kitten

Chapter Four Hennessy's

Chapter Song: The Hills by The Weekend

Why don't mummy and dadda take us to the beach more times? The beach is cold in winter. And the sand is hard to play with. "Toulouse why don't you sit closer to Marie for me?" Mummy isn't talking to me. Toulouse and I are now sitting close. And we both look at each other and giggle. "Can you give her a big kiss on the cheek?" Mummy asks. Toulouse and I now look at each other. I close my eyes and make a kissy face. But Toulouse puts his kissy face on my head like mummy asked.

~~~~

I laugh until my stomach hurts and look over to a ten year old Toulouse. He's laughing just as hard as dad, mum, and I. He smiles at me once we've all stopped laughing and I smile back. There is the slight click of the camera. "I loved that one you two! It'll look lovely on the mantle with the rest," she smiles at us and then shows dad the picture she just took.

~~~~

The screaming hasn't stopped for a while. It's constant. Every night. It's a new topic at the start yet they still manage to get back to where they were the night before. Though tonight it's really bad. My pillow is pressed against my ear so hard it hurts. I'm doing everything I can to block out the unwanted noise but nothing has seemed to work.

Just as I'm about to give up my door creaks open. I flick my eyes to the doorway and am met with Toulouse. Our eyes meet across the room through the moonlight. He stalks over as I scooch over to make room for him. This has become a rather regular thing I suppose. When the fighting gets extremely bad or excessively loud he comes in and we spend the night in my room.

Though tonight is different. They leave. I didn't catch it all but the reason was something along the lines of a drive will calm them down.

My stomach flips and suddenly I'm in the back seat of the car speeding down the highway. Mum and dad are sitting in the front seats. They are rigid and pale as ghosts, their eyes a dull lifeless grey. The speed is increasing and I can feel the car loosing control. When I open my mouth to say something nothing comes out.

I struggle and struggle to make sound come out until I'm screaming my head off and there still isn't anything. Though then a high pitched scream of sheer terror rips through my throat.

•••

My eyes fly open and I stop screaming immediately. I automatically sat up when I woke myself up. Before I can even figure out what the small noise of his footsteps are Luke is standing in the door frame. "Are you okay? Why were you screaming?" He asks groggy from sleep. "Yeah I'm fine, just a nightmare," I say quietly. Laying back on my bed to catch me breath.

"I haven't had one in a while so I wasn't really expecting it. That's the hardest part. You know?" I ramble slightly, pretending he cares. "I didn't know- I mean Toulouse never really-, it must be really hard," he manages to get out. I let out a big breath as I speak, "Yeah, I guess. I mean you kinda get used to things?"

"You shouldn't have too," he says quietly. I nod even though he probably can't tell due to the darkness of the room. He walks over quietly and comes and lays on the bed next to me. I had to shift over slightly to make room for him. We just lay there in silence for a little while. Our shoulders against eachother lightly; hands barley touching.

"Want to tell me about it?" He asks me. "No, maybe one day. But that isn't now," I say, "Toulouse and I have a...complicated past." He nods. He turns on his side to face me and I do the same. For a while we just sit there. His bright blue eyes looking into my matching ones. We lay there for who knows how long. Just looking at each other until my eyes start dropping fading into darkness.