Belladonna's been revised :D

George PoV

George sat straight up in bed in a cold sweat, panting. It took him a moment to realize that he was in his room, not outside, and that there was no belladonna, no Shadow, and no storm-

Lightning flashed through the windows, illuminating the dark room for a brief moment. George rolled his eyes as thunder shook the castle a split second later. There was no rain, yet, nor wind, but George bet that there would be soon.

More importantly, however, it had just been a dream. Shadow wasn't actually going to murder herself using a highly poisonous plant that might actually grow right there on the forest but he'd never noticed, right?

Rolling his eyes, the brunette swung out of bed, running a hand through his messy bed-hair before putting on his leather boot-slippers and standing up. The wood plank floors were freezing cold, even to the point where he could feel it through the boots. Muttering under his breath, George slowly started walking out of his room, tentatively putting his hand out in front of himself to make sure he didn't walk straight into his table...

Which he almost did, but that's beside the point.

After opening the wooden door, George picked up the pace, actually being able to see due to the burning wooden torches. They were scattered along the walls periodically, some of them smoldering stumps and others looking so new that George wondered if Sapnap had replaced them recently. However, as he passed, a few of the stumps flickered out as a draft blew through the hall.

That was the main problem with living in a freaking castle: it was incredibly drafty and freezing cold.

As he passed Dream's room, he was surprised to notice the light was still on inside, and he could hear the sound of rustling paper and a few muttered words.

"...latt... not enough time... uncooperative... votes..." George smacked himself guiltily. Dream was his friend. He shouldn't be eavesdropping on him! What Dream was going to do was his own business, and George should trust him enough to let it stay that way. He shook himself and continued walking down the hall.

Sapnap's room, on the other hand, had the lights off, but George could hear the sound of chewing and could smell bread and chicken. Despite himself, George grinned. Of course Sapnap was having a midnight snack during a thunderstorm. George was, however, decently surprised that the entire SMP was awake. Well, if Punz and Eret were awake as well, that is.

George hopped down the final set of stairs to the doors to the castle, swinging them open as quiet as he could. Outside, the sky was pitch black, but spiderwebs of lightning flickered across it almost constantly. The air was misty and humid, but there was no rain yet. George rustled around in his backpack till he found a torch, which he lit and started walking towards the forest.

The dry leaves crunched underfoot as he ducked under a vine and found the place in his dream. A smell like pine needles wafted all around him as he held his torch up. There was no belladonna, not one berry, not one leaf. Yawning, George stretched and turned to walk back to the castle. He was tired, but there was still one thing he had to check before he went back to sleep.

As he passed by Dream's window, he heard the familiar twang of a crossbow and stumbled back as a bolt struck where he'd been standing a second before.

"George?" he heard Dream ask, confused. George looked up to see Dream's head in the window, staring down at his friend in tired puzzlement.

"Oh, hey Dream," George said nonchalantly, grinning at his friend's obvious confusion.

Dream yawned, disappearing for a moment to put his crossbow away. "What are you doing out this late?" he asked, reappearing.

George shrugged. "I had a dream and needed to check something." He paused. "By the way, how come literally everyone is up this late at night?"

Dream turned into a tea kettle.

"Late at night?" He choked out between wheezes. "George, it's 11 P.M."

George blinked. "WhAT." He glanced back up to see Dream recovering from his laughing spasm and now breathing heavily, shaking his head.

"You went to bed at, like, 8:00," Dream snorted.

George rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine, shut up." He stopped, suddenly, a thought occurring to him. "Why the hell did you fire a crossbow at me? Why do you even have a crossbow on hand?"

"I thought you were Wilbur," Dream claimed.

"Surrrrrre, Clay," George teased. Dream glared at him. Waving goodbye to his friend, George started for the prison. As he stepped inside, a familiar tabby cat jumped down onto one of the chairs, meowing at him.

"Hey Patches," George said to the cat. Dream had cat-napped patched from a village. The village was now burned down (Sapnap's handywork) and the cat was a permanent part of the SMP. Scooping up the kittith, George carried Patched all the way down to the cells, where he was surprised to see Shadow, still awake and sitting on the windowsill.

"Okay, seriously!" George shouted, exasperated, as he set the cat down. "Does everyone here stay up all night except me?"

Shadow snorted. "Hello to you too." She jumped off the window and walked over to the door. Crouching, she held out her fingers to Patches. "Who's this pretty kitty?" She looked teasingly up at George. "Is she a gift? Because, aw, you shouldn't have." She stroked Patches' soft fur. "Emphasis on the aw. This cat is ADORABLE."

Patches purred, Shadow smiled, and George rolled his eyes.

"Actually, I just scooped her up from the main room before I came to talk to you," George explained. "I have a question for you."

Shadow had somehow squeezed Patches through the metal bars and into the cell and was now petting the very contented cat. "Shoot." She paused, glancing at George's crossbow. "Not actually, but... Like, ask away? I guess?" She spotted the look on George's face and shrugged. "Okay, I'll shut up now."

George sat down on the bench, facing Shadow. "What do you know about belladonna?"

Shadow's eyebrows rose. "Woah, are we planning a murder via poison? Cause seriously, I want in. Who is it? Dream? Tubb- OOOH PLEASE TELL ME WE'RE MURDERING THE BLOND CHILD!"

George blinked. "Uhhh, no. Sorry. We're not planning a murder." Shadow put on a pouting face, so he reluctantly added, "Yet."

Shadow sighed, studying her gloves. "Well, it'll have to do for now. Anyways, belladonna, you said?" She tapped her fingers against the bed, making Patches sniff them curiously. "Well, for one thing, it's a plant. Poisonous and technically venomous. It's covered in this oil that really itches, kinda like poison ivy, and it's extremely deadly if ingested." She scratched Patches' tabby head. "It's in the same family as deadly nightshade, which is, you know, deadly (It's kinda right there in the name), but it's also in the same family as black nightshade, which is edible and actually quite good."

George nodded slowly. "And you haven't seen any around here, right?"

Shadow gave him a funny look. "What's with all the questions? There's probably some book about it somewhere in L'manburg, go look there."

"We can't exactly STROLL into L'manchildburg, you know." George shot back.

"Oh, so you're not as chummy with them as y'all claimed?" Shadow teased him, cradling Patches in her arms and tickling the cat's stomach. "No, I haven't seen any. Can I stop being interrogated now?"

The brunette sighed, dragging a hand down his face. "Shadow, why don't you want an actual room?" he asked suddenly. The girl looked surprised.

"To be honest?" She rubbed the back of her neck. "I don't want to be a part of the SMP."

"And because you don't like any of us?" George said, partly joking and partly trying to hide the fact that it kinda hurt.

"Hey, I like you and Sapnap! And I guess Punz is okay. I haven't really talked to him." Shadow's expression darkened. "Eret and Dream are another story..." Her hand drifted unconsciously towards her neck.

Outside, the rain had started to fall. George could hear it pattering against the stone. He stood up, smiling at Patches, who had fallen asleep. "I'm going to go back to bed." He held out his hands for Patches, but Shadow gave him a look and snuggled the cat deeper into the blankets. George rolled his eyes but relented, wishing both of them a good night.

------------

1436 words

---------------

PATCHES CONTENT YESSSSSSSSSSSSS

If you're kinda confused, Chapter 10: Belladonna was actually a dream George had

TA TE CHILDREN