Althea

|𝟮𝟮| 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲

My dreams weren't always bad, sometimes they were good. Sometimes I dreamt of times before the accident, before the fire. Before my brother became distant and barely talked to me or played with me.

My mom used to bake, the house filling up with that smell of blueberry muffins and those candles she loved so much.

They were always around the house, sitting on almost every surface. You couldn't escape them until you got upstairs where my stepdad wouldn't allow any form of fire. Including candles.

I never liked my stepdad. Even though he did nothing wrong.

He just creeped me out and ever since him and my mom got married, Declan had been acting distant.

But he had to be better then my real dad because from what I heard from my mom, my real dad wasn't shit.

Right now, I was dreaming of nothing. My eyes were just closed, searching for that noise I hear in the faint distance.

What is that?

Whimpering?

Crying?

Talking?

My eyes finally opened and I stared up at the ceiling, trying to figure out where I was. Then I remembered. I was with Althea. I smiled because I liked being with her, no, scratch that, I loved being with her.

I scrunched my eyebrows when that whimpering continued, that crying.

I sat up, my eyes scanning the dark living room for the source of the soft crying. But then my eyes snapped down. The soft crying was coming from beside me. It was coming from Althea.

I would have never woken up if it weren't for me being a light sleeper. Thank god for that.

"Althea?" I whispered, trying not to wake the others up who were sound asleep all over the living room.

I squinted through the dark. I could see Althea shaking in her sleep on the other end of the couch, buried beneath a mountain of covers that she rustled from me a little bit before we all fell asleep.

I reached out my hand and pulled the covers gently down so I could see her face.

Since it was so dark, there was no use but I could see the outline of her body and her shaking.

When I pulled some of her hair behind her ear to wake her up her eyes snapped open and she started looking around frantically as if someone were coming, her eyes watery and her chest rising and falling quickly.

What the fuck?

I sit up, careful not to make any noise as I pull her into my lap. Her legs straddle me and she buries her face into the crook of my neck.

What's wrong with her? Why is she crying? Did she have a nightmare? About what? Im freaking the fuck out right now and I feel like someone shot me in my fucking heart because getting shot, not that I have ever been shot before, but getting shot and seeing Althea cry are the same kind of pain I recon because feeling her shake in my arms, her arms wrapped around my neck, makes my heart splinter into a million frickin pieces.