A Date with the Boogie Man {rex}

[Veronica Knox]

Waking with a start, a young Veronica rolled over in her bed. Her heart was pounding her chest as images of the car crash that landed her in this once upon a time orphanage filled her mind. Another nightmare had come and gone. Letting out a small breath she sighed, closing her eyes as she attempted to will herself back to sleep. Only it didn’t work, like so many times before. Sighing, her small hands lifted to her eyes and attempted to rub the sleep that was slowly starting to build there, just not enough to allow her to drift off into dream land.

Instead, she laid in bed in a half sleep state. Her sleepy red eyes flickered to the small clock on her bed side stable. She starred at the clock for a few minutes, trying to decipher the numbers which took longer than it should have with her foggy mind. She shoved her little body up and off the bed, her feet landing on the chilly floor with a thud. She wrapped her arms around her body, frowning as she exited her room. It was colder than expected, then again, an oversized t-shirt and shorts didn’t exactly do much against the cold.

Veronica continued to wander around the orphanage, wondering why she couldn’t just fall back to sleep. She supposed that the scary monsters were truly lurking under the bed. She was just about to head into the living room to curl up on the couch when she noticed a light on. Pausing she realized it was Rex’s room. “McDorksalot is still up?” She questioned, walking towards the room and peering in. The sight she took in wasn’t an unusual one, he was passed out at his desk with papers scattered everywhere. Shaking her hair lightly, her white locks messily falling around her face, she entered the room.

She first went over to his bed, picking up a blanket and wrapping it around her. Even though she had been around Rex for years and he had seen her scars, she still felt rather uncomfortable without her gloves. Once she had it securely around her shoulders, her tiny hands gripping the fabric in front of chest she went over to him. She glanced over the papers, none of them exactly making sense to her still half a sleep mind. Ignoring them for now she started tugging on his sleeve before retracting her hand into her blanket cape, “Reeex! You should go to bed.” She ended her comment with a small yawn, waiting for him to come back to the land of the living.

[Rex]

Thirty minutes prior

Sitting alone in a dimly lit room was Rex, his head in his hands, and his elbows on his desk, scrawled on the desk were a multitude of plans and strategies scrawled down on paper, around them were maps, and small objects to signal men, two sets each there own color. It was clear looking at it, that Rex was planning for something big...Some big war with a force that would outnumber his small gaggle of kids easily. He gripped his hair, his face red, and his breath hot and heavy, stacked next to him, ready to fall over, was an amazing amount of bottles. The small of alcohol radiated from the bottles, and from Rex as well. "GAHHH!" He slammed his fist down on the desk, the bottles toppling over. He gripped a map tightly in his fist, glaring at it with hazed over eyes. "FUCK!!!" He yelled, looking over each area of the map, his mind still slightly sharp, even under the influence. "Dammit dammit! WHY! DAMN!" He ripped the map in half, shredding it into piece after piece, and gripped a bottle in his hands, he raised it to his mouth..Before shattering it before it reached. He snarled, whipping the glass off his desk. "GAH! I..." He stopped his rampage, looking at his hand, it didn't get sliced up..But it was covered in alcohol. "....." He'd slowly slump back down, putting his head on his arm, his eyes still locked on his hand. "I...Won't let anyone die..." He said to himself, and gripped his hand closed tightly, before his eyes finally fell, and he slept in his mess.

Now

He woke up soundlessly, just a bit of shifting came off his person. It would seem like he didn't even wake up until he said. "What...What do you want V...You should be sleeping." He spoke, his voice only slurring a little, trying to sober himself up quickly around her. "Something...." He'd yawn softly, pushing himself away from his desk, and slowly lowering himself down in front of her. "Something wake you up?...Another nightmare..?" He asked softly, people who were watching him for an hour or so, would be shocked by the control over his actions that he showed, after what they just witnessed. He'd look back at the mess he made, before looking over to his bed, walking over grabbing a cover, and walking back throwing it over the desk, and the mess...Seeming to hide it from her, trying to help her forget any problems he might be having, right now was about her...He didn't want to stress her out more.


He then took a moment to get his bearings together on where exactly he was in the room, before pulling his chair out from his desk, and taking a sweat, putting his hands on his face, and wiping away any sweat, or liqueur that could have stuck to his face and hair, before patting his lap. "Here...Hop up...Tell me what it was this time..." He spoke, his words sobering up by the second, he let his eyes dilate in the dim light, trying to avoid showing himself off as the mess he knew he was coming off as. He waited for her response, hopping he was wrong about how smart she was, or otherwise she'd easily see through his ruse, and start with her questioning, her rather precise questioning To be honest, he wanted desperately to avoid just that...The last thing he needed on his heavy mind, was the guilt from his best friend, and sister V...

[Veronica Knox]

Twisting the blanket in her palms she looked from Rex to the floor. She hated the fact she still got nightmares and they were bad enough to keep her up like this. “Maybe,” She answered, drawing out the word a bit before she finally brought her red eyes up to look at him again. Silently, she watched as he covered all of his work and the bottles that she had noticed on his desk. A small frown slowly formed on her lips as her eyes moved from the now covered mess back to Rex. Even in her sleepy haze it was obvious that he was hiding things from her and she wasn’t too happy about it.

Even though her emotions were starting to turn in the pit of her stomach she waited for him to settle down. Once he did she climbed up into his lap, resting her head on his shoulder sleepily. Curling up in her usual position was rather relaxing, helping calm her on edge nerves. After a moment she spoke up, “Don’t really remember the nightmare. Just images and stuff. Like usual...” The lie slipped easily past her lips, it always did. She rarely felt comfortable talking about the crash, she had only mentioned it once. She didn’t know if Rex realized most of her nightmares were about the crash and not just the nonsense that she normally played it off as. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to know.

Pausing for another moment she pulled the blanket tighter around herself, she took a deep breath trying to determine if they were beer bottles scattered around. After a few seconds she recognized the scent and moved her head slightly so that she was somewhat looking up at her redheaded friend. “Why were you drinking again? What’s wrong? Is something going to happen?” Veronica asked, her lightly colored eyebrows pulling together in slight confusion, a dash of worry entering her large dark eyes. She knew that he drank but more so kept it outside of the orphanage unless it was really bad, added to the fact it was so late she wasn’t liking the possibilities.

[Rex]

Rex listened with open ears, as Veronica, very, if not to easily avoided and tricked Rex into easily believing her. "Well...Maybe I can help...Uh..." He pinched his eyes closed, trying to block out, if not ignore the light all together, even if it was only a dim, somewhat beam into his room. "Is it...About...The kids? You...Were saying something...About that yesterday? Yeah?" His...Words and sentences didn't seem to match up to there conversation, and he didn't even seem to be himself...For, obvious reasons. "Wait no...That's...Stupid uh...Is it, about...What were you asking me about yesterday...Ahh...Something out the defenses in our...In our...No not...Defenses...The alliance with...No..No...Shit what was it..." He spaced out for a moment, going somewhat silent, as he grabbed his head tightly between his hands, thinking that would somewhat help his messed up mind remember the nonsense he was trying to say. 


While he was rattling on, he missed, or rather nearly missed her question, though...Once he'd heard it...Or rather his mind finally processed it, he took a glance back at the pile of bottles, which were hastefully covered up by his sheet, before he glanced back at Veronica, seeing the hint of worry, and knowing on her face. His little ruse wasn't fooling anyone. He sighed heavily, before he slowly looked away, letting his eyes drift past her. "No V...Nothings...Nothings going to happen. I was...Just having a hard time sleeping and...." He stopped himself, stealing a small glance at Veronica, he knew her to well, to know that this lie...Wasn't going to work.


"...The war isn't looking good..." He seemed to...if not sober up, then at least take a small hit of reality, his words came in clear, his eyes seemed to finally focus, and he seemed to be able to search his mind, at least for this one thing. "Were facing an enemy that has us out numbered ten to one....With enough resources under there control, to easily...if not beat us...then outlast us.....We have no advantages....None...." He said the...Cold harsh truth...This lifestyle, and this group of kids, were about to face there hardest challenge yet...And the outcome looked grim.