Nyx Eris

Chapter 5: Nightmares

Her sister never rang her.

It was almost an unspoken rule between them that unless one of them was lying in a ditch somewhere in need of a replacement kidney without any hope for survival otherwise, they were to never ring.

They texted, on occasion.

Mostly, they did their utmost to avoid each other unless absolutely necessary.

It therefore put Adrianna on high alert when, after having spent the night at her uncle's due to her mother's early call time, her mobile came up with Calista's name.

"Ade?"

"You've rang me," said Adrianna.

"I know," said Callie.

"I thought we said we were never going to ring each other," said Adrianna.

"You didn't text back fast enough," said Callie. "I need to get to school for footie practice and I know Naomi's taking you earlier so you can work on your audition. Please? My school isn't that far from your school."

"You're at Dad's," said Adrianna. "Isn't he taking you?"

"Daddy won't wake up," said Callie.

"What do you mean, he won't wake up?" asked Adrianna.

"I mean he's crying and saying how much he misses me, and every time I try to wake him up, he just clings harder to his pillow, going on about how much he misses me," said Callie. "But I don't get it, because I'm standing right there, so how can he miss me?"

"Naomes and I will be there soon," said Adrianna.

"Everything okay?" asked her uncle Brandon, glancing up from his daily newspaper.

"I have to get over to Dad's," said Adrianna. "Cal said he won't wake up."

"Oh dear," said her aunt, locking eyes with her uncle in silent, demanding communication.

"I'm not going over there, Kel," said Brandon.

"You have to," said Kelly. "I have a bunch of caseloads today and if Dylan's not waking up, you know what that means..."

"It probably means he had a little too much fun last night," said Brandon, "and me going over there won't help anything since I'll want to rip him a new one for it."

"Well I'm going," said Adrianna, "and Naomes was going to take me to school, so she's probably going, too."

"You're going to let the girls go over there, by themselves?" asked Kelly.

"I'm always the one picking up his pieces," said Brandon. "Not this time. Not after what he's done to Bren."

"I'll just call Bren and tell her about Dylan, should I?" asked Kelly.

"Don't do that," said Brandon. "It'll just stress her out and he's stressing her out enough these days." Brandon rose out of the chair. "I'll go."

"That's the man I married," said Kelly, giving him a kiss.

"And to think," said Brandon, "if we hadn't run into each other in DC –"

"Which time?" asked Kelly with a roguish glint in her eye.

Brandon stroked Kelly's blonde locks, which were kept short in a fashionable style that extended beyond Kelly's chin but above her shoulders.

"I can't say in front of Ade," said Brandon. "But maybe I'll remind you later."

"I'm gonna hold you to that," said Kelly. "Will you be home for dinner?"

"Should be," said Brandon.

"Good," said Kelly, "Sammy said he should be able to come by tonight. We don't see him nearly enough since he started college."