It took Thorin a good while to get rid of the spikes and by the time he did, Zi Mei was already half asleep. It turns out that pretending to be asleep is the best way to become sleepy and fall asleep. When she felt him get into bed next to her, she could barely move. Her limbs are heavy with sleep and she could feel the heaviness of sleep on her eyelids. Just as Thorin arranged his body against her, spooning her warmly, she gave in to the soft tendrils of sleep, welcoming the dark respite it provided her from the scary thoughts of the demon.
If she had expected a dreamless peaceful sleep, Zi Mei was so wrong. At first she was sliding comfortably into a dreamless sleep but suddenly she found herself gasping against Darren who is choking her. Then she is falling and she flailed about trying to scream but she couldn't scream. She kept falling and falling and suddenly she is back in her old home and the Darren demon is grinning at her, blood dripping from its lips.
