What He Sees When He Turns Out the Lights...

[Kira & Lee Norris]

He'd felt himself drifting off on the couch for a long time since. Whatever Brian had been saying to him about Ellie, he'd forgotten. He wished he hadn't. Brian had seemed quite eager to talk about it. The guy put up with anything Lee had to say about Maddie. He should really be able to return the favour...
But it'd been so warm. And it felt so late. He hadn't slept at all the previous night, and he'd just finished up a massive pile of homework. He hadn't thought a nap would matter...
Then the brown eyes opened up.

[Jude Dorrian]

Jude was lying on his bed listening to Strawberry Fields Forever when a giant feather pillow flew through the air in a wild attempt to suffocate and asassinate him.
"Brian, are y'all completely crazy?!" snapped Jude, rolling out of the bed will a dull thud as he hit the floor.
"Lee's dreaming," panted Brian, apparently unconcerned for Jude's well-being. "You've got to come see this Jude. Come on!"
"So he's having a nap...?" Jude's eyebrows shot up. "What's the big deal?"
"You have to come and see," insisted Brian, skirting around the other bed to drag Jude to his feet. "Please- I'm worried about him."
Jude rolled his eyes, but didn't press the issue. The two raced downstairs to the Common Room, where Brian stopped panting in front of Lee. At first, Jude didn't stared dumbly at Lee, wondering what the hell he was meant to be looking at...
Then Lee started moaning.
Jude's eyes widened, and he looked up at Brian in confusion. Brian pressed a finger to his lip, shaking his head, and just nodded at Lee again.
Jude looked back at his friend, and suddenly began to notice all the little, strange details... why was Lee so pale? Not just pale- he was milk white. And under his eyes- he'd never seen thse bags look more dark or purple. The moans were getting worse now, and wild dis-jointed phrases were beginning to fall from his lips.
"Maddie- Kira- not there- not that..."
"What the hell is going on here?" Jude croaked, staring at Brian.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Craziness is a nice feeling.
However, stir-craziness is not.
This was the time of year when Madeleine and her family would usually move to another camp, to settle down for Christmas - and it was driving her mad. The spacious rooms of Orchid Hill now seemed much too small, and the walls were slowly compressing her, moving in. The sense of claustrophobia was starting to get overwhelming.
Usually Madeleine didn't feel the gypsy in her too much, but when it came to moving time, the sense of wanderlust was much too strong to supress.
So now she was looking for the one person that would be able to calm it.
The common room was the obvious place to look - but when she got in through the door, the only people there were Jude and Brian, staring avidly at a couch.
Madeleine frowned as she sauntered over. "Hey, guys, what are we looking at?"
Then, a moan sounded, and any thoughts of stir-craziness were immediately banished.
Jude glanced at her, and she quickened her step towards the couch that they were standing beside.
Lee was lying there, fast asleep - his face whiter than ivory, shadows under his eyes darkening them with a dark shade of violet. Moans were coming from his pale lips, punctated by movements and broken words.
"No...no..."
He'd said nightmares. But she hadn't envisioned this.
"Should we wake him?" she said quietly to Jude and Brian, her eyes wide.
Brian shook his head. "Just wait."
What the...
Lee suddenly started to twitch. "Coma...no...... not that - not..."
A lump started to rise in Madeleine's throat as they watched him.
What was going on? Why were they just watching him?! Why didn't they wake him up, why didn't -
Another moan, and now he was writhing on the couch.
Madeleine started towards him.

[Jude Dorrian]

"You won't wake him," Brian said to Madeleine, throwing out his arm and catching her. "You can't. Believe me I've tried. Just leave him."
"Are you actually crazy?!" snapped Jude, as Lee started thrashing back and forth dangerously. "It's like he's having some sort of fit-"
"He's having a nightmare," Brian interrupted him sharply. "I told you. But look at his eyes. Watch his eyes."
"They're shut," Jude said scornfully.
"They're flickering."
"What?"
"Look at them- get right up close- careful of those arms though. He's stronger than he looks."
Jude raised an eyebrow, but followed Brian's instructions. At first, he didn't notice anything really strange- yes, Lee's eyelids was fluttering wildly; which sure as hell wasn't good; but that was obviously not what Brian wanted him to notice...
... oh.
"His eyes are brown," Jude said dumbly, stepping back. "I thought they were blue?"

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Brown?!
"What?" Madeleine cried, moving past Brian and over to Lee.
Jude was right. There they were, between his madly flickering eyelids, two chocolate brown eyes.
But... his eyes were blue. She knew this. She looked into them every friggin' day, charmed by their clear blue shade and loveliness...
These weren't his eyes.
A Romani curse word spilled from her mouth and she glanced up at Brian, her eyes fierce and worried. "How long has this been going on for?"

[Jude Dorrian]

"Er... quite some time," Brian admitted, looking sheepishly between Jude and Maddox. "Maybe just after his birthday?"
"That was weeks ago," Jude muttered, "it's very nearly December!"
"I thought it would go away," Brian said darkly. "It didn't. And when I asked him about it, he told me to leave it. But he's been thrashing and muttering for ages now. A few nights ago, he started screaming the name, 'Shaun'. Completely freaked me and Mike out."
"Shaun?" Jude repeated completely confused. "What on earth is he dreaming about?!"
"Your guess is as good as mine," Brian said simply. "But he's mentioned you. And me. And you a lot," he directed at Maddox.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine's fists suddenly clenched.
She wasn't sure what hurt more - that she was in his nightmares, or that Shaun was there.
God, oh God...
"Did you... did you say 'Shaun'?"
Oh, Lee, what's made it this wrong? Why are you dreaming about Shaun?
These couldn't just be ordinary nightmares. She'd never seen anyone writhe like that when they were asleep; and dreams didn't change the colour of a persons eyes, for chrissake.
She couldn't hear if Brian had answer or not, so she turned away from Lee to look at him. "Shouldn't we wake him up?"

[Jude Dorrian]

"I just said," Brian cried impatiently. "You can't wake him up. He comes out of it on his own. Oh, but it's getting worse. He'll wake up soon anyway..."
Jude glared at Brian hatefully, annoyed that he should give up so easily. Lee was literally writhing about and screaming in his sleep... and Brian was just... watching? Letting it happen? Hell, no...
Jude pushed Brian out of the way and grabbed Lee by the shoulders. Immediately, his friend's body began to shudder and twitch horribly, his head lolling limply forward like a puppet on strings. Jude's grip intensified, and the jolts began to pass up his arms. Lee was throwing his full weight about now, and strong as Jude was, he couldn't hold on. With a yell, Jude was thrown backwards where he collided with Brian, who was looking darkly smug.
"Told you so."
Jude ignored him, turning back to Lee, who was gasping horribly. All of a sudden, he leant forward as though retching, and suddenly, he stopped, raising his head groggily. His eyes were still shut, but he was breathing steadily now. Slowly... Lee's eyes fluttered open.
Corn blue once more.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Oh. Okay. This wasn't good.
"Oh, hell, Lee," Jude muttered, his grey blue eyes widened in shock. "What... what were you...?"
Lee felt slightly dead. That'd been... well, it wasn't the worst, he supposed. But... Will had been there. She'd been the only one. And it was like they were back in the corridor... except the pictures on the walls were windows.
There, in one room, was a cold corpse- Anton Gordon.
"He was the first..." Will's whisper had been so soft at first, he'd barely caught it.
But the windows kept coming, and the corpses kept climbing. Then when the corpses ran out, Lee was pushed forward and through into the hospital... and had dissolved into hysterics.
Madeleine and Kira lay still and dead...
"Not dead," Will had told him softly. "Just... comas. But they will be dead soon. They were so brave, Lee. They went down fighting for Orchid... just like Anton... and Shaun..."
Then when it all melted away to a familiar, comforting blackness, Will had knelt beside him, and brushed his tears from his face.
"We're gone too, Lee. It's okay. We're gone too..."
And now... well, apparently, Jude had seen the whole thing.
His sight was gradually adjusting to the flickering orange light of the Common Room. Brian stood meekly behind Jude, looking plaintively at Lee. Lee wasn't having any. His eyes narrowed to dark blue slits.
"You brought him here."
"Lee, for god's sake, I couldn't keep it a secret any longer!" Brian exploded in a tumble of words. "I mean... you can't... you were-"
"- crazy," Jude said fiercely, his own eyes narrowing to slivers. "You didn't want us to know?"
Lee's heart twinged. "Us?"
"Maddox is here, Lee. She saw and heard everything."
Lee's neck cricked he turned his head so fast as he rounded to see her... and the look on her face nearly killed him.
"Maddie...?"

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

His eyes were back to their familiar blue as he turned to look at her.
"Maddie?"
Madeleine's own scared blue ones looked back into his. "Don't be mad at Brian. We had to know," she said, softly. "But Lee, why didn't you tell us that it was that bad?"

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"It's not bad!"
Jude snorted. "You were writhing and screaming."
Lee chose to ignore him. "Maddie, really, you're probably just overreacting."

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

"Oh, don't do that," frowned Madeleine, scowling at him. "We're not overreacting. You looked like you were having a fit - that's bad. And apparently this has been going on for nearly a month, right Brian?"
She didn't wait for an answer. "People don't trash and scream like that at normal dreams, Lee. And this hasn't happened before, has it?"
Her direct, steady gaze was almost a challenge for him to lie to her.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

It was one of Lee's most loved and loathed qualities that he never broke eye contact when challenged. Not even for a second. His brain clicked into logical mode, and he weighed up the whole situation, though he'd already known the inevitable outcome.
"No," he replied stiffly. "Never."
"They're not natural, whatever they are," Brian said eagerly, as though reciting information he'd learnt off by heart. He surprised Lee slightly. Apparently, Brian had been thinking about this very deeply. And no doubt discussing it with Jack and Mike. "I'd say those dreams are magically induced-"
"Magically?" Jude said sharply. "But how...?"
"Don't be stupid!" Lee scoffed, relieved to have a chance to look away from Madeleine. "It's just me. Bad memories. I'm just dealing with stuff..."
"Actually, Lee... I think it's time we had a real talk."
Lee's stomach jolted sickeningly, but he gave no outward sign that he'd heard anything...
A soft, familiar voice was whispering to him... and he knew exactly who it belonged to, though he'd only heard her once before.
"Tonight. I promise you. But for now, we can't let them know. You can't let them know, Lee. They might not understand what I've been trying to teach you. They might not... see it like we do."
See what like we do?
His only reply was a laugh.
"Lee," Jude was looking at him strangely. "Lee. Maybe you should go see the matron..."
"The matron... about a couple of nightmares?" Lee said skeptically, raising an eyebrow.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

"That's a good idea," Madeleine put in quickly.
Magically induced?
The words filled her with a sickening horror, pouring as black and sticky as treacle. Was someone screwing about with Lee's mind?
They must be. Like Brian had said, it wasn't natural.
Her fists clenched at that thought.
No one was going to do that and get away with it.
"Or Professor Hoodham," she suggested. "I'm sure he'd know something that would stop it."

[Kira & Lee Norris]

At the very mention of Professor Hoodham, the voice gave a low hiss of hatred and Lee found himself empathising greatly with it. The woman in his head- whoever she was- was right. Prof. Hoodham didn't need to get involved in any of this...
"No," Lee said simply. "If there's anyone I'd trust at all with this sort of thing, it's Nurse Gornray. I'll go and see her tomorrow morning, okay?"
He owed that woman a lot for her kind words throughout Maddie's coma... he supposed she was due a visit.
So technically, he hadn't lied at all!
"I'll go with y'all," Jude said quickly.
Lee stared at him blankly for a few seconds, but something about Jude's set jaw told him that he wouldn't be able to argue out of it. Well then, he'd just have to head off real early- then later claim he'd forgotten Jude was to accompany him.
"Sure," Lee shrugged nonchalently. "But no-one else, okay? I don't wanna make too big a deal of this..."