/sus/ - Kris awake in the middle of the night

from /sus/ Thread #954: Deadrune Edition
h ttps://desuarchive.org/trash/thread/58720342/#58720381
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>A shrill screech jolted Kris awake in the middle of the night, immediately he brought himself upright inbetween Noelle and Veth in the bed. Who they themselves were slowly beginning to stir from the loud noise.
>Kris looked to the clock on the bedstand, it was nearly three after midnight, he has work in four hours, and the kids had school in five.
>Obviously thinking something was up the human immediately jumped out of very large bed, and opened the bedroom door.
>Now in the hallway, Kris could hear a unfamiliar wailing erupting from the kids' bedroom.
>Fatherly instincts filled Kris with adrenaline as he nearly sprinted towards the kids' bedroom, pushing the door open with enough force that he's sure the doorknob just punched a hole in the wall. Not that he noticed or even would have cared in that moment.
>The wailing was much louder now, and after Kris scrambled to turn the lightswitch on and the room flooded with a blinding light it became obvious what the source of the wailing was.
>Krethle sat upright on the topbunk of his bed, huddled into the corner with his knees pulled as close as possible into himself. His small hands hugging a green dinosaur plushie hard enough that Kris could swear the stuffing would burst out of it at any moment. Tears flooded out of his closed eyes like a river, his nose beginning to leak with snot as he continued to cry and scream bloody murder.
>Kris felt worry and confusion and many horrid feelings as he scanned the room for what might have caused Krethle to be so... upset.
>The other kids were obviously awake,as Basher and Natalie stood at the base of the ladder to the top bunk, their faces laced with concern, while Casey was on the top of the ladder himself.
>Kris took a deep breath, calming himself down before turning to his half-deer kids.
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>"What happened?" Kris's tone was straight and to the point, it was obvious that he wasn't playing around and wanted a actual answer in case that this was some prank gone wrong. But judging by how Basher seemed just as confused and tired as Natalie was, it didn't seem to be the case of the little prankster child messing around when he should have been asleep.
>Natalie spoke up first, her voice laced with worry and panic. "W-we don't know! All I know was that Krethle woke us up with a scream and he started crying! C-casey tried to talk to him but he only started c-crying h-h-harder! *hic*" Her eyes started to water, the moment beginning to overwhelm the 7 year old girl. The human father patted his daughter's head, softly saying to her that it would be fine before heading over to the bunk ladder, tapping the back of Casey's shoulder.
>"Let me handle this Casey." Kris said firmly, as to enforce a sense of seriousness.
>Casey looked back with a sad frown as Kris picked Casey up off the ladder and put him gently onto the ground with a grunt before climbing onto the ladder himself to get closer to the still sobbing Krethle.
>"Hey Krethle? Buddy?" He spoke with as gentle of a tone he could muster. "You okay?"
>Krethle's wails calmed for just a moment for him to open his red and puffy eyes, and upon seeing his father, Krethle immediately burst into wails once again before crawling over and wrapping himself onto Kris.
>Kris let out a gasp, nearly losing his grip on the ladder, thankfully managing to hold on to Krethle with one hand and maintaining his hold with the other as Krethle sobbed.
>Quickly climbing down into a safer postion, Kris immediately began to try and comfort his child, rocking him like if he were a baby.
>"Hey... hey... shhhh... I'm here buddy... Daddy's here..." he cooed as Krethle continued to scream and wail despite Kris's attempts to calm him down.
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>It wasn't until Kris took him into the out of the room that Krethle's cries quieted down slightly, and after some more failed attempts to calm him down further Kris decided that it was best to take him into the bathroom to try and clean up some of the snot beginning to fall onto Krethle's egg patterned pajama onesie.
>Fortunately, after cleaning and wiping Krethle's wet face, his sobs lowered further enough that Kris could finally barely understand his a few blubbering words.
>Krethle pointed towards the bathroom door, towards the hallway leading to the kids room. Sobbing out something about a "Horror", but before Kris could hear anything else, the bathroom door burst open and Krethle resumed wailing once again.
>Behind the door was a panicking and concerned Veth. Everything under the sun of distraught mother probably applied to her in that moment as she walked up to Kris. Veth opened her mouth to say something as she reached out for Krethle, but stopped her hands suddenly pulling back.
>Kris gently handed his sobbing son to his short wife, and immediately she began to coo and comfort him with a sense of gentleness and loving that only a mother could provide.
>He watched as she carried him to master bedroom, and as soon as they dissappeared from his sight he stumbled. His legs nearly giving out as the adrenaline made its last rounds throughout his bloodstream.
>Kris rubbed his face as he exited the bathroom to the sight of Noelle closing the kids' room door with a sigh.
>Kris walked up to his second wife, noticing her arms being crossed in unease.
>"How are the other kids?" he softly asked.
>"Fine... A little shaken up and worried about Krethle, especially Natalie, but they're back in bed now." she sighed looking up at Kris with a concerned look. "How is he? What happened? The kids say they woke up to him screaming and being inconsolable."
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>Kris took a deep breath "I- I don't know... he was acting like he was genuinely scared for his life or something..."
>"Nightmares?"
>"No." Kris shook his head. "A simple nightmare wouldn't have freaked him out that badly."
>"What about night terrors?"
>"I don't know, he was basically screaming in my ear even when I was holding him, he only started to calm down when I took him out of the bedroom. I cleaned up his face and he started pointing to where his bedroom was while blubbering about a horror. Veth opened the door I think he got a little spooked because he started crying again. Veth took him to our room."
>Noelle had her hands over her mouth, herself, her eyes glistening, looking like she was beginning to tear up herself.
>"Angel... W-what do we do?"
>Kris sighed, "I think we need to ask Krethle about what happened tomorrow."
>Noelle wiped her eyes. "I don't think the kids are going to be able to sleep, so I'll call your mom tomorrow and let her know that they're going to miss school."
>Kris nodded. "Is Susie still awake?"
>Noelle in return shook her head. "No. I checked, she's got her headphone's on snoring on the couch downstairs so I don't think she could hear. Should I wake her up?"
>Kris put his hands to his face, rubbing them in exhaustion. "No. No need to make her lose sleep in worry for no reason."
>Noelle tilted her head "You sure?"
>"Yeah. You know how she is, if she was awake she'd be standing guard by Krethle for the rest of the night. We'll tell her tomorrow, she might get a bit upset but it'll be fine."
>Noelle looked up at Kris, before surprising him by pulling him into a tight hug.
>Kris froze for a second, before returning the hug, squeezing her with his arms so hard he's reminded of how hard Krethle was squeezing his plushy back in his room.
>Kris's heartbroke once again at the thought, thankfully Noelle was there to relieve the pain, if just a bit.
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>Eventually the two seperated as Noelle gave Kris a comforting kiss with a reassuring smile.
>"Let's check on Veth and Krethle before getting to bed, I'm sure he'll feel much better sleeping with all three of us next to him."
>Kris returned the smile and they both quietly shuffled over to the master bedroom.
>Inside, the two were weclomed with the sight of Veth laying on the bed, with Krethle snuggled into her chest, sniffling and hiccuping as Veth slowly and gently ran her finges through Krethle's reddish-brown hair as she hummed what Kris recognized as... a video game lullabye. Kris would have chuckled if he wasn't so damned exhausted. His shortest wife was so damn classy.
>Noelle moved up to Krethle's other side, helping Veth comfort him by rubbing his back with just as much motherly love as Veth was.
>Kris put on a smile of relief at the sight before he himself slid into the bed behind Veth, simply wrapping his arms around the grey-skinned mother, spooning her.
>As much as he wanted to comfort his son as well, to make him feel safe and comfortable again. He accepted that right now Krethle needed a mother's, or rather mothers' touch right now, something he lacked. So Kris sighed in exhaustion, letting his tired eyes droop closed, content with simply comforting his child with the presence of his father as he let sleep take him.
>They'd figure things out tomorrow.
>For now Krethle, and all of them for that matter, needed some sleep.
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WRfg here, once again here at /sus/ with another story i was suddenly inspired to write sleep deprived at 3 am until 5. This one I had to write on my phone because I didn't feel like booting my PC back up but the idea was so stuck in my head I had to do something.
Honestly I think this one kinda sucks I wasn't exactly sure if I should have posted this but I didn't want it to go to waste. Also a quick note, "Horror" is the DR equivalent to "Monster" (because of course monsters are actual people that live amongst humans.)