Brynna

A Living Nightmare

   I finally ripped myself out of Jenny's careful grasp and tried to run over to Brynna, who's softly crying out and losing consciousness. I get about three feet away when my mother's protective arms wrap around me and pull me into her. My screaming has quieted, but they are replaced with inhuman sounding sobs escaping my throat. Dad scans my best friend and rubbed his eyes, something that he does when he's trying not to cry. He gingerly lifts the girl and carries her off to the sick bay, his arms and  shirt getting even more soaked with blood than before. My mother holds me out at arms length and tells me to breathe and calm down. I don't wan't to calm down. Everything is not okay.
"Everything will be alright, Brooke." I hear Jenny's voice from behind me. I glance back at my older sister before running to her and crying silently on her shoulder. My Mum leaves the room.
"How do you know?" I ask after a couple minutes.
"It's not exactly... the first time." She speaks to me as if I'm a small child and too fragile to handle the truth, which I probably am. All of the memories of previous encounters rush back to me. The whispered conversations, the panicked looks every time a communicator went off, Brynna's occasional limp, her bruises, scars, and terror when I told her to leave. Every over night sick bay stay, every soft moan of pain trying to be hidden, and every helpless look given.
"Stupid. Stupid. STUPID!" I yell at nothing, "How could I have been so oblivious to it all?" I ask softly. Jenny doesn't say anything. She doesn't need to. She just leads me to the kitchen.
"Sit." She says sternly. I obey. To shocked and ashamed to do anything else. She whisks around, getting mugs, making tea, and putting jammy dodgers on a plate. The biscuits and the drinks go onto a tray. "Now follow me." She speaks with authority in her voice. I slightly nod and run everything through my mind again as she leads me through the cold metal halls of the tardis. The tardis is cold unfamiliar, everything is wrong. She seems to be whispering foreboding messages to me, like she was trying to warn me that there are worse things to come. I try to shake the thoughts from my head.  I feel myself getting warmer and I realize we've walked into one of the many libraries, why Jenny has chosen this one I'm not sure. She sets the tray down onto a table in front of a couch. The fireplace on the wall is burning, the crackling of the fire and the smell of old books bringing me from my dark thoughts. I sip the warm beverage in silence. Jenny, however, tries to spark a conversation a few times trying to distract me from my anger, what am I angry at? Myself for not figuring it out, it seems obvious now, 'm angry at my parents, and Jenny, and even Brynna for all of them keeping this from me. As if I was some small child, I wanted to go beat up... whoever... was abusing my best friend right now. Jenny continues trying to make small talk.  I just shake my head slightly,  showing my distaste for socializing at the moment. She sighs, finally giving up, and takes the empty plate and cups, leaving me to myself and my bad mood. I trudge over to one of the many shelves of books and grab the first book I see. I start to read thinking it would be a distraction, To my horror it's a book about two cats, one lives in a rich home, with great owners, it has everything it wants, plenty to eat, a good place to sleep, the works. One day, it meets a tabby cat, the tabby cat is thin and mangy, full of tears and scars from fights, but it pretends to be healthy and strong, so that the rich cat wouldn't think poorly of it. The irony is not lost on me. I throw it down on the couch next to me. I glance at the ceiling.

"are you serious?" I ask the tardis, "do you think you're funny?" The tardis does not respond. what was I expecting anyways?  I furiously make my way back to my room, not even thinking to check how Brynna was doing. I turn off the lights, and get into bed fully clothed, hoping I could wake up from this living nightmare.