Jack & Destiny

Chapter 18: Destiny

I have been depressed since my grandmother died.

Except for the occasional meeting with Liam, all I did was sleep in the dark.

There were plenty of dreams that floated in my head during my restless sleep.

Most of it was of my grandmother when she was still alive or when she was still young and my family and I would visit them in the summer.

This was before my mother jumped in the rabbit hole and didn't come back.

Sometimes I dreamed of my family too.

Those were awful dreams.

In it, my parents were fighting.

Always fighting.

There would be plenty of screaming, dishes crashing against the wall and blood.

Lots of it.

I saw Dallas too.

The most vivid was when I caught him taking Dad's bottle of rum and drinking all of it.

He was young, eleven or twelve maybe?

Dallas was laughing like a maniac after drinking the entire bottle.

He was intoxicated but he didn't die.

I rarely dreamed of my sister.

Brooklyn has always been smart.

Instead of staying home to watch my parents tear each other apart, she stayed at her friend's house until late at night.

When she gets home, my parents would be so wasted to notice her.

I would be asleep in my bed and she would come to kiss me goodnight.

Sometimes, I would be awakened by the movement in my bed.

Brooklyn would tell me to be quiet.

She would not want Dad or Mom to know she was out the whole day.

That would be bad not only for her but for everyone.

If there was one other thing that my parents were good at aside from drinking, it was picking up fights.

We were mostly at the receiving end of their anger.

That's how Brooklyn and I learned to talk in whispers.

The day she left home, I found a note hidden in my drawer.

She said she was sorry she couldn't wait for me to come back from school.

"I would have been dead by then." She wrote.

The words sent a chill to my heart.

I believed it could happen.

Dallas was never home to see our parents destroy our family.

It was just Brooklyn and I.

With her gone, I was afraid of what was going to happen to me.

Fear ruled my heart.

When I was still at my parents' house, my sleep was always restless and light.

At an early age, I learned that people are unreliable.

You cannot count on them for anything.

My family was the best example.

I was hoping that Brooklyn would stay or at least take me with her.

She didn't.

My heart was broken by people I expected to care.

When Liam broke up with me, my theory was once again proven right.