Ting.

She groaned wearily and shut her eyes, pretending she'd never heard it.

Ting. Ting.

She waited with bated breath. Nothing broke the silence, and she sighed in relief; relief that lasted for a tranquil twenty seconds before cracking up from the hammerblows of guilt. She groaned wearily again, lifted her head from the cosiness of her pillow and looked at her phone with a drop of venom. Another nail slammed into a coffin of guilt broke the trance, and she reached for it, tired.

Three texts, and from three different people. Holy hell, what's up with people tonight? If she hadn't known better, she'd have asked herself why she stayed awake beyond midnight. After all, everyone is still scared of the monsters; they're just not under the bed anymore.

She braced herself to tackle their monsters now as the screen lit up.

'Are you there?'

'Dude, I don't know what to do.'

'I feel sick.'

A part of her wanted to coldly reply, 'Yeah, and what do you want me to do about it?' After all, she was just another person; why should she give a damn? Why did they keep coming to her for help? Another nail in the coffin; she crushed the involuntary thoughts, squinted against the light of the phone and replied accordingly to them. Quick and deft, her fingers moved, making sure to reply fast, not wanting them to feel as alone as she was.

'Yeah, I'm here, you good?'

 'What's up? You wanna talk about it?'

'Hah, you mean you feel SICC ayyy alright I'm sorry don't hate me please.'

Warmth, compassion, an ear kept open for listening and terrible humour executed correctly seemed to have a startling way of tethering people to what didn't feel like a terrible reality, even if it was temporary. It gave them hope in what, deep down, they knew was probably not such a horrible ordeal as they all make it sound; she knew that, and made use of it well.

She held out for a whole hour, cycling through each chathead, replying. By the end of it, she had more or less successfully finished tethering their ships in a storm that was now passing.

'Thanks so much. You're amazing.'

'I wish people listened as much as you did.'

'Haha, I guess in the end, you're the sicc one. Thanks for staying; you don't know how much I needed it.'

She watched and waved as the ships set sail once more as she turned off the phone. She groaned wearily and laid her head against a pillow that had been damp with quietly shed tears and closed her eyes. She took some comfort in the dead silence of the night, a change in auditory scenery. The only ghosts in this room right now were phantom screams of arguments and pain from outside her room door.

With no ship to hold it up, the anchor sunk back into the water. Tired though she was, sleep was late in coming.

Rasheed Khan is a hug monster making good music but terrible puns and jokes where he's probably the only one laughing. Ask him how to pronounce his name at [email protected]