Alana's New Life

Chapter 24

Maria's POV

I am startled awake when I hear screaming coming from Alana's nursery. I looked over at the clock at see it was 4am and was quick to jump out of bed to go and check on her. When I walk into the nursery I am met with a very teary eyed, tired little girl who is standing up holding onto the top rail on the crib with her teddy in hand. If it was not for her crying, I would have though she looked adorable in her sleepy state. "What's wrong princess?" I ask as I pick her up. She wraps her arms around my neck and cries into my shoulder, "shh, you're okay, tell mummy what's wrong" I say gently as I bounce her slightly.

This is what happened last night, she woke up screaming and crying and would not go back to sleep. I wonder what has her so upset, it is clearly a bad dream, but she wont talk about it. I sit us down on the rocking chair and rock us hoping it will help sooth her. "Is she ok love?" I hear Antonio say from the doorway making me jump slightly. "I don't know, another bad dream I believe but she won't talk. Can you maybe make her a bottle it may help settle her?" I ask and he nods before leaving.

We sit for a good 10 minutes before he comes back with her bottle and luckily enough, she has calmed down a lot to the point it is only little sniffles coming from her. "Feeling better princess?" Antonio asked when he entered the room. Alana slowly nods her head and looks up at me, I give her a small smile and ask again "what got you so upset?" and when I say this kid went white, I don't think I could even exaggerate how white she went. I look up at Antonio with a worried look, I know nightmares can be scary, especially for little ones but I have a feeling it is more than just a scary dream. "Never mind, you can tell us another time, you are safe here" I say as I offer her the bottle, but she shakes her head and pushes away from me, making me frown. I hoped a bottle would help.

"Now, now princess, it's still the middle of the night, let's have a bottle and cuddles yeah, then try and get some more sleep" Antonio says as he lifts her into his arms and walks through to the bedroom and makes himself comfortable in bed. He leans Alana back slightly and holds has hand out for the bottle from me which I hand over. He offers it to her but again she refused, I sit down on my side of the bed and start running my fingers threw her hair, "Common princess, just drink then we can all try going back to sleep, you can even sleep here with mummy and daddy" Antonio says with a tired voice as he offers her the bottle again, this time she takes it.

Antonio's POV

It's now almost 45 minutes after Alana first woke us up and she had fallen back asleep after drinking ½ the bottle of milk. Instead of putting her back to bed I tuck her in between Maria and I, then I get myself comfortable. I look over to see Martia brushing some hair out of Alana's face and she smiles at me and I return the smile. "I wonder what has her so upset in her sleep the past 2 nights" Maria says to me, "I don't know love but we will find out sooner or later" I say as I stroke her cheek. She scrunches her face up slightly before relaxing and turning towards me. I put my arm around her and pull her closer into a cuddle, in which she does cuddle in close to me and with that we settle down for the rest of the night, with smiles on our faces at having our precious little girl cuddled safe beside us.

Alana's POV

I had that horrible dream again, the one where my mum was saying all these horrible things to me and wishing I was dead. This time in my dream she started to beat me to the point I nearly was dead and that was when I woke up, just before I died in my dream. Do they not say that if you die in a dream that you die in real life? That gives me the fear. I have never had bad dreams before, never dreamed of my mother hitting me, nothing like that, so why now? Why am I remembering all the times she would hit me? Why did I always push the memories to the back of my mind?

I lay here between the couple who now want me to call them mummy and daddy and I think about everything they have done to and for me over the last couple of days. I HATE the fact that I was abducted and forced into this life that they want me to take part in, but I do like the other things they have done, they have been there when I have needed someone to tell me that everything is okay, they have treated me with care and kindness, and in their own way I know that they love me.

I then think back to my life with my mother and all I can picture is sleeping at night feeling cold, my mother never being home and when she was home she was usually either out of it on drugs, drunk or both. The house was covered in mould, it smelled really bad, the windows would either be smashed or broken to the point they could not be shut properly which made it even colder than it was. I would try my best to clean the place up but I was never successful at it and if I was able to tidy areas up they would be trashed in no time by my mum and the company she would bring home.

That was the worst when she had company over. The people my mum brought over were her 'friends', a lot of the time they were just drunks and drug addicts who crashed in the house, they would stay up late making lots of noise before passing out for the night but I always made sure I hid in the house, her friends terrified me especially when they were drunk or high. There had been times when they would try and get close to me but I would run away and lock myself in the bathroom, I may be small but I can out run a high or drunk person that I know for sure. I hate this, I hate that I am remembering everything I wanted to forget, things such as my mum hitting me when she was off her face on the drugs. I would always say to myself that she works hard to give us a home and food when she could.

I always believed that my mum loved me, but after being here for a while I now see that my mum neglected me and abused me, even though I was independent, I had to be, she should have cared more for me, been there when I needed her and looked after me that way I tried to do for her. I don't know what to do anymore my head is so fuzzy. I feel like I want to shut down and sleep and not wake up, but I am scared to sleep in case I dream about my life again, like I have been the past 2 nights. Only 2 nights and I don't want another one like that.

I turn on my side and look over at Antiono, himself, just like Maria, is still sleeping. As I watch him, I think to myself how much he has turned my life around and I am not sure if it is for worse or for better. I have never really had a father figure since mine died when I was only little so I never really got to know him, and this guy here has been nice to me. Is this what it would have been like if my father was still alive? Would my mum and I's life's have been different? Better even?

I don't have much more time to think on the questions going on in my head as Antonio opens his eyes. He stares at me for a moment then brings that big smile he always has on around me on his face.

"Good morning baby girl"