Salem's Civil War (Book Five of The Silver Society)

Chapter Eleven

CHAPTER ELEVEN

It was by far the roughest night that Arnie had had in a long time. Alex had insisted that Arnie sleep in his room for the night and took the couch for himself. Aideen and Melissa spent the night in Alex's room with Arnie, one on each side of him, refusing to let him go. He couldn't sleep at first, but Aideen used her energy to knock him out. He thought he was too exhausted to dream, but that wasn't the case.

The nightmares were terrible. Now, not only did he see his parents, but he saw the Berlins, all staring at him accusingly. He saw Gracie enduring the same things he'd endured from bad foster families. Neglect was actually a nice break from the ones who crossed the line and actively abused him, and now Gracie was facing the same fate. The Berlins had been the only decent foster family he had, and now they were dead, and for inexplicable reasons, he felt like it was all his fault.

He saw himself being sent back to the foster families he'd had over the years, shuffled back and forth between people who never wanted him for more than someone to hurt so they could feel powerful. He never spoke of what he'd been through, but there were strong reasons for him to be so adamantly against the foster care system. The Berlins had wanted him, and had accepted him as one of their own immediately, but his case worker had refused to let them adopt him for years. It took a lot of fighting on their part to gain permanent custody of Arnie, and no one else had cared enough to do that for him.

He'd run away from bad families so often that he was listed as a trouble maker in the system, only to be placed with the toughest of families. He'd spent many nights hiding out on the waterfront or on Alex's couch or in Aideen's room. He'd go anywhere to avoid what waited for him in those houses that were never homes. Now Gracie, sweet, innocent little Gracie, was going to be handed off to Gods only knew who and there was nothing he could do about it. Alex was trying to find her a good family, but he only had so much power. Social Services might send her somewhere else in spite of his best efforts.

After the tenth time that Arnie awoke screaming that night, he stopped counting. He would sleep for only minutes before another nightmare would begin, each worse than the last. He watched his parents die again and again, and the Berlins would follow. The foster care nightmares became memories, horrible flashbacks he thought he'd moved past. There was little that Aideen and Melissa could do to soothe him, but they tried, and it got to the point where they simply cried right along with him. Arnie finally refused to try to sleep anymore, and since the sun was up, the three of them walked out of the room.

The delicious scent of breakfast filled the air. Alex stood in the kitchen, clearly not having slept either, and was busy preparing every breakfast food he could come up with.

"Help yourselves, Kids," Alex said.

The smell of food had apparently woken Jesse up and he sat at the table in navy blue boxers and a matching bathrobe shoveling food into his mouth so quickly it would have put Randy to shame. He smiled awkwardly at Melissa, Aideen, and Arnie. "Morning," he said between bites.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Melissa scolded him. "Bad doggy."

Jesse's beast let out a whimper of protest before he dove into more food. "Boys," Aideen said, shaking her head.

"I'm not hungry," Arnie said. His body was starving, but his mind could not wrap itself around the idea of eating.

"You need to eat," Aideen replied. "You need your strength."

"I'm fine," Arnie insisted.

Melissa sat in his lap at the table and shoved a forkful of pancakes into his mouth. "See?" She asked. "It's yummy."