Minder: Secrets of Mind

Chapter 3

For Eve the night's affairs were enough to be concluded the moment they returned home. Leaving Alison and Lance in the living room as Lance lays his charm on Alison in the hopes he can convince her to watch another five episodes of One Piece with him. It was partially working, and that was only cause he grabbed two snack cakes from one of the pantry shelves and handed both of them to her with a smile. Eve's room was a mess the likes of which would make a person consider a Fraternity house in its entirety clean in comparison.

Clothes had different piles of clean and dirty, mixed in between and together. Any surface which was once considered a nightstand, dresser, or desk was covered with wrappings and overturned books. Bedsheets and other different linens were in whatever place they belonged; the only ones that mattered were right on their bed—freshly placed right before they left for break. As any other time she set her bed, she kept the set up tight, putting multiple layers of clamps on the corners and edges to hold the sheets in place while she slept. Sleepwalking wasn't common; she didn't dream after all. But sometimes, in that darkness, when the vision can be more substantial, then she can become a walker. Not far, usually no further than the room before she went to sleep. It created a mess around her with the smell of burning air. When she wakes, she can see flashes of herself around the room. The clips from the sheets popped into walls and objects as if she flexed them off with her movements like she was Superman breaking chains!

As soon as she blinks, catching her speed around the room, it all goes back to normal. Only the mess left to confirm her word that it happened. Her father used to be right there in her doorway at home when it happened, standing with a thick metal panel strapped to his arm and blocking her from exiting. She thought for the longest time she was a rough sleepwalker, but he told her every time he put the panel down that she just was a bit of a hurricane. And made sure she understood that she couldn't tell anyone about it until Lance. Then Amari...and once Alison and them got an apartment together. But her roommates didn't have to worry like her father did, for he installed the panel on the inside of her room door himself in each room she had at Westfield, and somehow no one questioned it when she was in the dorms.

Now Amari was another story. When they were together, he slept with her, or she slept with him, and yet it only ever happened once. And somehow, despite being scratched and noting how she was a spark to the touch, he held onto her—keeping her from exiting the bed and making a further mess of an already messy room. She thought for sure after that night, just a month into their relationship, he'd leave her and label her weird. But he didn't, and in between the shocks of touching everything he had the next day, he would joke about how his love for her was electrifying. He didn't mind the mess level of the room either and found the drawings and paintings pinned to the walls mesmerizing.

To him and everyone that entered her bedroom, the walls were something out of an art museum filled with only the most prominent artist in history, from the best cave painter to the finest Picasso and everything in between. She kept the first one closest to where she lay her head, and the most recent ones had just enough space for one more semester of visions. And tonight, she had a feeling she was going to put up the first one as she shut the door. She did as she usually did before sleep, closing the window blinds to block the light coming in from the streetlight right outside and submerging herself in darkness. The only thing bringing light to the room was her gray eyes. It was her most defining and always visible feature. So long as her eyes were open, of course.

But it wouldn't last long; she had come to pick up a habit from Alison in their brief time together. Alison suffered from nightmares often, and so did Lance and Amari. They usually weren't strong enough to wake them up, but they could make their sleep rough. Lance and Amari had been struggling with it ever since a few days after becoming a part of Eve's life and never had a solution. Alison, however, found one the moment she started having them. Beauty needed its good rest after all. She played music, calming and soothing music while she slept. And while Eve didn't struggle with sleep, she liked how the music would help her zero in before going to bed. Clear her mind of her thoughts from the day, and also they all used the same sleep playlist Alison made, so sometimes the music would harmonize and ensure no one in the apartment woke before they needed to.