Help me name this lol

Prologue

Stephanie wasn’t having the most fun at 2 o'clock in the morning on a thursday. Normally people are in bed at this hour in a deep slumber. She was supposed to be in bed sleeping peacefully because she had to go to school later, but apparently her body had other plans. Plans that a twelve year old girl wasn’t expecting or wanted to even happen.

She was having a dream about jumping from cloud to cloud. Despite the dream state she could still feel the texture of cotton candy on her bare feet. Although this dream started to turn into a nightmare as the sky turned red. Then there was this man with a sly grin staring down at her, then there were multiple and more. They all had the same grin, their faces were distorted and started to slowly approach her…

Suddenly, Stephanie jolted awake now. She was shaking and felt uneasy. She also felt something wet. Stephanie’s face grew red at the thought of peeing her bed in the middle of the night like a toddler. She was disgusted at the thought of pee on her nightgown as well. “Was my nightmare that bad?” She questioned. It was bad but she highly doubted it was bad enough to wet the bed. So she flipped the blanket over and she saw something else.

Her eyes widened at the sight. Blood, it was blood. A big red splotch right on the bed sheets and blanket. Some of it seemed to be on her nightgown as well. Stephanie started to cry at the thought of dying. Is she going to die today? Did the grim reaper decide that today was her time?

She took the bed sheets and her blanket off the bed. She balled it up into her arms before rushing out of her room and down the stairs. Stephanie was internally panicking about the blood. Today was the day she was going to die. She was going to have to leave most of her possessions to Wolfgang, none for Ember; she was too mean to deserve anything. Maybe her mom could take her jewelry box.

Stephanie ran into the kitchen and flicked the light switch on aggressively. Stephanie threw the blanket somewhere. She stuffed the bed sheets under the kitchen faucet. She snatched a dish rag nearby and started to aggressively scrub. She silently cried because her white bedsheets were stained with red blood.

“No please, please get off,” She whispered. She tried scrubbing harder and harder. Still nothing was coming off and she felt queasy. Stephanie’s stomach hurt and she sobbed. She still couldn’t believe this was happening. Why was this happening to her?

“Steph? What the hell are you doing up this time? Did you stay up watching movies without me again? I told you to wake me up so I can watch with you.” A voice came from the living room. It was her older brother Wolfgang who must’ve awakened from all the racket she was making. “Steph, are you in the kitchen? Are you making a snack?” Wolfgang kept asking questions and questions. None of which were being answered by Stephanie so he just waltzed into the kitchen.

His eyes were adjusting to the light. “Y’know if you're going to be making a late night snack, you shouldn’t be causing an earthquake.” He joked around before his eyes finally adjusted to the bright kitchen light. Wolfgang saw his sister aggressively scrubbing something in the sink. His eyes traveled and he saw a red splotch on her behind. His eyes widened and immediately walked over to the sink.He saw the sink water stained red. The light red still lingering on her bedsheet. Wolfgang saw the blanket thrown onto the floor half- haphazardly. He then looked at his sister and saw her face stained with tears.

“Wolfie, I think I’m dying!” Stephanie sobbed. Wolfgang was at a loss for words to say the least. He learned about this from Ember and mom. Mom said that he should learn about this so he knows what to do if his future wife or daughter starts their cycle. She didn’t want her son to be clueless as the other dopey boys who had to deal with health class in the countryside. Or be disgusted since he has two sisters and they both have to go through it. He also learned from Ember. Who just yelled at him to get her tampons and then whacked him with a book so it must be terrible.

“Stephanie, Trust me when I say this. You are not dying.” He spoke softly and gently grazed his hand on the top of her head. She sniffled and buried herself into his shoulder for some sort of embrace. He cursed under his breath, he really wished their mom or even Ember was home. But both women were out working so it was out of his hands.

Why didn’t they teach Stephanie this sooner? Why didn’t Ember say anything about this to her or atleast spit out threats that she gets a period? Did his mother not have time anymore for her youngest? She did always interact with her the least out of her three children. Poor woman is exhausted and always looks like she’s about to pass out. Ember is just a nasty piece of work that’s selfish and is always out on the town doing something. Which left Wolfgang to take care of the house and go to his part time job at the gas station.

“Listen… uhm. I don’t know how to explain this to you if I’m being honest. Hell I wish Mom was here so I don’t have to explain this to you.” Wolfgang admitted to his sister. She looked up at him confused. Her eyes are blotchy and red. As well as her nose. “Well what is it then?” She questioned her older brother.  He got down to her level and placed his hands on her shoulders.

“Okay please don’t panic, this happens to the majority of ladies. You, yourself Stephie. You're becoming a woman I-I think. Well a much more developed woman? Look Mom told me that your body is preparing for a child. But uh there is no child so your body has to ‘take out the trash’ basically. ” He stated as best as he could. Wolfgang saw the look of terror on Stephanie’s face as she was clearly panicking. If Wolfgang was being honest he was panicking on the inside as well. Mostly because it looked like a bloodbath in the kitchen and that his little sister is clearly in distress.

“I’m not ready to be a woman or to have a child!” She cried out. “Yeah well this is going to be happening every month for the next couple of years until you're an old lady. So good luck to you trooper.” He mentioned off-handedly and patted her shoulder.

“What!?” She yelled directly at him. First she thought she was dying, then she got an impromptu lesson about her body from her older brother, Now she has to deal with this for years on end until she’s an old lady!

“Okay, okay. Here’s what we are going to do. I’m gonna get you some pads and call Mom. You change out that nightgown and into a different one. You can sleep on the couch tonight. Also you're probably not going to school tomorrow or today because you’ll be in a lot of pain.” Wolfgang explained some sort of plan to her. Her mind was still running at full speed because of everything though.

“I’ll clean your bed for you in the morning. Alright Steph you got all of that?”  He questioned. Stephanie nodded her head in response.

Wolfgang moved from the kitchen and upstairs into the bathroom for a bit. Stephanie stood there frozen and unsure of what to do. She looked around before balling her forgotten bed sheets and blanket together and throwing it down to the basement.

“Stephanie. Here are pads. Make sure you change it every few hours” He emerged from the door and walked over to her. He handed her the package of pads.

“Go upstairs, change and put that inside of your undies. I don’t think it would be that comfortable but it’s better than having blood everywhere.” He said before patting her back. “If you need anything else let me know.” He told her before walking out into the living room. Most likely to call their mom on the wall phone.

She went out of the kitchen and up the stairs into her room. Stephanie had the package in her hands and the plastic felt odd.

She closed the door and sighed. ‘I really didn’t expect this to happen.’ Stephanie thought to herself before changing out her stained nightgown. Afterwards she had to figure out how the pads worked but she managed to figure it out and put it on some new under clothing. She got into a light blue nightgown and rebraided her hair before walking downstairs again.

She walked into the sight of Wolfgang talking to their mom on the phone. “Okay, okay mom. No no it’s not your fault. You didn’t expect it to be so soon? Well it was going to happen one day. Well she freaked out. She’s staying home tomorrow as well? Alright, alright mom, we can talk in the morning. Bye I love you too.” He hung up the phone and turned towards Stephanie who just heard part of the conversation.

Stephanie was hit with a wave of exhaustion. “Can I go to sleep Wolfie?” She asked hushed. “Yeah of course go crash on the couch.” He answered nonchalantly. Stephanie went to the couch and curled up into a ball. Wolfgang threw a blanket on her and sat next to her sleeping body.

‘What am I going to do Dad?’ He thought before  getting up and returning to his room.