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"Okay, so where do you wanna sleep?" Molly asked.
Libby looked around the room, her sleeping bag tucked into one arm and her bag full of other things tucked into the other. "Hmm...I think I'll just sleep on the floor, to be honest. I mean, there isn't really anywhere else I can sleep."
"In that case, I'll do the same!"
Molly picked her sleeping bag up off of her bed, and laid it on the ground. Libby laid hers out next to Molly's, and set her bag off to the side.
"Gah, y'know...talking all night would be nice and all, but I'm just kind of ready to catch some Z's." Libby huddled up inside of her sleeping bag and yawned.
"Yeah, same here," Molly said as she lay down. "Besides, I've already taken my melatonin."
Libby pulled the sleeping bag over her head. "Well, see you in the morning."
"Heh. Good night." Molly got into a comfortable position, and closed her eyes. After a bit of waiting, sleep overtook her.
Of course, though, Molly eventually woke up in the middle of the night. She was quite a light sleeper, after all. But this time, she couldn’t manage to figure out what had woken her up. She figured it was nothing and tried going back to sleep, even if she wasn’t all that tired. That was when she heard a small, high-pitched noise.
She looked around the room. What could that have been? Well, her house was awfully rickety, especially in the attic, so it was probably just a creak in the floorboards. She lay back down and shut her eyes, until she heard it again.
That was when she realized; that wasn’t the floorboards. Somebody in the room was whimpering.
Well, it obviously wasn’t Scratch. He couldn’t even get his voice that high. So Molly looked over at the girl adjacent to her. Yeah, it was definitely Libby. The girl was writhing and trembling, but still obviously asleep. Molly inched herself closer to her as Libby let out another quiet sob. Was she having a bad dream?
Molly caressed her friend’s forehead, in an attempt to calm her down without waking her up. Libby curled inward and pressed her face into the sleeves of her pajamas, her sobs becoming more frequent.
"Nnn...nonono…" she mumbled, still squirming in her sleeping bag. "Don't...no, nonononono, stop it…!"
"Oh, sweet baby corn…" Molly whispered to herself. Whatever Libby was dreaming about, it didn't seem pleasant in the slightest. She stroked her dark brown hair and whistled gently through her teeth.
Libby continued to mutter things desperately as tears trickled down her face. Molly wanted some way to comfort her, to bring her out of her nightmare, but she couldn't get anything to work. She didn't want to make her even more scared than she already was by awakening her, though. She continued to whistle through her teeth.
After a moment of whimpering, Libby's eyes shot open, and she jolted up. "Molly!"
"Oh, geez...Libby, were you having a bad dream?" Molly asked.
Libby buried her face in her knees and started to cry feebly. "Mm-hmm…"
Molly could tell from the tone of her friend's voice that she had regressed. She settled herself next to her. "...Libby, you're okay. You're safe here. It's okay."
"Mollyyyyy…" she whined, and stuck her thumb in the side of her mouth.
"Did...did you bring your nuk with you?"
Libby nodded, sucking on her thumb as her face dampened with tears.
"Hold on, I'll go get it for you." Molly leaned over and fumbled through Libby's bag until she felt the small object in her hands. She pulled it out and handed it to her distressed friend. "Here you go."
Libby quickly took the pacifier away from her, almost shoving it into her mouth, and suckled on it through her weeping. Molly looked at her with concern in her eyes. How often did this happen? If it was a usual occurrence, then Molly must have been the first person able to console her about it other than her mother. Molly held her from behind, trying her best to make her feel better.
"Shhh, everything's okay…" Molly whispered, "you're safe now. No one can hurt you here. It was just a nightmare."
Libby pressed her face against her knees again, and started to whine, shaking like a leaf. Molly began to wonder what exactly she had dreamed about. Did a memory of some sort resurface? She didn't want to ask her in the condition she was in, in fear of making her feel worse, but that was certainly what it seemed like.
Soon enough, Libby's crying transitioned into soft hyperventilating, but she still quivered in the same way. Suddenly, Molly heard something else, but this time it wasn't Libby.
"Psst, Moll," Scratch hissed, "get over here for a second."
Molly crept over to Scratch's offering home to see the ghost, currently about the size of a crouton, sticking his head out of one of the windows.
"What is it?" Molly whispered.
"Well, first of all, what in the Chairman's name is Libby doing with a binky in her mouth?"
Molly's heart sank. "...oh. You don't know."
"Don't know what?"
"...Molly?" Libby's voice quaked as if she were about to burst into tears again.
"I'll have to tell you later, sorry!" Molly clambered back over to Libby. "Yeah, Libby?"
"I...I don't wanna go back to sleep!" Libby wailed. "It's too scary!"
"But...you need to go back to sleep, or else you'll be tired in the morning."
"I-I...I…" she wiped the tears out of her eyes. "mmmnh...'m sorry, I just can't!"
Molly thought for a moment, pondering what she could do in order to get Libby to rest again. That was when she realized how dark it was in her bedroom.
"...Libby, when you're little like this, does the dark scare you?"
Libby's eyes drifted off to her side, seemingly out of shame, and she nodded slowly. "Uh-huh…"
"If I remember correctly, I have an old night light somewhere in here…"
Molly shuffled underneath her bed, feeling around for what she needed. Eventually she felt something, and pulled it towards her; a blue night light in the shape of a bird. She went over to the nearest outlet and plugged it in, and although it flickered a few times, it remained lit.
"There, is that better?"
Libby was silent for a moment. "...yeah…"
"Alright, good." Molly wriggled back into her sleeping bag. "Do you think you can sleep on your own?"
"...nuh-uh, I…" she rubbed her eyes again. "C...can you cuddle me?"
"Of course, Libby, I'd love to," Molly murmured.
Libby crawled over to Molly and huddled up against her, still sort of shaking, but not nearly as badly as she was before. Molly squeezed her gently, and Libby began to loosen up, her trembling slowing to a halt. After a few minutes she was fast asleep, smiling sweetly behind the shield of her pacifier.
Scratch peeked out of his offering home again. "Okay, so now-"
"Shhh," Molly pressed a finger against her lips, "be quiet. She's sleeping."
Scratch paused for a moment, and then spoke in a quieter tone of voice. "Okay, so now can you explain to me why Libby's acting like that ?"
"...uhhhh…" Molly had to think for a second on how exactly she would explain it all to him.
"Lemme guess, this is all just some elaborate roleplay to prepare you for the perils of motherhood."
"What? Scratch, no!" Molly whisper-yelled. "You know the idea of being a mother gives me stress hives!"
"Then what could it possibly be? Like I know Libby's weird, but…"
"...Scratch? Do you have any coping mechanisms?"
Scratch scoffed. "Molly, do you even know me? I binge eat."
" Healthy coping mechanisms, I mean."
"Oh." He shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me."
"Well, this is one of Libby's coping mechanisms," she began, "you know how stressed out she can get sometimes, so this is how she deals with that."
"By acting way younger than she actually is?"
"Yeah, basically. Well, not just acting, she thinks that way, too. And I'm not really sure if it's always voluntary. It's called age regression."
Scratch stared at Libby, trying to process the information. "...huh. Okay."
Molly snickered. "Yeah, so you learned something new tonight."
"Well, I'm going back to bed." Scratch phased back into his offering home.
Molly went back to holding Libby, hoping for her to sleep better than she had before. She ran her fingers through her hair, breathing softly, and found herself falling asleep as well.