Conflicted (Brothers Conflict)

Chapter Thirteen

The flash of overhead lights as we drove underneath were mesmerizing. Each time we'd pass under one the back seat would glow and I could look over at baby Ema snoozing soundly in her car seat, then when we left the glow there would be a moment of darkness before we drove beneath another street lamp. A bright flash of beams came through the windshield. I could hear a woman scream from the front seat before the crunch of impact.

Glass sprayed everywhere. Baby Ema was crying, people were screaming outside. There was a stream of car horns and sirens in the distance. I watched as a tiny toddler hand extended from where I was sitting and reached for the baby.

"Ema! Evie!... please be okay..." The woman choked from the front seat of the car.

I gazed forward. The driver, a man, appeared to be sleeping with his eyes open, his body slumped forward, his head on the steering wheel. Blood flowed from several wounds to his face. There was a piece of metal sticking through the back of his seat inches away from the crying infant, dripping blood.

"Evie! Wake up! Evie!" Someone was shaking me. "Evie, it's just a dream!"

I woke with a scream and found myself wrapped in a pair of strong arms. Tears that had yet to be shed were welling in my eyes. I blinked them back furiously and tried to fight out of the arms of whoever was holding me, but they were pretty strong and I was still shaken up from the vivid dream. Beads were pressing into my back, from whoever was holding me, it was Kaname.

"I'm okay Buddha Boy, let go." I gasped. The moment he released me I shoved him away roughly before flopping back onto my bed trying to regulate my breathing. It was so much more vivid this time, and I could make out more, the baby was definitely Ema, but who were we with? Was it an aunt and uncle that Rintarou couldn't talk about? "Why are you in my room?' I asked him after I took a few deep breaths.

His hazel eyes were filled with worry, "Evie, you've been screaming in your sleep nonstop for nearly an hour. I thought you were being attacked, I had to get the master key from Masaomi-nii-san."

"I'm fine." I stopped him before he could say anything more. "Thanks for your concern, but I'm fine now, sorry for disturbing you."

He reached for my wrist. My body moved instinctively once I felt the brush of his skin, at first contact I gripped his wrist in a death grip and nearly dislocated his shoulder as I flipped behind him, pinning him face first to the bed with his arm behind his back.

"Shit! Sorry!" I released him and jumped away from him. "Reflex."

Kaname sat up rolling his shoulder and trying hard to keep a straight face. He was in pain. "Evie, I am a monk, its part of my job to listen to people-."

"I told you I'm fine. You touched me, you know I don't like being touched, that's on you!" I felt like I was backed in a corner and was lashing out immaturely. "Damn, I can't do this." I bolted out of my room barefoot and still in my black pajama pants littered with kitty skull and crossbones and a plain grey tank top.

"Evie!" Kaname called after me, but I was already halfway down the stairwell.

"Fuck! I'm going mental!" I snapped as I reached the ground floor and sprinted outside not caring that it was a brisk morning or that I was barefoot and in my pajamas. I bolted in the direction of the park I used to run at with Natsume.

After I'd gotten about five blocks away I heard a car horn honk from behind me. My mind flashed to the vivid dream and I could see the man in the driver's seat staring at me with dead eyes, and the blood dripping off the metal.