triplets

Part 5

Trust is something built with time and effort.

It can also erode with time and effort.

Penelope had nightmares sometimes.

In those nightmares, she'd find the tentative trust she tried to build shaken with fears out of control. Alone late at night she'd try to eat because she was so hungry and she was tired and it hurt.

And the foul taste in her mouth was too much to be normal. Too much to simply be rotten. Someone had messed with her food.

Someone wanted to hurt her.

And as the malice of that act settled deep inside of her heart like another jagged spike, she'd turn to see the culprit sneering at her.

Brother.

And just as she thought that, she saw Cale and Roksu. Sneering and delighting in her pain.

With a jolt, she'd wake up. Breathing heavily and sweating profusely.

Penelope made a habit of sneaking out of bed when she woke up like this.

She didn't want the comfort of her siblings. Not right now.

Staring out into the night from the window she thought she could see rain.

'One, Roksu and Cale have never done that.'

She breathed in and out, slowly and painfully, unable to understand the incongruent memory or why the word brother was such a menace to her.

'Two, it was just a dream.'

The clouds hid the moon behind their mass, hiding Penelope from the light and the comfort it might offer her.

'Three, my food isn't poisoned.'

She needed to remind herself as facts because if she focused on fantasy too much, she could still taste the foul flavor of the disgusting meal.

She touched her chubby toddler tummy, reflecting that it was nice to feel the distended chub. She was healthy and she was able to eat well. She didn't need to sneak out late at night to eat.

Penelope Henituse was well fed.

'...but I haven't always been well fed.'

Penelope was starting to understand that there was an ever so slight difference between I and Penelope Henituse. While Penelope Henituse was always I, I was not always Penelope Henituse.

She still hadn't gotten a full handle on the facts of the matter but she was starting to differentiate those matters in that simple logical equation.

Penelope trusted and loved her brothers, she had no reason to feel otherwise.

I didn't trust the concept known as brothers, the trust eroding away like so much rot inside of her damaged heart.

And as that affection inside of her grew stronger, so did the growing fear that it would one day be betrayed. How long before they decided it would be fun to hurt her? Before they took malicious joy in causing her harm?

How long could she indulge in the lie that brothers weren't dangerous and cruel?

"...Penelope?"

Penelope jolted fearfully, flinching away from the approaching sibling.

Roksu frowned in his unique way, he was concerned but he wouldn't admit to that. He was a dishonest punk but Penelope didn't have any trouble reading him.