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Nightmares are just part of life on the aurora.
About every three days, someone who went to sleep will wake up screaming, and it's often Lily.
She hates it, doesn’t want to remember anymore but couldn't bear to forget. It has been six years since she shot Jonny in the chest as the airlock door hissed open, and every single fucking moment of those three weeks on the cold dead ship are as carved into her meomory as the bullet holes peppered throughout the aurora.
She has her ways of dealing with bad nights.
She hardly ever uses her room in the ship, preferring to sleep with someone else. She can’t bear to be alone now. Tonight just happened to be one of the very few nights when she was sleeping alone in her room.
She hardly remembered the dream, just waking up screaming and shaking with images flashing through her head. It hurt to think about it any longer than necessary. She went to find Jonny.
He wasn’t asleep either, just sitting on his bed humming a playing guitar.
When she walked in, he looked up. “Nightmare?” he asked.
She nodded and sat next to him, curling her knees up to her chest and resting her head on his shoulder. She could feel the vibration of the instrument against her chest. It was relaxing.
“D’you want to deal with it in our normal fashion?” he asked.
“Yeah.” she stood up as he looped the guitar strap over his shoulder.
“Who should we bother?” he asked.
“Everybody.” Lily picked up a tambourine from the floor and shook it menacingly.
“I know that, but who first?”
“How about Ivy, she's probably reading.”
Jonny nodded. Ivy was always a good candidate to annoy, she never slept and was the least likely to have weapons on her. They would also probably startle her.
Jonny and Lily were quiet at first, sneaking towards Ivy’s quarters, also known as the ship's archive. When they actually got into the singing, it would get a lot louder, with running and Jonny crashing into walls a lot, and most likely some stray gunfire.
Lyfrasir Eda had their own way of dealing with the nightmares. They were curled in their favorite corner of Ivy’s archive reading a book about slime molds on planet XXI-347-B. It was extremely boring, but anything to distract them was welcome. Everything was silent except for the hum of the ship and the turning of pages.
“ A wiser man than I once spoke,
That life at heart is all a joke.”
Lyf put their head in their hands and sighed. D’ville and the kid were starting again.
“ But he was not embroiled in smoke
So it’s pump, me boys, before we choke.”
They plugged one ear with their right hand and turned the page with the other one.
“PUMP, ME BOYS, LET ER’ FLY
DOWN TO HELL AND UP TO THE SKY
BEND YOUR BACKS AND BREAK YOUR BONES
WE’RE JUST A MILLION MILES FROM HOME!”
One of them fired a gun. Someone was playing guitar.
“Why aren’t the walls thicker?” Lyf asked Ivy, who was huddled over her desk, head in her hands.
“Too many bullet holes.” Ivy responded.
Jonny was having a great time. He started running down the hall, skidding into the wall as he tried to turn the corner, still loudly singing. Lily was still standing in place, keeping the beat by slamming her tambourine against the wall.
Lyf slammed the door open. “I am SICK of your singing!” they yelled. “Go bother someone else! It’s a big ship!”
Jonny took a deep breath, and looking them dead in the eyes, started.
“PUMP, ME BOYS, LET ER’ FLY
DOWN TO HELL AND UP TO THE SKY-”
“SHUT UP!” Lyf yelled, before slamming the door shut.
Lily slammed her tambourine against the door. “Lyf? You can sing with us if you want.” she said.
“DO ME A FAVOR AND FUCK OFF!” Lyf yelled.
Jonny fired his gun into the air three times and took off, slamming into the wall again before he managed to actually turn the corner.
Lily chased after him.