Nightmares

Crash

I've been experiencing the same dream, well nightmare actually since I was five years old. I can remember the crash vividly and I see it every night. My sister is the same way. Actually, she's worse. She never speaks anymore. I don't think shes ever said a word to me since the accident. 

Today was different. I don't know what happened, but there was a man. He was wearing a black hoodie and his face was covered. I could only see his ocean blue eyes. Then I woke up. After the crash there was no man. At least not while I was conscious. I decided to just ignore it since it was a change from the regular traumatic dream. I always check on my sister Athena every morning to make sure that shes okay. Every day shes fine, but as her brother, and only remaining family member, I feel I have to be super overprotective of her.

We head downstairs and I begin to make us both a little bit of breakfast. As I bring the breakfast over to Athena, I notice she's been drawing something. I ask her what it is, but she pulls the paper away and runs back to her room. I sigh, put the food down and follow her up the stairs. "Athena, please come out." I say softly while knocking on her door. I can hear small footsteps as she opens the door and goes back downstairs. I follow behind her, sit at the table with her and eat my breakfast.

I take Athena to school, and I drive over to my friend Thomas' house and decide to hang out with him instead of going to my Uni class. It's probably not a good idea, but I have no motivation to go today. Thomas and I both go to the same University, but he is studying criminology and I study film making. We have a few beers, but i make sure I'm not extremely drunk, and I can still get Athena home safely. The doorbell rings and it's Liam, Jacob and Adam. I guess they didn't want to go to Uni today like us.

Thomas asks Liam where Preston is, to which Liam scoffed, "at Uni obviously." We all laugh, as it's what we all thought. Preston was always a goody two-shoes no matter the circumstance. After a few hours, I leave, heading to pick Athena up. Once we get home, I notice that there was something up with Athena. She had her hair parted in a way she'd never done before, but she didn't leave home with her hair like that.

I try to figure out what was wrong, but every time I asked a question she'd shrug and move farther away from me on the couch. I guess eventually came too close for her liking so she tried to run upstairs. I grabbed her arm forcefully before she could get anywhere. I sternly asked her "Whats wrong," but she bowed her head and started crying. I gently swiped her hair to the way she normally has it and realized that she had a black eye and a scrape across her cheek.

I suddenly freak out trying to figure out who could even do that to such a young and pretty girl. I wipe away her tears and take her to the bathroom so i could treat her wound. She glances up at me and smiles, Something that I haven't seen in a while, which in return makes me smile back at her. I miss the days that we would talk for hours and laugh non stop. After that crash, we barely ever laugh with each other anymore.

Athena cuddles up to me, and I gently put my arm around her. "Do you want to watch a movie or something?" I whisper. She just looks up at me and very faintly nods. I get up and throw in a random movie for us to watch. Halfway through the movie, Athena suddenly jerks awake. She leans her head back into my chest and I squeeze her a little tighter so she know that it's okay.

Our morning started out as usual. The one thing that's different is that I keep seeing Athena drawing, except she never lets me see what it is. I've been getting worried over the past few days because she's never hidden anything from me before. Suddenly I realize that I've seen her hiding many more things from me. Not just the drawings.