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Jazz is tired.
She hasn't been able to get a decent amount of sleep in what feels like forever, but in reality, it’s only been about 3 days.
She knows logically that the exhaustion is what's making her cranky, but even so, she can't stop herself from wincing at the sound of scraping coming from her dad's utensils while eating breakfast.
I should stop by the pharmacy and see if those melatonin gummies could help me, Jazz thought, and just as that thought appeared in her mind, the cause of her involuntary insomnia came into the kitchen.
Danny honestly didn't look much better than Jazz did. Despite her short fuse, Jazz couldn't help but worry about what was keeping Danny up at night.
See, for the last 3 nights Danny has been sneaking into his sister's room at night and would ask to stay with her.
This isn't an unusual request, they've done this often as kids whenever Danny got nightmares. Admittedly it's been a few years since the last time they've had an impromptu sleepover, but nothing indicated to her that this wasn't normal.
For the first night at least.
The second night that Danny asked to stay in her room had her worried. Danny's nightmares didn't usually happen this way; one night in Jazz's room was enough to comfort Danny and it would be back to normal. Jazz wanted to ask about his nightmares, but the distracted look on his face kept her from speaking up. Things quickly got more strange after that.
Jazz briefly woke up in the middle of the night, and she remembers Danny staring at her. His eyes weren't the usual blue as a human, nor the comforting glowing green she's grown accustomed to in recent months.
Danny's eyes appeared to be red. And glowing.
Jazz jolted awake after seeing that, and when she faced Danny again, he looked at her with concern in his voice. "Jazz, what's wrong?" he had asked. The boy's eyes were blue.
"I thought I saw something," she quietly replied, not wishing to wake her parents up. "It's alright now, go to sleep."
Danny softly smiles at her and turns his back towards her. By some miracle, she manages to fall back asleep.
Last night however was the worst yet. The day was normal as any day could be as the daughter of two eccentric scientists and her superhero brother.
When night came around, she had already prepared an extra pillow and blanket, expecting her brother's arrival. And sure enough, he soon did.
When Jazz heard the knock on her door, she squinted at the clock on her nightstand and read that the time was 3:07 in the morning. "Come in," she mumbled, tired and unwilling to go open the door for Danny. After all, she had already left her door unlocked.
When Danny got situated and found himself comfortable, Jazz decided to confront this and asked him why he suddenly started coming to her roo
See, the thing about Jazz and Danny is that they're very trusting of each other for the most part, (except for the time he literally got electrocuted in their basement, but those were pressing circumstances, to say the least, and she knows to tread lightly about this issue if Danny doesn't want her prying.
"Have you heard of the witching hour?" He had asked instead of answering her question.
"Yeah, it's supposed to be the most haunted time of the night, it's when supernatural beings are most powerful. At least, that's what mom and dad claim"
"Well," Danny replied, "there's some truth to that folklore. My senses are heightened around this time of night. It results in me feeling really wired and energetic during that time period. When I'm transformed I've noticed that I'm more in control of my powers, and-" Danny suddenly cuts himself off and starts staring at the floor. His shoulders are stiff, and his jaw tightens.
"And? What else is there?" Jazz's interest has been piqued, so she adjusts to sit up. Maybe this witching hour would explain his eyes from last night.
"I… don't really know how to describe it. I-it's like, my senses are heightened so I can see farther away, I can fly faster… I can hear things better." That final part was barely audible since Danny's voice was pitched so low but Jazz caught it.
"What kind of things do you hear?" Her voice was hushed.
Danny takes a shaky deep breath before answering his sister, "I can hear them Jazz, the ghosts lurking on the other side of the portal, waiting for an opportunity to come to this world. They're just...waiting."
"I've also heard voices. They echo in my head, they used to be unintelligible, but the more time I spend in the ghost zone, and the more comfortable I get with my powers, the more I'm picking up the language of the dead."
Jazz feels a weight set in her chest, realizing that this occurrence isn't new to Danny and that it only took until now to realize something was wrong. She had assumed that Danny's exhaustion came from typical teenager sleeping habits and ghost attacks coming during the night.
"So what do the voices in your head tell you?" Jazz's mind is running at full throttle immediately trying to figure out if these ghostly voices can be blocked off when Danny's voice pulls her back from her thoughts.
"See, that's the thing, they're saying something about waiting for a king."
Jazz stiffened up, remembering the previous ghost king who Danny defeated. Is he coming back? What are the ghosts plotting?
Thankfully, Danny doesn't notice Jazz's demeanor and instead continues to explain that the voices have gotten more loud and annoying during the witching hour. He says that having something else to focus on helps him make it through the night.
Jazz makes a mental note to start teaching her brother some grounding techniques and spends the rest of the time letting Danny talk through some lighthearted stories with his friends.
Soon after 4am, Danny begins to yawn, and falls asleep with Jazz quickly doing the same.
She forgot to ask about his eyes.
Despite the interrupted sleep, the rest of the day is pretty uneventful. Jazz spent her day writing an essay for her English class, and then stopped by the library to drop off some books she had checked out.
Danny did his usual routine and snuck out of the house after curfew presumably to fight a ghost. Meanwhile, Jazz prepared herself for the fourth night of Sibling Sleepover Time; she had set a silent alarm to wake her up 5 minutes before the witching hour began. Only this time, Danny didn't come.
She heard her brother sneak back into his bed not too long ago, but she had to assume that fighting ghosts had taken enough of his energy to allow him to pass out in his own room.
Jazz was content with that reasoning, but as soon as her eyes began to slip shut, she heard a voice.
It floated directly into her ears, and she couldn't understand a word of what it was saying. It sounded like static from an old TV and left her insides feeling hollow and cold.
The voice echoed and reverberated, never increasing in volume but rather changing in intensity.
At times it felt smooth and calming. Other instances made her muscles stiffen up, the static becoming sharper which left her head throbbing and her jaw tense.
Is this what Danny had been going through this whole time? He never mentioned the voices hurting him.
Jazz couldn't resist the pain anymore, she needed a distraction before she woke up the house screaming about static voices and ghosts.
She stumbled across the hallway to Danny's room and knocked on the door.
"Come in," her brother said. Jazz hesitated.
Why did I hear his voice through my head?
"Jazz, come in," the voice echoed through her head again. It sounded like Danny, but deeper, something more confident and authoritative than she was used to hearing on her baby brother.
There wasn't much static anymore once Danny started talking, although now her mouth started tasting like iron, and her nose felt runny.
Jazz turned the door handle and went inside. Danny’s eyes were red.