It was 3 am yesterday, and all I heard was coughing.
"When will it end?" I rubbed my eyes. "This bloody cold won't leave them alone."
By 'them', I mean Liam and Nathan.
They first contracted it 12 days ago, and still, neither can shake it.
Before I had even finished rubbing my eyes, Nathan joined the chorus of coughs and went one step further by vomiting onto the bed.
The silence between Laura and me was as deafening as it was heavy with resignation.
We just sat there without saying a word.
Without shining a torch on the horror that awaited us.
"Happy Birthday," Laura said.
We chuckled together — each holding a child — as we stood on the precipice of insanity.
"It's hard to see it right now, but one day, we'll pay anything to have what we have right now for free," she added.
I craned my neck to Laura and hummed. "I'm not sure I'll miss changing a king-size bed at three in the morning."
"True."
"On the bright side, it's a lot better than my birthday last year."
And it was.
Long-time Legionnaires will remember I came down with a god-awful flu that can only be described as death.
That sucker kept me bed-bound in the spare room for nearly 10 days straight.
Just recollecting the memory makes me want to reach for ibuprofen.
That said, it wasn't all bad.
It allowed me to rewatch some fantasy classics like The Lord of the Rings.
What a trilogy, by the way.
Still to this day, I believe it to be one of the best movie adaptations to ever be made, despite finding Frodo just as intolerable as I did when I first watched it.
I know this admission will make fanboys ball their fists, but I've never been a fan of whiny, prepubescent heroes/heroines.
Never have, never will.
No, I like my characters how my sleep has been this past fortnight:
Violent, unpredictable, and ever so occasionally… sobering.
If that's how you like your characters too, then you'll find a diverse cast waiting for you in The Divided Region.
To start your journey into Estos, go here:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/Exiled
Alternatively, if you still have trust issues shopping at my Storehouse — or worse, falsely believe it's too difficult to download an ebook outside of Amazon — then you can grab it at your preferred retailer here:
https://books2read.com/dividedregionexiled
DJJW