"Goodnight." Jane called out over her shoulder. A chorus of uncaring mumbling broke out from behind her, more of a reaction than she expected, with the exception of her little brother who ran up and hugged Jane's legs at full speed, almost knocking her over.
"Whoa! Goodnight to you to, kid." she said smiling, ruffling his hair. He grinned up at her.
Jane loved her brothers more than anything else in the world. Her older brother kept to himself, probably because he was embarrassed by his secret passion for My Little Pony, though his love of that certain franchise was shared by his sister. Jane knew Mark was a brony, which she had nothing against, and she herself was a pegasister, but still Mark kept to himself though his attachment with his sister was still stronger than anything else. They spoke through Facebook and other online chats from their laptops, but he still hadn't been seen for days, refusing to video chat or send Jane a picture of himself. Mum kept yelling at him through the door to come out, but the door stayed firmly locked. Jane wondered what he was doing in there.
She was pulled back to reality by her little brother, Mike, pulling on her arm. Going to bed at night was hard, because he just wanted to play with his big sister whom he loved so much. She picked him up and hugged him tightly, kissing the top of his fluffy brown hair before setting him down again.
Jane detached herself from his five-year-old arms and, laughing, escaped to her room, her 'cave' as she liked to think of it. The walls were plastered with various posters of bands, dragons, drawings, TV shows, even a couple of My Little Pony posters found their way onto the crowded surroundings. It was furnished with an off-the-ground bed with a matching set of purple leopard-print pillowcase and blanket and black sheets, a dark reddish-brown wood desk, a couple of grey and black marbled steel shelves, a toy box and a built-in fish tank, which always glowed faintly blue at night from a gentle glow-in-the-dark backdrop that came with the tank. It was comforting to look at as Jane went to sleep. But she wasn't sleeping now. Mark had promised to connect to her tonight, and he said it was important.
Jane grabbed her laptop from a nook in her bed's base and jumped up to her mattress and snuggled under the blanket, warm, comfortable and interested as to what could be so important. She logged on to Skype and saw that her brother, MarkedOut, was on. A ridiculous name, she thought. Although, her own handle, TheFallenAngel, was more dramatic and over-the-top than his.