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They didn’t like nightmares.
Vyomi awoke with a gasp, mind racing with the after effects of a particularly unsettling dream. Not that they could call it that, but the amount of times their sleeping mind became plagued by those ventures of unconscious thought may as well be labeled as something so common.
The remnants of their nightmare lingered in their mind, falling onto their thoughts like ash from a disastrous and devastating fire. It had raged within their mind, burning their lingering traces of peace to a crisp.
Although the details became harder and harder to recollect, they could still capture the terror they felt. The same terror that continued to linger with them. It froze their core, wanting to wrap their limbs in paralysis and wish them to go back into the realm of phantoms.
No, not tonight. With a still racing mind, they sat up, grateful that their joints didn’t freeze. The air around them felt hostile, as if whatever horrific sight or terrifying monster that met them in the nightmare would reappear in the physical world.
They needed to get out of there.
Vyomi slipped out of bed, suddenly barraged by the coldness of their room. It hit them like a wave of frigid water. They felt as if they could’ve been slammed against their bed again, susceptible to the dangers of the knight. Haunting figures, gruesome sights, screams, bodies-- stop, stop!
They put their hands on their head, clutching at their hair as they willed for the boogeymen of the night to leave them alone. Why couldn’t they sleep without fearing for their life?
Everything felt too cold and unforgiving and they wrapped their arms around themself. How pathetic for someone as powerful as them, who faced down the most formidable opponents would cower at the shadows of their own mind? The corner of their eyes began to sting at the revelation and at how their skin prickled.
The hairs on the back of their neck stood upright as they finally built up the courage to walk across the dark expanse. As they quickly made their way to the door, they thought they could see purple eyes shining in the night and unsettling giggles from behind their shoulder. They swore they could see *her* shadow against the wall, head bowed and miserable.
With the slamming of the door behind them, Vyomi shut away the fears of their room. Their heart pounded loudly in their ears, making them fear that someone else’s beat with theirs in the deserted main room. Their ears rang and the smallest noise in their cavern home made them jump with a squeak. The vines of the great Sakura above their head snaked down like tentacles, threatening to capture them and take away their beloved life.
No, they couldn’t do this anymore. They needed to get away from the monsters and their heart beat louder and louder as they made their way to the door at the end of the hallway. Out of sync with her heart, Vyomi swore that her own footsteps were that of those of the march of death, growing faster as their own pace picked up.
They made it to the door and swung it open, quickly closing behind them. The effect was immediate. Vyomi’s fast breathing began to slow, either by the change of the air’s content or that of the atmosphere that hung about this particular room. Whatever it may be, it acted as a shield, an impenetrable force field that would defend all of the nasties that haunted her dreams.
Although it never felt completely safe. They felt it as a temporary solution, one that would comfort them for only so long and soon the monsters of their mind would get to them again.
Something else in the room always presented himself as the remedy. Their true protector. The one that comforted them when things went bump in the night.
Vyomi quietly walked down the stairs and found the bed at the far corner of the room. Everything looked so deathly still, as if an explosion had gone off but paused in the midst of its destruction. The shadows grew long and began to morph themselves in front of Vyomi’s very eyes.
The monsters had found them again.
Their pace picked up and they tried to ignore the beasts, focusing all of their attention on the lump in the middle of the bed. Anxieties began to well up in their chest, fearing waking him up and making him lose out on sleep. But this had happened before and he always stayed there for them.
They made it to the side of his bed, looking down at the face of their slumbering father. Perfectly at ease, oblivious to the dangers now in his workshop that followed Vyomi from their nightmares.
Not wasting more time, they picked up the corner of the blanket and crawled beneath the sheets. The moment that they were fully covered and next to him, the monsters retreated, giving their mind the peace that it needed.
Caeli made a small noise beside them and shifted, no doubt waking up from the sudden disturbance next to him. In the dark, they could see yellow eyes flicker open and blink there blearily before looking down at them with shock.
“Hey, Voi,” he said in a whisper, his voice lingering with the symptoms of sleepiness. Vyomi heard the bed shift as he moved an arm to wrap around them, pulling them into a hug. “Nightmares again?”
Vyomi nodded, not finding it in their voice just yet to reply. And besides, their father asked the obvious, they usually visited him so he could chase off the monsters. They snuggled up closer to him, soaking in his warmth and protection. No nightmares would reach them with him around.
“It’s okay,” Caeli said, stroking their hair as he attempted to wake himself up more. In his arms, Vyomi relaxed and the corners of their lips twitched. “Nothing’s going to hurt you while I’m here. I’ll protect you.”
He always did protect them, no matter what. Vyomi believed every word he said, using him as a guardian against their own mind, filling in the cold dark nightmares of their past with the warm and bright present and future they shared with him and the family. He understood them, able to give them the comfort that the others couldn’t.
“Your dreams can be evil things. But none of them are true, they don’t reflect who you are or what will come,” he continued quietly as he held Vyomi closer, “Do you want to try sleeping again?”
A hard question for them to answer with full confidence. Vyomi wriggled in Caeli’s embrace, which loosened as to let themself get more comfortable. When they finally were, they thought about his question.
“Yeah… Can you sing to me?”
Once a foolish question no longer became so when they began going to Caeli after their nightmares started up again. They felt so childish, feeling as if they were nothing more than a toddler asking for their parent to sing them to sleep. Perhaps they really were, but with Caeli, he made them feel safe to ask.
“Of course,” he agreed, sitting up slightly so he could use his voice better. Along with him, Vyomi inched upward also to stay in his hold.
He continued to soothingly pat their head in which they allowed their eyes to flutter closed. Even if they knew sleep would be hard to catch again, they wanted to stop staring at the long shadows of the machines and metal bits their father always seemed obsessed with. It looked just like home when the lights were on, but at night, it felt as if they all wanted to claw their way over to them.
Caeli began to sing softly, a lullaby that he always sang to them. Smooth like honey, warming for the soul, comforting like the softest blanket. Why he only sang here and nowhere else, Vyomi couldn’t answer, but the sound of his voice drove their nightmares away like a wave of light.
“Days seem sometimes as if they’ll never end…”
Vyomi gave a sigh and allowed themself to fall into his voice and his warmth. A barrier so strong that no horrible memory could make itself known lest be drowned out by the sound of soft singing. The darkness in the corners of their mind became expelled by the notes and the feeling of a warm embrace.
Their face drooped as the song continued, letting their mind stop its marathon run into a slow walk. It devolved to crawling and then slumber under a summer sun. Their heart, which once rattled in their chest, slowed with their thoughts and became one with the song.
“…know that meanwhile, rises the moon…”
Uneasy and uncomfortable thoughts had run their course, banished to the far reaches of their mind. No matter how hard they would try, they would not bother Vyomi tonight.
Their head felt so heavy and their brain became weighed by stones. Caeli’s singing became muffled and distant in their ears while continuing to fill their entire being.
The last remaining of their consciousness began to slip and Vyomi found themselves drifting away into the sweet oblivion of sleep. Free from nightmares and scares, just peaceful slumber. And as their waking moments left them, they could still hear their father sing:
“…away each dream you keep, breathe, breathe, breathe…”