Work Text:
"Banana, you gotta start your homework before bed," Lex pleads, "you can't leave it 'till the morning, you won't have time."
"No." Hannah says firmly, her eyes fixated on something Lex can't see. "Bad light. Webby says."
Lex glances over to the lamp in the corner, the only light source in the small room. She stands up and walks over to it.
"You don't like the light? That's okay," she goes to switch the lamp off, planning to turn on the rickety ceiling light in its place, "we can use the-"
Lex is cut off mid-sentence when the lamp switches off on its own, covering the room in a blanket of darkness, save for the faint glow of the moon through the one small window. She reaches over to where she knows the light switch is on the wall, and flicks it on. Still, darkness.
"Bad light, bad light!" Hannah shouts, rocking back and forth in a ball on her bed. "Bad light, bad light, bad light!" Hannah continues shouting, her voice slightly muffled, her face buried in her knees, as Lex tries to logically reason the situation.
It's probably just a black out, she thinks, nothing too out of the ordinary. She echoes these thoughts to Hannah.
"It's probably just a black out, Banana," Lex says, her tone kind but also cautious. Her words of comfort seem to fall on deaf ears.
But it's weird, she thinks, knowing she'd paid the power bill this month. What could have caused the power to go out so randomly?
She is provided an answer as soon as the thought leaves her mind. An abnormally strong wind picks up just outside the trailer, causing it to shake a little. Just seconds later, Lex notices a chill in the air that wasn't there before, and despite all of the windows being shut, the wind seems to circulate inside the trailer as well, as if all the exterior walls had been torn down. Hannah's worksheets get caught in the gust, scattering across the room. Hannah is still shouting.
"I'm sure it's just a storm!" Lex yells over the ever-increasing volume of the wind. She's not totally convinced, but will say anything if it could help Hannah. She walks back to the bed to sit down next to her terrified sister, navigating the messy room as best she can in the darkness (which, as it turns out, is quite well - thanks to her frequent late-night escapades with Ethan). She lands on the bed with a soft sort of poomf, a noise that might've made Hannah laugh under different circumstances. Putting an arm around the smaller girl, Lex does her best to comfort her, setting aside her own fear for the time being.
Suddenly, the ceiling light flashes on, and the wind comes to an abrupt halt. Everything is seemingly back to normal. Lex stands, opening her mouth to speak, but is interrupted by the wind returning stronger than ever, accompanied by the lights going out again. The ferocity of the wind this time knocks Lex off her feet, and her back lands on the bed with a thud.
Outside the trailer, the sky flashes a blinding white, so briefly that you could miss it even if you didn't blink. The black silhouettes of the trees in the Witchwood contrast against it, and Lex catches a glimpse of it in the corner of her eye.
Several minutes pass, the wind still raging at full force, with no sign of any thunder to follow up what Lex had assumed was a lightning strike. Hannah, still rocking back and forth, stops shouting, lifts her head from her knees, and clenches her fists tightly, as if preparing for something. The wind starts to slow, and Lex lets her guard down ever so slightly. All of a sudden, she's startled by the loudest bang she's ever heard in her life. The only thing she can even think of to describe it is like a million gunshots all at once.
And then everything stops. The winds, both inside and out, drop to almost nothing, the loud whistling ceasing as quickly as it started. The overhead light, dangling precariously from the ceiling, flickers on, filling the room with a bright white light. Lex is surprised that it didn't fall out of its fixture in all the commotion. She looks over to her little sister and finds the girl with her eyes squeezed shut, fists clenched so tightly that her short nails are beginning to dig into her soft palms.
"Hannah," Lex says, her voice as calm as she can manage, "Hannah, it's okay. We're okay." She places her hands on the girl's shoulders reassuringly, only for Hannah to shrug them off. Lex gets the message and backs off.
She stands up, sighing as she looks around the room, somehow even messier than it was before. As she collects Hannah's schoolwork from the floor, Lex attempts to collect her own thoughts as well, to no avail. What the fuck just happened? She hasn't the faintest idea, and definitely doesn't have the mental strength to try to figure it out any time soon.
She finishes gathering the last of the papers and turns around to find Hannah, through nothing short of a miracle, fast asleep in the middle of the bed. Lex decides to let her sleep while she can, knowing that after a night like this, the young girl is surely going to experience nightmare time, or whatever she calls it. She readies herself for bed, drained from the strange events the night had in store. She jumps in the shower shortly after sending Ethan a text.
what the fuck was that storm lmfao
She's in bed and nearly asleep when her phone buzzes with a response, a message that sends a chill down her spine.
what storm lol