Family Matters

Chapter Three

Hearing the sound of cries, I looked around and noticed that I was back in our old house. Mama was on the floor crying with the knife still in her stomach. She looked up at me and her tears of blood streamed down her face.

"This is your fault!" She screamed taking the stomach out of her and then driving it back in and I flinched.

"M-Mama...please stop...you're hurting yourself!" I cried as I tried to step closer to her but my feet were once again planted to the ground. She was so close to me yet I couldn't reach her.

I couldn't do anything to save her.

I cried again as Mama continued to stab herself repeatedly while screaming that it was my fault.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I know it's my fault! Please, stop!" I could barely see her through the blur of my tears yet the movement I could see plagued me as she did it over and over again.

"Ceres! Wake up!"

Wake up?

When I opened my eyes, my mother was no longer in front of my. It was now Kadence and Roman who were staring down at me with looks of worry.

Immediately, Kadence gathered me up in his arms and allowed me to cry as much as I could in the safe comfort of his arms. I hated crying, yet I couldn't stop. The soft strokes on my hair and the safety Kadence's arms gave me was not helping me stop my tears any faster.

I heard the sound of rushed footsteps and I immediately felt bad for waking everyone up. I tried to stop crying again and thankfully it worked a little but some strays escaped before I could catch them. When pulling my head up, I saw that Kadence's shirt had tear stains on it.

"Sorry about your shirt..." I mumbled as I wiped the tears from my eyes.

"You don't need to worry about that, Honey. What's more important is if you're feeling better" he said looking at me.

Seeing my other brothers looking at me, I nodded so that they wouldn't worry anymore. It wasn't a whole lie. I felt a little more relaxed after crying out like that but I still wasn't feeling the best. I don't know how to explain it really.

"I'm sorry for waking you guys up..." I said and suddenly, Ares was in my face.

"Listen here, kiddo. I've heard you say sorry way too many times in the time you've been here. You haven't done anything that needs apologizing for you hear me?" He said and I just nodded slowly.

He smiled before rubbing my head. I looked down and noticed that my turtle was on the floor and not with me. No wonder I was having a nightmare...

I wasn't lying when I said she protects me from having nightmares.

"Let's go wash your face, yeah?" Roman said holding his hand out to me but before I could grab it, Kadence had stood up with me in his arms.

"I'll take her" he said sticking his tongue out at Roman before taking us to the bathroom.

"He's such a kid" I heard Roman say.

"Yeah, how the hell is he older than us?" The others voices had faded as we got further from them and once we were in the bathroom, Kadence placed me on the sink counter.

I watched silently as he grabbed a washcloth and ran it under some water before squeezing it out. When I thought he was going to hand it to me, he surprised me by using his free hand to cup my cheek and had began to rub the washcloth on my face.

"I-I can do it..." I said and Kadence shook his head at me.

"It's okay. I want to pamper you a little y'know? I missed out on doing this for you when you were younger. I missed out on doing so many things for you...we all did so it's only normal that we want to give you the comfort and care you deserve" he said with a small smile but I felt the hot feeling of tears rush back to my eyes.