the night before

prompt: surprise
word count: 292

***

Katarina sat up from the bed with a jolt, hand instinctively lashing out at the form attached to the hands shaking her shoulder. Without flinching, Daniel caught her striking hand in his own.

“What are you doing?” Katarina asked dazed, blinking several times as her eyes attempted to adjust to wakefulness.

Daniel put a finger to his lips in a shushing motion.

“Did you hear that?” he whispered.

Katarina perked her ears up in attention and nodded. Quietly, the two slid out of the bed and skulked to the bedroom door, pressing their backs up against the wall behind it.

Slowly, the doorknob turned and the door creaked open. Daniel moved quickly, pushing the door back with a thunderous kick, knocking one of the assailants to the ground. Katarina nimbly moved from behind the door to engage the other attacker that remained on his feet.

“Kat?” the intruder said just before Katarina connected her raised fist with his nose.

Katarina froze, hand inches from the man’s face, her eyes wide. She dropped her hand to her side.

“Eddy?” she asked.

“I told you this would not work,” the man on the ground groaned.

“Ray? Ed? What is going on?” Daniel asked, helping Raymund off the floor.

“Well the plan was to abduct you as you slept,” Raymund began.

“Your uncle had told us it was a family tradition that the groom’s friends wake him up and celebrate his last day of bachelorhood the night before his wedding, so we thought…” Edmund started.

“You would just kidnap him from his room?” Katarina asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“We just wanted to properly observe our future brother-in-law’s last days – wait, why are you in here?” Raymund questioned, narrowing his eyes.