They Could Care Less

48: Not so Sweet Dreams

Jackson screamed, and hid behind Thea.

"Jackson?" Thea said, and quietly giggled.

"Look at the big, brave, strong mood-killer," Heather teased with a handful of chips in her mouth.

"Let's just read a scary story," Jackson suggested, and tried to get up to turn the TV off.

"One to Jamal, zero to Jackson," Thea heard Hussein quietly whisper to himself with a victorious smirk.

"Works for me," Heather said, and picked her phone up. "Ah, found it!" Heather cleared her throat and began reading with a low scary voice.

"Fall was just around the corner, and Melanie sat home alone, she watched as the darkness took over the sky. Her parents were supposed to be home horus ago, but still there were no traces of them or the car, and Melanie began to worry. All news channels had given out a warning to stay inside tonight, because a serial killer was on the loose. Suddenly Melanie heard a noise coming from the hallway. "Mom? Dad?" she called out, but she didn't get a reply. Melanie was shaking with fear as scary thoughts clogged her mind. Who was out there? Was it maybe the serial killer? It's probably just the dog, Melanie thought and tried to calm herself down. The second after a whispering voice occured and began to near her. Hide, hide, he's coming for you, the voice whispered and Melanie panicked. She crawled underneath the big coffee table and kept quiet. She watched a pair of black shoes step into the room, and she bit her lip to stop a scream. She thought the person had left and breathed out, but suddenly she got yanked out from the table. Before she could scream for help she felt the knife digging itself into her body, cutting her up. Be careful, and hide, the voice whispered by her ear," Heather turned her phone off, and looked up with a wide, happy smile.

"Great story!" Thea lied and forced on a smile. Heather stretched her arms up and yawned loudly.

"Time to head to sleep!" she said and got up. She left the room and walked to her bedroom for the night, without a care.

"I should sleep too," Hussein mumbled and left too. Thea turned and saw Jackson, paralyzed with fear.

"Bombele doesn't exist, Jackson! You should know that, you're not a kid anymore," Thea said and put her arm around his shoulders.

"It doesn't matter, I'm still petrified!" Jackson said and leaned into her embrace.

"Then think about nice things," Thea said to cheer him up.

"Don't let the bomebele monsters get to you now!" Hussein could be heard shouting, followed by laughter coming from Heather.

"Hussein!" Thea screamed.

"Jamal!" he screamed back, and a door being shut closed was heard.

Thea awoke at least five times, always because of Jackson. He either moved too much in his sleep or talked in his sleep. Thea groaned when Jackson began mumbling nonsense. Thea turned her back to him and pressed her hand against her ear, she squeezed her eyes shut and counted sheeps until she fell asleep, with one thought ringing in her head. We're never doing this again.

Happy and proud families were everywhere, no matter where Thea turned. Thea fixed her own mint green dress as she gave some bypassing grandparents a friendly smile.

"This way!" she said and gestured up the the stairs. They nodded gratefully and walked up to their family before they sat down with anticipation. Thea's cheeks hurt from smiling and she quickly massaged her cheeks before she put on another smile for another family. And so it went on for twenty minutes until Heather was the one walking towards her.