Sleepwalk

And, Emily - I saw you last night by the river
I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water
Frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever,
In a mud-cloud, mica-spangled, like the sky'd been breathing on a mirror

Anyhow - I sat by your side, by the water
You taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
Though all I knew of the rote universe were those pleiades loosed in december
I promised you I‘d set them to verse so I'd always remember

-Joanna Newsom, "Emily"

A girl drifted down the length of the port, seemingly as aimless as a leaf carried on a breeze. Moonlight filtered down through intermittent clouds, hitting her features and softening them, glinting off dark hair that tumbled over her shoulders in loose curls. She was dressed in a simple white cotton nightgown loosely covered in a dove grey terrycloth robe. No shoes. Certainly not appropriate attire for a 3-am stroll near the docks.

Salt stained the sea air with a pungent tang and the breeze had picked up some- a tropical storm was heading out towards the island. The night, though beautiful with its glimpses of stars and moon through the gathering clouds, was filled with the grim air of expectation.

This was not her first time somnambulating, though she had usually wandered into the forest instead of town. If Lucy had been awake, she would have been appalled at her clothing and at the fact that she'd left her violin at home. However, she was sound asleep, courting dreams about walking on glasslike lakes and naming falling stars.

She made a ninety degree turn and walked down a dock. If she kept walking, there was a good chance she'd wake up more than a little damp.

Miller was out on another of his midnight walks, he usually stays around the academy and doesn’t try to go anywhere outside of that area often. Tonight though he wanted to check out the village since he’s never been there before. He was out much later than usual, mostly because he was here to see things not socialize.

He was still wearing his normal attire, but by now it’s been starting to get dirty and there is still a huge blood stain on the lower half of his shirt. The moon was hidden by the clouds, which is something he preferred much better than if it was out.

Miller managed to find his way to the docks where he noticed a lone person was wandering about. He was curious as to why this person was out at this time as he started to move towards her. He then realised that she wasn’t slowing down when nearing the end of the dock, from the other end of the dock he asked with a loud enough voice for her to hear “what are you doing?”

Lucy started awake and promptly fell off the dock. Fright lingered on her features as she'd woken, turned on her heel to see who'd addressed her, and caught a heel on a nail that was sticking out of a plank. With a cut-off cry, she fell into increasingly turbulent waters.

Nighttime. Not a good time for swimming. Also: robes are not good swimwear. The terrycloth immediately started soaking up water and making her sink all the faster. Fortunately, Lucy had developed a pretty good set of instincts for this sort of pressure and she managed to flail her way to the nearest pile and grab hold of it.

The water wasn't unbearably cold, but she had to cough violently to expel some accidentally-inhaled water. She wasn't really sure where she was, who had woken her, or what time it was, but she had a feeling that she knew exactly why she was outside. This sleepwalking had happened before. It was getting annoying.

Hesitantly, she called up over the side of the dock, "H-Hello?" She hoped that the guy was real and not a ghost- she was not prepared for that sort of thing at the moment.

Miller stood at the other end of the dock and watched as the girl fell into the water. From what he could see the water wasn’t very calm, so he felt fear for her at the moment. He ran as fast as he could to the other end of the dock to assure that she was safe and hoped that she was going to be alright.

He stopped right at the edge, stabbing his blade into the dock to slow him down as well as stopping him from falling into the water. He looked off the edge of the dock to see if she was there, but found nothing. He didn’t want to dive in after her considering the fact his left arm is pretty much an anchor.

Then he heard a voice from under the dock, he followed the sound by sticking his head under the dock. He found Lucy clinging to one of the dock supports “do you need help?” he asked hoping that the answer has nothing to do with him getting into the water.

Lucy looked at the boy, immediately noting the weirdness about his eyes and trying not to let that intimidate her even more than usual. There was something about talking to people that sent her heart racing, though in this case it might have been due to several factors at once.

His offer was nice enough and she wasn't really in any position to refuse, so she called up in response, "Y-Yes p-p-please. A rope o-or something w-would b-b-be nice." Did she have enough upper body strength to climb a rope? The answer was a resounding wait and see. If this were the Otherside, then yes. But then, if this were the Otherside, she wouldn't have been sleepwalking to begin with and she was not quite as constrained by physics.

No! I have to stop thinking of that place as an escape. He would have wanted me to live out here as much as possible before I went all in.

Lucy gritted her teeth and clung more tightly to the wood post. The water was choppy at best and she was not the strongest person.

Miller tried his best to listen to her as the crashes of the waves were conflicting with her voice. He heard most of what she said and replied “ok, just wait a minute I’ll try and find something”. He pulled his head back up and looked over his shoulder to possibly find something that could help in this situation.

Then his eyes laid upon the boat house, it was about two docks away from the dock he was currently on. Miller pulled his arm out of the wood plank it was in and ran back up the dock, then turned left as soon as he reached land.

Once he stepped into the dark, damp boat house he looked around with his eyes first before going in further. He searched the wall nearest to him for anything useful, until he stumbled across a large rusty chain. He picked it up by an end with a large metal hook “I don’t think this will work too well” he pointed out “it will have to do, we don’t have much time” he ordered himself. He gathered the rest of the chain and ran out the door.

Once he arrived back at the dock, he wrapped one end of the chain around his left arm at about the area where his flesh and his blade connected. He knelt down and looked under the dock, also bringing down his hand with the chain in it. Then he threw the end of the chain in his hand at Lucy “quick grab on”.

Lucy's fingers were getting numb from the strain of gripping the wood and she was sure that she would find splinters later. The waves were getting rougher by the minute and she was now certain that this was a repeat of something that had happened a while ago.

Why, oh why, did she have to sleepwalk right into hurricanes?

A chain slipped past her shoulder and she looked up. When the boy told her to grab on, she quickly transferred her grip from the pile to the chain. She came very close to fumbling the maneuver and falling into the water because a wave hit her just as she moved. However, she pulled her head and shoulders out of the water and coughed violently.

Now what? She made an effort to climb, but it wasn't working. Lucy made a mental note to take better care of this body in the future because it was stuff like this that made the Real World all the more unpleasant to face. "I've g-g-got it!" Her voice cracked with fatigue and fear. "Help m-me up!"

Miller watched Lucy as she struggled to get a grip on the chain, which he could understand considering how large the waves were becoming. Once she grabbed on he felt a bit less worried for her safety until he was told to help her up. He quickly pulled his head back up from under the dock.

He jumped to his feet as soon as his head came back up from under the dock and pulled the arm with the chain wrapped around it upwards so that it was parallel to his head. The chain was grinding against the edge of the dock, upon seeing this Miller realized that he could use this as a pulley. Which he did, so he began to walk backwards down the dock keeping his arm in the same position as before.

He watched the edge of the dock while he pulled the chain up, hoping that at any moment the girl would rise from it uninjured.

Lucy let the boy pull her out of the surf until she was able to latch on to the edge of the dock and flail around until she was lying down on the rough wood surface, panting. Her clothes and hair felt like they were a heavy second skin, wet and getting wetter now that it was raining.

She raised her shoulders up and looked at the boy. He was weird looking, sure, but there had been stranger folk both at Foresta and in the Otherside. What did add to her nervousness was the blade-arm.

At length, she said, "Thank y-you." There was a pause, then she asked, "What a-are you d-d-doing out here? Y-You are a student, r-right?" Her foot was throbbing, but it was a minor pain compared to some of the stuff she'd faced in the past.

The wind was picking up. This did not bode well for the walk back to school grounds.

Miller was relieved that the girl finally surfaced to the dock and by the look she had nothing wrong with her. He had never experienced rain before, he’s heard of it though. He looked at his blade arm thinking that it would make a perfect umbrella, but never put his thought into effect.

He looked down at Lucy when she spoke, which he was bombarded with questions. He usually expected that when he met someone new that he would need to explain himself. “Yes I’m a student” he answered “I’m always out at night, but not usually around here”. He attempted to loosen up the chain on his arm, he pulled it down his blade and let it drop onto the dock.

“You’re lucky I came here when I did” he continued “you’re fine right?”

Lucy picked herself up as the boy spoke, making a quick assessment of the situation. It wasn't dire, just embarrassing. The storm, while worrisome, was not a big enough threat to warrant panic or fear. She was afraid, however, of seeing anybody else in this state. She lacked her violin, which was cause enough for mild edginess. A light rain started.

She gave the boy a suspicious glance, but tried not to judge him. After all, she was out most nights too. And he had helped her out quite a bit. "Y-Yeah. Thanks." Her heel was bleeding, but it was negligible. "W-We should go f-find shelter o-or something."

Lucy made sure that her robe was firmly tied shut before moving towards the port proper. "W-What's your n-name?" By now, the rain was no longer under the 'light' category. It pelted her face as the wind plucked in vain at her already-sodden hair and clothes.

Miller didn’t exactly think of the rain in a negative way, this was his first time he’s experienced it on the outside. He was also unaware of the possibility of a storm nor does he know much about natural disasters. He never liked not knowing what’s going on in his surroundings, so this bothered him a bit.

Miller didn’t understand why the girl looked at him strangely, but ignored it due to the fact he’s been at this school for awhile now and gets people staring at him oddly all the time. At the comment she said about find shelter he immediately turned his head towards the boathouse “well, I passed by that boathouse earlier” his head faced back to her “it might be capable of sheltering us”.

Miller paused at her question, even though it was a simple question to answer he always had a strange feeling every time he spoke the name ‘Miller’. “My name, its Miller” he replied louder than the last time he spoke since the rain and the wind started to become stronger. “And yours?” he continued.

Lucy couldn't remember how severe the storm was supposed to be. If it was a mere cat. 1 storm, the boat house was probably okay for shelter from the wind... but wait. What about the storm surge? She shook her head. "I-It would b-be safer t-t-to get to higher g-ground," she said. It was too much to try to explain (her speech impediment often made things very difficult) and there wasn't really any time to do so.

Waves were already battering the end of the dock, sometimes rising up to splash over the edge.

She frowned at the rising storm and said, "F-Follow m-me. W-Warehouses in the p-port. Slightly higher." With that, she began to move towards the aforementioned buildings. The likelihood of them being open? Slim, but she was sure they could figure out something.

As for her name, she answered by calling over her shoulder, "Lucy. C-Come on!"

Miller was unaware of how dangerous this storm actually was, weather altogether was new to him. He decided to do whatever the girl said since he’s clueless to the current situation. When the waves slammed into the dock it startled him and caused him to look back at the end of the dock. He finally realized that it might not be safe to stay here after he turned back to Lucy.

While she frowned, Miller’s face expressions did not change what so ever, he still had a bit of a smile which could possibly make him seem a bit psychotic. He did what she said and followed her without questioning her, as long as it was away from this dock he was fine with it.

Lucy went to the nearest warehouse and yanked on the door. She'd expected it to be locked or something, but was quite surprised when the force of her pull sent her stumbling backwards. With the door now wide open in front of her (and presumably Miller), she ventured into the building.

Out of the rain, the sounds from inside the building could be heard. The building's main lights were off, and the power itself shut off with a foreboding sound. In the near pitch-darkness, she could hear several people call for lights to be found. Turning to Miller, she lifted her finger to her lips in a gesture for silence. Hopefully, he saw the gesture and understood- Lucy was afraid that they'd get caught intruding. Even if they were justified in breaking in due to the storm (and she did honestly feel that they were entirely justified), she didn't want to face the scrutiny of anybody else while she was dressed in such inappropriate clothing.

Currently, their vantage was blocked by a stack of crates, but it was an imperfect hiding spot due to the entrance being right to their backs. She glanced about in search of a better place to weather the storm. Despite the fact that her eyes had adapted as much as humanly possible to the darkness, it took a bit of feeling to understand that the shape off to her left was a ladder. After a moment's hesitation, she decided that climbing it was a good idea. She whispered back at Miller, "You g-go first." She wasn't afraid of the climb so much as of the possibility that he might look up when climbing and see up her nightgown. The idea positively mortified her.