Chapter 12: Night Terrors Sing Lullabies

My question hung in the carriage for a second before Nine answered.

"Well, it was the Ricardo job, master." She didn't elaborate, but I tried one more time to get a conversation going.

"Oh, yes. How could I have forgotten?" I struggled to think of anything else to say about it. But knowing nothing about Ricardo, the job, who she went with, where it was, it was a bit hard. I probably should have looked into her history a bit, but there's only so much time during the day. The rest of the day passed with a halting stillness.

It wasn't as uncomfortable as we first got in the carriage, but it still wasn't exactly a companionable silence. One eventually regained enough trust in me to doze off in my chest again. I was honestly shocked at how different One was from the rest.

When I first met One, I thought maybe Nine was the odd one out, but it seemed the rest of them were all cold killers in some way. They didn't look anything like it, but even Five had a certain stoicism. Four and Nine both did as well. They were all more no-nonsense. Yet One here was taking a nap, looking quite comfortable as if she was on vacation. How much of it was an act?

The truth was that I didn't know.

Eventually, the carriage stopped, and we all got out to stretch our legs and eat a meal. The horses had been pushed hard, so there wasn't much more than a dim twilight for cooking. We passed the time with a small conversation about the food, the scenery, and that the weather was a little cold. You could only stretch those topics out a little bit before the conversation becomes stale.

Less than an hour later, we were getting ready for bed as the sun went down. The drivers and the servants in the back carriage pitched a couple tents, but we went back into the carriage, where we folded down the beds above the seats.

I claimed the bottom bunk on the right. Still fully clothed, I slid under the covers, intending to go right to sleep right away as we needed to leave very early tomorrow. Nine climbed above me. But when One slipped into the covers after me. Before she made it all the way in, Nine spoke up.

"One," she said in a chiding tone. When I felt One stiffen as she stopped, she stopped wriggling up against me.

"Yes, Nine," she said in a shockingly innocent tone. What was she doing wrong? She seemed to understand why Nine was chiding her, though.

"It's not your turn One. It's Four's turn this afternoon. She's the one on duty." Nine said, and I could hear the smile in her voice despite her typically straight delivery.

I had my eyes half-lidded, so no one thought that I caught the death glare Four gave Nine for speaking up or the slight smirk Nine gave in return. One looked crestfallen.

"I suppose." One said and started to slide out of the bed.

Four, though, had other ideas and frantically waved her hands in front of her face. "No, no, no, no, it's okay, it's okay, I don't mind. I'll just sleep on one of the other beds. One, you have as much as you want."

Clearly, Four was still not very comfortable around me. I couldn't blame her at all. In fact, so far, she might be the most normal of all the Numbered. And I wasn't about to push it. I didn't need a bed partner at all. Especially not tonight. We needed to sleep, and besides, I wasn't so desperate for attention, not when One was right here.

So, to still any arguments, I simply rested, reached over, and rested my hand on one's stomach, pushing her back down, which she fought for only a token second before curling up around my arm. I knew that no matter what the schedule was, I could change it whenever I wanted. It might not be a good idea to do that without good reason, though. If I wanted to work on giving these women their individuality back, I shouldn't take decisions away from them unless I needed to.

Moments later, she was asleep. I marveled at her ability. She'd slept most of the day away and was apparently willing to sleep all night as well. It was quite cute. I brushed her hair away from her face gently and leaned my head back to drift off to sleep myself without any funny business.

***

Sometime in the middle of the night, I felt the motion of a rocking carriage. I half opened my eyes and saw Nine's legs dangling down from the bunk above me.

At first, I thought she had to go to the bathroom or something, but when she touched down on the floor, she turned to duck under the upper bunk. Carefully, she crawled over One and me until she was on the other side of me. Then she untucked the blankets from the wall and crawled in.

Moving with care not to wake me, she nestled her head into my shoulder. After she was situated, she reached over and tapped One on the shoulder a few times. One opened an eye, looked at her, and then closed it, going back to sleep. Nine rolled her eyes and rested her head on my other shoulder, quickly returning to sleep herself.

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I opened my eyes the rest of the way to look at the starlight-lit space. Had I just watched a shift change? It seemed that One was not about to give up her spot. I am not surprised by her apparent love of sleep and affection for me. But that would raise issues as none of them seemed to truly care for me. Even One was just happy that I was no longer who I was before, right? I guess that didn't count for Five.

Thoroughly pinned and unable to move, I slipped back into sleep a few moments later. This time, I dreamed.

I didn't dream in the sense that I went to the series of magical towers, but normal dreams. My mind had very little for its imagination to draw from, so everything I saw was familiar in an odd sense.

I'd hoped that when I dreamt normally, I would get flashes of my previous life. Either who this body used to be or who I was before I became this body. I just wanted more information so I didn't feel like I was stumbling in the dark all the time.

But to my disappointment, it appeared there was nothing left of either of those. I dreamed of Five crying in real pain when the first time I struck her with a riding crop instead of moaning in pleasure. The blow left a bloody streak instead of a slight red mark. As if the toy was barbed.

It made me flinch to hear the distress, and the blood made me a little queasy. I didn't have to wait long before the awful sight of a weeping Five faded.

My mind wasn't so kind to give me something more pleasant. I was back in my bed the first night I had awoken, and Nine was waking me up. Except, I couldn't move my muscles and was too slow to do anything but watch as Nine slit her own throat. The last I saw was the blood slowly seeping up the mattresses towards my frozen feet.

Next, I dreamt of One finding me and screaming when she found out I wasn't her master. This scene played out several times. Sometimes, I strangled her and screamed out of her. Or sometimes I watched her killing me that first night once I had finally gone to sleep.

Each time, something deviated. I could tell that it was wrong, that it didn't happen, but I could do nothing but watch in horror. As if. I was watching. Someone falls from a high cliff, completely unable to stop it, knowing the outcome.

I gasped awake, sweating. With a jerking, twisting motion, I sat up. Yanking my arm from Nine's grasp in the process. In the moments before I regained my senses, I half rolled onto One.

My eyes shot open, and Nine had sat up behind me, a hidden knife appearing in her hand. She looked around. Four was still sleeping, undisturbed by the commotion. I panted a few times, recovering, and one reached up from where she was pined to stroke my face softly. With her eyes half open, she kept stroking, murmuring wordless noises of comfort.

The knife in Nine's hand disappeared, and she reached over and gently touched my shoulder.

"Are you all right, master?" She whispered in a soothing voice. I nodded wordlessly, still catching my breath.

"Yeah, just a bad dream," I said as I slowly laid back down. One cuddled back in again. But I didn't want to close my eyes again to go to sleep. Some of the worst images played constantly, just behind my eyelids, and I didn't want to see them anymore. I tried to think about anything else so the dream would fade.

Nine touched my cheek and tilted my head towards her slightly. She studied my eyes. "It's okay, master. We're here. Your Numbered are here. You carry too much stress for us."

I shook my head. Where did this devotion come from? One had hated me not more than a day ago. Four was terrified of me still. I guess Five liked me? I still wasn't sure how Nine really felt. The images of the bloody knife stuck through her throat flashed in my mind. How did that fit in with the rest of her actions? Her devotion was unreal. A soft pressure on my cheek pulled me back to the present.

I almost spilled my secrets to her right there, but I held back. I really need to talk to One about this. But now I was certain that, at least from most of the Numbered, I wouldn't be able to keep my true identity hidden forever. But perhaps she could help me prepare them for the truth.

Slowly, turned my head, breaking Nine's cool lips from my cheek. With a bit of hesitation, I leaned forward and gently kissed her on the lips. She returned the kiss with equal gentleness before stroking my face again.

"Everything's going to be all right," she said. As she rested her head back down on my shoulder, she began to hum a delicate, lilting lullaby. Slowly, I felt my body relax, and I joined One in sleep once more.

***

Eventually, the sun streamed through the window at dawn, and I woke up naturally. We hadn't slept for more than six or seven hours as it was in early fall, and the days were still very long and the nights short.

It wasn't perfect, but I felt mostly rested after I had got back to sleep. No dreams had plagued me. Whether that was feeling the comfort of Nine next to me or just that I was tired enough that my brain decided not to torture me anymore, I wasn't sure.

Once I started to blink my eyes open, I realized that Nine was already awake. She was propped up on one elbow, watching me rouse, but One was still asleep.

When it was clear that I was fully up, Nine reached over and poked One's cheek several times. The rough treatment forced a groan out of the woman. The blond-haired woman opened up an eye and looked at Nine. Then she looked down at me before groggily rubbing her eyes and sitting up.

"Yes. What is it? Nine?" She groaned.

"Can you join four on looking at the food and scouting?" Nine said. To me, it sounded like she was making a request. One seemed to understand something and then was a little bit more awake as she nodded. It only took her a few seconds to stretch in the small confines before she quickly exited, shutting the door behind her.

Nine reached to look down at me and smiled a slightly uncertain smile that transformed her usually forgettable face to one of a gentle beauty that I never thought would lurk underneath her cold exterior. She reached down and pecked my cheek before her hand trailed down my chest, and she lay back down, half on top of me.

"Good morning, master. Today is my turn." And she leaned down to kiss me on the lips. This time, her tongue dived in to fully explore my mouth. Now fully awake, I let mine respond in kind.