Nightmare Recurring

Chapter VIII: The Other Side of Insanity

"Merry Chritsmas!" Colly yelled as her voice echoed through the apartment.
"Merry Christmas Colly, ready to open presents?" Brooke asked after she got out of bed and walked over to the fireplace where Colly was sitting by their tree.
"I wuz BORNED reddy." Colly said hugging one of her presents.
She looked sad when she asked her
"Buh B.. do you think Santa is mad at me?"
"Why would he be mad?"
"Las nite I axidenly ated all da cookies for him." Colly confessed.
"It's ok, Colly. I'm sure he understands." Colly smiled and began to tear open her presents.
"Good morning guys, Merry Christmas!" Sam said while walking out of the guest room.
"Merry Chritsmas Samy! Thenk you for da new pack uh oreos! its jus wut ah wanted!" Colly said while opening her gift.
"You're welcome Colly, I was hoping you'd like it." Sam replied.
"Yehhss, S'mores edition. mmm S'moreos" Colly said as she opened the pack and ate one.
"Where's Chase?" Brooke asked.
"I don't know, I didn't see him this morning.. he usually gets up early to watch the sun rise" Sam said as she sat down next to Brooke.
"So Brooke, what happened last night?" Sam asked her.
"Oh, Nona's assistants filed a restraining order against Dan. He has to move out before tonight. We figured it had to have been him, but we won't know until they investigate more."
"Wow, that's so sad. Why would he do this?" Sam asked quietly so Colly wouldn't hear.
"Why would anyone do this," Brooke replied as they both watched Colly play with her new gifts.

Joan stayed up all night trying to figure out an answer. She knew she really had to help Brooke as soon as possible after she found out what was happening to her. Joan was still at her desk researching this morning.
"Merry Christmas," Floyd said as he walked into Joan's office with a cup of coffee for her.
"Thank you honey, you too." Joan said as she took the cup from him and kissed him on the cheek before quickly returning to her research.
"Dear, you haven't slept all night. What's so important about this girl?" Floyd asked her.
"Floyd, Brooke is hurting. She's Simone's granddaughter, you remember her. I have to find a way to save her, honey. I've told you. She's in pain and I may be her only hope." Joan replied looking back at him.
"Have you found anything?"
"Not yet, but I will. I'm getting closer. I need to help her before it gets worse. Why haven't I researched this before? I could've helped her the day we met. Now I have to do whatever it takes." Joan said looking through some books she had on the subject.
"Just be careful, dear. I don't want anything bad happening to you again"
"Honey, it's not me you should be worried about." Joan said with a look of great concern.

"Do you remember anything from the night Nona died?" Sam asked Brooke as they sat out on the balcony.
"Not really," Brooke replied trying to remember.
"I just remember going to bed after coming back from her apartment. Who knows if she locked her door or not." Sam told her.
"Oh wait, I think that was the night I had this dream. It was weird.. I don't usually remember having them, but I guess I forgot all about it after hearing what happened to Nona in the morning. In that dream, I was pregnant and I just had my baby in the hospital. I remember walking over to where the babies were and seeing my baby. I looked at her, and this kills me just saying this, but she was ugly. In the dream, I saw myself in her. And that made me see her as ugly. I couldn't keep her.. I felt like I had to get rid of her."
"What did you do?" Sam asked sounding shocked.
Brooke tried to remember exactly what she did when she realized
"...I took a pillow and held it over her face." Brooke told her as she remembered what happened to Nona.

"B, Samy, where Chasey be at? Ah wanna show him all mah spechal da mazing gifts!" Colly said holding all her gifts.
"I don't know.. he should be up by now. Let's go check on him" Sam said taking Colly's hand and walking to the guest room where he stayed at.
"Huh... all his stuff is gone." Sam said, confused.
"He moveded out?" Colly asked.
"I'm not sure, sweetie.." Sam replied looking worried.
Brooke was still sitting out on the balcony outside by a small Christmas tree. She looked inside at the dining room table. She saw an empty chair where Chase used to sit. She saw Chase. He was in his apartment, sitting at his table there. His stuff was all packed. He looked sad, and lost. He held a bottle of pills in his hand. He opened it before taking them all at once.
Brooke saw the empty chair in her apartment again. She ran inside.
"Sam, we have to go." Brooke told her after meeting them in the kitchen.