It was dark.

Then again, it was always dark, but this morning it seemed with a purpose. There were no lamps turned on, no candles lit, no hoarded nightlights or flashlights hidden stealthily beneath covers. And certainly no sunlight. Never sunlight.

He paced restlessly back and forth in the feasting area. It was the darkest place in the Hole, as he'd come to call it, and he enjoyed that. Everywhere else had a lamp, a fireplace, even a tanning bed. But not the feasting area. He'd held fast to that decision, and it was one of the few he'd won. There were no florescent lights, no battery-powered lamps. Just a few of the beeswax candles they'd found in storage, and even now they weren't lit. It was total darkness -- black as pitch -- and after a while he'd decided he preferred it that way.

Back and forth, back and forth. He'd been pacing for at least an hour, walking up and down the length of the cherrywood table. Not once had he bumped into a chair or jammed his kneecap on a table corner, and that was something that could be credited to the amount of time he'd spent in the Hole. He knew every hall, room, and corridor; he could navigate through it blindfolded if necessary. The very thought seemed to be bad luck. As soon as it passed through his mind, he walked straight into a chair, knocking both his kneecaps sharply on the seat. He let out a cry of mingled surprise and frustration as the chair toppled over. There was a very long moment of silence.
"Must be losing my mind," he mumbled, and dragged a set of pale fingers through his sleep-rumpled mane. "I must be losing it." He stared at the chair for a few more silent moments, then carefully -- almost lovingly -- righted it. It was an unusually tiny chair, one obviously made for a child; the wood had been hand-painted blue and decorated with white puffy clouds. On the seat back was a large, foolishly smiling sun. Seeing that made him cringe; he drew away from the miniature chair and stalked off down the hall. It had taken endless days of worrying and two bruised kneecaps, but the decision had been made.

"Wake up." The lights went on, flooding the small room with sudden brightness. There were four children there, each in their own cot and bleary-eyed with sleep. A teenage girl with dark brown hair took one look at him in the doorway and rolled over.
"Chris, go away," she mumbled to her pillow. "The alarms don't go off for another three hours."
"It wasn't a suggestion, TJ," he snarled, flicking the lights on and off irritably. "All of you, up. Now." The other three children were rubbing at their eyes and squinting in an effort to figure out what was going on.
"What's --" A boy with red hair cut himself off with a yawn. "-- what's up, Chris? TJ's right, the alarms don't go off for another --"
"I know they don't, Elijah." Chris flicked the lights on and off again, running a hand through his black hair. The girl in the corner had drifted back to sleep and was ignoring him courtesy of her pillow.
"Why are we up so early?" Now another girl was awake, this one with long blonde hair and a pair of headphones around her neck.
"I'll tell you when you're all fully concious," Chris said shortly, then sighed in aggravation. "And what have I told you about wearing those to bed, Jo? You're going to break them, and then you won't be able to listen to your music. Ever." Jo meekly took them off and set the portable CD player aside.
"Sorry," she said apologetically.
"Don't worry about it, just remember next time." Chris walked into the room fully, glancing at a little girl on the last cot. "And can you wake up Tabitha for me?"
"Sure." She stood and stretched, then knelt beside the little girl's cot and began gently prodding her awake. Chris, however, wasn't so gentle. He stalked over to the cot in the corner and ripped the blankets off TJ, throwing the sheets so hard to the side that he nearly knocked over a small ceramic lamp.
"Get up," he said simply. She shivered for a moment before sitting up and frowning at him.
"Could you be any more of a pig, Christian?" TJ snapped.
"Only if I took notes from you." Chris gave her rear end a light slap, and she squeaked loudly. "Up. Now."
"You're a jackass," TJ muttered, rubbing her butt as she stood.
"And yet you tolerate me," he said with a thin smile. There was a long moment of silence before she stuck out her tongue and blew a loud raspberry at him, making Elijah giggle from across the room. "I'm so glad you're acting your age," Chris said drily as he turned for the door.
"So sorry if I'm not exactly rivaling the Queen of England this morning --" TJ glanced at the alarm clocks that lined the walls and frowned. "-- but I didn't get to bed very early last night, and you're dragging me out of bed at four in the freaking morning!"
"Maybe if you didn't stay up so late watching those stupid reruns of Buffy The Vampire Slayer..." Christian said, a very faint tone of amusement in his voice.
"That's not what I was doing!"
"It was so!" He glanced at her over his shoulder. "You're going to burn holes in those DVDs if you don't stop rewinding to watch Spike take his shirt off." TJ blushed a deep scarlet, and Elijah giggled into his hands again.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she muttered.
"Please," Chris scoffed, making his way to Tabitha's cot. "You practically need to fasten a drool cup to watch that scene." Another loud giggle.
"Do not!" was the only retort TJ could think of, followed by, "Shut up, Elijah!" Christian just smirked and dropped to a knee beside the little girl's cot.
"You awake, Tabby?" he murmured.
"I'm having some trouble getting her up," Jo said, rubbing at her eyes. Tabitha mumbled something unintelligible and hugged a small, worn stuffed animal to her chest.
"That's all right, Jolene. C'mere, you." Chris carefully hooked two hands under the little girl's arms and pulled Tabitha out of bed, balancing her on his hip.
"Mmmm," was all she had to say.
"I know, it's early," he said soothingly as he smoothed her blonde hair away from her eyes. He began for the door, stopped only by Elijah's voice.
"What's up?" he said again, following Chris like a puppy. "You never got us up before the alarms before. Something wrong?"
"I bet he just likes to see us run into walls from lack of sleep," TJ muttered from her corner.
"I'll run you into a wall myself if you don't stop snapping at me," Chris said plainly, and glanced back at the freckled face by his shoulder. "Nothing's wrong, Elijah. Just come with me into the den. I've got something I need to tell all of you." Jolene finished wrapping her hair in a messy bun and got gracefully to her feet. It still amazed Christian how she could be twelve and wasn't all knees and elbows. God knew how clumsy he had been at that age.
"I don't like the sound of this, Chris," she said cautiously.
"Don't worry about it," he assured her, and turned to head towards the den.
"Can I please have an explanation, Christian?" TJ's irritated voice was suddenly quite loud. "Because if it's not good enough, I'm going back to sleep. The rest of us need more than four hours of rest. We're not all spawn of Dracula." Chris turned and smiled thinly at her, still cradling Tabitha against his chest.
"We're going up, TJ," he said bluntly, and headed into the den.