeah, but it’s not a big deal. I’d much rather come help you than get sleep. I would have felt terrible if I hadn’t woken up and you just continued to be in pain out there,” Ruby pointed out as she moved to go sit on the couch. She hoped Aurora would follow along, “So, tell me more about what caused this?” She wanted to find it strange that the dreaming and the sleepwalking were starting together, but honestly it didn’t surprise her. It made sense that the two were connected because the dreams were just strange in general, but it was still a scary situation.
Aurora stood there for a moment or two longer before moving to sit beside Ruby on the couch, “You don’t know how glad I am that you’re right down the hall.” She ran a hand through her hair and sighed, “Remember how I said that in the dreams, I’d been under a sleeping curse? Well, I guess, that an after effect of the sleeping curse was nightmares. Mary Margaret told me that she’d experienced the same thing after she’d been woken up from her own sleeping curse.” She proceeded to explain the nightmares of the red room that was on fire, “The other night when I woke up, I was standing out here. After the first time I dreamt of it. Then tonight, I dreamt of it again, but this time there was a boy there named Henry. He put the fire out then I woke up in the hall.” And Ruby knew the rest from there.
“That’s not cool at all. It’s bad enough that you’re cursed, but you have to continue to suffer side effects from it? Who the hell designed this magic crap?” Ruby couldn’t help but interject that comment about the curse and dreams. It seemed like a horrible thing to continue to go through just because some bitchy witch decided that they hated you. The dreams of the red room were disturbing and she wondered how they even happened, “That is freaky. I’m very sorry to hear that. Do you think you’ll continue having dreams about this red room? Do we need to set up a weird bell system or something to prevent you from sleep walking?”
“I don’t think it’s permanent. At least Snow said that she didn’t continue to have them.” Aurora ran a hand through her hair, which was already messy from when she’d been asleep, “I really hope that happens to me too, because these nightmares are awful.” She couldn’t help but laugh though when Ruby suggested a bell system, “God, I hope not. I thought I was done with this sleepwalking thing a long time ago. It’s been years since I last did it.” She was beginning to wonder if perhaps she should seek out another hypnotist and find out if these things could wear off. “If it happens again though, I’m gonna have to do something about it. I don’t want to tell my parents though. They’ll just worry about me.”
“Okay, good. If she could get past them then that gives me hope that you’ll get sorted out. Maybe you just need to dream them out of your system, I guess? These dreams are the strangest thing on the face of the planet. I wish everything made sense, but alas, we are not that lucky. I’m sorry you have to suffer with this right now,” she frowned a little, “And I don’t think you need to alert your parents just yet. We can try and figure out a way to deal with it ourselves before we get to that point. There’s gotta be a solution somewhere.”
“I really hope that that’s all I’ve got to do,” Aurora yawned, exhausted even though she’d technically been asleep during her trip out into the hall, “You don’t know how grateful I am that you’re just down the hall. I bet I would have angered even more neighbors if you hadn’t been here.” She was sure that she was going to get a couple of dirty looks the next day from the neighbors if they found out who it was that had been yelling in the hall in the middle of the night.
“Yeaaaaaaah, thankfully we don’t live in a place where people are too trigger happy with a gun or anything. But I’m glad I woke up and managed to help you out. But you look tired and I know I am, so do you think you’re safe to go back to sleep?” She asked her friend. She wanted to make sure that Aurora would be able to fall back asleep and not sleep walk again before she got up and went back to her apartment to pass out again.
Aurora’s eyes widened slightly at that, “Oh god. I’m glad we don’t live in one of those apartments either. I have zero desire to get shot.” She laughed softly and ran a hand through her hair again, “Yeah, I think I’ll be alright. I didn’t dream again the other night after I woke up out here. So, I shouldn’t dream again tonight. At least, I hope I don’t.” She really didn’t need a repeat performance tonight. “Thanks again, for coming out and rescuing me.” She smirked as she got to her feet.
“Okay, good, I hope that you have a good sleep,” Ruby got up and moved to give her friend a hug before pulling away and making her way to the door, “Alright, come knock on my door if you need anything else. I’m going to get some sleep. Have happy dreams that don’t cause sleepwalking!”