The Victim (Book #1)

Chapter 30

Dinner was a boisterous affair. The boys were in a loud conversation about which girls had come back from summer break and become prettier, and which guys had come back ripped.

"You should have seen her, Dom!" Damon said, lifting his hands up to his chest until Charlotte shot him a fiery glare. He dropped them and smiled innocently, saying "She had a big heart." Charlotte nodded on the verge of anger, but appeased.

"A massive heart." Caleb said with an impish grin.

"Two, massive hearts." Damon said, before getting pelted with a roll.

"Mom!" he complained, rubbing his head.

"We do NOT talk about women like that in this household." Charlotte said.

"But!" he protested.

"A woman's body is a beautiful thing!" she said loudly, beginning a lecture. The boys all groaned, and I smiled as she stopped speaking. A triumphant smile lit her face, and Damon's conversation was silenced immediately.

"Besides, we all know the prettiest woman in school, and I'm dating her." Brooklyn said with a cocky grin. Dominic rolled his eyes as Damon pretended to gag.

"Hey!" I complained, half-heartedly. I knew Valerie was prettier than me, I just wanted to be a part of the fun too.

"He said woman, not little girl." Damon teased, pouting out his lip condescendingly and patting my head. I looked up at his hand before it could reach me and took a snap at it. He pulled it back like I was rabid, and Caleb laughed.

"No biting at the dinner table." Charlotte said, although she was trying not to giggle as well.

"Brooks, why don't you tell us about your day?" I asked abruptly, changing the subject.

Damon gave me a wounded expression and said "Maya... You don't care about my day? I'm hurt." He clutched his chest as if in physical pain.

"Good." I shot back. "It didn't seem like the poison was working."

Charlotte shot Caleb a look as if to ask for help in guiding the conversation away from where it was.

"Well my day started with showing Maya to the office, and then heading to my first class. Guess who I saw there? You will never guess." Caleb began, building up momentum to launch into a story.

And with that, the conversation drifted away.

After dinner, I helped Brooklyn and Caleb clean up the dishes because it was our night. Apparently, the boys had specific chores they did during the week, and I offered to join in too. Charlotte told me it wasn't necessary, but it would make the work faster for everyone, and they had given me so much for free already.

I brought in plates and handed them to Brooks to rinse, before he passed them to Caleb to put in the dishwasher. I let my mind wander while Caleb explained why Skyrim was the best videogame but didn't stick around to hear Brooklyn's rebuttal. My room was boring despite access to the internet, and so I switched back to homework within the hour.

I got my syllabi signed by Charlotte after I completed my math, and then went downstairs and watched Caleb playing his game for a while, which actually did look pretty cool. He offered to set me up a character if I was interested and the way his eyes glowed when I said yes made me think I was the first person to take him up on his offer.

The game allowed you to edit your character, so I picked a girl with long blonde hair and a golden colored stripe of paint over her eyes that reminded me of the masks in the Incredibles. She was tall and had wiry muscles that made me somewhat jealous. I wish I knew how to fight. I didn't look like any kind of threat. I added some scars to her face, so people would know what she had been through.

He led me through a couple of different quests until Dominic came downstairs and said we should probably get some sleep.

"Isn't that normally Charlotte's job?" I teased, as Caleb scampered upstairs tiredly.

"Yeah, but she had a rough day today. Talked to a kid for well over two hours, and when he came out, he looked like he'd been through it. She did too apparently; she was asleep by ten." He said, laughing despite the minorly concerned look on his face.

I decided to follow him as he locked the doors and shut all the windows downstairs. There were a fair amount of them. As he closed the curtain to the sliding glass door, I asked, "Do you have trouble sleeping?"

His face was as stoic as ever, but his eyes seemed to smile as they sometimes did.

He hesitated and then nodded once.

I smiled at his honesty.

"Nightmares?" I pressed.

He turned to face me, pausing in the living room. After a moment, he nodded once more.

"About what?"

His face broke into an incredulous smile. "Curious little thing, aren't you?" he asked as he headed back to the room that we started in.

"Yes. But I'm not so little." I replied.

He raised an eyebrow but didn't fight me on it. "I have nightmares about all sorts of things. They change over time. Recently it's just been darkness, and people grabbing at me from all directions. They almost catch me but then I slip away and wake up and it's just me, in my room, alone."

I thought about that and wondered not for the first-time what Dominic had faced as a child.

"You may be the strong silent type, but I admire your unflinching honesty." I said, as he flicked off all the lights and we began walking upstairs.

His lips bent up in a crooked smile as we stopped at my bedroom door. He pointed a hand toward it and said "Sleep. Now."

I gave him a mocking salute and spun, marching into my room.

He leaned in as I leaped into my bed and said, "No Netflix, Maya."

"What if I have a nightmare?" I asked, half-joking and half-realistically.

He squinted his eyes in thought and said "One show. And if that still doesn't do the trick, you come and get me."

I thought about his offer and then nodded once.

He stepped back out into the hall and closed the door behind him.

It wasn't exactly a "Good night, sweet dreams", but I think I liked his version better. I got ready for bed and tucked myself in snugly, wishing for a dreamless sleep.

I should be so lucky. 

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A/N Damon in the picture at the top looking STUNNING as usual. Shout out to Ian Somerhalder for being the most attractive man ever. So many of you wrote comments that you pictured him immediately and he is definitely who I would cast as Damon! 

Thank you so much for all your comments, support, and sticking with this story while I add to it. We're definitely nowhere close to done! Enjoy!