Dark Twin Moon - The Awakening

Chapter 1:

The night terrors, which were becoming a regular occurrence, had been haunting Kayleb for a while now. They would not leave him alone. Not even for a single night.

Vivid dreams of death and despair, like the tales of midnight madness - a disease from a bygone era from stories his mother had read him - haunted his every night's thoughts, causing him to toss and turn in his bed.

The sheets that once protected him were long gone. But the cold night air wasn't enough to wake him up. To rip him from the darkness of his sleep. The bright morning sun a few hours later had little success either, patiently waiting for his closed eyes to open to wish him a happy morning.

Only his alarm could bring him out of his dark dreams. At the first note of the little machine's cruel wake-up song, his eyes opened without him wanting to. Although his eyes were open, his mind was lost in deep thoughts born of his unwanted dreams.

The second he woke, all parts of his nightly dreams came back into his mind. He remembered, if only for a second, every little detail of the terrible accident that had triggered these nightmares. Not even the light that shone through the large windows was good enough to distract him, nor was the noise that had awakened him so abruptly to startle him from those nightmarish thoughts. What was left were the memories and himself.

About five minutes after his alarm clock went haywire, someone quietly opened his bedroom door. But his gaze was fixed on a point near it, looking past the intruder. He could see this person approaching, but his brain was working so fast that it was impossible to focus on anything other than those horrible thoughts.

Just a moment later, the sound of someone walking was gone. Still, he could sense that this person wasn't gone but close to him, which was only further proven by a weight pressing down on his bed next to his body. While a hand smaller than his own gently stroked his head.

"Everything is ok. We're in a safe place now."

He could hear someone say. But he couldn't get out of his head and look at the person who had spoken such warm, comforting words. His thoughts were just too loud, too obnoxious.

A small kiss followed the loss of the warm hand on his head. He didn't hear the door close after that person got up and left, which could only mean that the person was still in his room. Just as he closed that little thought to return to the nightmare-fueled ones, something landed on his covered body.

He wasn't sure why, but that was the last thing he needed to rid himself of his toxic brain. He would be lying if he said he wasn't laughing inside at what he saw a moment after breaking free. After his eyes could finally focus on what was happening before him, he saw his younger brother Ian - just over a year younger - going through his closet. His forehead was furrowed as he looked down in utter despair.

One look was enough to see that he was trying to find a suitable outfit for his older brother. Kalyeb loves this little guy, but unfortunately, he doesn't have any sense of fashion to save his life. He's been wearing that goofy skater look since, even if he tried, he couldn't remember how long it had been since his little brother started wearing it. One day he just decided he wanted to look like a moron.

After the first item of clothing thrown at him, a plain white shirt, nothing else landed on him. Still, his little brother was rummaging for more things to throw; he just knew it! The little idiot - as he likes to call his little brother when he was too lazy to call him by his name - didn't even notice the glare he was giving him.

It wasn't uncommon for his little brother to help others when they couldn't do it themselves. Sometimes it got so bad that he wondered which of them was actually the older one.