Chapter 62: Square One
Derek lay in bed for a full thirty minutes before he finally accepted that sleep would not be coming easily for him like it had the night before. Then just to be sure he stayed still for an extra ten minutes. The ten minutes then turned into an hour, which then became two hours, but even with his eyes closed, and his breathing even, Derek could not sleep.
Unlike the other countless nights, Derek knew what the feeling before actual good sleep felt like, and he could feel it, it was just out of reach. Rather than lose his cool at his failure to just close his eyes and have sleep be there instantly. Derek took a few deep breaths and sat up.
He had eaten muffins right before bed. Of course, he would be too wired to sleep right away. Yes, that had to be it. There was no way him being able to sleep had just been a once off thing. With the problem identified, Derek had a solution.
Just like he did most nights, he would go out for a swim. But this time, he would not be swimming to pass the time. No, this time he would be swimming to burn off excess energy so that he would be out like a light the moment his head hit the pillow.
Going to his walk-in closet, Derek made a beeline for his swimming gear. The outfit for the night was black swimming trunks with a red line on either side. Taking off his pyjamas, Derek quickly pulled on the shorts and tightened the draw string. Once that was done, he took off his slippers and replaced them with flip flops. Swimming attire complete, Derek made his way out of his room.
And had to quickly run back inside when he heard the sound of approaching footsteps. He waited for a little while, his ear pressed to the door. Sure enough, a few minutes later, the same set of footsteps passed by his door again. Just to be safe, Derek stayed in his room for a while longer.
He had not been caught in all the years that he had been sleep starved, he was not about to get caught now that all that he needed was just a bit of exercise to burn off his unneeded energy and allow his body to sleep. And so Derek bided his time, and waited.
Once he was sure that whoever it was, was not coming back, Derek slowly opened the door and took a peek. There was no one waiting for him.
Good, but just to be sure, he waited a few more minutes to make sure that whoever it was did not come back that way again.
Satisfied, he once again made his way out of his room. This time there were no interruptions in his journey, and he safely made it to the pool.