Shelter

It’s the night terrors that scare Jack and the others the most.

Alex went to bed early after their show one night because he was so tired. He had barely gotten any sleep the night before. Most of the band and crew had wandered off to bed by one in the morning, but Jack, Flyzik, Evan, and Zack were still awake. They were sitting in the front lounge, quietly watching a movie together. The bus was mostly silent except for the bus engine and the movie up on the TV, so when they heard a thump everyone looked up at each other in confusion.

“Someone probably bumped against the wall of their bunk,” Flyzik said, shrugging.

“It didn’t sound like that...” Jack said with a frown. A few seconds later they heard another thump, followed by a yelp of fear.

Evan’s eyes widened, “That sounds like Alex.”

Jack dropped his phone from his hands and ran into the bunk area quickly. Alex was screaming and Jack’s heart was beating in fear. Alex doesn’t scream like that during nightmares. He yanked open the curtain and Alex was thrashing around a little, whimpering between yells.

“Alex, stop! Calm down!” Jack said desperately, grabbing Alex’s arms to try and make him stop. Alex didn’t acknowledge him. Jack heard the others walk up behind him and he looked up at them fearfully, flinching when Alex let out another yell.

“Shut him up!” Vinny grumbled loudly from his bunk across the hall.

Zack looked down at Jack, eyes wide, “Maybe it’s one of his night terrors. He doesn’t respond to anything when he’s having one of those.”

“That makes more sense,” Jack agreed quietly. Alex hadn’t had a night terror in a long time and Jack had forgotten how terrifying they were. Alex suddenly sat up in his sleep and smacked his head against the top of the bunk loudly. Jack and the others all winced in pain for him. Alex laid back against the bed, whimpering a little more before slowly falling back into a sound sleep. Jack sat there in surprise for a minute, just watching him.

“We should leave him be, Jack. Let’s go back up front,” Flyzik murmured, patting Jack on the shoulder. Jack nodded and followed them back to the front lounge, still a little shaken up.

“That was terrifying,” Zack sighed, sitting beside Jack. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

“You look just as scared as Alex did, Jack,” Evan pointed out.

“It’s scary seeing him like that. It’s impossible to wake him up during those stupid night terrors. At least when he has nightmares he can be comforted,” Jack sighed.

Zack smiled, teasing, “You look like you’re the one that needs to be comforted now.”

“Shut up. Don’t make fun of my concern for him,” Jack whined.

“I’m not. I’m just pointing out that you look like you just saw a ghost,” Zack chuckled, putting an arm around Jack and hugging him. “That scared all of us, not just you, don’t worry.”

Flyzik smirked, “Well, we know that none of us would last in a horror movie... we’d all faint the second we heard someone screaming like that.”

--------------------

Jack was sitting in the front lounge, drinking coffee, when Alex finally wandered up front the next morning. He had slept in much later than usual. Most of the seats up front were taken, so Alex walked over to Jack and sat down on his lap.

Jack chucked, setting his coffee down, “Morning.”

“Morning. I woke up with a bad headache,” Alex whined. He smiled as he looked around at everyone though, adding, “I slept really well though. I didn’t have any nightmares that woke me up!”

“You may not have woken up, but you woke the rest of us up,” Vinny said, rolling his eyes. Alex frowned when most of the others nodded in agreement.

Alex looked up at Jack in confusion. “What’s he talking about?”

“You had one of your night terrors last night. It scared the shit out of me, Zack, Flyzik, and Evan because we were awake. Apparently you woke up everyone else in the process,” Jack explained.

“I don’t remember that at all,” Alex said, still looking confused.

Jack chuckled, “You never remember those ones. They happen when you’re deep in sleep and don’t wake you up. You were screaming and thrashing around a ton in your sleep though.”

“Oh. That must have scared you, didn’t it?” Alex asked, looking guilty.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that I’m scarred for life.”

Alex hugged him apologizing, “Sorry that I scared you.”

“It’s fine. It wasn’t really your fault,” Jack said with a smile, running a hand through Alex’s messy hair to push it back. He grimaced – there was a nasty bruise under his bangs from where he had hit his head last night. “If you look in the mirror, you might find the source of your headache.”

Alex hopped off Jack’s lap and ran into the bathroom, shrieking, “Aw, come on!”

“You hit your head on the bunk above you,” Jack explained as Alex walked back in, laughing at the pouty look on Alex’s face. “Don’t look so mad. It’ll go away in a few days.”

“It looks gross,” Alex whined.

“No one’s going to see it anyway. It’s under your bangs,” Rian piped up from across them.

“But it still hurts!”

Rian rolled his eyes, “If you keep whining about it hurting, I’m going to give you something else to make you whine about.”

“Don’t touch me, jerk,” Alex said, sticking his tongue out at Rian and jumping back onto Jack’s lap when Rian tried to kick him.

Jack groaned, “Was it necessary to jump? You landed on my balls. That hurt.”

“Yup,” Alex said with a giggle, and Jack smiled slightly.

“It’s amazing how happy you get when you’ve had enough sleep.”