'Till There Was You

Chapter Three: Dreams

I hated cold spring mornings, no I despised them. I trudged my way home from Scott's house where I had reluctantly spent the night per his insistence. I shoved my hands into my pockets, shivering as snow fell around me even in March.

Something felt wrong, and I couldn't place it. I usually would've come home later, when I knew my parents would be gone already. I had the urge this morning at an early hour to leave before Scott even awoke, quietly slipping out unnoticed. Maybe it's because we fought last night, and I wasn't ready to face him.

I quietly unlocked the door, hearing shrill yelling as I entered the hall.

"You're being crazy, put that down Mary, please." Something in my dad's voice was desperate, he was scared. I couldn't understand why he'd be afraid of my mother though.

"I'm being crazy, Mark, really!? Well I'm not the one who's been screwing my assistant!" She screamed, not sounding like herself at all. They'd been fighting a lot lately, I woke up to yelling at night and was always running down the hall to comfort Benny. I heard him crying already, but he was in there with them and I felt glued to the floor.

"Mary, listen I-" He began, but his voice was cut off by shuffling, so much shuffling and struggling. Then a  horrible noise. It was a bang so loud that my ears rang, and I heard Benny scream like I'd never heard before. I started running for the sound, but before I made it to the kitchen it rang out once more.

"I'm so sorry." She looked at me dead in the face as I burst into the room, before turning it on herself and pulling the trigger one last time.

I screamed so loud it could've shattered every window in this god forsaken home. I screamed and I cried as I ran to my brother, and my father. Both of them laying limp on the floor. I called 911, screaming inaudibly as the operator asked what my emergency was.

"They're all dead. She killed them all, please help me." I sobbed as I weakly attempted CPR on Benny, not knowing how to choose between him or my father. It only made me scream louder, and sob so hard I thought I might faint. I didn't know what to do, or how to help them. The operator kept speaking, but all I could hear was my own heart pounding, and white noise.

I just kept screaming, when the medics arrived, and the police, and again in the ambulance.

I couldn't stop, even if I wanted to.

"Jo! Josy, wake up. Come on, wake up Jos, it's okay."

I woke with a start, shooting up and not recognizing where I was. The panic set in harder and I felt more warm tears slide down my cheeks as I tried and failed to catch my breath. Just as I was about to scream I heard a voice again.

"Jos, you're safe everything's okay." He spoke softly again, and a hand reached for me, I flinched away so hard I nearly fell off of the bed.

I got my bearings, looking at the figure, and finally feeling the air enter my lungs again. I all but threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck and sobbing into his shoulder.

"It's okay, Jos, you're okay." He whispered, pulling me so close I was practically in his lap, but it didn't matter to either of us.

I just sat there, sobbing quietly as he rocked me a bit and continually whispered that I was okay.

No one other than my Aunt, and a few nurses had ever witnessed my nightmares. In this moment I was too shaken to be embarrassed, far too haunted by the memory, and the emptiness in her eyes.

We had been that way for so long, neither of us knew how much time passed. 

Until the door was swinging open and loud voices echoed through the room. I flinched at the sound, wrapping my arms tighter around his neck. I buried my face as far as I could in his chest, not wanting anyone to see me like this. It's bad enough that he saw it.