The Conquering (Book #2 in The Inception Trilogy)

chapter nine

CHAPTER NINE

EVELYN'S DREAMS THAT NIGHT are plagued by vicious memories of when the world began to fall. Memories ranging from the beginning of the war to the outbreak of beasts rampaging through neighborhoods, destroying everything and everyone that crossed their paths. Her subconscious replays her family's deaths, each time the details she steadily blocks out resurfacing to place her back in time, living the predicament over and over again.

In one of her dreams, she's up in her room when there's a pounding on the door. She thinks she imagines it. Evelyn has always been the paranoid type, especially in the dead of night when the world seems pitch black. Still, she's too frightened to roll back over and go to sleep, so she tiptoes out of her room quickly to her older brother's across the hall. Granted she's technically an adult, her paranoia sometimes haunts her to the brink of tears, so it's an instinctive habit to flee to Max's room. The two have always been fairly close. Unlike most sisters, she'll miss her brother when he moves out in a few months.

Max is curled onto his side against the wall when she enters, which is his usual sleeping position. He doesn't move when she lays on top of his comforter and pulls her own blanket around her. He inhales deeply, though, a telltale sign that he's awake.

"Again?" he mumbles, his voice groggy.

"Sorry," she whispers. "It's been getting worse lately."

He sighs, shifting onto his back to look at her. "Evie, I really think a therapist is a good idea. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

She snorts. "I don't need a therapist for a hyperactive imagination."

"What are you going to do when I move out?"

"I doubt it'll be bad then. It's random."

He falls silent, but he's still looking at her. She stares at the ceiling to try and ignore his eyes. Max understands the boundaries with Evelyn. He knows what subjects to press and the subjects to let go. It's why they're so close, Evelyn thinks, because he comprehends that she can't always say what she's feeling. He knows the line she draws and he respects it.

Finally, he sighs again and rolls back over. "I bet they'd at least give you something to help you sleep."

"Yeah, and then they'll accidentally prescribe me the wrong amounts and I'll overdose and die in my sleep."

"Whatever, Evie. I'm just trying to help. You can't live like this every night where you scare yourself into three straight all-nighters."

"It hasn't been three nights, it's been two."

"My point has still been made."

She huffs and tucks the blanket around her tighter. Her eyes skitter rapidly around the dark room before she forces them shut. The second she does, she hears the pounding again that sounds like it's coming from the front door down the hall. Her heart picks up pace as she tries to block it out, but this time it's different.

This time Max sits up.

It startles her and she sits up as well, looking at his silhouette. "You heard it too?"

"Yeah. Stay here."

"Max, I'm eighteen years old--"

"And you're sleeping with you older brother because you're too paranoid for your own good. So stay here, okay?" He slides down to the foot of the bed so he doesn't have to crawl over Evelyn, then grabs a wooden baseball bat from his closet.

Evelyn sees a light flick on from under the door in the hallway.

"Dad must be up," Max concludes, walking to the door.