Free Fall. // l.r.h.

Step 9: Keep It Together

The sudden violent scream jolted me to my feet, and foreboding inflated my lungs instead of the oxygen I shallowly gasped for. "What was that?" I whispered to Luke.
His eyes were wide with fear. "I- I don't--"
The shriek returned, elongated this time. His eyes jumped to meet mine. I grabbed his hand, pulling him behind me down the ladder that led to the window in mine and Lindsey's bedroom. The light was on in our room and the door was thrown open. We followed the mortified sound to Maggie and Eli's bedroom. Lindsey was over Maggie's unconscious screaming body, shaking her in an attempt to wake her. Eli whimpered, flinging himself onto Luke's leg. Luke stooped down, wrapping his arms around Eli. He looked up at Lindsey. "What is going on?"
She whipped her head around, tears streaming down her face. "Maggie's terrors are back."
Maggie was finally jolted awake, her labored breathing near the point of hyperventilation. Lindsey scooped her up in her arms, brushing tears and stray hairs away from Maggie's face. "Shh, shh, it's okay. You're okay. Calm down. Breathe. Breathe." She rocked her back and forth. "Breathe. Breathe."
Luke shook his head. "Wait, what are ter--"
"Luke!" I exclaimed. "Hallway. Now."
I closed the door softly behind us once we'd reached the hallway. I kept my voice low. "When daddy died, little Maggie started having night terrors. Worse than a nightmare. She'll be screaming, and she won't even know it. It's like her mind is attacking her subconsciousness. And she was only three years old. After the right medication and seventeen months of fear, the terrors went away. Mama said that medicine chased her demons out of her dreams." I stopped for a moment, staring at my shoes. "I guess Daddy's demon is back."

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Two hours of sitting on the hard floor beside Eli and Maggie's beds, and both children were finally sound asleep. Peaceful snores arose with the rise and fall of their backs in rhythmic breaths. I stared out the window until the last light in Luke's house flickered out. When I gazed back to the dimly lit room we were in, I noticed Lindsey writing in a small notebook. I nodded towards the notebook in her hands. "Whats that?"
"Hm?" she said without looking up.
"That notebook? What are you writing?"
"Oh." She blushed, closing her notebook abruptly. "It's... It's nothing." I raised an eyebrow at her. Of course it's something. She sighed. "I'm calling it 'How Not to Fall Apart: With Harper and Lindsey'."
I chuckled. "Interesting title."
"Yeah, it's just... I'm writing down what's happening to us and steps about how to deal with it. That way, as Maggie and Eli grow up, if something happens, they won't fall apart like we are."
I rolled my eyes. "Linds, we are not falling apart."
She scoffed. "Oh really? Maggie's night terrors are back, you had an anxiety attack at school today, Eli is clinging to Luke now and he barely even knows him, and I'm..." She cut herself off. "We're falling apart."
"We are not!"
"Don't lie to me, Harper!"
"I'm not lying." I'm lying.
"Step one," she whispered.
"What?"
She cleared her throat.
"Step 1: Do As You're Told."