Chaos in the Basement

Chapter 2

Home life for Danny had been rough. Usually Shannon would help her deal with home life but since the disappearance, Danny had been left to come up with her own coping mechanisms. She started to run, every morning. It helped get out the aggression she held in. Running also helped distracted her thoughts. Danny's constant routine consisted of staying up late going over the everything that involved Shannon. She went over things she already been over 100 times before, but she'd continue to go over all she had until something to her made sense. 

At least once a week when Danny's father was sober enough he forced everyone to have a family dinner. Even her mother hated it. Tonight was the night that he decided everyone needed to pretend they were family. 

"How was school?" her father asked Danny. 

"Good," Danny quickly shoved food into her mouth so she wouldn't have to continue talking.

"And you," Connor's voice grew cold towards Sean, Danny's younger brother. 

"It was fine," Sean replied. Sean was a freshman this year at the same high school. Sean and Danny had never been close, that was something Connor encouraged Danny to do was stay away from her younger brother. He always made Sean sound like a stranger. It wasn't until she overheard her parents screaming one night and her father yelled something about how he knew Sean wasn't even his child. Danny tried to help Sean, she didn't like seeing him so quiet or beaten by Connor. Sean didn't draw close to Danny though, he resented her. He hated that her father never hurt her, physically anyway. Sean was a troubled kid, he acted out in school, his friends were not good influences. They encouraged one another to do idiotic things, like stealing the neighbors cars or trying to torment animals. 

Two years ago, Danny was walking home from school. She saw Sean and his friends in a circle in a park. She didn't pay too much attention to them until she got closer and saw Sean was beating one of the neighbor kids practically to death. She pulled Sean off the poor kid and yelled at him to stop. She must have really been mad because the look in Sean's eyes were the same when he was being yelled by Connor. Afterwards, Danny got scared because she didn't realize she had that in her. As much as she resented her father she was fifty percent of his genes and that meant the behavior too, not just the physical looks. She vowed to never be like her father, or her mother. She never apologized to Sean, what she did was right. He shouldn't have been beating that kid up. 

Dinner took a turn for the worst, as it usually did. Molly got onto Connor for drinking too much. This night was a little different though, Sean stood up for his mother after Connor started to get physically.

"Don't touch my mom," he yelled at Connor.

That stopped Connor is his tracks. "What did you just say to me?" 

"You heard me," Sean sat up from his chair. They were across the table from one another but it seemed at any moment that Connor was going to pounce and attack Sean. 

"Don't do it Connor," Molly pipped up. Trying to block Connor from Sean's view. 

"Get out the way," Connor pushed Molly away. He had his eyes set on Sean like a predator when they know they are going to kill their prey. He grabbed the collar of Sean's shirt from across the table. "If you tell me one more word in my house, I will kill you." It was almost a whisper, but it was loud enough to send chills down everyones back. Connor let go of Sean and pushed me, slamming Sean against the wall, he walked out, still keeping eye contact with Sean. 

"Look what you've done," Molly said to Sean. She left to go after Connor. 

Sean was holding back tears. Danny didn't say anything. She didn't want to look at Sean because he got embarrassed when he cried. He slid against the wall to floor. He put his head in hands and began to sob. He was cursing to himself before he got up and left through the backdoor, slamming it behind him. Danny was still at table, paralyzed starring at her dinner plate. 

Danny eventually fell asleep, from the tension of the evening it was hard to feel comfortable again even after she went to her room and was alone. This night, she went over the last texts Shannon her had sent her and finally Danny drifted into sleep. Until she heard something during the night. 

"Psst, Danny."

Danny moaned. Not fully registering what was happening.

"Danny! Wake up!" 

"What?" she thought it may have been her brother. She barely opened her eyes, making out a figure sitting at the edge of her bed. She sat up, trying to get a better look. 

"Shannon?" Danny said confused, still not sure what was going on. 

"You look so pretty," Shannon said, admiring the messy hair Danny had from tossing and turning. 

"Is it really you?" Danny was skeptical. 

"What do you think?" Shannon was sheepish asking this. Like she didn't really know herself. 

Danny didn't answer her question, she shook her head and asked, "Where are you?"

"I-" she paused, looking up at the ceiling. "I cant tell you yet." 

"What do you mean?" 

"It'll all come together. I promise Danny."

Hearing her voice say Danny's name made all those old memories come back to her. It really hit her how much she actually missed Shannon. How much Danny had lost since her disappearance. 

"You should get back to sleep. Sorry for waking you up, I just got happy to see you," Shannon said. 

"I miss you, Shannon." 

"I miss you too." 

Danny laid back down, she felt the weight shift from the bottom of her bed to right next to her. Danny watched Shannon put her arm around her and close her eyes. Danny watched her sleep for a while until she did too. She it wasn't Shannon. It couldn't be. It felt too good to be true. It didn't matter if this was a dream or not because this was the first time anything close to it really being her happened. 

The fact that she did not believe it was really Shannon scared Danny. Had she lost hope too of ever finding Danny? Deep down did she think Danny was dead? Right then it didn't matter because they held one another and everything was perfect for a little while.