Adopted By My Idols

Chapter 9: The Bad Dream

Joseph's POV

It was coming close to 1am. I was still awake. I couldn't sleep. I guess being an actor does that to you. I just layed there in bed next to Persia who on the other hand, was sleeping peacefully. I had no thoughts going through my head or anything. I just layed there staring at the ceiling wishing that I could at least get a tiny bit of sleep. Even the tiniest bit would do me good. At this moment of time, I was jealous of everyone who was sleeping.

I layed there for about another five minutes and then, I heard a scream. "No daddy! No, please!"
'Nicole' I thought to myself and rushed out of bed. I ran into Nicole's room and saw her crying.
"Nicole, sweetie, what happened? Are you ok?" I asked.
There was no response to my question, she just carried on crying. As I went to hug her, Persia walked in the room.
"What's going on here, is everything ok?" she asked concerned.
"I'm not sure. I heard her scream and when I came in, she was crying." I said with a worried expression on my face.
Persia walked over and sat next to me on Nicole's bed.
"Hey, wanna talk about it?" she asked Nicole.
"I had a bad dream." she said only to then find more tears streaming down her face.
Both me and Persia hugged and comforted her.
"Do you want to tell us what was in the dream? We're worried about you. I heard you scream. You screamed for someone to stop something." I said.
None of us talked for a few seconds until Nicole spoke and said, "In one of the families that adopted me, my dad used to be really cruel to me. He would hurt me by hitting and kicking me. He always asked me to do everything for him. I was like his slave and if I didn't do something, that's when he would hurt me. He wouldn't stop until I agreed to do it."
"What about the rest of the family, did they hurt you?" Persia asked.
"No. But they didn't stop him either. Sometimes they would even watch him abuse me."
By that point, Nicole's breathing was getting unsteady. It was like as if she was about to have a panic attack. Just like she did in the morning.
"Hey, it's ok. You're safe here. No one will hurt you." I said as I rubbed her back.
"I don't wanna talk about this anymore. I just want to go back to sleep." Nicole said as she cried.
"Of course. We'll stay with you until you fall asleep again. Ok?" Persia said.
"Thanks." Nicole said as she layed back down.
I could see that there were tears forming in Persia's eyes too. She was trying so hard to hold them back.

We both soothed Nicole to stop her crying so she could go back to sleep. Her breathing was calmer now again. After a while, she had slowly stopped crying and was starting to fall asleep.

Ten minutes later, she was fast asleep. Me and Persia left her room and closed the door quietly behind us. We went to our room and the second we walked in, all the tears Persia was holding in for so long, just rushed streaming down her face.
"Hey, it's ok darling. She's asleep now." I said and hugged her tightly.
"I know. But, she should've never had to go through that. All the cruelty and everything. I just don't understand the people who would do that to a child. You know, why adopt a child if you're only gonna put them through pain over and over again." she cried.
"I know, I know sweetheart. It's not ok but unfortunately, that's the world we live in. Some people just live off other people's unhappiness. They find pleasure in it and that will never be ok. But Nicole is safe now. She has us and all the friends she's already made."

Me and Persia climbed in bed and wrapped our arms around each other. She was still crying so I comforted her the same way I did with Nicole. After a while, she stopped and we both fell asleep with our arms still wrapped around each other.