Vividity

Chapter 2

"These nightmares-" Finn exclaimed with a big grunt, burying his head into his only pillow.

Every morning starts the same, but feels different. Like if he lived in a loop. A loop with holes in it, he felt like falling sometimes. Falling through one hole and coming out in another. Different time, different him. It's just a dream, he always thought. But then what is reality?

The mother was reading a yellow paper.
"I can't believe he's gone" She said, sobbing uncontrollably, trying to keep her eyes open. Next to her of course, there was Philip, one arm around her, gently caressing her shoulder, reassuring her how everything's gonna be okay.

Just okay.

Okay.

"What's happening?" Asked Finn, when he came out of his room. He didn't get an answer to his question.

"Please go wake your brother up." She said. Finn was confused, as he saw his brother next to her mom.
"But-" His eyes were big as he tried to get it together. "He's next to you-"
Just that moment 'Philip's' head turned to Finn as he was grinning. His mouth opened as like he was to laugh, but no sound came out of his mouth. His eyes turned back into his skull and Finn inhaled sharply.
"Mom-"
"Can you please, once, do what I tell you to do?" She said like if she didn't hear him. He marched and he ran. He ran meanwhile his mom was yelling at him. Finn broke through his brother's bedroom door, only to see him sleeping, on his bed.
"Brother?" Philip asked as he was rubbing his eyes. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing... Nothing. Mom wants you to come outside." Finn couldn't look at his little brother. He was looking out of the window instead, while he felt his heart race. He was slowly going crazy.

-----

"Stop! Please! Don't hurt me!" Philip was curled up right under a glass table to avoid his father who was taunting him with his thick belt.
"Get outta there and face your father, you spoilt brat!" He said with a deep and harsh tone, smacking the end of the belt on the table. The mother was behind him, trying to talk him out of hurting their younger son, but she only got pushed to the side. Philip thought he wanted to hurt her so he quickly climbed out from under the fragile table just before it was kicked off to the other side of the living room. The man seemed bigger by the second, as he approached Philip, swinging the soft-looking weapon, which left a long red mark on the boy's back.
The boy's scream echoed through the whole house, and he squeezed his eyes together. He could hear his father's breathing, until his heart started beating so fast, he could feel blood rushing through his head, hearing only the fast beating. He was waiting. Waiting long seconds, waiting for the next strike.
It never came. He opened his eyes and he was suddenly in his bedroom. Sitting in his bed. Finn was standing in the door's frame, looking surprised.
"...Mom wants you to come outside." He said, looking out of the window.
"Not again-"

"No..."

-----

Yet again, Finn woke up, feeling numb. He started feeling his arm, and his back with the palm of his hand as far as he could reach. For a second he felt a burning sensation, but it disappeared within a few seconds.

His mother worriedly walked up to him, looking at his little body.
"Are you being bullied, Finn?" She asked, but she could see no marks on him. He just seemed to be in pain.
"Someone hurt you?"
He realised he was young again, and all his memories started disappearing. Does he have to live it all again? He asked himself, before forgetting everything.
"Yeah..." He said, shyly.
"Who did?"
"Daddy..."
The mother's facial expression changed and she rushed out of the room.