It's 3 A.M I Must Be Lonely (Monroe)

[Carleigh Davidson]

The television was quietly playing old Disney shows from Carleigh's childhood, which put a sleepy smile on her face. It was one of those nights, which were becoming more and more frequent. The nights where she would spend the hours staring at the t.v. screen, all alone. Carleigh didn't want to bother her room mates with the pain in the ass known as insomnia. It plagued her ever since the manifestation. Which sucked, considering the blonde loved to sleep but her body didn't like to shut down every night.

She was sprawled out on one of the prime couches in front of the television, which wasn't a feat considering it was three in the fucking morning. In front of her was a bag of popcorn, half finished, and an empty, bubblegum pink coffee mug. The only reason Carleigh was functional was due to caffeine. Otherwise.. she didn't even want to think about it. She pulled her fuzzy blanket up over her lap and sat up, leaning on the armrest of the couch.

This was boring. Carleigh would kill to sleep. Afterall it had been... 50 hours straight with no sleep. Maybe tomorrow would bring a good night's sleep, finally. She let out a deep sigh and began channel surfing idly.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Monroe was sick of staring at the walls of his dorm room. He was on his second pot of coffee already and he'd already finished his homework and was ahead on the reading for one of his classes, so really...what was he supposed to do? He was sure Adaryn wouldn't be awake and last he checked, his roommate Dante was actually asleep for once (although he'd had a hard time sleeping throughout the entire month of December), so there wasn't much else to do besides rub his tired eyes and continue to drink down the coffee. He could go see Zeb again, but he didn't want to take up his couch all the time and besides, that sleep had been decent enough, but he never really felt recharged.

So instead, he headed into the halls, pocketing the key to his dorm room, coffee mug in hand and untamed hair covered by a beanie. The student lounge was usually empty this late and so he figured maybe watch some television to keep his brain awake, or something like that. However, upon entering the room, he saw the television was already on and someone was flipping through channels. As the door shut behind him, he thought about turning around and going back, although clearly whoever it was knew he was present now.

[Carleigh Davidson]

Carleigh's bleary eyes continued to channel surf. Another thing that sucked, there was nothing entertaining on the t.v. at this time in the morning. Settling back on the Disney channel, she snuggled underneath her blanket. Peace and quiet, but lonely. Extremely lonely. Carleigh let out a small sigh.

Suddenly, she heard a door shut. Due to the immense silent, it echoed throughout the student lounge. Carleigh sat up straight, and let out a small yelp. She threw her blanket off of her, turning around with a panicked expression. Holy shit! "Who is there?" she asked, squinting. The only light in the room came from the television. Near the door of the lounge was a shadow, a faint outline of a body. Nobody else could be awake at this time, it was unheard of. "Please don't tell me you're an axe wielding murderer or something because I will scream and you'll be caught." Carleigh rambled. Maybe the lack of sleep was getting to her a little bit as well the adrenaline rush from her recently consumed coffee.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Monroe didn't realize how much he probably freaked out the person who was laying on the sofa. It was after 3 a.m. afterall and who was wandering around campus this late? He just hoped he didn't get pepper sprayed or kicked where the sun didn't shine. "Sorry," he mumbled sheepishly. "I didn't mean to freak you out. I guess I didn't realize how heavy the door was and just let it slam shut." He shrugged, as a habit, even if the gesture was lost in the darkness. "I'm not an axe wielding murderer, mostly because that's really cliche..." he trailed off, catching sight of the blonde hair from the light that came from the television. "I didn't think anybody would be in here."

[Carleigh Davidson]

Carleigh rubbed her eyes, trying to figure out who the hell else would be roaming around at this time at night. Odd. "Oh no, s'all good." she brushed off, dismissing his apology. "Nothing to be sorry for unless you were gonna kill me." she joked. It was kind of cliche but whatever. "Yeah, they really need a new door huh? Probably made it like that on purpose." She untangled herself from the rest of her blanket and stumbled over to the lounge's light switch. After spending more than a handful of restless nights here, she had a pretty good idea of where it was in the dark. "Watch your eyes." she warned, flicking on half of the lights. Much better.

No axe in his hands.. good. She squinted, as her eyes adjusted to the light. "Yeah... it's rare that you find someone here at 3 in the morning. Mostly kids who can't sleep for a one time thing. Not chronically..." Carleigh trailed off with a snort. "You a regular non sleeper or this a one time thing?"

Shaking her head, Carleigh sleepily smiled at the stranger. "Sorry, should introduce myself, since I don't think we've met yet. I'm Carleigh."

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"You're funny," Monroe noted, as he walked further into the room, catching a glimpse of her blonde hair from the light of the television. "Nah, I'm not really the murderous type. Too sleep deprived to make a good plan." As he started to move towards the sofa, she'd warned him before turning on some of the lights. He squinted and tried to adjust to the change in light. His eyes kind of hurt. "I take it you have insomnia?" She seemed sort of bitter about it. Which he could understand way. "Definitely not a one time thing," he declared.

His eyes panned to the empty coffee mug on the table. "Coffee drinker too, I see." He held up his own tumbler with a lazy smile. "Monroe."

[Carleigh Davidson]

"Correction, we're funny." Carleigh said with a grin, rubbing at her sleepy eyes. Ah, so he was sleep deprived as well. Sure, all students probably were at some point but it was nice to meet someone who understood Carleigh's insomnia problem. She walked back to the couch she had claimed as her own, pushing aside her girly blanket and sat down on the armrest. "Feel free to come and sit, if you want. I won't be sleeping and the company would be nice." she admitted before nodding. "Yeah, unfortunately I am. It's a stupid side effect. You too?"

Now Carleigh was convinced she found her Hammel twin. "Couldn't survive without it." It's the only way she stayed perky during the day. At night, her guard went down and she allowed herself to feel some apathy. "Nice to meet you Monroe." she smiled again, moving to sit down on the couch cushion and facing him. "I'm surprised we haven't bumped into each other before, having insomnia and all." Maybe their schedules were different. The blonde, on a good week, only had a couple sleepless nights in a row. A bad week could be up to four.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"I like you," Monroe declared, slightly sleepily. "You think I'm funny." Most people didn't. Then again, most people didn't really know him. He moved further into the room and sat down net to her on the sofa.

He tried to think of how to explain his insomnia. "Mine's more by choice. I'm too afraid to sleep, really. So I guess it's different. I only doze off sometimes on accident for a few minutes." He found it hard to explain. "I dreamwalk," he added. Would that help? "And people don't really like dreaming of me."

He ran a hand through his hair several times, messing it up. "And guess we don't go to the same places.

[Carleigh Davidson]

Carleigh grinned. "Then most people obviously don't know humour." She stated, yawning slightly after. She might have to turn on the old coffee machine in order to keep her going. Although, this Monroe fellow was a nice distraction from her usual lonely nights. Funny how she always met people through insomnia.

She chuckled again. Well, she wouldn't mind dreaming of him. Carleigh shook her head at her cheesy though, crossing her legs. "I've heard a little about dreamwalking. Sounds like a pain in the ass." She grimaced. Poor guy, wanted to sleep but couldn't without jumping around people's dreams. "That's a shame. I don't have a choice. My body may want to sleep but it's up to my mind, really."

"Hmm guess not." Carleigh handed him the remote. "If you wanna choose something, feel free." The disney shows were still playing quietly in the background. "How long you been around here?" she asked, curious.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"It is a pain in the ass. I'm so worn out all the time that I struggle to even do my homework or say hello back to someone who waves at me. It makes me look like one of those apathetic jerks who don't care about anyone else, but really, I just can't function right. I used to always be that guy who slept in until noon everyday no matter what time I went to sleep the night before. I took naps on the daily." Now things were different. "Thoughts running or what? Does it have something to do with your power too?"

He took the remote from her, but as he flipped through channels, he mostly just saw infomercials and really bad soap operas. "I'm a senior, sooo... a while."

[Carleigh Davidson]

"And no resources here are able to help you?" Carleigh asked with a frown. Sleeping pills worked for a bit, until a tolerance was built up. Hypnotism... she could do that already. "You'd think that they'd be use to seeing a bunch of insomniacs and figure something out." She mumbled, crossing her arms. Guess they had to just keep relying on coffee.

She got up, walking over to the old coffee machine. "I assume you want some?" Carleigh asked with a chuckle, mindlessly setting up the machine to brew the delicious liquid gold. While it brewed, Carleigh sat back down next to Monroe on the couch. "Yeah. I enter people's heads when they are sleep and can hypnotize them. So, tada, here I am unable to sleep."

Over her time at Hammel, Carleigh had met a few insomniacs like her. Always kept good company at unbearable hours. "Ahh, yeah I'm a junior." She said, watching him flip through the television. "Wish someone had some time fast-forwarding power thing so we could just skip every night."

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"It's not really that there aren't resources, it's more like, I can't sleep but I also don't want to sleep. The me not wanting to part is what makes it hard for the help to actually work," Monroe explained. "I just hate being that guy that intrudes on everyone's dreams. Nobody wants that. And I don't really want it either, so it's better this way." It was that simple.

"I'm actually almost out," he said, swirling the coffee that was left at the bottom of his mug. "So yeah, fill me up." His own coffee maker was too far away. When she attempted explaining her power, Monroe's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "You hypnotize people when they're asleep?"

[Carleigh Davidson]

Carleigh nodded. That did sound really inconvenient. "Do you think that'll ever stop? Like maybe when you have better control over your power, you'll be able to turn it off? Cause it isn't really fair to you, having to stay up all night." She rambled. She didn't have that much willpower. If Carleigh wanted to sleep, she would sleep, no matter who it bothered. Her insomnia definitely wasn't by choice.

She chuckled as she settled on the couch. "Since it's an old machine it'll be a few minutes." Carleigh told Monroe with a yawn. Time to refuel. She nodded, seeing and hearing his confusion. "It's... weird." She decided that was one way to describe it. "Subliminal hypnotic suggestion. Can only do it when people are asleep. Everyone is weaker when asleep, so it's easier to slip into their conscience." Monroe would know that with his dream walking.

The whirl at the coffee machine stopped, so Carleigh stood up and held out her hand for his cup with a smile.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"I have no idea, I don't have much to go off of. I guess Hammel hasn't seen a lot of dream walkers. I mean, my trainer tried to help me the best he could by using techniques for people who had mental powers, but that's very broad and my power is very specific. I'm not really sure what would happen. I wish that someone would come to Hammel, a trainer that knew my power, that had lived with it. I'm not saying I haven't been helped here, but rather that the only thing I've really learned to do is pull myself out of these dreams and sleep where people usually don't. But the pulling out of dreams takes a lot of energy, energy I don't have. So I guess it's the coffee life for me until then," Monroe declared, holding up his mug.

He listened to her talk about her power. "Yeah, I get that part, I'm just confused about what your power does. DO you get them to think things or do things?" He handed over his mug to her.

[Carleigh Davidson]

Carleigh nodded sympathetically. Dreamwalking wasn't common, like all the pyros and animal shifters on campus. She felt Monroe's pain, as nobody had experience with her power either. There were vague training sessions but non as exact as the more commonly seen power. "So I guess you never sleep in your dorm then?" She asked.

"Oh, okay. Yeah it is confusing." Carleigh laughed, with a smile on her face. "I think the best way to explain it is I can go into their thoughts while asleep and tell them to do things." She explained to the best of her ability. "Then we see if it works or not."

She chuckled, taking his mug over to the coffee machine. "The coffee life is the only way to live life." Carleigh poured the coffee into their mugs. "Any cream or sugar?"