Sleepwalking

Zane and Ben's apartment was a bit smaller than Libby's. Whoever designed these things had a fair amount of trouble trying to fit three bedrooms and two bathrooms into each one, especially at the edges of the building. Their living room was more like the main hallway. Their kitchen was but a small alcove off to the side of that.

Zane and Danielle were busy with homework while Ben was stuck trying to fix the curtains. Home sweet home.

“And what's the answer to that question?” Zane asked Danielle.

“Twelve,” Danielle answered.

“And that one, six plus seven.”

Danielle smiled, and Zane saw what was coming.

“I'll just…” Zane quietly said as he scribbled thirteen on Danielle's homework in his best imitation of her handwriting. “There we go.”

Homework time was interrupted by a knock on their door.

“I'll get it,” Ben said as he made his way to the door. It was Libby. “Hey, Libby. What's up?”

“Can I trust you two to watch over Isabelle while I head to the pharmacy?” Libby asked. “I just put Isabelle to sleep and I forgot to stock her sleepwalking meds. Poor thing hasn't slept in several days.”

“Of course!” Ben answered with a big, goofy smile. “How many times have you asked us to do something for you and nothing's ever gone wrong?”

“Zero,” Libby answered plainly. “I think something has gone wrong every single time. But there's really nobody else I can call on such short notice, so it'll just have to be you two. I gotta go. Just keep everything quiet for her until I get back.”

“Got it.”

Libby had to take the stairs down the apartment building, as the elevator was going to be out all weekend. That left Ben and Zane to deal with the sleeping Isabelle.

“What was that all about?” Zane asked as he made his way to the door.

“Apparently, Isabelle is a sleepwalker,” Ben explained. “We gotta keep the place quiet for her until Libby gets back.”

•

Isabelle had no intention of staying put. She was jolted awake by a sudden loud, grinding noise, forcing her to immediately leap off the couch and run towards the source. She didn't even make time to straighten herself up.

“Wait, what am I doing?” Isabelle asked herself. “I might scare off whatever it was. Gotta be quiet.”

First, she did a quick search of Zane's apartment. Trying not to make too much noise, Isabelle slowly opened the door. As she scanned the living room, Isabelle spotted Ben talking with someone.

“Goodness, this cat seems like an absolute nightmare,” Ben said to the other person.

“Tell me about it,” the other person said. Even though she had only just met the two men, Isabelle had already figured out this mystery man did not sound like Zane.

Not one to attract too much attention to herself, she tried to see who Ben was talking to without being seen. A quick glance to the right revealed… the legendary Norse warrior Ragnar Loðbrok?

“The fluff is that…?” Isabellee whispered.

Isabelle figured out at this point she must have been dreaming. The two of them were sitting on Zane's couch.

“Yeah… Having a cat is… an experience for sure,” Ben told his guest. “This is why I don’t own a Roomba.”

“I don’t have a Roomba because I would rather die a warrior’s death,” Ragnar chimed in, “with a sword in my hand, looking death in the face and laughing, not by being killed in my sleep like an opulent despot.”

“Getting ready for entrance into Valhalla, huh?” Ben asked.

“I will say this, Ben,” Ragnar answered. He got up and began pacing around the couch. “If a Roomba stands between me and a peaceful death, I will meet its gaze and walk backwards into Hell.”

A cat? A Roomba? Isabelle began putting all the pieces together.

“Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out, huh?” Ben asked.

“A true warrior always has to have everything figured out, Ben.”

Isabelle had heard enough. The noises had returned, this time accompanied by rapid footsteps, heavy thuds, and what seemed to her to be the sound of furniture sliding around and crashing into each other.

“This is getting out of hand,” Isabelle said to herself as she made her way down the first flight of stairs.

Down the second flight of stairs, and then the third she went. The noises only grew louder as she made her way down towards the lobby.

•

Back inside Zane's apartment, Zane, Ben, and Danielle all heard the noises as well. Zane and Danielle were still busy with homework and Ben was off somewhere else, likely on another home project.

“Must be that dang cat again,” Zane said.

“I'll go check it out,” Ben told Zane from the other room. “We don't need a cat waking up Isabelle.”

As he made his way out the door, Ben noticed the door to Libby's apartment was wide open.

“Huh. Libby must be back from her errands already.”

Ben went to inspect Libby's apartment, but nobody could be found inside. Not Libby and especially not Isabelle.

“Biscuits!” Ben shouted. “Zane! We have a problem!”

“What is it now?” Zane shouted back from inside the other apartment.

“Will you two shut up already?” an elderly man shouted from the apartment on the other side. Ben ran back inside to tell Zane what happened.

“Isabelle isn't inside!” Ben explained.

“What do you mean she isn't inside?” Zane asked.

“What do you think it means, genius?” Ben snapped back. “It means she's not inside Libby's apartment!”

“Why is that a problem?” Zane asked back. “She might have needed some fresh air.”

“Libby said to keep her inside and asleep,” Ben answered.

“Well, she couldn't have gone far,” Zane told him. “Let's go check it out.”

The three of them ran out of their apartment and into the hallway. The apartment complex they all shared was six stories tall, and the only two ways up or down was the single stairway or the single elevator. Very much not up to code, but the building was so old, nobody seemed to really care. That did, however, mean it wouldn't be hard to catch up with Isabelle if she was still in the building.

•

Despite sleepwalking and having no sense of direction, Isabelle had managed to walk all the way down to the lobby. The noises had stopped all of a sudden. Undaunted, she decided to continue exploring. On a windowsill, she spotted a cat just chilling, lounging away.

She tried to inch closer, as if by instinct, to the cat. The cat didn't seem to notice her. She stretched out her arm to reach for the cat, ready to pet it. However…

She tripped over something!

“Ow… What did I…?”

Isabelle barely managed to stop herself from falling over. Once she picked herself up, she turned towards the cat again, only to realize it was gone. She must have scared it off, she reasoned to herself.

Her attention then turned to what she tripped over. It was a Roomba.

“Must belong to one of the neighbors”, Isabelle reasoned. It was possible the cat must have accidentally turned on the Roomba and let it run amok across the apartment building. It took no time for her to put the Roomba up somewhere where a cat couldn't reach it. “There we go…”

She would just have to deal with whoever owned the cat and whoever owned the Roomba in the morning.

“Gotcha!” Isabelle heard a man say as he wrapped his arms around her. “Let's get you off to bed!”