Chapter 2: 27th July 1991, Saturday: Part 2

Ellie malevolently watched over her brother from the foot of his bed. He was the one person she wasn't scared of accidentally waking up, not even the fire alarm could achieve that. He had to sleep for at least 12 hours every day, no ifs or buts. If circumstances meant that he could only sleep 8 hours at night, like every other normal human being, then he would definitely nod off for 4 hours somewhere in the middle of the day.

No location was exempt, her brother could sleep in practically any position. Not even loud noises or a blowing gale could stop him from going to the land of nod. A few months ago, he had fallen asleep in church whilst standing up and singing a hymn. Ellie remembered seeing him fall forward in front of the entire congregation with an all-mighty bang, going face first into the floor. Father Royle ended up calling an ambulance in panic but, by some miracle of God, her brother was mostly fine. He only got a small purple bruise on his big pointy nose which vanished the next day.

At first, Ellie just thought that her brother was either really lazy or, all the reading was making him super sleepy for some reason. Clearly her parents agreed with her presumption because they had taken him to the doctor to test if he had narcolepsy after the church incident. It turned out that, not only was he not narcoleptic, but her brother was in exceptionally good health with no medical complications or allergies. No wonder he came first in everything on sports day, he was a born athlete. He also completed all of his homework, as well as a lot of Ellie's secretly, so it wasn't likely that he was just lazy either.

Since her brother wasn't sick, everything went back to normal after a week or two and the family learnt to live around his absurdly long sleeping habits. His near-comatose state of slumber meant that a more physical motivation was needed. Being such a kind and helpful sister, Ellie had volunteered to wake him up for school every morning since his alarm clock wasn't cutting it. And that's how she came to learn about his big secret.

Ellie was aware that people never looked their best right after waking up, especially if they hadn't slept for long enough. Her father was a perfect example of that fact. That old man always looked like he was at death's door in the mornings, he only returned to the land of the living after he had some breakfast and got dressed. Regardless of her father's morning routine, nothing could have prepared her for the first time she saw her brother's blood-red eyes.

It had been just another school day morning and her brother hadn't woken up for breakfast, no big surprise there. Just like normal, she had run into his room and dived on top of him to 'kindly' wake him up. Ellie's amateur wrestling move satisfactorily removed all of the air from her brother's lungs, waking him up instantly. He let out a long yawn before opening his eyes and looking at Ellie. That's when she saw that both of his eyes had turned from dark brown to pure red. Not just a little red from a lack of sleep but dark crimson red.

It had given Ellie the biggest shock of her life and her only instinct at that instant was to scream and run away. Her brother must have known what she was about to do so he gripped her arm and covered her mouth before she could let out a peep. All that surprise Ellie had just been feeling turned into fear and dread as she feebly tried to wiggle out from his grasp. Her pitiful struggle had all been in vain since he was easily several times stronger, her mother's unbreakable grip seemed like a gentle hug in comparison.

Ellie's mind went wild as she speculated what would happen in her final moments. Perhaps her brother was a vampire and was about to drink her dry. That would explain why his eyes were red and why he had kept it a secret. If that was the case then she would either die or turn into a vampire like him, neither option seemed good.

On the other hand, her brother didn't necessarily have to be a vampire, she guessed that demons probably had red eyes too. That was a question she would never have the chance to ask Father Royle since she doubted a demon would let her go, they weren't known for their delightful company. Ellie had gone through everything she knew or had heard about related to red eyes and none of it was good. People with red eyes are evil, that was just a scientific fact. All Ellie could do was grit her teeth and hope some residual brotherly love spared her a painful death.

Time went by and Ellie noticed that her demise was taking longer than she had anticipated. No fangs were plunging into the side of her neck or sharp claws giving her insides some fresh air. Other than her cheeks feeling a tad smushed, she was pretty much hunky-dory. She decided to open her eyes again and see what was the hold-up.

Her brother was still watching her with his scary crimson gaze but she couldn't feel the slightest bit of malice or hostility emanating from him. He didn't even look angry, just at peace. His chilled-out approach to this scary situation seemed to inadvertently cause Ellie's body to relax as well. He then loosened his grip on her and flopped back against his bed rest. Ellie remained silent and motionless at the other end of his bed. For some inexplicable reason, she felt confident he wasn't going to hurt her.

A light smile formed on his face as he calmly said, "I think we need to have a little chat?".

The following hushed conversation between Ellie and her brother cleared away all of her negative assumptions. That's not to say that she believed every word that came out of his mouth, she wasn't that gullible. Her brother had chuckled at her genuine suspicion and went on to demonstrate that he wasn't a devil or vampire. This process mainly involved reminding Ellie that he had a reflection, played in the sun and ate garlic bread as a starter. He also went to church every week with her and had communion. This was enough to convince Ellie that she was wrong about him being a vampire or demon but that didn't give her an answer to why his eyes were red.

Disappointedly, her brother didn't seem to know either. According to his memory, he had just woken up one day at the orphanage, walked to the bathroom's mirror, and saw that his eyes had turned red. Then after a few minutes, they turned back to normal. It had happened every month since and he had no idea why. Ellie wanted to be absolutely certain and he confirmed, whilst sniggering under his breath, that he hadn't developed a taste for blood or the impulse to worship satan.

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The conversation turned abruptly serious after he finished explaining all that he knew about his eye condition. Her brother made it very clear that she had to keep his eyes a secret, even from her mother and father. He said that everyone else wouldn't understand and there was a good chance that they would send him off to a special hospital where he couldn't ever leave.

She had lied to her parents loads of times before over small things like not finishing homework and stealing biscuits at night but keeping her brother's secret felt like a bridge too far. Her parents were nice people and she couldn't imagine them sending him off to some hospital just because his eyes changed colour every now and then. He didn't agree with her sentiments and was positive that they would because they had already done it before.

He reminded her of when he went to the hospital for his suspected narcolepsy. At that time, her brother didn't want to go but her mother had insisted time and time again until he relented. He made it very clear that his eyes would be history repeating itself except he wouldn't be able to come back home this time. Her brother had looked genuinely worried by the possibility of being taken away and Ellie could completely understand. She loved her mother and father and couldn't imagine never seeing them again. The same applied to her new brother ever since they had become such close friends.

Who would she play with if he left? Her mother was always too busy with hospital stuff and her father had zero imagination. That decided it for Ellie, she was going to keep his secret. Her brother seemed very happy after she agreed and he gave her a massive hug that was tighter than when she was taken hostage.

Since then, Ellie had sneaked into his room at the end of the past two months to wake him up before her mother and father got out of bed. This was all part of a plan the two of them had made to ensure that her parents never saw his red eyes. Hence why she was currently standing at the foot of his bed with a handful of paperclips.

To her annoyance, her brother didn't know exactly when his eyes would change. He only knew that it happened once a month and within a window of a week. This meant that she had to potentially sneak into his room 7 times at the end of every month. It was fun at first but this was her 9th time and the spark had started to sizzle out 3 runs ago, now it was just tedious.

Therefore, Ellie used her unfathomable ingenuity to make up her own fun. This came in the form of a new game she invented last night. The rules were simple and intuitive, anyone could play with minimal training. The players started by filling their pockets with as much stationary equipment as possible. Ellie's dressing gown's pockets were already sagging from the sheer quantity of pencils, pens, markers and of course paper clips stuffed inside.

Then, make your way into the room on an unsuspecting and sleeping family member, extra points if they're someone who is a heavy sleeper. Her brother was borderline sleeping-beauty levels of a heavy sleeper so that step wasn't a problem.

Next, stand at the foot of their bed so that you are roughly 2 yards away from their head. Ellie looked down at her fluffy fox slippers and inched herself forward until her knees were touching the bed frame.

Finally, the last step was self-explanatory. It was basically Buckaroo except with her brother. Ellie would start throwing the light stuff at his face and slowly work her way up until he eventually awoke.

She started by holding a single paper clip in her right hand just like a professional darts player, she even had her tongue stuck out in concentration. All those painful hours waiting for her father to finish watching the darts tournament on the television finally paid off. Hopefully, this 'professional' technique she had passively learnt would improve her accuracy immensely. She selected her target, cocked her arm back and launched.

The paper clip threw silently through the air and... bulls-eye. It bounced right off his pointy nose and landed on the mattress beside his pillow. She let out a quiet "yes" and fist-bumped into the air to celebrate her accomplishment. Ellie looked down at all of the 'ammunition' she had to play with and knew that the next half an hour or so was going to be especially entertaining.

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